A woman negotiates at length with a deity about the circumstances of a potential property sale in a city in southern Taiwan. She asks him specifically about the fate of her proposition and whether now is a good time to give up her holding. She also calls on his powers of foresight to help her decide on the value of the land and discloses three prices she has in mind of 270,000 NTD (US$8400), 290,000 NTD (US$9000) and 320,000 NTD (US$10,000) per square meter.
To ascertain his will, she casts her lot into the air repeatedly and records the god’s answers on a sheet of paper by interpreting the position of the crescent moon-shaped blocks on the ground. If both bright red blocks land with the rounded side up, then his response is unfavorable. If one block lands with the flat side up and one with the rounded side up, then his response is favorable. If both blocks land with the flat side up, then his response is inconclusive.
Satisfied with his selection, she kowtows reverently towards the altar several times before proceeding to the incense burner just outside the room with the property title and two sheets of paper in hand. She then circles the documents through the ascending smoke from the sticks of burning incense to imbue them with the deity’s divine powers.
The process prompts the question, why is this type of communication effective? Though there is no clear-cut answer, one common explanation is that the technique can be trusted for the accuracy of its prediction. Divination, in other words, is not only an ancient means for analyzing the past and reflecting on the present, but also a strategy for coping with the future.