The Story of Divine Dice

16 min. audio / 1625 words — how Divine Dice came to be

THE STORY OF DIVINE DICE
by Maja Apolonia Rodé

What Are Divine Dice?

Divine Dice are playful yet profound oracles and games that spark insight, creativity, and connection. At their heart is a methodology I've developed over the years — using dice to randomize carefully crafted phrase compositions and generate unexpected, meaningful messages. 

Each oracle holds hundreds to billions of possible messages! The result is surprisingly effective conversation starters, truly unique guidance, and portals of shared insight and inspiration. They’re designed to be simple on the surface, with depth underneath, inviting exploration and discovery at whatever levels are relevant for you.

The Seed Idea

Divine Dice have been organically unfolding from the start — one unexpected step after another. 

The seed idea for randomizing language came in early 2008 after more than a decade exploring the intersection of nondual awareness, emergent creative process, and poetic expression. With a tiny bit of coding experience, I cobbled together a few lines of PHP code to create something new and unique I called Random Ramblings. 

Looking back, I see this was a simple example of what coders might now call “grammar-based procedural text generation” — years before such tools became popular in computer game development. 

Here are a few thought-provoking messages from the variably-coherent Random Ramblings:

• Love is the co-created gift from all the beings of the universe. ~ The Buddha

• Everyone can only be understood with total satisfaction. . . . And then you just have a good time.

• Peace is pure existence, period. 

• Have you ever noticed that life is a pain in the ass? More on that tomorrow.

I didn’t do the math at the time, but the set of 63 words and phrases in the Random Ramblings code held more than 50,000 possible messages! It was great fun, but I didn’t necessarily know what to do with the idea — until 12 years later when it just happened.

The Seed Sprouts

At the dawn of the pandemic in 2020, a beloved meditation group moved from a cozy living room onto Zoom — but I really needed to get off my computer. As a gesture of farewell, I wrote each of the twelve people three words to describe a quality I experienced in them. 

Afterward, I noticed these micro-poems were almost all grammatically the same: Adjective + Noun + Verb. I tried randomizing them a la Random Ramblings, using dice instead of code. Three rolls of the 12-sided die meant 1,728 possible combinations. And it worked great!

Delighted with the creation, I shared it with my lockdown dinner companion — my elderly mother. I was surprised how it opened portals in which we pondered and shared about profound ideas such as:

• Luminous Awareness Blossoming

• Embodied Presence Shimmering

• Wise Heart Listening

• Divine Beauty Harmonizing

The Miracle Moment

Looking back, I am struck by the deep, quiet magic of the dice at play. Only now do I see it: After a lifetime of emotional and spiritual distance, that moment opened a channel of relating that did not previously exist between my mother and me. That very channel is the one that remains and continues to grow even through mom's cognitive decline.

On another level, the randomized composition was so enjoyable and effective as an ice-breaking deep conversation starter — I just wanted more! 

I started making one after another and called the idea “Divine Dice.” I came up with the term “phrase matrix” to refer to the compositions. And the more I play with them, the more I see that these are, in fact, “oracles.” 

My new low-tech generative language tool opened a doorway into a vast creative landscape I call Generative Language Arts and Design (yes, that’s GLAD for short). My initial explorations included: 

• one-on-one Divine Dice Readings

• Game D: The Sensemakers’ Game

• Soul Purpose Profiles

• The Self-Love Field Generator

• Healing Light Remedies 

• Magical Books!

I saw early on that the possibilities are endless. And I am still only scratching the surface. 

During the pandemic, most of this was a solitary creative adventure. But I also joined with online friends to host Creative Presencing sessions on Zoom. These co-designed events — with 8000 possible Divine Dice prompts at the center — served as a springboard for the next unfolding. . . .

Divine Dialogues

In 2023, I hosted the first of many in-person Divine Dialogues. Divine Dialogues merits its own story, so I’ll share that another time. For now I’ll say that through these events I:

• Developed the Flow Circles portal map — a structured pathway for leading groups into collective attunement and flow.

• Refined a phrase matrix for invoking a shared field of non-dual presence.

• Discovered that randomized dialogue prompts could also function as shared oracles — where one message applies to each individual’s inquiry simultaneously.

• Hosted Death Dialogues, Earth Day / Gaia Dialogues, and Birthday Circles.

• Developed the Language Loom — which aligns the threads of individuals’ insights and allows the group’s reflection to weave a fabric of shared wisdom.

