Dice Divination: Tibetan Mo

One of the most common ways of divination in Tibetan is with dice. If you have an important decision to make, you go and see a lama and he rolls a couple of dice and advises you. A friend of mine, an ex-Tibetan monk, has used Mo. When he crossed the boarder from Tibet to India, he was sent to a monastery in the south. However, having spent his whole life in the chilly Himalayas, he was totally unprepared for the sweltering heat of Karnataka and became ill. So he consulted a lama who threw the dice and told him to head north.

How to consult the oracle

To do Mo divination you need two dice and an instruction manual. I have Mo: Tibetan Divination System by Jamgon Mipham, which contains a forward by His Holiness Sakya Trizin, head of the Sakya order, one of the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The manual states when doing Mo you are seeking the blessings and advice of Manjushri, the Boddhisattva of wisdom. I have been told you need to have had the Manjushri empowerment to get results or at least have taken refuge. This makes sense, although the manual doesn’t mention anything.

1. Before you throw the dice, you have to imagine Manjushri in the sky in front of you, with his yellow body in the form of a sixteen-year-old boy. In his right hand he’s holding the flaming sword of wisdom, and in his left, the blue lotus of wisdom.
2. Then you must recite the following verse: Om, the magnificent Manjushri who possesses the eye of transcendent wisdom which unobstructedly sees all three times, please take head of me. Through the power of the truth of the non-deceiving, interdependently arising Three Jewels and Three Roots please make clear what  should be accepted and should be discarded.
3. After, you say the Manjushri mantra three or seven times: om ah ra pa tsa na dhi. The first five syllables represent the five families of the buddha and dhi encapsulates the wisdom of all the Buddhas. The six sides of the dice also represent the six syllables of the mantra.
4. Then you chant the mantra of interdependent arising: om/yea dar ma/heh too/pra bah wah/heh tun tay/ken/ta t’a ga toe/ha  ya/wa tet/tay/ken/cha yo/nee ro da/eh vam/wa dee/ma ha/shra ma na/so ha. This sums up the Buddha’s teaching on karma: there is always a cause and effect.
5. Next you blow on the dice to empower them with the mantra.
6. You throw two dice. If you are throwing the dice for a prediction involving you and another person, you throw twice: the first throw presents you, the second the other person. You can throw the dice three times to check whether the prediction is strong or weak.
7. You look up the meanings of the numbers in the manual. The manual I have gives the name and general meaning of the prediction, then breaks it down into eleven categories, representing all possible answers. These are:

• family, property, and life
• intentions and aims
• friends and wealth
• enemies
• guests
• illness
• evil spirits
• spiritual practice
• lost article
• will they come and will the task be accomplished
• all remaining matters

My experience

In a couple of days time, I have an appointment with a consultant about a medical matter. I want to ask about this, keeping in mind that it’s always better to look for advice rather than a straight-forward prediction. (The oracle can suggest remedies for the problem). I throw a four (na), then a six (ah). According to the manual this combination is  The Golden Mountain. It augurs firmness and stability and is known as the ‘unchanging auspicious symbol”. Under illness, it says “there is none”. I also look under “will they come and will the task be accomplished” and it says that although there will be a delay, the project will meet with a successful outcome. So everything bodes well.