I found actual directions on how to read the alethiometer on one of the "His Dark Material" websites. Its all a little hard for me to grasp because after all, it doesn't really exist, and I have a hard time wrapping my head around trying to understand how something imaginary works....But I'm trying. So basically, any question can be found an answer which will be given by the close reading of three symbols. They gave the example of "Should I marry now, or wait for a year? would be expressed by means of the bird (third meaning, marriage, because birds mate for life), the hourglass (tenth meaning, a year), and the horse (fifth meaning, constancy)." The person asking the question will move the pointers until it points to a symbol. Then I start to lose grasp of using the tool because it is a mental process to complete the use of the tool. The directions described say that the "inquirer must endeavor to hold in his or her
mind a clear picture of where each of the meanings comes in its range. Evoking the image of ladders with rungs extending downward is sometimes advised by skilled practitioners of alethiometry. Picture three ladders side by side, each rung being one meaning in the range, and mark distinctly the rungs corresponding to the meanings you intend - for example, by imagining a bright light shining on them, or ribbons tied around them, or by covering them in gold leaf." So...once you have this class system of questions and answers plotted out, the questioner must hold this image in their head while moving the pointers into their position (I'm not sure what position that is however.) As soon as the question is asked the "needle" will navigate around the dial while the questioner watches intently :) They need to be
watching each and every stop the pointer makes on each symbol, and also how many times it stops on specific ones. This is because "the number of times corresponds to the place of the intended meaning in the symbol's range. For example, the question above might receive an answer in which the needle stopped at chameleon three times, walled garden seven times, baby five times, madonna nine times, sword six times, bull two times, ant ten times, and bird three times. By noting the pauses carefully and consulting the books of readings, the inquirer would discover the following meanings: "wait", "allow", "fail", "love", "not", "strong", "sustain", and "marriage." After the reader carefully notes all the symbols, then they must consult the book for the meanings and THEN figure out how to put together all of the random words to make an answer to the question asked. This tool reaches the answer immediately and also mostly only answers the questions asked one time. I don't think that I would be a good user of this tool, I'm not quick enough and I'm sure my memory would betray me with all of the stops the hand would make on multiple symbols, I would lose track, and my answer would not be what was meant to be. The web pages sums it up nicely, saying that the "alethiometer supplies the semantic content of a message, and the mind of the inquirer supplies the grammatical connections between the individual elements." You cant have one of those talents and not the other, they go hand in hand for success in using this tool. While thinking about the Alethiometer being real, I decided that I didn't like the idea of having something that answered questions, like an all knowing higher being...I think we're all better off being naive and I actually enjoy not knowing what's going to happen next. Besides, we can always just use the magic eight ball and Taylor's sheep bones for the really tough, life changing questions:)
mind a clear picture of where each of the meanings comes in its range. Evoking the image of ladders with rungs extending downward is sometimes advised by skilled practitioners of alethiometry. Picture three ladders side by side, each rung being one meaning in the range, and mark distinctly the rungs corresponding to the meanings you intend - for example, by imagining a bright light shining on them, or ribbons tied around them, or by covering them in gold leaf." So...once you have this class system of questions and answers plotted out, the questioner must hold this image in their head while moving the pointers into their position (I'm not sure what position that is however.) As soon as the question is asked the "needle" will navigate around the dial while the questioner watches intently :) They need to be 
watching each and every stop the pointer makes on each symbol, and also how many times it stops on specific ones. This is because "the number of times corresponds to the place of the intended meaning in the symbol's range. For example, the question above might receive an answer in which the needle stopped at chameleon three times, walled garden seven times, baby five times, madonna nine times, sword six times, bull two times, ant ten times, and bird three times. By noting the pauses carefully and consulting the books of readings, the inquirer would discover the following meanings: "wait", "allow", "fail", "love", "not", "strong", "sustain", and "marriage." After the reader carefully notes all the symbols, then they must consult the book for the meanings and THEN figure out how to put together all of the random words to make an answer to the question asked. This tool reaches the answer immediately and also mostly only answers the questions asked one time. I don't think that I would be a good user of this tool, I'm not quick enough and I'm sure my memory would betray me with all of the stops the hand would make on multiple symbols, I would lose track, and my answer would not be what was meant to be. The web pages sums it up nicely, saying that the "alethiometer supplies the semantic content of a message, and the mind of the inquirer supplies the grammatical connections between the individual elements." You cant have one of those talents and not the other, they go hand in hand for success in using this tool. While thinking about the Alethiometer being real, I decided that I didn't like the idea of having something that answered questions, like an all knowing higher being...I think we're all better off being naive and I actually enjoy not knowing what's going to happen next. Besides, we can always just use the magic eight ball and Taylor's sheep bones for the really tough, life changing questions:)
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