A female spirit medium casts a pair of small divining blocks in the main hall of the Monga Qingshan temple in Taipei. The half-moon shaped blocks are made of wood or bamboo root and are known in the Hokkien dialect in Taiwan as bwa bwey.
She waits until both crescents have come to a standstill before deciphering and recording the information that has been delivered. She then vocalizes what the gods have communicated in a murmur to the young man who has come to her for guidance before tossing the blocks again. She repeats the sequence over and over in a rhythmic pattern.
Here, both blocks have fallen with the flat surface down, indicating the god’s dissatisfaction or disagreement with the question posed. If the crescents land with one flat side and one rounded side up, then the response is considered positive, or affirmative.
In the third combination, both blocks fall with the rounded side positioned down, meaning the “gods are laughing” and their advice is inconclusive. Needless to say, the process is somewhat open to dispute and can go on endlessly.