Quotes about opening
page 40

Reza Pahlavi photo
Richard Stallman photo

“To call us "open source" is like calling Kucinich a Republican.”

Richard Stallman (1953) American software freedom activist, short story writer and computer programmer, founder of the GNU project
Robert A. Heinlein photo
John Denver photo

“It's a great big step for me to open my heart up even a little bit. ”

John Denver (1943–1997) American singer, songwriter, activist, and humanitarian
Henry Miller photo
Ambrose Bierce photo

“When God makes a beautiful woman, the devil opens a new register. ”

Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist
Jan Neruda photo
Andrew Biersack photo
Alfredo Rocco photo

“Thus the facts demonstrate that, while the epoch of nationalities was coming to a close with the national reconstitution of the last remaining peoples yet to accomplish it, the epoch of empires of super-States was opening, bringing colossi which dwarfed the great empires of history.”

Alfredo Rocco (1875–1935) Italian politician and jurist

“Il dovere dei giovani” (“Duty of Young People”), in Alfredo Rocco’s Scritti e discorsi politici, Milan: Giuffrè. Vol. 2, (1938) p. 526

Alex Jones photo
Antonie Pannekoek photo
Antonie Pannekoek photo
William Godwin photo
Kuruvilla Pandikattu photo
John Boyega photo

“I’m black British and I’m from London. And that in itself is something that the world doesn’t know about yet. I met American people – civilians of a first-world country – who were confused that there were black people in London. That’s why entertainment is so special, it’s a great chance to bring people together and open them up to things they haven’t seen before.”

John Boyega (1992) British Nigerian actor

On the importance of showing Black British people in “John Boyega: I've met Americans who don't know black people live in London” https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/dec/05/john-boyega-ive-met-americans-who-dont-know-black-people-live-in-london in The Guardian (2019 Dec 5)

Jack Sargeant (writer) photo
Niall Ferguson photo
Karl Pearson photo
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky photo
Natalie Wynn photo

“So basically what I think is that in a free society, different people will have lots of different sexual lifestyles. Some people will want to settle down and get married, and that’s fine. Some people will wanna have a fucking baby, and that’s also fine—someone needs to have the fucking babies. But some people won’t want to do that: some people will wanna dip their balls in hot wax and pour wolf’s milk all over a stranger’s face, and that’s fine, too. Some people won’t want to have sex or romantic relationships. Point is, all these things carry emotional risks: you’ve got heartbreak, loneliness, excruciating boredom—this is just the human condition. And no matter what you do, you have to take emotional risks. But as a society, we could make sex less risky for women by ending rape culture and slut-shaming, and instituting all-you-can-eat birth control. Hence, you know, feminism. And there are also things that we can do as individuals to be safer, kinder, and more responsible. If you do choose to have casual sex, things are gonna go a lot better for you and your partners if you try to remain honest, open and communicative about what your intentions are. And for God’s sake, use a condom—do not get pregnant or get anyone else pregnant. That’s a real downer, this… echoing God’s act of creation by bringing new life into the world. It’s disgusting!”

ContraPoints, Feminism Did Not Destroy Atheism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klfH9QaEcqY (2016), Is Casual Sex Bad for Your Soul? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKrbvLkbHu8 (2017)

Alvin C. York photo
Omar Bradley photo
Arthur Stanley Eddington photo
Rupi Kaur photo

“I used to submit to anthologies and magazines when I was a student – but I knew I was never going to be picked up. All their writing was, you know, about the Canadian landscape or something. And my poem is about this woman with her legs spread open.”

Rupi Kaur (1992) Canadian poet

On how she felt that her poetic topics were unconventional when compared to other poetry submissions in “ The young ‘Instapoet’ Rupi Kaur: from social media star to bestselling writer” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/may/27/rupi-kaur-i-dont-fit-age-race-class-of-bestselling-poet-milk-and-honey in The Guardian (2017 May 27)

Philip Kan Gotanda photo

“To me, it’s always been a matter of: Do your homework and be committed to the extent that you can capture that world. I think I’m open.”

