How To Play Fortune Teller
Learn your fate with this whimsical paper tool. Pick your way through the flaps to find out what the Fortune Teller has in store for you.
by Zachary Collinger
requires
At least 2 people
Pen and paper
game play
Fold your own Fortune Teller using the illustration provided. Remember, after Step 8 you will need to push your index fingers and thumbs into the petals to create the final shape in Step 9.
Once you have your folded Fortune Teller, adorn it with colors and numbers. On each of the outer four petal-shape flaps, write a color — any color will do. Inside those flaps you'll have four more flaps each split down the middle for a total of eight. On each of those flaps, write a number 0 through 10, and under each of those numbers — a fortune. Fortunes are entirely up to the creator; generally it's best to keep them gender-neutral but written in declarative statements about a person's future — "you will.…" Things like, "you'll meet the person of your dreams tomorrow," or "you will be wildly successful in business," but keep in mind not all fortunes need to be positive. Once there are eight different fortunes written under each of the numbered flaps, the game can begin.
Begin with the thumb and index fingers of each hand in the four pockets of the Fortune Teller. Have the person whose fortune is being read pick one of the colors on the top four flaps. If the color is Blue, spell out the letters of blue while alternating a pinching and pulling motion with the Teller. Each pinch will expose four of the numbers on the inner flaps, and each pull will expose the other four numbers. After spelling out B-L-U-E, the Teller will be showing one of the sets of four numbers. The other player will then pick one of those numbers, and the responding action is the alternating pinch and pull from the first round, except it continues with a counting of the number instead of the spelling of the color. Once the number has been counted, four numbers will be exposed. After one is picked, the fortune under that number is read. Will it come true?
objective
Get a sense of the future with this pocket-size game.
of eastern origins
Because it is a piece of movable paper art as well as a game, the Fortune Teller is considered origami, the ancient Japanese art of paper folding. Ever since Buddhist monks from China carried paper to Japan in the sixth century, the tradition of origami has spread worldwide and influenced many other forms of paper-folding tradition, including German and Spanish practices.
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