Sadalsuud's Astrology Dice Guide
Sadalsuud's Astrology Dice Guide
Learn divination with an inexpensive and fun tool that can also teach you about planetary omens
One divinatory tool has unexpectedly caught my fixation for its ease of use, brevity, and pointedness: astrology dice, or astro dice. They're a set of three D12 (12-sided) dice, the first die having the 10 modern planets and the North and South node, the second having the 12 signs, and the last being numbered 1-12 for the houses. They're great for answering direct questions and they often refer directly to your personal placements in your natal chart, and they're quite inexpensive (~$6 on Etsy and Amazon). If you don't know astrology, astro dice are actually a great way to learn! I've included a brief reference of the planets, houses, and signs for reference.
As far as I know, astro dice are quite new to the world, and there's a lot to explore and try with them. I've probably done close to a hundred rolls at this point and have gotten the gist of how they tend to speak. One of the greatest strengths of astro dice is the rapid speed with which you can roll and reroll and get answers, allowing you to do long-form interrogations of complex situations which can be too cumbersome for the tarot or too time-limited for a single horary chart.
Let's jump right into some examples. Also, feel free to hop, skip, and skim around this essay; except for the part on interpretation, most of this primer is written as a reference for when you're rolling the dice.
(Psst—want to support my writing, or deeply prefer a PDF to this very long article format? You can get a PDF version for $5 on Gumroad.)
Example Rolls
I roll astro dice on all sorts of questions both for fun, practice, and guidance. Here's a bunch of them I've rolled so far in a variety of mundane and personal topics:
Is tonight a good night to go out for food and drinks? - Jupiter 3H Taurus
Jupiter - joy, good luck, and good times
3H - around town, the neighborhood
Taurus - food and drink and leisure time.
It was a great night indeed, with multiple good restaurants and incredible drinks.
(Considering whether to rideshare for a night out at an event) What will the evening be like? - Mars 11H Pisces
Mars - active energy, wild times
11H - groups of people
Pisces - drinking, alcohol, inebriation
It was indeed a sloppy night with lots of imbibement. We rideshared, which turned out to be wise.
(Direct rideshare question) Should I rideshare for my friend's birthday party? - Uranus 2H Cancer
Uranus - technology
2H - money
Cancer - safety
Use modern technology and money to stay safe. I got a rideshare and it was a good call.
How would eating at X restaurant at 2PM go? - Saturn 7H Cancer
Saturn - boundaries, "no"
7H - the other, in this case the restaurant
Cancer - the actual location
I checked Google and realized they did not open until 4PM, and I resolved to check the Google oracle before the dice oracle.
(Meeting someone new to discuss potential collaboration): What should I keep in mind for this conversation? - Moon 5H Gemini
Moon - food, cycles, people
5H - personal hobbies and projects
Gemini - connections, data, communication.
We ended up discussing a project for farmers who are interested in correlating astrological data with crop cycles.
Is this tense social situation over? - Venus 7H Aquarius
Venus - social interactions
7H - prominent, so still center of mind
Aquarius - advice to remain emotionally detached.
I initially interpreted this one as a yes, likely due to my own desperate desire to be free of the situation. I reasoned that Venus is good, 7H is strong, and Aquarius is detachment, so I figured: good + strong result + detached! Yay! But the situation would continue to unfold over the next couple days. This is a good note both check one's bias but also to consider the message carefully: Venus is the social situation, while 7H indicates both the strong activity of that situation. Aquarius could be the fact that it was an online communication, or the advice to be detached could still be true, as it was good advice in the end.
Where is this item of clothing? - Pluto 11H Taurus
Pluto - buried under something or at the bottom of something
11H - groups, so probably among a bunch of similar stuff
Taurus - Venus' sign, so points to clothes.
I had already checked the laundry hamper, but I decided to check one more time. I found it right away, buried at the very bottom underneath all the other clothes.
Will my colleague make our meeting? - Mars 7H Scorpio
Mars: working, problem-solving
7H - him and his status, as the person being referred to
Scorpio - deep focus and concentration
Even though Mars represents them and seems like it would indicate strong activity or presence, the person's status is significantly modified by the sign Scorpio in this instance, indicating that my colleague was distracted and focused on work. They did not make our meeting and had to be nudged.
How should I approach writing this essay? - Mercury 1H Sagittarius
Mercury - communication, teaching, sharing, speaking
1H - you, yourself, your experiences, your personal truth
Sagittarius - direct, clear, obvious, loud, inspired.
I took this to mean to speak my truth, talk for myself, and say what I mean directly.
(Feeling listless and weird) What do I need right now? - Neptune 1H Aries
Neptune - something spiritual like meditation or journeying
1H - personal experience, wisdom, encounters
Aries - bold, daring, courageous
I ended up meeting Aries during a visualization "journey" which clarified some personal factors for me and was exactly the kick I needed. (If this makes no sense to you, see the So Who've We Got on the Line Here, Anyway? section.)
(Hungover, feeling anxious and insecure) Am I correct about how I'm worried I'm being received or is it just paranoia? - Neptune 7H Pisces
Neptune - drinking, paranoia, fear
7H - other people, relationships, social things
Pisces - subjectivity, fear, lost in feelings
Just getting anxious because of the alcohol in my system and making up things to be afraid of. No real problems here.
Often, a dice roll will naturally lead to more questions. The dice are very talkative and amenable to extended lines of questioning and putting things another way. Here are some examples of longer dice sessions I've done.
Why is this person showing up in all of me and my friends' recommendations algorithms? - Gemini 8H North Node. Gemini - in my opinion, the sign of Twitter, but also communication and connections which I relate to the company's algorithms; 8H - as the house of other people's possessions to me it has a sense of "carrying" here, suggesting that the Twitter algorithm is the one pushing this person; North Node - general increase, showing up, visibility. An algorithm pump by Twitter for some unknown reason. We were joking around about it, so I asked:
Was it magic? - Saturn 1H Pisces. Saturn - negatives, restrictions. 1H - strong, direct, to the point; Pisces - magic. Saturn being strong but in Pisces suggests no, it's not magic. (Saturn in Pisces is plenty capable of magic but I'd read that into houses 3/9/12/8/4. Also, Saturn does not feel like Mercurial algorithm-tweaking magic.)
Why did this person unfollow me? - Mercury 2H Capricorn. Mercury - communication, connections; 2H - possessions, ownership, here connections as unemotional property; Capricorn - all business. They know what they want, or are choosing who to communicate with.
Please be clearer about whether it was intentional. - Moon 3H Virgo. Moon - emotions, a personal decision; 3H - organization and decluttering; Virgo - pragmatic cleaning and organizing.