From the community context of Divine Dialogues, more creative uses of the phrase matrix emerged: Divine Fortunes, Burning Man Fortunes, Divine Assignments, Infinite Wisdom Streams, Mission: Possible, and Numinous Name Tags, among others. 

Numinous Name Tags in particular proved to be fun, easy, and uplifting at gatherings. And that brings us to . . .

Who Am I? The Magical Identity Generator!

Who Am I? The Magical Identity Generator — An evolution of Numinous Name Tags, this Oracle Box includes an Oracle Key, a 20-sided die, blank name tags, a felt-bottom rolling box, a velvet travel pouch, and good vibes to get the magic rolling! 

The Who Am I? Oracle Key holds 8000 uplifting identities to try on for size. Here are some examples: 

• Playful Secret Agent With Perfect Timing

• Solar-Powered Earthling Who Just Knows

• Creative Explorer on a Journey of Love

• Luminous Mystery Connected to Everything

This oracle naturally evolved into a stand-alone offering partly because it is relatable outside my usual circle of contemplative friends. It worked well as a fun yet quietly profound mixer, it was easy to implement (no fancy facilitation required), and it was a simple three-roll process that readily introduced the method of language randomization. Easy, accessible, and fun.

An Ongoing Series

I didn't intend to produce a whole series of Oracle Boxes, but the idea came as I was assembling the Who Am I? prototypes.

I realized the small slide-out boxes would make perfect little drawers to hold my ever-growing collection of oracles. With a bit of adhesive, the boxes could stack securely in my bookcase like a personal Chinese herb cabinet — each drawer labeled with the medicinal vibe it contains. 

That's what gave me the idea to produce an ongoing series. Even if nobody else collects the boxes, I will!

Box 2 will likely be:

Mission Possible

Mission: Possible — After we get to know ourselves better, we are ready to receive our mission — should we choose to accept it! This is my most extensive matrix so far, with more than two billion possible messages! Here are a few:

• Without taking self-doubt seriously, cultivate the pathways of belonging. You will be astounded by this dynamic path of what’s most important.

• Ever so gently, immerse yourself in the wisdom of this moment. This will reveal the mysterious simplicity of your creative potential.

• Right now, keep attention on your unique experience of life itself. There is no substitute for this spontaneous foundation of your destiny.

• Take time to feel in your body the rhythms of divine light. You are beyond worthy of this quiet activity of peace on earth.

In the lead for Box 3 is . . .

The Healing Light Remedies

The Healing Light Remedies — This oracle prescribes unique light remedies that bring healing vibrations to uplift your physical, mental, and emotional bodies. It holds more than two million possible remedies!

Future Oracle Box possibilities include:

• The Sensemakers’ Game

• Divine Dialogues Prompts

• The Inner Compass Oracle

• The Time Temple Oracle

• The Birthday Oracle

• and more . . .

It has been a creative delight to see how a seed of inspiration, dormant for many years, is sprouting into this garden of possibilities. 

Stepping Into the Unknown

I see these oracles as invitations to step outside our boxes of thinking and into open, benevolent fields of meaning, knowing, and not-knowing. They invite us to deepen our relationship to language, think more thoughtfully, and engage more intimately with ourselves, each other, and life itself. 

If you have rolled the dice with me, that’s what we've been doing together — playing with presence inside the portals of the oracles. Thank you for being part of this unfolding.

My next steps are to refine Who Am I?, then develop Mission: Possible and The Healing Light Remedies. Beyond that, I do not know. 

Sharing the prototype with friends feels like stepping into the next season of the garden. At this new threshold, I wonder where Divine Dice will travel, who might collaborate, and what unanticipated thing comes next! 

Tuning into the spirit of this unfolding — from Random Ramblings to Divine Dice Game Company — I shall now consult the Mission: Possible oracle for guidance.

Here’s what she says:

Without knowing how, find peace
in the experience of belonging.
Nothing else is needed for the quiet blessing
of embodied existence.

— Mission: Possible | Divine Dice Oracle 2

In this sufficiently cryptic message, one thing is clear: Whatever Divine Dice are or aren't, whatever becomes of the Divine Dice Game Company idea — it's a call to belong.

It's not about making a big loud splash. It's about becoming a gravitational center of quiet blessing. It's the sound the singing bowl makes when the die drops in. It's the meditation bell calling us into peaceful belonging — with each other, in our bodies, as life itself. It's not the only such bell, but it's the one I'm called to ring.

Whether Divine Dice find their way into many hands around the world or remain as my personal treasure cabinet shared with friends like you, the adventure shall continue — one roll at a time.

One Roll at a Time

❤ 2026

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