Title says it all Since I'm new to divination I only just started with Tarot cards. I like them, although I don't really see them as fortune tellers but more of a way to get in touch with your subconscious. What I mean is.. when I draw cards they are pretty random to me, but I let myself explain their meaning, it's like free-association. Hm, maybe not the best explaination, anyone know what I mean? So, for me they're more psychological than occult I guess.. although it has a certain mystical vibe to it Although I had a strange experience with the cards once.. ah well I also bought a pendulum a while ago, nice little thing.. but I'm pretty sceptical about it.. I have to get used to it I guess.
i use pendulum, coins, tarot, runes, and a couple of stone divintations of my own devising. i want to learn divination with dice, playing cards, & palm-reading.
Have you been using them for very long? 'cause I kinda get the impression that it takes a pretty long time to really get to know one method of divination thoroughly.. it may seem cool to do all different kinds of stuff, but I'm wondering if that doesn't effect the quality or the reading (that's why I'm sticking to only Tarot and a bit of pendulum for now, although other methods interest me as well).. you know what I'm saying? I'm really impressed if you manage to use all the methods you mentioned and have a good knowledge and deep understanding of all of them, but forgive me if I'm a litttle bit sceptical Feel free to prove me wrong by the way, you got me very curious now
i've been practicing witchcraft since you were about 10. i appreciate your concern, but forgive me if i'm a bit skeptical. i started out with runes and pendulum, and began the early work on devising one of the stone divinations after mastering the pendulum and growing restless with the runes. i've been reading tarot for about 10 years; i read professionally about 7 years ago, until i had my first child. for a time i used some of the new-age divination decks similar to tarot but not tarot, but they didn't really hold my interest so i ended up selling them second-hand. i have several tarot decks and tend to prefer the traditional symbolism, my favorite still being my very first deck, the hanson-roberts, which is the deck i used to use in the shop. i started work designing my own deck, but that is an enormous undertaking of illustration, and with 2 kids i just don't have time to finish it. i stopped card-reading altogether about a year ago when i went through some rough times. recently i aquired a set of runes in a barter, and am working on picking up where i left off with them years ago when i discovered tarot. the second stone divination i devised about a year ago; that is still developing. i forgot to mention, i also skry, with crystal ball, fire or dark water, but not very often as it is mentally exhausting and i hate the headaches it leaves me with (prone to migraines.) i've done some dream divination, but find that for me, dreamwork is better suited to other things. playing card divination works similar to the tarot, for me it is just a matter of becoming comfortable with the number/suit symbolism, rather than relying on the pictorial symbolism of the tarot. playing cards actually derrive from the minor arcana of the tarot; it's actually my hope that learning to read playing cards will improve my skills as a tarot reader. divination with dice is another numeric divination; there are several variations of it, and in my case it's a matter of finding a comfortable system. i tried domino divination a while ago, and found it didn't really click with me - plus my then-toddler boy got into my dominoes & scattered them hither & yon. domino divination works in a similar manner to most of the dice divination systems. of course as a witch i also divine through observance of natural omens - changes in weather, wind, and ice or snow, casting earth, omens relating to herbs & wild plants...mostly an accumulation of folklore over the years, combined with intuitive awareness. the second stone divination grew out of these practices. of course anyone who has ever flipped a quarter to make a decision has used coin divination, although there again are several methods for divining with coins, from the simple "call it, heads or tails" to the i ching. i usually use a silver coin, in conjunction with other divinatory methods, to clarify the readings when there are two choices or interpretations to follow. edited to add: if you search for an old post in random thoughts titled "movement", and some of my long, older posts in 7river's love & friendship forum, you can read some of my recent musings on various major arcana cards, as they currently apply to my life.
wow Glad I was sceptical or else I wouldn't have known this Forgive me, but on other forums I sometimes encounter 16 y/o's who think they are these enormously powerfull witches and who brag about it continously.. okay, well.. maybe it's not that bad.. I'll stop being cynical now That's pretty awesome that you had a change to start so young. What religion were your parents? I was raised Catholic and my mom pretty much fears the 'occult', although lighting candles for a mother-mary statue doesn't seem to be occult to her.. or the buring of incence in church or the blessing with holy water.. or.. ah well.. you get the point It's funny that you mention dream explanation as a divination, because I always pay attention to my dreams, which are usually very vivid. Didn't really think of it as divination.. See ya 'round!
Mostly I use Tarot. After going through decks of this and that I put the energy forth to get *my* deck and it came to me. Also I have been getting into using dreams in Divination. Before bed I will use oils of mugwort, lavender, jasmine, sandalwood, and bergamot. This helps with prophetic dreams. Sometimes the dreams are crazy, I can't make sense of them, while other times they come in loud and clear. Sometimes I don't want to know whats going to happen, much prefer the surprize. Divination can be pretty complicated and not always as you see it in your mind.
wow Glad I was sceptical or else I wouldn't have known this Forgive me, but on other forums I sometimes encounter 16 y/o's who think they are these enormously powerfull witches and who brag about it continously.. okay, well.. maybe it's not that bad.. I'll stop being cynical now hey, doesn't starhawk say skeptics sometimes make the best magicians? That's pretty awesome that you had a change to start so young. What religion were your parents? i've been practicing since you were 10 (saw your age under your avatar), so i would have been about 19. i've been doing the witch thing for 13 years. forgive me if i came across as puffed-up & rude - very often those same underage "great and powerful witches" that are the casue of your own skepticism for some reason feel the need to try "educate" me on my own craft, and i have to go all granny weatherwax on them.:& my parents - especially my dad, are fundamentalist christians. my dad used to be quite violent about it, but he's had prozac since. prozac is almost as good as jesus, i guess... It's funny that you mention dream explanation as a divination, because I always pay attention to my dreams, which are usually very vivid. Didn't really think of it as divination.. dreamwork is one of the oldest forms of divination. i find it's better for personal development work, myself though.
Oops, misread Yeah, I can imagine.. they're even annoying to me and I don't even know anything! Ah well.. not very much at least Sorry to hear about that, hopefully things are better now. That to me is still a dilemma.. to figure out when something is just a message from the subconcious and when it's a message from something 'higher' (for all methods of divination really, not only dreams..)
I made my own runes too! Very cool... I've just started using them.... I also have a scrying crytal and tarot... I use the Tarot the most though.
Here's a couple of my favorites: http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/BA/LAO.html http://sannion.bravepages.com/Homer_Oracle.html The first one has always been rather articulate and succint for me personally. ~Scrap
