What is Shufflemancy?
Shufflemancy: by the use of an electronic media player such as an electronic playlist, iPod, or other medium wherein one skips a certain number of songs and the lyrics and/or tune of the song is the answer to the divinatory question. – Thank you, Wikipedia
Nowhere anywhere on the internet has the actual HISTORY of Shufflemancy. Everyone in Technopagan land naturally assumes that Technomancy was created due to MP3 players… this is not the case.
Shufflemancy is actually older than IPOD, IPAD, MP3 players and even the Compact Disc.
How typically is Shufflemancy used? You have a music random selection and you switch it to shuffle on either: Spotify, Pandora, YouTube any music selection playlists… You have a question or random wandering and the answer will come to you via the song being played.
Some people have a signature song for a signature event or a specific song for a specific prayer or Deity. I know that whenever my friend Addie hears the Song “Hell’s Bells” By AC/DC or “Highway to Hell?” she is prepared for something unusually crazy to happen. Someone online I saw worshipped Bast and she knows that her Goddess is thinking about her whenever she hears the song “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor. Shufflemancy means many things to many people.
Shufflemancy can also occur when you turn on the television as well with the remote, and you get the result that you were looking for. You ask a question? You turn on the television to your possible answer.
Cell phones, Flat Screens and Tablets can also be considered a Black Scrying Mirror also technically.
A black scrying mirror have been used for centuries (more on this in another episode) but all flat technology should be considered useful for both Shufflemancy and Scrying with a mirror.
Shufflemancy can really be seen starting as early as the beginning of the radio being used for common use in homes and households. Radios with dials to tune in to various stations are the concepts that some divination “Dial Up” boards would use to obtain oracle like answers for questions . . . so why wouldn’t the actual radio itself be used then in Shufflemancy.
Even the word “Shuffle” was what was used on Compact Discs (CD’s) when you had a device that could play five CD’s at a time and at random…hence…Shuffle-Mancy.
I remember the 1970’s when my mom would be driving her old Comet and she would ask a question and turn on the car radio … and usually the answer that she was looking for would be playing on the radio. That is still a form of Shufflemancy. When a DJ chooses a song at random and you happen to tune to the song? Same thing. DJs or Disc Jockeys that played either at clubs or radio stations with CDs, MP3s, or Vinyl without requests.
Glossary:
Cybermancy – Divination by the study of computer oracles.
Videomancy – The study of divination with use of film (Video)
Technomancy – Divination through the study of Technology.