DIVINATION If you have ever flipped a coin and said,"OK Lord, heads I go left, tails I go right." You've practiced divination. How about asking, "OK Lord, if life goes continues as it is, what can I expect for my family in the next month?" This is the divination that I use and instead of a coin I use Tarot cards. As with everything magickal. I've cleans, blessed and charged those cards for a specific purpose. For the Divine to use to talk to me. Here's how I do it. I cast a simple circle. Using my finger for a wand, I trace a circle around myself and the area I'll be laying out my cards and say, "A circle of protection I cast about me. Archangels I ask to defend it". First I layout my Tarot cloth. This is what I put the cards on. This has been cleans, blessed and charged to cleans the area where it lays and protect the cards. Then I say my divination prayer while holding the cards in my hand. "Oh Most Holy One, use these cards to tell me that which I need to know for the month ahead and protect this reading from spirits that your seek to mislead me." I use the Hansen Roberts deck and the Celtic Cross Layout. I take out my notebook and write down today's date and then my question. "If life continues as it is, what can I expect for my family in the next month?" On my paper under my question I number it 1-6 and then in the center 7-10. Then I skip a line and number the paper 1-10 one number per line. As I shuffle the cards I chant, "what will happen in the month to come". When the cards start falling out of my hand. I'll shuffle them three more times in a row without losing a card and then I split the deck into three piles and choose the center pile. This is my ritual. Develop a ritual, write it down and follow it each time you do a tarot reading. I then layout the Celtic Cross. On my paper I write down what card is on which number. Then I do the reading. I usually use the book the cards came with. After you've done this for a while you won't need the book as much. The book gives you many meanings, pick the one you feel applies to the question. I don't read reverse cards. I'll flip them all right side up. I do this because I feel it gets too confusing and there are enough cards in the deck to give you the meaning of a reverse one. One the paper where each number has a line, write a one line sentence of what the card means to you. Read the cards in the order it was laid out. When you have done this to all the cards then take the rest of the paper to summaries what you feel the reading is telling you. On the back of the paper I write what actually happened for that month. I had the cards tell me something I didn't like, so I sat there and though of three things I could do that might change this reading. After I wrote those three things down I asked the cards. "If I do these three things what will be the outcome for my family" Then I did a clarification 5 card reading. 1. past,2.challenge, 3.action, 4.obstacle, 5.outcome. If it comes out better then it started then I'll follow through on those three things. Once I did a reading that was bad, the clarification was still bad, but better, so I followed through on my three things and prepared for the worst. Then I did another full reading and it was much better. This is how I use the Tarot. I do more then a once a month reading and those are usually for me and the individuals of my family. Each member of my family has a card that represents them. This card first showed up in the family reading. When I read the meaning of the card I know who it was talking about. You can usually just read the meaning of the card and know who its talking about. Other time you have to wonder who its talking about. I had the Knight of Swords come up way too often and a card had not been chosen for my husband yet. I didn't think it fit my husband, but after a while I started seeing some of those qualities in him. The card doesn't have to fit to a tee, but it can also reveal aspects of a persons personality that you didn't see before. Here are the cards for my family. once you read the meanings, you're going to feel that you know us pretty well and in a way you'll be right. My card is the Queen of Swords, My husband is the Knight of Swords, my son is the Page of Cups and my daughter is the Queen of Cups. This is the card I put in the first position when I'm doing a reading for that person. If the card comes up in another reading I know that person is involved in the question. It really does help me to menatlly and emotionally prepare for the month ahead. That is how I use divination and the Tarot.