What should I take away from this? - Mars 11H Libra. Mars - aggression, loudness, boldness; 11H - the broader community, social scenes; Libra - social status, scenes, and also where Mars is in exile. My best guess, I have been too open about my unusual interests and experiences and this person wants to create some distance from it.
Is this a good astrologically chosen time to post my essay about my holy guardian angel? - I had chosen a chart which by traditional astrological principles, would be rather awful. Neptune 5H Sagittarius. I actually didn't understand this one; Neptune can mean not thinking clearly, or being confused. And I was. So I rolled again: Neptune 4H Cancer.
When should I post it then? - Neptune 8H Scorpio. Neptune the third time in a row! Something's up.
What is the deal with Neptune in these rolls? - 2H Cancer Moon. Taking care of my resources? Trying to protect me? Telling me that my intuition was right the first time? I decided to look a little bit further on in the day, and rolled to ask.
How about this time? - Neptune 4H Sagittarius. Come ON! I talk to a friend about it for a while, and then looking at the chart of the moment, I notice that Neptune is minutes away from setting on the western horizon. The chart seems worse than ever (image) but hell, Neptune is right there, so--I rushed to get the essay posted. Reception has been extraordinarily good for the strangeness of the content, and many people have reached out to share how it affected them in positive ways.
Planets, Houses, and Signs
In astrology, planets are generally the major actors on the stage of a chart. They represent characters, dynamics, emotions, processes, and more. The signs show the particular tendencies and quality of planets in those signs, adjusting temperament and expression, while the houses show the areas of life in which these planets and their signs are expressed.
For a deeper look at the meanings of the astrological symbols, you can read my free guide to reading your own natal chart. It has similarly structured but much more detailed planet, house, and sign sections which you can use as a reference. Keep in mind that the descriptions in this guide are specifically geared toward the types of answers that the astro dice tend to give, and will be a little different from discussions of these placements in the natal chart.
Planets
The Sun (☉) - The self, the ego, mission, identity, goals, purpose. Light, focus, attention, inspiration. Generosity, wealth, money. Arrogance, pride, egotism. Men, fathers. People deemed important by society like royalty and celebrities. The Sun rules Leo.
The Moon (☽) - The subconscious, the gut, intuition, feelings. Cycles, rhythm, hidden things, vibes. Caring for self and others, the body, sharing. Sensitivity, fear, subjectivity. Water. Liminality, darkness, instinct, ferality. Women, mothers. Everyday people. The Moon rules Cancer.
Mercury (☿) - Intellect, ideas, communication, words, thoughts, messages. Fluidity, neutrality, nonjudgmental. Dexterity, speed, quickness, pranks, theft, hijinks. Technology, connections, meeting people, news. Intellectuals, magicians, writers. Androgynous, queer, nonbinary people. Mercury rules Gemini and Virgo.
Venus (♀) - Love, lust, desire, romance, pleasure, sensuality, beauty. Aesthetics, value, judgment. Attraction, magnetism, harmony, cooperation. Leisure, pleasure, gossip, social climbing. Women and children, especially girls. Socialites, fashionistas, fair weather friends. Health and healing, especially related to the body and the senses. Venus rules Taurus and Libra.
Mars (♂) - Action, initiative, impulse, drive, force, energy. Conflict, war, anger, fury. Bravery, courage, daring, strength, determination. Winning, success, victory, accomplishment. Pain and suffering relating to these themes. Men and boys. Mars rules Aries and Scorpio.
Jupiter (♃) - Wisdom, insight, understanding. Law, justice, religion, philosophy, theory, truth. Growth, expansion, new experiences, freedom. Joy and contentment. Health and healing, especially related to the mind and soul. Can sometimes be read directly as "yes". Jupiter rules Saggitarius and Pisces.
Saturn (♄) - Difficulty, struggle, loneliness, depression. Hard work and exhausting, thankless tasks. Doing what needs to be done. Patience, biding one's time, having to wait. Old things, the past, history. Pain and suffering relating to these themes. Accepting things for what they are. The elderly and the poor. Can refer generally to parents or harsh authority figures. Saturn rules Capricorn and Aquarius.
Uranus (♅) - Sudden realization, inspiration, surprise, aha moments. Invention, innovation, and new technology. Revolutionary ideas, eccentricity, and spontaneous change. Sometimes means "You got it!", but make sure it's really a light clicking on moment--Uranus can also mean unexpected or unforeseen consequences.
Neptune (♆) - The ethereal, boundless, unknowable, mysterious. Irrational paranoid fears, exuberant fantasies, and addiction. Other-wordly intuition and inspiration. Art, film, movies, creativity in general. Psychism, spirituality, and strange inexplicable happenings. Oceans and vast bodies of water.
Pluto (♇) - Control, domination, power, paranoia, obsession, compulsion, and the emotions (positive and negative) associated with them. Deeply rooted survival patterns. Complete and total transformation. Great intensity or depth of feeling. Caves, caverns, underground places, buried things.
North Node (☊) - The point where the oblique path of the Moon and the ecliptic meet as she heads north. Fixations, powerful desires, hungers, wants. Lessons to be learned, potential life paths, new opportunities. Often a clear "Yes", but can sometimes indicate a fixation in your questioning that needs to be examined.
South Node (☋) - The point opposing the North Node where the Moon begins to head south. Old and familiar patterns, comfort zones, the past. Things we can be afraid to leave behind. Often a clear "no", but can also indicate subjectivity and confusion in your questioning, as if being "in the hole".
Houses
1st House, Identity - Purpose, selfhood, who you are, appearance, the physical body, spiritual mission. Prominent, noticeable, obvious, apparent. Independence and personal choice. Self-knowledge. You got it right on the "dot". A pointed message.
2nd House, Possession - Anything that you can consider a possession, including your physical belongings, your body, reputation, principles, your relationships, etc. Physical material, matter, the real world and the things in it. Possessive or hoarding impulses.
3rd House, Environment - Things and people nearby and familiar such as siblings, extended family, local neighborhood, frequent haunts and close friends. Writing, communication, thinking, free associating. Schools, libraries, magazines, journaling, local publishing. Traveling for work/family. Magic and pragmatic divination tools such as astro dice.
4th House, Foundations - Our origins, fathers and paternal figures (sometimes switched with the other parent--see how it feels), memories, history, ancestors, genealogy, the past. Place, land, the home you live in, location in general. Deeply rooted emotions and subconscious feelings. Dreams, intuitive knowing, and powerful personal archetypes.
5th House, Play - Leisure, pleasure, sensuality, sexuality, lust, romance. Creativity, generation, one's personal creations (including children). Personal hobbies, passions, and desires. Art and artistic inspiration. Good times in general. Pleasurable excesses. Inner child.
6th House, Materiality - Traditionally health of the physical body, work and employees who work for you, and pets (small enough that you can't ride them--traditionally a goat). Time and the limited energy with which to move through it and all the things in our life. Motion, activity, especially of an unending yet necessary sort. Chores, recurring obligations. The working class.
