Oracle Bones Divination: The Greek I Ching

it adapts eg homers illiad odysseus trading old animal bones with coins which i thought was enlightening great it took and finding a way to apply it to other areas of life making sense of events up against coincidence should be interesting.

A great oracle for quick fix answers one to take on your travels ! .Not as much to ponder, let the subconscious mind, higher self or Sage work with as the Chinese and original I Ching and although initially disappointed with its lack of elaboration on ones issue of concern its simplicity is its redemption .Having used hundreds of different types oracles and tarot decks over the years I would recommend this if you want quick answers. After I got over my initial disappointment I actually got down to using it along with a tried and tested favourite during a somewhat tricky time and found it proved its worth in its accuracy and appropriateness of advice given. After all that waffle, YES IT WORKS !

Plagiarism in its entirety. This material has been stolen from the work of respected academic Sarah Iles Johnston in 'Mantike: Studies in Ancient Divination'. Shame on you, Mr. Dervenis.

This book gives the impression that Kostas Dervenis has done extensive research and made a great effort to bring us this Greek oracle. In fact it already existed as an article by Fritz Graf in a book edited by Sarah Iles Johnston and Peter T Struck, "Mantike: Studies in Ancient Divination" 2005. I came across these details in a paper, "Astragaloi: Greco-Roman Dice Oracles" Presented by Jenna Mortensen:[email protected]. She lists Graf's readings which are almost an exact copy of those by Dervenis. Needless to say, Dervenis does not include these authors in his short bibliography. I can only conclude that Dervenis is a plagarist.

I borrowed this book from the library first, it was nice. This one had very thin paper, so it wasn't as thick and you could see the text through. No glossy cover either. So it was a bit of disappointment for the price. Otherwise, content was the same. The oracle bones messages are a bit basic, more like fortunetelling. But it's interresting.

It automatically gets at least four stars for including the original Greek. The translations are good -- solid and serviceable. But you can glean a lot from fine nuances of meaning in the original language sometimes. The explanation of how to read the astragali is clear and concise (though if you get a set, I recommend writing the numbers or Greek letters on the sides to help at first). I haven't used the coin method, because I have some astragali, but it looks like it'd work. The only single quibble I have is that the title is a little misleading: this isn't about bones or about the I Ching at all. That nitpick is the only one I have. Oh, I'm also not a fan of the fake-dust-jacket binding, but that's a personal preference. This is an oracle that isn't always easy to come by, in a good and solid translation, with the original Greek. There's literally nothing else I could ask for. This is the real deal, not some fake made-up nonsense, but an actual oracle used by ancient people, translated for our own use in the 21st century.

Well made. detailed and rustic. High quality, great looking, nice size, and not heavy.

Kosta Dervenis has created a powerful and inspiring new divination-oracle system. I bought it on Kindle and then bought the print edition. It's very good: fresh, wise and accurate. His writing is clear and the book contains many good insights. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in I Ching, divination or pagan-Hellenistic religions (or history).

Excellent work, highly recommend.