9 thoughts on “The Adventures of Ashley Madder: Chapter Two, Page Three”

  1. That would be soothsaying, which is against the rules. Depending on your interpretation, it might even be blasphemy to use the Bible for such a purpose, although I’m told practitioners of hoodoo (not a spelling error) consider it a standard practice.

    In any case, I expect her to end up at the Song of Solomon… and for this copy of the Bible to have been doctored by S.O.U.P. to manipulate Angela.

    • Ahem. St. Augustine followed a similar procedure once in the midst of one of his crises:

      So was I speaking and weeping in the most bitter contrition of my heart, when, lo! I heard from a neighbouring house a voice, as of boy or girl,I know not, chanting, and oft repeating, “Take up and read; Take up and read.” Instantly, my countenance altered, I began to think most intently whether children were wont in any kind of play to sing such words: nor could I remember ever to have heard the like. So checking the torrent of my tears, I arose; interpreting it to be no other than a command from God to open the book, and read the first chapter I should find. For I had heard of Antony, that coming in during the reading of the Gospel, he received the admonition, as if what was being read was spoken to him: Go, sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me: and by such oracle he was forthwith converted unto Thee. Eagerly then I returned to the place where Alypius was sitting; for there had I laid the volume of the Apostle when I arose thence. I seized, opened, and in silence read that section on which my eyes first fell: Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, in concupiscence. No further would I read; nor needed I: for instantly at the end of this sentence, by a light as it were of serenity infused into my heart, all the darkness of doubt vanished away.

      See his Confessions, Book VIII.

        • There probably are certain denominations or tendencies who do think the way you suggest, but others who wouldn’t. There’s a lot of religious diversity out there.

  2. As with most things you can find validation for almost any predisposition in a good book. Start looking for stone under every rock and you’ll find it everywhere. *facepalm*

    • Though if you think that God really is running all the machinery behind the stage, you won’t see that as the outcome, which is probably why Angelique puts “random” in mental scare quotes. For her, there never is really anything random.

      • Yes, just making a cynical observation that even a lot of supposedly non-religious thinking is in fact religious thinking seeking validation for a predisposition or subconscious decision already made.

  3. Maybe it would help if she took off her clothes and lay on the altar with her legs spread wide.

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