7th House, Other - Other people and encounters with them. Committed partnerships and relationships, whether sexual, romantic, emotional, or financial. Open enemies, foes, and antagonists. Business partnerships, contracts, and other ties that bind.
8th House, Burden - Opposing the 2H, other people's possessions. Thinking about someone else's life or experiences. Handling things belonging to other people of all kinds, often including emotional matters. Money owed to other people: loans, debts, and taxes. Sometimes dreams, psychic knowings, especially related to others' lives.
9th House, Kingdom - Religion, philosophy, spirituality, art. Law, theory, ideology and principle. Academic journals, big house publishing, church as an institution, higher education and college. Foreign countries and languages, pilgrimages, travel for inspiration and personal seeking. Inspiration, wisdom, and divination, including astrology.
10th House, Work - Accomplishment, achievement, success, and recognition, especially from authority. The most prominent point in the sky, extremely visible and apparent. What one is known for. Great work, legacy, the thing someone leaves behind. Appearance from afar. What one considers a career or calling.
11th House, Collective - Groups of people such as those at a school, club, or social scene. Humanity at large. Gifts and boons, prizes, rewards, recognition from one's community or peers. Systems in their capacity supporting people Sometimes called the house of Good Spirit for its benefic nature and association with helpful spirits and entities.
12th House, Release - Endings, death and decomposition processes, letting go and getting rid of things. Loss, grief, and mourning. Loneliness, isolation and imprisonment. Dreams and psychic experiences, especially concerning death, the afterlife, and sometimes ghosts. Hospice, tending to the needy, faith, compassion, giving, grace.
There are a few qualifiers that apply here in terms of house qualities, which often intertwine strength and topic. The fourth, eighth, and twelfth houses are sometimes called "dark houses" because of the psychologically and sometimes literally subterranean topics they contain. The functions and processes those planets signify are considered to be harder to access in those houses, with an element of subjective murkiness or disconnection. And despite being a cadent house, the 9th house is considered to be the strongest of the cadent houses due to its proximity to the 10th house, the most prominent house, while the 6th and 12th houses are considered to be houses associated with particular difficulty.
Signs
For learning the twelve signs, I find it's easiest to first learn the triplicities and quadruplicities, or elements and modes. The elements are fire, earth, air, and water. These are archetypes which represent different concerns and areas of experience, and occasionally describe the literal element in our natural world itself. The modes are cardinal, fixed, and mutable. Modes are energy dynamics or patterns which describe how one is likely to relate to the element of the sign. If you ever get confused looking at a sign, take a moment to stop and consider its element and mode and see if that opens up a new path of interpretation.
Elements
Fire - Inspired, excited, passionate, focused on goals and accomplishment and high energy activities. Can be combative, proud, and "fiery". Difficulty with moderation.
Earth - Pragmatic, careful, reserved, traditional, focused on the material world and success within it. Skill in construction, craftwork, dance, martial arts. An appreciation for hard work, especially physical.
Air - Intellectual, analytical, connective, social, focused on ideas and information. Highly social but sometimes aloof and detached. Conceptual and abstract thinking.
Water - Emotions, feelings, memories, bonds, focused on the inner world of emotions. Deep intuition but can get wrapped up in subjective feeling and distorted perspectives.
Modes
Cardinal - Initiating, beginning, bursting the door open sort of energy. Excited and inspired. Great at starting projects and championing initiatives, not so great at following through. Fast.
Fixed - Slow and steady, consistent, persistent. Keeping things the way they are, sticking to it, stay the course. Fearful of change but commits when ready. Slow.
Mutable - Flowing, dynamic, dextrous, responsive. Highly curious and constantly changing. Wide interests but less depth. Gets bored quickly and loves variety. Alternating fast and slow.
Signs
Aries (♈) - Cardinal Fire - Assertiveness, daring, leadership. Anger, fury, rage. Conflict, war, strategy, martial arts. Warrior spirit and bravery. Single-pointed expression of energy. New beginnings and fresh starts, the spring equinox. Personal daring and success. Fire.
Taurus (♉) - Fixed Earth - Accumulation, savoring, and enjoyment of the sensual world. Earthiness, physical touch, pleasurable experiences such as food, drink, and massage. Taking time, patience, one brick at a time. Stubbornness and habit. Land and cultivation.
Gemini (♊) - Mutable Air - Communication, connections, ideas, friendships. Talking and chattering, social exchange. Split brain nature, doing two things at once. Jokes, pranks, and mischief. Thieves and liars. Data, information, and its exchange.
Cancer (♋) - Cardinal Water - Emotions, the heart, feelings, empathy, tenderness and caring. Heart, hearth, and home. Family, motherhood and mother figures. Sensitivity and defensiveness. Emotional manipulation and subjective feelings. Water.
Leo (♌) - Fixed Fire - Fun and joy. Honor, reputation, pride. Self-identity and generosity. Money, wealth, gold. Egotism and arrogance. Being childlike and being childish. Performance, acting, and transformation through play. Royalty. Light.
Virgo (♍) - Mutable Earth - Meticulousness, pickiness, perfectionism. Cleanliness, health, food, diet. Details, intricacies, and discernment. Planning and tactics, rumination and anxiety. Chastity (in theory), innocence, temperance. Practice and expertise.
Libra (♎) - Cardinal Air - Fairness, equilibrium, harmony, beauty. Socialization, small talk, manners, delightful company. Fickleness, indecision, status games, and social deception. Law, politics, government, psychology (talk therapy). Beauty and aesthetics.
Scorpio (♏) - Fixed Water - Potency, intensity, depth, and secrets. Powerful emotions, obsessions, and fixations. Sex, eroticism, kink. The underground and underwater. Spies, statecraft, and clandestine matters. Control. Esoteric or occult power.
Sagittarius (♐) - Mutable Fire - Optimism, openness, vision. Philosophy, religion, law, higher education, foreign countries and cultures. Bluntness, directness, putting one's foot in one's mouth. The big picture, the truth, dogma, zealotry. Passion, interests, exploration, and freedom.
Capricorn (♑) - Cardinal Earth - Hard work, responsibility, tradition, family. Physical matter, history, old things, refinement. Career, achievement, authority, burnout. Pessimism, cynicism, fear. Reservation, decorum, formalities. Business and getting things done.
Aquarius (♒) - Fixed Air - Freedom, experimentation, exile, isolation. Systems, processes, aggregates and masses. The good of the many over the few. Open-mindedness in service of one's goals. Eccentricity, fringe ideas, rebellion, detachment. Scientific thinking.