Philip Kan Gotanda (1951) American film director and playwright

On doing research in order to capture authenticity in “Philip Kan Gotanda by David Henry Hwang” https://bombmagazine.org/articles/philip-kan-gotanda-1/ in BOMB Magazine (1997 Jan 1)

Baruch Spinoza photo
Chögyam Trungpa photo
Chögyam Trungpa photo
Noah Levine photo
Adlai Stevenson photo

“We must recover the element of quality in our traditional pursuit of equality. We must not, in opening our schools to everyone, confuse the idea that all should have equal chance with the notion that all have equal endowments.”

Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965) mid-20th-century Governor of Illinois and Ambassador to the UN

Speech to the United Parents Association, as quoted in The New York Times (6 April 1958)

Maylis de Kerangal photo

“I began to think about its double nature: on the one hand you have an organ in your body and on the other you have a symbol of love. From that time I started to pursue the image of a heart crossing the night from one body to another. It is a simple narrative structure but it’s open to a lot of things. I had the intuition that this book could give form to my intimate experience of death.”

Maylis de Kerangal (1967) French writer

On the heart as the focus for her book Mend the Living in “‘What is a heart? You have an organ in your body and you have a symbol of love’” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/apr/28/maylis-de-kerangal-interview-wellcome-prize-writing in The Guardian (2017 Apr 28)

Kapka Kassabova photo
Newton Lee photo
Mikhail Gorbachev photo

“The Chernobyl disaster, more than anything else, opened the possibility of much greater freedom of expression, to the point that the system as we knew it could no longer continue. It made absolutely clear how important it was to continue the policy of glasnost, and I must say that I started to think about time in terms of pre-Chernobyl and post-Chernobyl.”

Mikhail Gorbachev (1931) General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

"Turning point at Chernobyl" https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2006/04/21/commentary/world-commentary/turning-point-at-chernobyl/#.XPoajKR7mUk, Japan Times (21 April 2006)
2000s

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar photo

“Hindutva was a political argument made in a poetic register. It was an argument with and against an unnamed Gandhi at an opportune moment when he seemed finished with politics. Hindutva was also a political cry from behind prison walls, reminding the larger world outside that even if Gandhi was no longer on the political scene, Savarkar was back. He was still a leader, a politician capable of pulling together a nationalist community. But unlike Gandhi, he was offering a sense of Hindu-ness that could be the basis for a more genuine and, in the end, more effective nationalism than that of the Mahatma. The startling change for its time was Savarkar’s assertion that it was not religion that made Hindus Hindu. If Gandhi had officiated at the marriage of religion and politics, and Khilafat leaders were using the symbols of religion to forge a community, Savarkar argued that name and place were what bound the Hindu community, not religion . . . The fundamental (negative) contribution of Hindutva was to install a new term for nationalist discourse, one that was both modern and secular, if open to a secular understanding of religious identity. In place of religion qua religion, he secularized a plethora of Hindu religious leaders. In so doing, he did not create a sterilely secular nationalism. He did quite the opposite. He enchanted a secular nationalism by placing a mythic community into a magical land .”

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (1883–1966) Indian pro-independence activist,lawyer, politician, poet, writer and playwright

Janaki Bakhle quoted in Vikram Sampath - Savarkar, Echoes from a Forgotten Past, 1883–1924 (2019)

Madan Lal Dhingra photo

“I admit, the other day, I attempted to shed English blood as a humble revenge for the inhuman hangings and deportations of patriotic Indian youths. In this attempt I have consulted none but my own conscience; I have conspired with none but my own duty. I believe that a nation held in bondage with the help of foreign bayonets is in perpetual state of war. Since open battle is rendered impossible to a disarmed race, I attacked by surprise; since guns were denied to me, I drew forth my pistol and fired. As a Hindu, I feel that a wrong done to my country is an insult to God. Poor in health and intellect, a son like myself has nothing to offer to the Mother but his own blood, and so I have sacrificed the same on her altar. Her cause is the cause of Shri Rama. Her services are the services of Shri Krishna. This War of Independence will continue between India and England so long as the Hindu and the English races last (if this present unnatural relation does not cease). The only lesson required in India at present is to learn how to die and the only way to teach it is by dying ourselves. Therefore I die and glory to my martyrdom. My only prayer to God is: may I be reborn of the same Mother and may I re-die in the same sacred cause till the cause is successful and she stands free for the good of humanity and the glory of God. Vande Mataram!”

