Articles

Divination

One of the practices of witches is that of divination. Divination is the use of tools such as tarot, runes, pendulums, I Ching, or tea leaves to facilitate clairvoyance. We use these tolls to trigger our intuition so that we may become aware through psychic means of things we would not normally know or notice.

The tools we use allow us to occupy our conscious while accessing our sub-conscious. Here, we can find answers, ideas, clues that allow us to intuitively find the information we seek.

When we use tarot cards or runes for this purpose, we are guided by our subconscious in several ways. First we shuffle a deck or select a rune. This process is not as random as it seems.

Have you ever seen the movie Rainman. In it Dustin Hoffman's character is autistic and he is able to count cards, even several decks. Because he can keep track of the cards in a way most ofus can not, he can tell you what card will turn up next. Imagine this ability magnified. A deck that you use more often will have even greater meaning.

There are small imperfections in the cards. Some may not be perfectly sqared off. Some may be longer or wider. There may be small imperfections in the surface of the card. You can't see these things, but you feel them and your sub-conscious recognizes them.

With runes, these imperfections are more noticable, especially if they are hand-made. You can see the difference in the shapes of the stones, the thicknesses, but hopefully these differences are not so great that you can pick out each individual rune blindly, but that your sub-conscious can.

The other great trick to divination is interpretation. You draw a card or rune that represents change. What does that mean to you? A new job? Time to break up with your girlfriend or boyfriend? Does it mean you will find the house you are llooking for? What comes to mind for you?

The next thing to consider for divination is the idea of a self-fufilling prophecy. If you get a good reading, but do nothing to facillitate its actualization, does it still happen? Maybe. I read the other day that magick is like the Christian idea of prayer in that, "God(dess) helps those who helps themselves." On the same token, suppose you get a bad reading and you do everything you can tostop it, will it still happen. That depends. Wiccans do not believe in the idea of predestination, but somethings may be outside of our realm of influence, under the will of another or too late to change. If you see a train coming to hit you 1/2 a mile before it does, it is one thing. To only see it 1/2 a second before it does, is another.

Divination is not infallible, but it is a wonderful tool in magickal workings. It can be a guide for life, but it can not replace actions and choices.