Pisces (♓) - Mutable Water - Sensitivity, compassion, intuition, vulnerability. The surreal, mysterious, confusing, and unknowable. Dreams, nightmares, visions, magic. Avoiding definition. Merging with others. Psychic and spiritual experiences.
It's worth noting that since each house and sign is contained within the circle of the zodiac, each one opposes another. Looking at an astrological chart shows you these oppositions clearly. These are Aries-Libra, Taurus-Scorpio, Gemini-Sagittarius, Cancer-Capricorn, Leo-Aquarius, and Virgo-Pisces. The houses are similar as 1H-7H, 2H-8H, 3H-9H, 4H-10H, 5H-11H, 6H-12H. These oppositions represent energetic tensions which can be important in interpretation, so if you notice an opposition by house or sign, take note.
Let's Roll!
Great! Now that we've covered the raw delineations, let's dig into the meaty stuff: actually using the astro dice. I'll discuss formulating good questions, what to watch out for when rolling, some interesting quirks about interpreting the dice, and how to develop intuitive reading abilities (optional).
Asking Good Questions
You can truly ask anything of dice (or any divinatory oracle), but certain tools are better suited to certain types of questions than others. The symbols on the dice are compact and fairly "rigid". It can be hard to gaze at the three little dice and let your subconscious go to town and deliver profound meanings and elaborations for the glyphs. For wide open, expansive questions where you want lots of space to explore and connect ideas, especially when there are many topics or ideas of equally weighted importance, I recommend a tool like the tarot. Dice can help you solve big, abstract problems quite well, but their inherent ease of use and terse symbolic representation lend themselves better to speedy sequences of questions. Of course, you can always use dice as a gateway for your intuition in the same way some do with tarot. As usual, it's mostly a matter of preference.
The question brings us into encounter with our own vested interest in its answer, and the shape of the knowledge we have. It's so important that formulating the right question will sometimes provide the answer on its own, so that we don't even need to consult the oracle. Here are a few questions you can ask yourself explicitly. With a little practice, they will come to inform how you shape questions automatically:
Is this question actually valid for the situation? For instance, asking about a job listing that has actually already been filled but not updated on the site.
Is there a "real" question underneath this one? For instance, asking about someone's communication style when you really just want to know if they like you.
Do I actually want to know the true answer? If you don't want to know, or cannot let go of the need for a specific answer, you likely won't get a clear result.
Is the question too large? Rolling "What do I need to know?" as a general question will often yield equally vague answers. Try reducing the scope to a topic or an area of life, such as "What do I need to know about my health?" (Note: astro dice are not a suitable replacement for professional medical advice.)
One of the most frequent types of questions which deserves particular treatment is the "should I" question. Should I follow this career or that one? Should I move? Should I dump my boyfriend? When these questions are tactical questions for navigating life, they usually lead to direct answers about the pros and cons of the situation. But often, these questions are really just us asking the oracle to tell us what to do. The answer will often be a cloudy Neptune or a "if you want to" sort of answer (example roll: Mars 3H Leo--thinkin' about doin' stuff). We can sometimes cheat the tendency of the oracle to insist that we live our own lives by rephrasing the question to ask about material matters. For instance, how would I feel if I broke up with my boyfriend? Would I regret breaking up with my boyfriend? What does our future look like together? What bothers me about our relationship? How does he feel about our relationship? What do I actually want? What do I need in a partner? These questions will work. The dice will show you yourself, and help you make the decision by giving you all of the information you need to know, if you can figure out how to ask for it.
You can also ask about the asking itself. These are all questions that I've had great success with, though the more abstract the question the more abstractly you'll have to interpret the answer. There are also modifiers you can add to questions to sort of "cheat" a "should" question, provided you're able to hear the answer:
What am I missing here?
What question should I be asking?
Will I get a meaningful answer asking about X?
Am I correctly interpreting the result of this roll?
Can you put this in another way I can understand?
What would the answer to Y hypothetical question look like?
What would a roll signifying Z look like?
I understand what you're saying about my underlying feelings, but could you please just answer the question as I stated it?
My personal feelings aside, <question>?
For the highest good of all involved, should I <question>?
I feel a particular tension in the oracle's answers between the literal language of our questions ("Will I ever get married?") and our relationship to those questions ("Oh, please say yes!"). For this reason, we should make sure we're asking the right questions, and that we are in alignment with them but open to other answers. It's very possible for our own subjective desires to interfere with the results of divinations, both in our interpretation and sometimes seeming to affect the actual dice roll (or tarot pull).
We can use the dice to show this to ourselves immediately. As I'm writing this, I've rolled the dice with the following made up "question": "What would a roll be like as someone who really wants to get married and wants to receive a yes answer?" At the same time, I'm imagining I'm not already married, but desperately would like to be, and want to receive a "yes" from the dice. The roll: Sun 9H Aries. The Sun signifies my self image (also fitting for the actual situation--here I am pretending, a very Sun sort of thing to do); Aries is the exaltation of the Sun and reflects my eagerness; and the 9H is the house of marriage as a cultural institution. If someone really wanted to get married, this is basically an answer that says: you want to be someone who is married. However, the eager novice reader is likely to take an exalted Sun in the 9H as an unequivocal "Yes, you WILL get married"!
As a counter example, let us roll as someone who wants to know if they'll be married, but doesn't actually want to get married. I rolled: Neptune 3H Capricorn. This answer does not respond to the question at all! It responds to the questioner's (pretend) heart: thinking about (3H) fear (Neptune) of commitment to a family (Capricorn). Neptune showing up as an unexpected answer often indicates fear which blocks rational thinking or makes the question a moot point. It can also indicate "forecast cloudy; ask again later" sort of answers for prediction, but more often than not it points to personal fear and a strong desire not to be defined (a Neptune quality). Sometimes, the dice will also refuse to tell you about your own future too far out into the path, usually because too much knowledge can be a dangerous thing. Also, there's a subtle but important distinction to be made here about the question versus our inner desire. We can receive accurate answers from our divination tools as long as we are actually open to receiving those answers, even if it brings us negative feelings to receive an answer we'd really prefer not to get.
As an aside, you'll notice that I regularly ask questions that involve the future, and for information not accessible by known materialist physics. Some people believe that you cannot use divination tools to predict anything in the external, material world. Interestingly, most people I've met who believe this have put their conceptual cart before their empirical horse. They've never even tried it, or gave it a half-hearted try and gave up when the oracle did not immediately yield all of its secrets! I have found prediction to work extraordinarily well for living in a universe in which such a thing is supposedly impossible. It is in fact the entire point of divination in my practice--if these tools couldn't reliably give me information about the real world in past, present, and future, I wouldn't use them.