Madan Lal Dhingra (1883–1909) Indian revolutionary

quoted in Vikram Sampath - Savarkar, Echoes from a Forgotten Past, 1883–1924 (2019)

Alessandro Cagliostro photo
Joseph E. Stiglitz photo
Jean-Paul Marat photo
Swami Sivananda photo
Constantine the Great photo

“When we, Constantine and Licinius, emperors, had an interview at Milan, and conferred together with respect to the good and security of the commonweal, it seemed to us that, amongst those things that are profitable to mankind in general, the reverence paid to the Divinity merited our first and chief attention, and that it was proper that the Christians and all others should have liberty to follow that mode of religion which to each of them appeared best; so that that God, who is seated in heaven, might be benign and propitious to us, and to every one under our government. And therefore we judged it a salutary measure, and one highly consonant to right reason, that no man should be denied leave of attaching himself to the rites of the Christians, or to whatever other religion his mind directed him, that thus the supreme Divinity, to whose worship we freely devote ourselves, might continue to vouchsafe His favour and beneficence to us. And accordingly we give you to know that, without regard to any provisos in our former orders to you concerning the Christians, all who choose that religion are to be permitted, freely and absolutely, to remain in it, and not to be disturbed any ways, or molested. And we thought fit to be thus special in the things committed to your charge, that you might understand that the indulgence which we have granted in matters of religion to the Christians is ample and unconditional; and perceive at the same time that the open and free exercise of their respective religions is granted to all others, as well as to the Christians. For it befits the well-ordered state and the tranquillity of our times that each individual be allowed, according to his own choice, to worship the Divinity; and we mean not to derogate aught from the honour due to any religion or its votaries.”

Constantine the Great (274–337) Roman emperor

As translated in The Ante-Nicene Fathers (1886) edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, Vol. 7, p. 320 http://books.google.com/books?id=ko0sAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA320
Variant translation: When I, Constantine Augustus, as well as I Licinius Augustus fortunately met near Mediolanum [Milan], and were considering everything that pertained to the public welfare and security, we thought —, among other things which we saw would be for the good of many, those regulations pertaining to the reverence of the Divinity ought certainly to be made first, so that we might grant to the Christians and others full authority to observe that religion which each preferred; whence any Divinity whatsoever in the seat of the heavens may be propitious and kindly disposed to us and all who are placed under our rule. And thus by this wholesome counsel and most upright provision we thought to arrange that no one whatsoever should be denied the opportunity to give his heart to the observance of the Christian religion, or of that religion which he should think best for himself, so that the Supreme Deity, to whose worship we freely yield our hearts, may show in all things His usual favor and benevolence. Therefore, your Worship should know that it has pleased us to remove all conditions whatsoever, which were in the rescripts formerly given to you officially, concerning the Christians and now any one of these who wishes to observe Christian religion may do so freely and openly, without molestation. We thought it fit to commend these things most fully to your care that you may know that we have given to those Christians free and unrestricted opportunity of religious worship. When you see that this has been granted to them by us, your Worship will know that we have also conceded to other religions the right of open and free observance of their worship for the sake of the peace of our times, that each one may have the free opportunity to worship as he pleases; this regulation is made we that we may not seem to detract from any dignity or any religion.
As translated in The Early Christian Persecutions (1897) by Dana Carleton Munro http://books.google.com/books?id=eoQTAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA29
Edict of Milan (313)

Ken Clarke photo

“When we negotiate trade agreements in the future, we will be pressing other countries to open up their public procurement processes to genuine, fair, international competition. It would be totally ridiculous to abandon that principle now to give into not only constituency pressures, which I understand, but otherwise nationalist nonsense that ought to be ignored.”

