Tibetan Mo Reading

The Mo die carries the six syllables of Manjushri’s mantra, A RA PA TSA NA DHI. It is thrown twice, and the two syllables, in order, give one of 36 divinations, each with a name, an omen and an answer for the main areas of life.

They are grouped here by the first throw, in the order of Jamgön Mipham’s Mo (14 excellent, 14 good, 4 caution, 4 difficult). Choose one for its meaning, its answer by question, its symbol and its advice. For a personal reading, ask the Mo; to learn where it comes from, see about Mo.

ཨ First throw A · Space

1. ཨ་ཨ 1. The Stainless Sky · A A Good A clear sky.
2. ཨ་ར 2. The Flaming Rays of the Sun · A RA Good The sun blazes across an open sky.
3. ཨ་པ 3. The Nectar Rays of the Moon · A PA Good Cool moonlight in a wide sky.
4. ཨ་ཙ 4. The Bright Star · A TSA Good One bright star in the dark.
5. ཨ་ན 5. The Ground of Gold · A NA Good Solid golden ground.
6. ཨ་དྷཱི 6. The Tone of Vajras · A DHI Excellent The sound of the vajra, which nothing can break.

ར First throw RA · Fire

1. ར་ཨ 7. The Bright Lamp · RA A Excellent A lamp lit in a dark room.
2. ར་ར 8. Adding Butter to the Burning Flames · RA RA Good Butter on a fire.
3. ར་པ 9. The Demon of Death · RA PA Caution Fire and water clash.
4. ར་ཙ 10. The King of Power · RA TSA Good Wind fans the fire.
5. ར་ན 11. The Dried-up Tree · RA NA Difficult A tree with no sap.
6. ར་དྷཱི 12. The Door of Auspicious Visions · RA DHI Excellent A door opens onto a fine view.

པ First throw PA · Water

1. པ་ཨ 13. The Vase of Nectar · PA A Good A vase full of nectar.
2. པ་ར 14. The Pool Without a Source of Water · PA RA Difficult A pool with no spring to fill it.
3. པ་པ 15. The Ocean of Nectar · PA PA Good An ocean of nectar.
4. པ་ཙ 16. The Demon of Afflictions · PA TSA Difficult Wind whips up the water.
5. པ་ན 17. The Golden Lotus · PA NA Good A golden lotus rises from the mud.
6. པ་དྷཱི 18. The Nectar-like Medicine · PA DHI Excellent Medicine like nectar.

ཙ First throw TSA · Wind

1. ཙ་ཨ 19. The White Umbrella of Good Fortune · TSA A Excellent A white parasol held overhead.
2. ཙ་ར 20. The Great Fiery Weapon · TSA RA Good A blazing weapon.
3. ཙ་པ 21. Empty of Intelligence · TSA PA Difficult A mind scattered like spray in the wind.
4. ཙ་ཙ 22. The Streamer of Fame · TSA TSA Good A prayer flag streaming in the wind.
5. ཙ་ན 23. The Mara Demon of the Aggregates · TSA NA Caution Wind scatters the earth.
6. ཙ་དྷཱི 24. The House of Good Tidings · TSA DHI Excellent A house where good news arrives.

ན First throw NA · Earth

1. ན་ཨ 25. The Golden Mountain · NA A Good A golden mountain.
2. ན་ར 26. The Demon of the Heavenly Son · NA RA Caution The demon of pleasure and distraction.
3. ན་པ 27. The Overflowing Jeweled Vessel · NA PA Excellent A vessel overflowing with jewels.
4. ན་ཙ 28. The Scattered Mountain of Sand · NA TSA Caution A mountain of sand blown apart.
5. ན་ན 29. The Mansion of Gold · NA NA Good A mansion of gold.
6. ན་དྷཱི 30. The Treasury of Jewels · NA DHI Excellent A treasury of jewels.

དྷཱི First throw DHI · Wisdom

1. དྷཱི་ཨ 31. Manjushri Appears · DHI A Excellent Manjushri, the bodhisattva of wisdom, appears.
2. དྷཱི་ར 32. The Endless Auspicious Knot · DHI RA Excellent The endless knot.
3. དྷཱི་པ 33. The Golden Female Fish · DHI PA Excellent A golden fish swims freely.
4. དྷཱི་ཙ 34. The White Conch · DHI TSA Excellent The white conch sounds.
5. དྷཱི་ན 35. The Golden Wheel · DHI NA Excellent The golden wheel turns.
6. དྷཱི་དྷཱི 36. The Jeweled Banner of Victory · DHI DHI Excellent The banner of victory is raised.

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