Of course, there are a couple caveats. The first: we can certainly be wrong in our interpretation of predictions, and questions about the future are often even more prone to a desire bias. This throws a wrench into things and makes predicting risky until we have verified enough answers in external reality to trust we can use the answers we receive fruitfully. And second: reality is not deterministic. Forward-looking divination shows a picture of future reality, assuming that all inertia and trajectories remain the same. Check-ins are required, especially in times of great uncertainty or dynamically changing situations.
The Moment of the Roll
When we roll the dice, we are consulting something far bigger than ourselves. That something--which I generally call the oracle--is intelligent and alive. It reads our mental and emotional state and maturity, which is why it (mostly) only gives us the answers we're ready to hear. When I have a particular vested interest in the outcome of the question, I use an affirmation or mantra before rolling the dice. I find it helpful to say (mentally or out loud) something like: may I be neutral; may I be open; may I receive the Truth. Figure out a phrase that feels authentic to you, or wing it in the moment like I do. Dice are especially mercurial and have no particular need for decorum besides a fundamental respect for the act of divination itself.
One thing to watch out for is changing questions as you roll. Sometimes you'll realize that the real question you're asking is different, or that your personal feelings may redirect the actual answer you receive. If your question does not have particularly strong emotional motivation, the dice will usually answer the literal question you ask you hold in your mind or say out loud. This means that if you misspeak (or misthink), they could be answering the completely wrong question! It's important to either spend some time figuring out which question the roll is really responding to, or restate your question and roll again. Sometimes, you'll have a different thought occur to you the moment you roll. Pay attention to these moments, as it's possible that the dice will be responding to that thought, and often have something important to reveal. You can go very fast with dice, so it's important to intentionally go slow. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.
I roll my dice whenever I feel like and wherever I happen to have them. On my desk, onto a chair, a tiny box, whatever. Sometimes, I drop them. If I drop dice while I feel scattered or unfocused, I'll often reroll, taking it as a sign that I should clarify first. If I had a fully formed question and the die seemed to fly out of my hand in a way beyond my normal clumsiness, I'll use the glyph shown where it fell but pay special attention to the die that fell. If it felt like just my being clumsy, I treat it as any other roll. After all, it doesn't matter how the dice fall, only what they show.
Interpretation
With astro dice, in any given roll you only have one planet, sign, and house to work with. You lose the deep context of a full astrological chart but gain the ability to answer specific questions unbound by time while still using the compact mythemes of astrological language. Often, the interpretation will be very literal and direct. But because the dice can only show us 3 symbols at a time, we have to use our best judgment. Don't fret though--most of the time, astro dice are very straightforward. And when they're not, they are quite amenable to rerolling. I encourage you to reroll until you understand.
It's important to avoid functional fixedness when it comes to the various glyphs, as they may be showing you something different than they were before. I personally take lots of notes in order to build a personal collection of various meanings which I can refer to later if I get stuck. One thing that the dice tend to do is give context clues, referring to previous rolls in a session by reusing the same glyph to refer to the same concept. For instance, the sign Cancer in the roll Sun 7H Cancer could refer to an emotional caretaking dynamic. A subsequent roll of Saturn 4H Cancer could point to that emotional caretaking dynamic's roots in one's past difficult familial dynamics (4H of origin and family, Saturn as burdens and difficulty).
Alternatively, the dice will sometimes show an opposition to make a point in contrast to a previous roll. For instance, one time a colleague told me that they wanted to talk to me about a new project idea the following day. That day, I wanted to know if they actually were going to reach out and whether I should set aside time and prepare for the meeting. However, I wasn't thinking clearly. I asked, "Does my colleague want to talk to me today?" Mercury 9H Aries. Mercury as communication, thinking, planning; 9H as big-picture thinking and strategizing; Aries as new projects and beginnings. So, yes. But, oops! I already knew they wanted to talk to me that day. I instead asked, "OK, I know they want to talk to me, but will they get around to it?" Venus 3H Leo. This felt to me like a "no" because the third house directly opposes the ninth house. The house die departed from the place partially representing my colleague's intentions. Another layer is also that the 3rd house is very much a house of busyness, organization, and needing to take care of more local and concrete things in opposition to the lofty visions of possibility that the 9H is concerned with.
While we're on the subject, I've noticed that certain houses will show up as commentary on the roll itself, especially when asking clarifying questions. For instance, the second house of possessions and sometimes shows up as a pun to confirm, "You've got it!" The ninth house has directly to do with astrology and divination as topics, so when it shows up in a roll, consider if it's talking specifically about the message it's giving you. The seventh house of partnership and The Other, on the other hand, often shows up when it comes to the dice's personhood, saying, "Yes, I'M here, telling YOU this." It's important to remain flexible and playful with the meanings, as the dice will resort to jokes and puns to get the message across with the few symbols it has to do so. At times, they even seem to be a little more abstract, or go afar from the traditional textbook meanings associated with planets, houses, or signs in contextually appropriate places. And sometimes, they'll give you something weird that forces you to stretch your understanding and learn something new!
Subjective Knowledge and Natal Placements
This all implies something important: whatever it is exactly which enables the rolls to be accurate and relevant to our questions has a personhood and personality. The more you do divination by lots the more you will find this to be true. In general, I consider the divinatory source to be smarter than me. This means that it knows what I know, and it knows what I don't know. I expect this will be true for you, too. As you learn more about astro dice and as your knowledge of the mythemes of astrology ever deepens, the dice will begin using those ideas to communicate with you. The flipside of this is that you don't have to put undue pressure on yourself to become intimately familiar with astrology before playing with dice. Ask tons of questions, use your gut, compare with references, validate against your experiences, and see what happens.
Since the dice use the language of astrology, the most sensible thing for the dice to do is to refer to your planetary placements in your natal chart. They do this frequently, especially when it comes to questions that have to do with deep personal patterns, dynamics, and important life path decisions. Our charts describe the natal potential, or the full expanse of possible experience that we may embody or live through in our lifetimes. This makes for a very convenient set of symbols for the dice to reference. Pay special attention to rolls which partially describe your planetary placement by house, sign, or both. I find that it's fairly common to get a planet matching one's natal house or sign, with the die that doesn't match the natal chart giving the major clue.
We can ask: what does it mean for my natal placement to change by house or sign? What are the dice trying to say if my personal 2H Leo Moon placement transformed into a 10H Leo Moon or a 2H Cancer Moon? The former, ignoring any specific question, could be about my career goals, feelings about public popularity, or simply feeling highly emotional (and maybe a little dramatic, my natal potential). The latter could be about trusting my intuition, taking care of my sentimental possessions, or being stuck in my feelings. Pay attention to the nature of the transformations and modality shifts implied by noting the difference between your natal placement and the different house/sign shown on the die. You might also imagine the placement in your natal chart and see what it would imply about your life or the decisions you might make if it were actually in that location instead.
