While a writeup already exists covering forms of divination named "gyromancy" which use the human body's own movement as an indicator of divinatory outcomes, there have also emerged new forms of divination, also named "gyromancy," since the rise of the fidget spinner in 2017.
At the time of this writeup, one may easily find online for purchase a disc-shaped fidget spinner with any number of classical divination systems printed or engraved upon it, with an indicator at the center pivot to point to a selection. There are fidget spinners using symbols from the Tarot, I Ching, and Elder Futhark runes, as well as spinners which serve as a set of seven polyhedral dice for tabletop roleplay. Some spinners, instead of using a central pivot, use a casino-style roulette wheel and a bead or ball bearing to select one position on the wheel.
The arrow spinner and Wheel of Fortune style upright wheel used in some board games and lottery competitions can also be considered gyromancy, if the possible outcomes are treated as having predictive power or an advice-giving utility for the user.
A particularly compact and innovative variant of the spinner style gyromantic device is the spinner coin. The decorative challenge coin manufacturers Karmacide Coins and Goliath Coins (both found through Etsy storefronts online) both produce divination coins which are able to spin like a child's spinning top, through the use of a convex bump on either side. Spinner coins have been designed for tabletop dice values, letters of the alphabet, Tarot, I Ching, Elder Futhark, angel numbers and other numerology, and nuanced "yes / no" selection in the style of a Magic 8 Ball. The two chief advantages of spinner coins over other types of spinners are their comparative silence when used (as the moving components of fidget spinners create a whirring sound) and their lack of moving components (ensuring no need to oil or otherwise maintain sensitive bearings). The chief disadvantages are that spinner coins tend to cost more than fidget spinners, being made in small batches and not mass-produced, and for the same reason they can be sold out, having been created in limited product runs.
Tarot, I Ching, runes, and polyhedral dice have also been printed or engraved into spinner rings. While a spinner ring is wearable and necessarily compact, I cannot recommend one as a random number generator or divinatory tool, for the simple reason that these rings typically do a very poor job of shielding their moving components from dust or water incursion. This means that frequent cleaning and lubrication are needed to keep them in working order, and some of the more poorly-finished spinner rings tend to spin well only a handful of times before their own coarse internal texture causes them to turn slowly and unevenly.
The chief advantages of gyromantic devices over dice and cards are their greater durability than both (typically being metal rather than paper, plastic, bone, glass, or semiprecious stone), their much-reduced risk of being lost during use (for many dice have a notorious yearning for the void, and fly off the table at the first bounce of a roll), their ease of use in a confined space (not requiring enough room to spread out cards or to tumble the dice properly), and their charm as a straightforward fidget toy when one is bored. The matter of escapist dice and limited space can be resolved through the use of a dice tower, however, which clever invention has been around since at least the time of the Roman invasion of Britain. In practice, the "real" reason to obtain a gyromantic device will be, for most users, a simple fascination with spinny toys, or a wish to collect dice in many forms.
Iron Noder 2024, 03/30