Fortuna: The Sacred and Profane Faces of Luck

There is a lot of fortune telling in life, in ways that we might not be aware of. The author of this book explores traditions of good fortune in religion, everyday life, and modern gambling.  He’ll express how things that we’ve once considered sacred fall into the domain of the profane — like how dice were originally intended to be divine instruments to predict the future. The author backs this up by looking at primary sources like medieval grimoires to inform the reader on how people used to use different objects for ceremonial purposes. He then goes on to elaborate how there’s a large ritualistic aspect to many forms of fortune telling but specifically in gambling and games of chance. He also covers some of the history of cheating and shenanigans that developed — attempts to swing the hand of fate, but ultimately has the goal of showing us aspects of our everyday lives still dictated by the hand of fate — or the hopeful gamble in our decisions.