Khaziki

The art of divination is probably as old as mankind itself. Since ancient times, there has been a desire to know more than what our eyes can see. To know the hidden reasons behind certain events, to ask advice from powers more knowledgeable than ourselves and to catch a glimpse of what lies ahead of us.

Methods to consult with the gods and spirits and to translate their messages into understandable information vary from time to time and from tradition to tradition. Among the oldest known methods is the use of natural materials, such as stones and bones. One of these methods is the use of astragalus bones from the animals that were hunted or held as livestock, such as sheep, cow and deer. The astragalus bone is located in the ankle joint and looks of course different for every animal, but for the above mentioned animals and their relatives they all look quite similar and are well usable for divination purposes.

Astragalus bones have been found in archeological excavations all over the world, showing that this method dates back thousands of years and has been used my many different cultures and traditions in many different regions.

For divination purposes, the 4 distinctive different sides of the astragalus bones are attributed different numbers. Three bones are thrown together and the specific combination of numbers (sides) that shows up is interpreted as the answer for the question asked.

In Siberian regions, the use of astragalus bones is still one of the most widespread methods for divination. It is used by both professional oracles such as traditional shamans as by lay people, and both for serious Q&A sessions with the spiritworld as for more secular amusement such as in betting games.

In our classical shamanic lineage Spirit of Wolf, we know this method by the Tuvan name ‘Khaziki’. Karagai Kam, founder of our lineage, gives a precise and very comprehensible method for working with khaziki in his Book “Shamanic Oracles” (which describes also many more traditional shamanic oracle methods with very practical instructions). This book can of course also be found in our webshop.

The khaziki sets here in our webshop consist of three astragalus bones from sheep. They come to us via our friends at Shaman Bazar.