The dice will also sometimes reference planetary positions as they currently are in the sky. Exploring these transits is too much to cover here without adding another 10,000 words to this guide, but I wrote a crash course twitter thread which can get you up and running if you'd like to explore this. When the dice refer to actual transits, that typically indicates something of particular importance about that transit and how its archetypal themes relate to the question asked.
Intuition and Vibes
There can be multiple ways to interpret the same roll. For instance, Saturn can sometimes be read directly as "no" or a negation of the house/sign that comes with it. On the other hand, it can also be read as being bound, stuck to, struggling with that house/sign's topics. Both are perfectly fitting Saturn significations. What's the poor reader to do? Use vibes, of course. Depending on how in touch you are with your gut, intuition, inner self, wisdom, whatever, this may be more or less appealing to you. I have personally found listening to my intuition to be quite essential with astro dice, but I suspect that the oracle is smart enough to know whether it needs to be more literal for people who do not access their intuition intentionally when doing divination. That being said, my personal goals with divination are to eventually transcend the need for dice at all, and turn my body and inner senses into the divination instrument itself.
Even if you think you have no intuition, I believe most people do have far more subtle knowing than they give themselves credit for. Usually, it’s hidden behind a quagmire of societally imposed fear and judgment about subjective and wiggly forms of knowledge. I address this dynamic generally in my essay Around Here We Take Our Phenomenology Seriously, which I recommend for anyone who spends the majority of the time stuck in their head.
If you're interested in developing this intuitive sense, here’s how I did it. First I should say that I believe there are multiple sources or expressions of inner knowing, as this intuitive knowing is a part of our whole beings. To name the main ones I'm aware of: there's the stomach (feeling things "in your gut" in a nonverbal way); there's the mind (psychically receiving information in a discursive, intellectual mode); and there's the soul (deep knowing beyond the personality and surface emotions). When I pay close attention, I experience these three in different ways, but I feel that they are inherently intertwined with one another in the whole body-mind-spirit system. Of course, people are all different, so I expect that the modalities that are accessible will be different for everyone, depending on your natural temperament and evolving sensitivity to your inner world. I bring up this distinction because it can be helpful to ask "who's talking right now?" After all, it can be very hard to trust the ideas your head is giving you when you're anxious, or the hints your gut is trying to give you when you have a stomach ache!
Gut feelings tend to be visceral reactions in the actual stomach region which are more generally positive or negative. It's important to differentiate this from the "pit in the stomach" feeling which can precede fear or anxiety about a roll. Beneath this I find there is an inner sensation of the stomach's pure reaction to the question, beyond personal fixations or apprehensions. It took me a while to notice the knowledge and opinions that my stomach was constantly giving me, as I lived so much in my head. Astro dice were the tool that connected me to it, because it was easy to compare my inner sensations to the results of my rolls because of how rapidly I could ask questions and get answers from them.
I would pay attention to how I felt as I roll, trying to notice how I felt what the answer would probably be in my gut before looking at the result of the roll. It was important to be in touch with whether my inner sense was providing the same answers that the dice gave, or if it was reacting to the idea of receiving an unpleasant answer. After enough practice and verification against reality, I began to notice which feelings were associated with which answers and often will know the answer from my gut, and use the dice for confirmation. Any time there was a conflict between my gut and the dice, I suspended judgment to see what actually happened in real life, and then calibrated accordingly.
The mind is another source of knowledge which can actually access information beyond its conscious awareness and direct experience. Using the mind to receive information is about entering a receptive state, pointing your attention in the direction of the question with as much neutrality as possible, and seeing what arises. I actually developed this skill accidentally by practicing the tarot, whose imagery I find lends itself more readily to provoking these altered states. I would do readings for people where I would draw a card, talk about its traditional meanings, but then simply gaze at it, waiting for more information. I found that I would enter altered trance states almost automatically as long as I didn't try to brain it too hard with my rationalizations. Interestingly, one thing that helped significantly with entering this state is adopting a "soft", "loose", or "wet" gaze where would not focus on anything in particular and give equal weight to my peripheral vision with my literal eyes.
This began to happen automatically, but now I do it intentionally to activate the state. Something about the tension in the eyes has a feedback loop into the mind's perceptual process; the more focused the eyes, the less "gets in", as if the tension preempts information from arising by its gripping effect. I would turn this loose gaze to the cards and as I pondered them idly, thoughts, impressions, and phrases would arise. (Being a highly verbal person, this information is comes through in largely verbal ways, but other readers I talk to also see images, feel emotions, imagine smells and tastes, etc.) These seemed to "come in around the side", often accompanied by physical sensations of around the sides of my head in the temple areas as these thoughts arose. I'd relay these "hits" I received to whoever I was reading for in a non-judgmental, I'm-getting-this-it-could-be-this-does-this-resonate-at-all sort of way. More often than not, they'd be correct! However, the mind is very susceptible to anxiety, distracting thoughts, and projection, so it's important to ground oneself and remain neutral. For your curiosity, I once wrote a thread on using tarot to predict things I couldn't possibly know otherwise.
Both the gut and the mind can occasionally be wrong because they are subject to what we ate, our moods, our anxiety levels, and many other psychological factors. When we're not grounded enough, it's very easy to to misinterpret or wholly fabricate signals "from" our guts and minds. I call the type of knowing that exists underneath and beyond all our layers of subjectivity inner, deep, or soul knowing. It can also be hard to listen to, but I have come to feel that it is actually ever present for people--if we can hear it. If you've ever experienced those little gentle, almost imperceptible nudges that bubble up as vague feelings or thoughts, especially recurrently--I should do this, I shouldn't do that, that's important for some reason, pay attention to this--that's what I would call the typical manifestation of soul or inner knowing. If we can't access this knowing directly, it bubbles up into our mind and gut senses. But it's actually possible to develop a relationship with it by interrogating it directly.
As I was developing my gut sense with the dice, I also began to notice the inner voice which was there. Within each of us is a vast silence, the nonjudgmental observer through whose gaze all of our experiences pass. Beyond all emotions, subjective feelings (both good and bad), hopes and fears, there is this inner, unshakeable core of raw awareness, consciousness. I had been familiar with this idea from my dabbling in meditation and Buddhist frames, that of observing the Observer. But I began to find that as I asked questions, answers were emerging, deep within myself. These answers felt almost imperceptible at first, the barest whispers of an intuition. But I had to be honest with myself: sometimes when I rolled, I already knew the answers. My gut knowing work began yielding to increasing awareness of this inner knowing. I worked on this the same way as with my gut, rolling and comparing my innermost impressions to the answers the dice gave and what actually happened in real life. I am not yet at the point where I no longer need dice or divination tools, but this inner sense has grown much louder and stronger with practice, and it helps in interpretation significantly when the answers are nonobvious--or I'm being stubborn.