Ken Clarke (1940) British Conservative politician

Speech https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2018-03-26/debates/C8342F96-62B1-40CC-AB4A-03AFBC46ACBB/UKPassportContract#contribution-8F9BEBCD-C76E-4950-A915-40D5123A853E in the House of Commons (26 March 2018) on the awarding of the contract for the production of new UK passports to Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto
2018

Franz Bardon photo
Alvin C. York photo
Gustave de Molinari photo

“If the roused and insurgent consumers secure the means of production of the salt industry, in all probability they will confiscate this industry for their own profit, and their first thought will be, not to relegate it to free competition, but rather to exploit it, in common, for their own account. They will then name a director or a directive committee to operate the saltworks, to whom they will allocate the funds necessary to defray the costs of salt production. Then, since the experience of the past will have made them suspicious and distrustful, since they will be afraid that the director named by them will seize production for his own benefit, and simply reconstitute by open or hidden means the old monopoly for his own profit, they will elect delegates, representatives entrusted with appropriating the funds necessary for production, with watching over their use, and with making sure that the salt produced is equally distributed to those entitled to it. The production of salt will be organized in this manner.This form of the organization of production has been named communism.When this organization is applied to a single commodity, the communism is said to be partial.When it is applied to all commodities, the communism is said to be complete.But whether communism is partial or complete, political economy is no more tolerant of it than it is of monopoly, of which it is merely an extension.”

Gustave de Molinari (1819–1912) Belgian political economist and classical liberal theorist

Source: The Production of Security (1849), p. 31

Anne Hutchinson photo
Richard Feynman photo
Isi Leibler photo

“Multiculturalism and diversity are admirable qualities for a democracy but can only apply if all parties are committed to an open society.”

Isi Leibler (1934) Jewish activist

25 June 2014 https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Candidly-speaking-As-Europe-slides-into-a-Dark-Age-Jews-must-review-their-future-360566

Edmonia Lewis photo
Vladimir Putin photo
Vladimir Putin photo
Chris Martin photo
Ahdaf Soueif photo

“Maybe not a hydra because that’s really, really nasty. I think there was almost a false head: we ripped open the packaging and now we’re faced with the real thing that’s there in the box…”

Ahdaf Soueif (1950) Egyptian novelist

On the state of Egypt after the ousting of Mubarak in “INTERVIEW WITH AHDAF SOUEIF” http://www.thewhitereview.org/feature/interview-with-ahdaf-soueif/ in The White Review (March 2012)

Alec Douglas-Home photo
Martín Espada photo
Vladimir Lenin photo

“The Government of the proletarian dictatorship, together with the Communist Party and trade unions, is of course leaving no stone unturned in the effort to overcome the backward ideas of men and women, to destroy the old un-communist psychology. In law there is naturally complete equality of rights for men and women. And everywhere there is evidence of a sincere wish to put this equality into practice. We are bringing the women into the social economy, into legislation and government. All educational institutions are open to them, so that they can increase their professional and social capacities. We are establishing communal kitchens and public eating-houses, laundries and repairing shops, nurseries, kindergartens, children’s homes, educational institutes of all kinds. In short, we are seriously carrying out the demand in our programme for the transference of the economic and educational functions of the separate household to society. That will mean freedom for the woman from the old household drudgery and dependence on man. That enables her to exercise to the full her talents and her inclinations. The children are brought up under more favourable conditions than at home.”

Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) Russian politician, led the October Revolution

As quoted by Clara Zetkin in "Lenin on the Women’s Question", My Memorandum Book https://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/lenin/zetkin1.htm, 1920.
Attributions

Vladimir Lenin photo
Karl Kautsky photo
J. Howard Moore photo
Winston S. Churchill photo
Carl Sagan photo
Carl Sagan photo
Carl Sagan photo

“You will be here and now which opens a whole new space and even more.”

Jakub Tencl (1978) Czech clinical hypnotherapist and writer

Source: The mystery of life : you are the light, and that's indestructible truth, Tencl, Jakub,, 9781512399882, [United Kingdom? https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/914353319,, 914353319]

Peter Kropotkin photo
Tony Benn photo
Martin Luther King, Jr. photo
Étienne de La Boétie photo
Immanuel Kant photo

“If it were right to overstep a little the limits of apodictic certainty befitting metaphysics, it would seem worth while to trace out some things pertaining not merely to the laws but even to the causes of sensuous intuition, which are only intellectually knowable. Of course the human mind is not affected by external things, and the world does not lie open to its insight infinitely, except as far as itself together with all other things is sustained by the same infinite power of one. Hence it does not perceive external things but by the presence of the same common sustaining cause; and hence space, which is the universal and necessary condition of the joint presence of everything known sensuously, may be called the phenomenal omnipresence, for the cause of the universe is not present to all things and everything, as being in their places, but their places, that is the relations of the substances, are possible, because it is intimately present to all. Furthermore, since the possibility of the changes and successions of all things whose principle as far as sensuously known resides in the concept of time, supposes the continuous existence of the subject whose opposite states succeed; that whose states are in flux, lasting not, however, unless sustained by another; the concept of time as one infinite and immutable in which all things are and last, is the phenomenal eternity of the general cause} But it seems more cautious to hug the shore of the cognitions granted to us by the mediocrity of our intellect than to be carried out upon the high seas of such mystic investigations, like Malebranche, whose opinion that we see all things in God is pretty nearly what has here been expounded.”

Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) German philosopher

Kant's Inaugural Dissertation (1770), Section IV On The Principle Of The Form Of The Intelligible World

Ko Wen-je photo

“There are various political views in Taiwan. People can hold different political views, (because) the most valuable elements of Taiwanese values are democracy, freedom, diversity and openness.”

Ko Wen-je (1959) Taiwanese politician and physician

Ko Wen-je (2019) cited in " Fruit, vegetable prices will not fall: Ko http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2019/02/01/2003709059" on Taipei Times, 1 February 2019.

Han Kuo-yu photo

“Taiwan is one step away from becoming like North Korea: completely locked out of things. We need to break free from this situation. If there is no threat to national security, we need to open the doors wide open.”

Han Kuo-yu (1957) Taiwanese political figure

Han Kuo-yu (2019) cited in " Taiwan a ‘step away’ from being like North Korea: Han http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2019/10/10/2003723698" on Taipei Times, 10 October 2019.
2019

Han Kuo-yu photo

“Kaohsiung is opening its arms to all cities, nations and territories of the world.”

Han Kuo-yu (1957) Taiwanese political figure

Han Kuo-yu (2019) cited in " Kaohsiung mayor departs for visit to Malaysia, Singapore http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aipl/201902240005.aspx" on Focus Taiwan, 24 February 2019.
2019

Jordan Peterson photo

“What does opening your eyes and realizing your vulnerability have to do with the knowledge of good and evil?”

Jordan Peterson (1962) Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology

Here's the key: You know you're vulnerable. No other animal knows that. You know what hurts you, because you're vulnerable. And now that you know what hurts you, you can figure out what hurts someone else. And as soon as you know what can hurt someone as, and you can use that, then you have the knowledge of good and evil. Well it's a pretty good trick that the snake pulled because it doesn't seem like the thing that we would have exactly wanted if we knew what the consequence was going to be. As soon as a human being is self conscious and aware of his nakedness, then he has the capacity for evil. That's introduced into the world right at that point."
Concepts

“Freedom, diversity and openness are the main features that make Taipei attractive to visitors.”

Tsai Ping-kun (1959) Taiwanese politician

Tsai Ping-kun (2019) cited in " Six Taipei sightseeing spots receive Muslim certificate http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2019/10/22/2003724410" on Taipei Times, 22 October 2019

Annie Proulx photo
Alfred Percy Sinnett photo
Alice A. Bailey photo
Paul Claudel photo

“I had completely forgotten about religion and in this respect had a savage ignorance of it. The first glimmer of truth came to me through an encounter with a great poet, who played a predominant part in the formation of my thinking and to whom I owe an eternal debt, Arthur Rimbaud. Reading Illuminations, then a few months later, Use Saison en Enfer was for me a capital event. For the first time, his books opened a crack in my materialist servitude and gave me a vivid and almost physical impression of the supernatural.”

Paul Claudel (1868–1955) French diplomat

J'avais complètement oublié la religion et j'étais à son égard d'une ignorance sauvage. La première lueur de vérité me fut donnée par la rencontre des livres d'un grand poète, à qui je dois une éternelle reconnaissance, et qui a eu dans la formation de ma pensée une part prépondérante, Arthur Rimbaud. La lecture des Illuminations, puis, quelques mois après, d'Une Saison en enfer, fut pour moi un événement capital. Pour la première fois, ces livres ouvraient une fissure dans mon bagne matérialiste et me donnaient l'impression vivante et presque physique du surnaturel.
"My Conversion," December 1886, as translated in Negritude and the Civilization of the Universal, p. 28

Pete Buttigieg photo
Raymond Chandler photo
Benjamín Netanyahu photo

“What is important about this meeting. and it is not in secret, because there are many of those – is that this is an open meeting with representatives of leading Arab countries, that are sitting down together with Israel in order to advance the common interest of war with Iran.”

