What is “bone throwing”?

Bone throwing (also called osteomancy) is a form of cleromancy—casting small, meaningful objects and reading how they fall. Sets can include actual bones, shells, stones, seeds, dice, keys, and other charms or personal objects you may feel a connection with. The diviner interprets positions, patterns, orientations, and relationships among the pieces to answer a question or offer guidance. In many living traditions, this work is done by trained/initiated practitioners; in modern folk practice, people also assemble personal “bones-and-curios” sets. Our sets at Madame Meerkats are curated using ethically sourced bones and fossils collected along the southeastern coastline.

A (very) brief cross-cultural history (thanks, AI)

• Southern Africa (Sangoma traditions): In Zulu/Xhosa and Sotho-Tswana communities, diviners cast amathambo/ditaola—sets that may contain bones, shells, and other items—on a mat and read their configuration with the help of the ancestors. Scholarly work documents Tswana four-bone systems and modern sets that can include non-bone pieces chosen for their significance. 

• China (Shang dynasty oracle bones): Beginning c. 1250–1050 BCE, kings used heated ox shoulder blades and turtle plastrons; cracks were interpreted and often inscribed on the bone itself. This is pyro-scapulimancy rather than casting, but it’s the world’s best-documented early bone divination. 

• Inner Asia (Mongolia): Shagai uses sheep ankle bones (astragali) for games and fortune-telling; each bone has named faces (horse, camel, sheep, goat), and throws are interpreted in fixed combinations. (Cambridge Repository, David Publishing Company)

• Ancient Mediterranean: Astragalomancy in Greece and Rome used knucklebones (or dice) cast and read by pattern/score; archaeological finds and studies of astragali confirm both gaming and divinatory use. (Lib Journals)

• Tibet/Siberia & elsewhere: Scapulimancy (reading shoulder blades) appears widely—in Tibet, Mongolia, Siberia, and parts of East Asia and Europe—sometimes by heating the bone and reading crack-patterns. (CloudFront, Aranzadi)

• Indigenous peoples in North America: Some communities, including the Naskapi Innu and Eastern Cree, historically read heated caribou scapulae for hunting guidance. (Western OJS)

• African-diasporic & modern folk sets: In North America, contemporary “bones, shells & curios” sets are read on a cloth or tray; practice varies by lineage and by individual reader. (Important: don’t conflate this with Yoruba Ifá, which uses palm nuts or a chain—not bones.) (worlddivination, ICH - UNESCO)

Setting up a respectful, modern “bones & curios” practice

If you are not initiated into a specific lineage (e.g., a sangoma), focus on a personal, eclectic set and avoid claiming a protected or initiatory tradition. This is not a closed practice! Just be respectful and knowledgeable. We have books in our store, and there are links above to help you understand the history and cultural impact this practice has had and continues to have on the world. 

1) Assemble your set

Choose 10–30 small, meaningful pieces. Common choices:

• A few ethically sourced bones (e.g., legally obtained livestock bones, gifts from the woods, shark teeth), plus shells, stones, keys, buttons, dice, or charms. If uncomfortable with bones, twigs or sticks will work too.

• Pieces often come and go from sets. Whether they are lost, broken, gifted to or away, it may take a while before you have curated a solid set. Even then, they will change throughout your practice and reflect your own journey.

• Make each piece stand for something (e.g., key = opportunity; shell = emotions/intuition; coin = resources). Keep a key list in your journal. Their meanings may change depending on how they land and how you work with them over time. Our bone thrower recommends having a piece that represents you in the reading, so that you may start from there.

2) Choose a casting surface

Use a cloth or shallow tray. Many readers mark a cloth with cardinal directions (N = ancestors/long-view, E = mind/beginnings, S = action/body, W = emotions/ending), a center circle (the heart of the matter), and an outer border (outside influences). You can also draw zones for past/present/future. Our local bone thrower respectfully uses a rabbit pelt and thanks the animal from which it comes.

3) Cleanse & dedicate

Light incense (or use your preferred method). Hold each piece, state what it represents, and dedicate the set to truthful guidance and the highest good. In ancestor-honoring frameworks, offer a brief prayer before casting (e.g., a sprinkle of water, lighting a candle, or breathing life into the set to awaken them).

4) Ask a good question

Open-ended, actionable questions work best: “What should I understand about ___?” or “What supports the best outcome if I ___?” or "What direction should I move forward with?"

5) Cast & read

Gently shake the set in cupped hands and toss onto the cloth. Then interpret by:

• Clusters & distance: Pieces that cluster are co-causes; far-apart pieces are unrelated.

• Proximity to the center: Close = core issue; far = peripheral. You may have a piece that represents you or the person in question, and start from wherever that piece lands.
  

• Zones/directions: Where a piece lands modifies its meaning (e.g., “resources” in West/emotions may point to emotional spending or energetic leaks).

• Orientation: Face-up vs. face-down, open vs. closed (e.g., a shell’s slit up vs. down), or the way a bone points to give you a directional flow for the reading.

• Outliers: Pieces off the cloth can mean external/hidden factors or “not now.” 

6) Close the reading

Thank your helping spirits/ancestors (as appropriate), note key patterns in your journal, and list one next step the reading suggests.

A quick example

Question: “How can I stabilize my business finances this quarter?”
Fall (simplified): Coin + Key + Tiny House cluster near center; Shell far West; Thread off cloth.
Read: Coin + Key + House = a solvable money/operations lock—look at lease or supplier contracts (key opens door to savings). Shell in West = emotional spending or boundary leaks; Thread off cloth = stop pursuing the unrelated side-project. One action: re-negotiate a contract; set a monthly “no-spend on décor” boundary.

Cultural care & accuracy

• Give credit to living traditions. For example, sangoma bone throwing is an initiated practice in Southern Africa with documented systems (e.g., Tswana ditaola) and ancestral mediation. Don’t label eclectic casting as “Zulu bone throwing” unless you’ve been trained in that lineage. (Google Arts & Culture, Journals)

• Avoid conflating systems: Ifá (Yoruba) uses palm nuts or the ọ̀pẹ̀lẹ̀ chain and a literary corpus of 256 odù; it is not a bone-throwing practice. (ICH - UNESCO)

Safety, sourcing, and legal notes (U.S. focused)

• Bird parts: Possessing feathers, bones, or other parts of most native birds is illegal under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, even if found. Exceptions apply to certain non-native or permitted cases. (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

• Marine mammal parts: Whale, dolphin, and other marine mammal bones/teeth are highly restricted; found parts typically must be reported/registered and cannot be sold. (NOAA Fisheries)

• Ivory & CITES species: Elephant ivory and many protected species have severe trade restrictions; antiques have complex rules—when in doubt, don’t use or sell. (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

• Prefer ethically sourced livestock bones, replicas, or non-animal curios (shells from legal sources, stones, metal charms). Clean and seal bones hygienically if you choose to include them.

Further reading & credible references

• Southern African bone sets: Phansi Museum overview; classic field notes on Tswana divination (Campbell 1968); study of ditaola among healers in Limpopo. (Google Arts & Culture, Journals)

• Oracle bones (China): Concise background from Britannica; museum essays. (Encyclopedia Britannica, SmartHistory)

• Mongolian shagai: Cambridge repository summary; recent academic paper on the tradition. (Cambridge Repository, David Publishing Company)

• Astragalomancy: Archaeological analysis of knucklebones in the ancient Mediterranean. (Lib Journals)

• Indigenous Americans (scapulimancy): Naskapi Innu/Eastern Cree study (open-access article). (Western OJS)