Book Review: Throwing Bones, Crystals, Stones, and Curios by Mystic Dylan

Divination at a Glance or a Missed Bone?

In the realm where shadow meets symbol, where bones whisper truths between the cracks of fate, Mystic Dylan’s Throwing Bones, Crystals, Stones, and Curios arrives with promise and pageantry. Wrapped in a 128-page volume with full-color imagery and twenty casting boards, it’s a book that visually enchants—but does it deliver the marrow-deep gnosis one might expect from its title?

First Impressions: Beauty in the Bones

Let’s not mince words—the book is beautiful. From cover to cover, it feels like a curated gallery of mystical ephemera. The full-color layout is lush, inviting, and tactile, clearly meant to inspire creative diviners. Mystic Dylan’s reputation as an occult educator and seasoned practitioner precedes him, and the initial flip-through feels promising.

The table of contents reads like a diviner’s sampler platter—cleromancy, necromancy, scrying, pendulums, dice, runes, astrology, cartomancy, and even oomancy (egg divination). With casting boards ranging from The Seer’s Eye to Hecate’s Weekly Prediction Wheel, there’s no shortage of tools to explore.

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Throwing Bones: Table of Contents (Complete)

• Pre-Chapts

  • Meet Mystic Dylan

  • Introduction

  • What is divination?

  • Types of divination

  • Understanding psychic senses

  • Traditions and techniques

• Chapter One – Cleromancy (The Art of Casting Lots)

  • Building your psychic arsenal

  • Building your cleromancy kit

  • Half in/Half out

  • Preparing for a cleromancy reading

  • Cleansing and consecration rite

  • Protection ritual

• Chapter Two – Necromancy

  • Necromancy incense

  • Necromancy ritual

• Chapter Three – Scrying

  • Venus glass

  • Oil and water scrying

  • Cup reading

    • Cup reading ritual

  • Scrying symbolism

• Chapter Four – Pendulums

  • Pendulum dowsing

• Chapter Five – Other Forms of Divination

  • Astragalomancy

  • Modern dice divination method

  • Oomancy

  • Egg cleansing and reading

  • Astrology

  • Astromancy

  • Rune craft

  • Nornic runecast

  • Cartomancy

    • Cartomancy 3-card spread

• Chapter Six – Boards

  • How to cast lots on a board

  • Board 1: Bone Casting

  • Board 2: Druid Circle

  • Board 3: Greco-Roman

  • Board 4: Oracle

  • Board 5: All Seeing Eye

  • Board 6: Wheel of Fortune

  • Board 7: Serpent

  • Board 8: Medusa’s Gaze

  • Board 9: Wishing Star

  • Board 10: The Seer’s Eye Reading

    • the Seer’s Eye board

  • Board 11: Sun and Moon

  • Board 12: Astrological

  • Board 13: Prophetic Pendulum Reading

    • the Prophetic Pendulum board

  • Board 14: Venus Vibes

  • Board 15: Hecate’s Weekly Prediction Wheel

  • Board 16: Weekly Guidance Forecast

  • Board 17: Minotaur’s Maze

  • Board 18: The Sybil’s Circle

  • Board 19: The Witches’

  • Board Board 20: The Fool’s Journey Reading

    • the Fools’ Journey board

• Post-Chapts

  • Index

  • Dedication and special thanks

  • Further reading

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The Content: Wide Ocean, Shallow Depth?

For the seeker new to the magical arts, this book serves as an enchanting primer. It introduces a wide spectrum of divinatory traditions, lightly touching on psychic development, crafting one’s cleromantic toolkit, and incorporating ritual structure. There’s incense. There’s egg magic. There’s a brief nod to astrology.

The sections on the "clairs" (clairvoyance, clairsentience, etc.) aim to build intuitive muscle—but they don’t guide the practitioner with the kind of depth or experiential scaffolding one might crave. These aren’t techniques as much as soft suggestions, and for many witches, that may feel like the ritual circle was drawn but not cast.

Most strikingly, the namesake practice—bone throwing—gets only a chapter’s worth of attention. For a title that leads with Throwing Bones, readers may rightfully expect more marrow. If you came to sink your teeth into ancestral-style bone reading, you’ll likely walk away still hungry.

Casting Boards: Inspired but Underexplained

One of the book’s more unique features is its collection of twenty casting boards. Each board has evocative themes—Minotaur’s Maze, Fool’s Journey, Medusa’s Gaze—but unfortunately, the book often stops short of explaining how to read them. There’s potential here for immersive symbolic work, but a lack of interpretive structure makes them feel more decorative than divinatory. A deeper dive into their mechanics would have made these standout features indispensable.

The Verdict: A Gateway, Not a Grimoire

Mystic Dylan’s book is a vibrant doorway into the world of eclectic divination. It is playful, polished, and expansive—but not deep. For the beginner curious about a wide variety of divinatory methods, it’s a lovely introduction. For the seasoned witch seeking detailed instruction, especially in the art of bone throwing, this book may fall short.

Its value lies in its aesthetic, its breadth, and its magical optimism. But if you’re looking to truly master the bones—how to read them, how to commune with them, how to let them speak in the language of ancestors—you may need to look elsewhere or use this book as a launching point rather than a destination.

Final Notes for Practitioners:

• Who is this book best for? Beginners, eclectic witches, and curious dabblers.

• Who might want to skip? Advanced bone readers or witches seeking deep methodological training.

• What is it perfect for? Inspiration, divinatory mood boards, and ritual bookshelf eye candy.

• Best ritual pairing: A tea blend for divination, obsidian in hand, and a few of your own bones ready to toss in critique.