Bibliomancy can be fun

On at least one other occasion in this blog I mentioned my occasional flirtation with bibliomancy, the art of divination based picking a random passage out of a selected book. I'm not a believer but must admit to occasionally playing with this practice.

So this Sunday the Spousal Unit and I dragged ourselves to early Episcopal services. There was a Bible in the pew (!) so I figured what the hell, metaphorically speaking. I wound up in chapter 32 of Ezekiel with this cheerful message:

I will cast you out on the earth
    and throw you on the open ground.
    I will cause all the birds in the sky to settle on you,
    and all the beasts of the earth to devour you.
 Your flesh I will set upon the mountains,
    and I will fill the valleys with your gore.

I'm beginning to think 2015 is gunning for me. On the bright side, it would be an eco-friendly way to go.

Bibliomancy...

...is the word used for the practice of divination with books. One who engages in bibliomancy will randomly pick out a passage in a book and seeking profound meaning from what one finds. Over the centuries, several books have served, including the works of Homer, Virgil, the I Ching, and, of course, the Bible.

I have a problem, however, with using the Bible for this purpose, particularly in traditional book form. Anyone who knows anything about the Bible can pretty much pick what kind of passage he or she is likely to find just by deciding which part of the book to open.

In general I'm not sold on the whole thing or at least wasn't up till now.

This morning, however, my first significant act of the day was opening my beat up copy of Moby-Dick and coming upon this sentence:

There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness is the true method.

Now I'm sold on bibliomancy. I'm all about careful disorderliness. And somehow, for all my readings of that book, this is the first time that passage has really struck me. I now declare myself officially vindicated.

Thanks, Ishmael!  You too, Herman.

STILL WRONG. Here's Dean Baker taking another swipe at deficit hawks.

CATCH THIS WAVE if you dare.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: LET ME CHECK A BOOK