I just dumped a lot of implied metaphysics on my dear reader here. Much of my experience with all of this is deeply intertwined with my spiritual practice in general, which involves a significant amount of work becoming more neutral and less reactive in my divination. I discuss this at length in the "Receptivity, distortion, and resonance" section of my guide to making friends with spirits. Even if that’s something you’re not interested in, those sections are highly relevant to divination in general and worth a read.
Optional: Planetary Strength
One way to judge rolls which becomes more effective the more astrology you know is planetary strength. Each planet has a set of dignities, or set of conditions that affect the planet’s expression as well as its ability to exemplify its normal significations. The primary forms of dignity I’ll discuss here is dignity by sign and dignity by house.
Sign Strength
If a planet is in a sign it rules or is exalted in (such as the Sun in Leo or Aries), it is especially powerful or significant. This may not always be a good thing. Exaltation makes planets into honored guests in their exalted signs, but can also overstay their welcome. Planets in exile (such as the Sun in Aquarius) are out of their natural, familiar environment and indicate a weaker position for that planet, but can also have unique perspectives from learning to live in the fringes. Depending on the question, the sign may be only there to describe the topic or theme without having an impact on planetary strength.
The Sun (☉) - Ruler of Leo. Exiled in Aquarius. Exalted in Aries. Fallen in Libra.
Moon (☽) - Ruler of Cancer. Exalted in Taurus. Exiled in Capricorn. Fallen in Scorpio.
Mercury (☿) - Ruler of Gemini and Virgo. Exiled in Sagittarius and Pisces.
Venus (♀) - Ruler of Taurus and Libra. Exiled in Scorpio and Aries. Exalted in Pisces. Fallen in Virgo.
Mars (♂) - Ruler of Aries and Scorpio. Exiled in Libra and Taurus. Exalted in Capricorn. Fallen in Cancer.
Jupiter (♃) - Ruler of Sagittarius and Pisces. Exiled in Gemini and Virgo. Exalted in Cancer. Fallen in Capricorn.
Saturn (♄) - Ruler of Capricorn and Aquarius. Exiled in Cancer and Leo. Exalted in Libra. Fallen in Aries.
While modern astrology has ascribed the outer planets Uranus (♅), Neptune (♆), and Pluto (♇) rulership of the respective signs of Aquarius, Pisces, and Scorpio, I only consider them having notable thematic affinity with these signs. The ancient Hellenistic system of rulership and dignity is highly sophisticated and very effective in practice. Adding modern rulerships which were proposed before the contemporary revival of the roots of the astrological systems we use today breaks this system. When it comes to astrology practice, I treat the outer planets more like outsiders, adding their strange and transcendent, inhuman dynamics wherever they appear. When it comes to astrology dice, I just don't factor in the modern rulership into my interpretations, but I consider the outer planets to be giving their message extra powerfully when they show up with their signs of modern affinity. Of course, don't let my opinions stop you--play around with it!
House Strength
I find that the house die more frequently represents the topic rather than the strength. They tend to represent strength most in situations where you are asking narrow, specific questions, especially about the quality, degree, or correctness of something.
In terms of house strength, planets in the 1st, 4th, 7th, and 10th house are called angular houses. Planets in angular houses are particularly active, strong, and capable of acting decisively. The 2nd, 5th, 8th, and 11th houses are the succedent houses because they follow, or succeed, the angular houses. Planets within them operate with moderate capability. The 3rd, 6th, 9th, and 12th houses are the cadent houses. Cadent means falling away, and these houses are considered to be "falling away" from the angular houses. Cadent planets tend to operate in more meandering, scattered ways, often needing to connect, rearrange, reconcile matters in their process of getting things done.
As a beginner's shorthand, if you start with the first house (or the 4th, 7th, or 10th) and count counterclockwise, it goes strong, moderate, weak. However, that is an oversimplification of how house qualities work; cadent planets are not actually weak, but they operate in a very different way to direct and blunt angular planets and balanced if less assertive succedent planets. So please do not read weak into your own chart if you know that you have cadent planets; I have three of them and get plenty done!
And to reiterate, strength seems less frequent in how the house die presents than topic. That being said, here are the topics of the houses. Also note that the traditional seven planets each have their "joy" in one house each, where they are said to excel and be particularly expressive and powerful.
The Sun - 9th house
The Moon - 3rd house
Jupiter - 11th house
Venus - 5th house
Mars - 6th house
Saturn - 12th house
Mercury - 1st house
As an example of a roll where the house was strong but the sign was weak was when asking about whether I was correct about a personal situation. The roll was Moon 4H Scorpio. The Moon has her fall in Scorpio, suggesting poor strength, but the 4th house is an angular house, which strengthens the Moon. To me, this indicated that I should take the sign of Scorpio’s meaning over its dignity, which I roughly interpreted as “digging deep to the root of the issue”, given that both Scorpio and the 4H suggest subterranean themes.
Another way to conceptualize houses is to group them into angular triads. These are four groupings of three houses, centered around the angular houses. The angular houses are houses of prime importance, being about selfhood, origins, other, and work. Ancient astrologers considered the houses surrounding these houses on either side to be thematically supporting the angular houses. The houses preceding the angular houses were considered to be preparatory and supportive of the angular houses, while those following were considered to be extensions, elaborations, and continuations of the themes of the angular houses.
So the triads are:
1th house, with the 2nd and 12th houses - identity and definition of selfhood, followed by ownership and possessions, supported by endings and release
4th house, with the 5th and 3rd houses - origin and home, followed by personal creativity and play, supported by the local environment and neighborhood
7th house, with the 8th and 6th houses - relationship and other, followed by other’s ownership and possessions, supported by time-and-space-organization and personal health
10th house, with the 11th and 9th houses - work and legacy, followed by community and rewards, supported by big picture thinking and spiritual guidance
I recommend developing a basic familiarity with the dice before moving on to incorporating more advanced concepts such as planetary strength. Once you do, you’ll find your rolls get an entire new level of nuance and meaning.
An In-Depth Line of Questioning
I was chatting with a friend who had been in a tricky situation. They were very concerned about their living situation as their landlord had passed away, and my friend wasn't sure if they'd be able to stay in the house, leading to another exhausting move in a very short period of time. They weren't sure if they should reach out to their landlord as it might jar him into taking action on the house. So I saw an opportunity to use astro dice to do some investigative divination and get a new perspective on what was probably going on. With my friend's permission, here are the rolls:
How does the new landlord, the late landlord's son, feel about the house? - Pluto 12H Taurus - he's grieving, and likely has too many feelings tied up in the house. He currently doesn't want to think about it. Taurus especially indicates this fixedness.
Does he want to sell it? Mars 3H Cancer - No, he might want to keep it for family members.
Who does he want to keep it for? Mars 5H Cancer (!) - His children. He's the Mars in Cancer here; a sensitive, emotional man.