Benjamín Netanyahu (1949) Israeli prime minister

10:15 AM 13 February 2019 https://archive.fo/7nDgm, affirmed by City News https://toronto.citynews.ca/2019/02/13/israeli-leader-rallies-common-interest-of-war-with-iran/ and Fox News https://www.foxnews.com/world/israeli-leader-rallies-common-interest-of-war-with-iran and Montreal Gazette https://montrealgazette.com/pmn/news-pmn/israeli-leader-rallies-common-interest-of-war-with-iran/wcm/69afdd3f-be58-42f8-982a-ea95455717b3 and NBC News https://www.nbcnews.com/news/mideast/netanyahu-appears-say-war-iran-common-goal-n971266 and Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/israeli-leader-rallies-common-interest-of-war-with-iran/2019/02/13/89ce2a2c-2fc3-11e9-8781-763619f12cb4_story.html.
the original tweet was deleted https://twitter.com/IsraeliPM/status/1095748204405104641 and replaced 11:08 AM https://twitter.com/IsraeliPM/status/1095761648399331330 with a similar message, except with "war with Iran" changed to "combating Iran"
2010s, 2019

“He had the open, cheerful, rather self-satisfied countenance of someone upon whom life had made very few demands.”

Michael Nava (1954) American writer

Source: Henry Rios series of novels, Rag and Bone (2001), p.187

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali photo

“From my early youth, since I attained the age of puberty before I was twenty, until the present time when I am over fifty, I have ever recklessly launched out into the midst of these ocean depths, I have ever bravely embarked on this open sea, throwing aside all craven caution; I have poked into every dark recess, I have made an assault on every problem, I have plunged into every abyss, I have scrutinized the creed of every sect, I have tried to lay bare the inmost doctrines of every community. All this have I done that I might 68 distinguish between true and false, between sound tradition and heretical innovation.”

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (1058–1111) Persian Muslim theologian, jurist, philosopher, and mystic

Whenever I meet one of the Batiniyah, I like to study his creed; whenever I meet one of the Zahiriyah, I want to know the essentials of his belief. If it is a philosopher, I try to become acquainted with the essence of his philosophy; if a scholastic theologian I busy myself in examining his theological reasoning; if a Sufi, I yearn to fathom the secret of his mysticism; if an ascetic (muta'ahhid) , I investigate the basis of his ascetic practices; if one ofthe Zanadiqah or Mu'attilah, I look beneath the surface to discover the reasons for his bold adoption of such a creed.
The Deliverance from Error https://www.amazon.com/Al-Ghazalis-Path-Sufism-Deliverance-al-Munqidh/dp/1887752307, p: 20-21

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali photo
William Logan (author) photo

“Two things are essential to the astrologer, namely, a bag of cowries and an almanac, When any one comes to consult him he quietly sits down, facing the sun, on a plank seat or mat, murmuring some mantrams or sacred verses, opens his bag of cowries and pours them on the floor. With his right hand he moves them slowly round and round, solemnly inciting meanwhile a stanza or two in praise of his guru or teacher and of his deity, invoking their help. He then stops and explains what, lie has been doing, at the same time taking a handful of cowries from the heap and placing them on one side. In front is a diagram drawn with chalk on tire floor and consisting of twelve compartments. Before commencing operations with the diagram he selects three or five of the cowries highest up in tho heap and places them in a line on the right-hand side. These represent Ganapati (the Belly God, the remover of difficulties), the sun, the planet Jupiter, Sarasvati (the Goddess of speech), and his own Guru or preceptor. To all of those the astrologor gives due obeisance, touching his ears and the ground three times with both hands. The cowries are next arranged in the compartments of tho diagram and are moved about from compartment to compartment by the astrologer, who quotes meanwhile tho authority on which ho makes such moves. Finally he explains the result, and ends with again worshipping the deified cowries who were witnessing the operation as spectators.”

Malabar Manual, Page 142 https://archive.org/details/MalabarLogan/page/n154
Malabar Manual (1887)

Seneca the Younger photo