When would he want to give it to his kids or whoever? South Node 3H Aqua. Probably not for a long time.
Would he be willing to sell the house to my friend? Saturn 12H Capricorn. Absolutely not.
Would my friend be forced to move next year? South Node 9H Taurus. Not likely; Taurus again suggests the fixedness, and the south node is a "no". However, the 9H having to do with divination could suggest a "material conditions unclear; ask again later" sort of matter.
We would ask more questions about other matters until we ran into a roadblock where we couldn't understand the rolls.
Are we understanding what you're saying? South Node 9H Capricorn. 9H South Node again, so likely not.
Are we understanding the previous (omitted) roll properly? Neptune 7H Taurus. Neptune is confusion, so no.
What are we missing? Capricorn 12H Mercury. This feels like: tired of talking, ask again later.
We would turn to a discussion of fear in general as a dynamic in my friend’s life as we repeatedly got Neptune in our rolls no matter what we asked. My friend resolved to consider and confront their fear at the prodding from the dice.
So Who've We Got on the Line Here, Anyway?
After a certain point, one begins to wonder precisely who is giving us these dice rolls. I’ve discussed intuitive knowing originating from ourselves, but the dice frequently demonstrate a personality in the way they answer that seems to come from outside of ourselves. Sometimes they’ll poke and prod at us, sometimes they’ll make jokes, sometimes they’ll express deep compassion. This made me curious enough to ask: who the heck is on the other side of this thing, anyway?
So for your (perhaps mostly my) general curiosity, I included these rolls as a way of demonstrating how one can interrogate spirits, including those that seem to be behind the divination tools themselves:
Who am I talking to when I roll the dice? - Venus 5H Scorpio. Interestingly, 5H Scorpio is my natal house, and Mars is the planet in my personal chart associated with divination.
Is it always the same person? - Uranus 9H Cancer. This sort of feels like "yes, but in many forms".
Are we all talking to the same being when we do divination? - 2H Cancer Jupiter. This feels like a no; the second house suggests that we “own”, or have our own individual divinatory allies that we personally know (Cancer), and that there are a lot of them out there (Jupiter).
Can you confirm that answer? - Mars 9H Cancer. I think that's a yes, especially because I dropped the Mars dice and it bounced onto something else and it was the first one I saw. I think Cancer refers to the ongoing persistent Cancer nature of the dialogue, not so much Mars' fall.
Are the spirits who speak through dice vs tarot different? - Mars 8H Gemini. The most important sign here is Gemini. Being the sign of twins and duality, it suggests two things—so the dice and tarot are likely different. Mars feels like a punctuation mark, while the 8H feels like referring to whoever is on the other line.
Are spirits restricted from speaking through one divination device versus the other? - Sun 12H Virgo. Yes, different spirits have different acclimations to different tools (Virgo), just like we do by our natures (Sun), and they are unable (12H) to use just anything.
Am I ever speaking to myself from the future? - Uranus 11H Taurus. Uranus says—yes! You found it! The 11th house is the house of Good Spirit as well, which feels like an extra confirmation. Also, at the time of this writing, Uranus is in Taurus right now, in my personal 11th house. I also relate Uranus to angels, and for me personally, this could be a reference to my relationship with my Holy Guardian Angel.
I also have a consecrated talisman, an object said to have the essence of, or contain, a spirit, imprinted at an astrologically appropriate moment. There's some debate on the actual mechanisms and functioning of this, so I decided to ask my talisman directly:
Placing it on my hand, it feels warm, soothing, but still Mercurial, energetic, ready and aware.
What is your nature? - SN 3H Aquarius. A local spirit.
What would you like to help me with? - Jupiter 8H Capricorn. Teaching/learning in the tactile world. Taking nothing for granted. (Hit: "Listen to me, not the dice.") Placing it in my hand: "Everything. Words, deeds, creations. The growth of wheat. Wisdom for the people. Biodynamic farming."
Am I on track with this biodynamics hit? - Leo Moon, 8H. Natal moon but in 8H, merging with last roll: correct.
What can I do to develop our relationship? - Mercury 1H Gemini - talk to me! Do stuff together! Explore!
What does it mean for you to be in this cabochon? - 8H Pluto Cancer. Important ancestor work.
Are you "stuck" in the talisman or do you persist beyond it, too? Uranus 12H Capricorn. An intuitive hit: "A fragment of my light is here."
How are you doing? Are you, uh, OK in there? Neptune 3H Leo. This seems to reiterate the last answer--a psychic (Neptune) imprint of some kind in the local material space (3H), a fragment of light (Leo). Overall, the spirit seems chipper and just fine.
I haven't spent too much time interrogating beyond this, as I need to figure out more good questions to ask. But I found this exchange illuminating and very interesting! Mostly, I communicate directly with the talisman with my mind, or receive its messages passively, but the rolls elucidated factors that were too subtle or difficult for me to learn with my not-particularly-powerful telepathy skills.
In general, I would love it if more people rolled to ask these same questions! There’s a lot of conceptual theorizing about the nature of reality and the spirits which inhabit it, but with tools like astro dice, it’s pretty easy to just ask. (If you're not familiar with the idea of spirits or how I conceptualize them and want to learn more, you may want to check the entirety of my spirit contact guide.)
Where to Next?
As far as I know, astrology dice are quite new. Not much has been written about them, but I feel that they’re an incredibly rich, agile, and useful divination tool. This guide merely shows the ground floor of what’s possible. There is much more to explore!
For instance, you might consider the aspect relationships between placements and rolls where contextually appropriate. I once rolled to ask which of two chain restaurants would be best to go to, the one up north or the one south, by only rolling the house die and using the house position on the wheel as a compass pointer. The 1st house came up, and as it turns out, there was no north location, but one directly west! (Technically, the 1st house in a natal chart represents east, but I figure the dice were speaking to my most common understanding of a compass having the left side point west.) As far as I can tell, astro dice also work well for determining the rising sign of an untimed birth chart. I've tried it with 3 charts so far and seems correct. you can even ask for the decan with the house die (1-4 = 1st decan and so on).
I encourage you to experiment and play with the dice. If you get confused or stuck, just roll again, or take a little break and come back to it. We have three different die which we can use all together or individually for questions that are better suited to only one or two of them. We are limited only by our creativity in asking questions, so I recommend asking many, whether they’re mundane, esoteric, important, or just about lunch! The great value of astro dice is their speed and flexibility—a Mercurial gift.
May you have great success with the dice! I’d love to hear about your rolls and your experience interpreting them. You can find me on Twitter at @sadalsvvd.
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this is sooo helpful, thank you for writing it. love the stuff you said about eyes and gaze! feels extremely important more generally for emotional/energetic balance
I got Uranus Aquarius and 8th house