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Lesson 7: Divination
Divination is the practice of gaining information about something you would otherwise not have direct knowledge about. It is consulting with the Divine. In order to practice divination effectively, you must be able to enter altered states of awareness.
Meditation will introduce you to this naturally. We all shift modes of awareness every day, when we fall asleep, when we wake up, when you find yourself daydreaming, all of these are shifts in conscious awareness.
The basic states: Normally your brain waves are in the range known as Beta. As your brain waves slow down in their cycles per second, you will enter into Alpha, then Theta, and finally Delta.
In beta, you function as normal. You are probably in Beta right now.
In alpha you will begin to do magickal work. I distinguish between light alpha and deep alpha. In light alpha you can raise energy and work magick. I works great for energy healing. Some divination takes place here, mostly from sortilege, such as runes or cards.
In deep alpha you begin to lose some conscious control. This is where you have visions and do soothsaying. Some magick can be performed here.
In deep theta your body seems to sleep, and you can travel, astrally or shamanicly. Some of what is said about deep alpha applies to light theta.
In delta, you are almost or totally unconscious. Sometimes deep theta work will spill over into light delta. I do not know of any magickal function of deep delta, other than rest for the body and mind.
Experience alone will tell you what state you are in, unless you invest in an EEG machine.
The rainbow trance: Everyone does this a little different, so I will give you my versions, culled from years of experience in seidr work and group meditation.
Begin by relaxing, get into your meditative position. Close your eyes and breath deeply. Keep your spine straight. Let your mind clear, thoughts leaving like clouds on the wind, simply floating away. Take a deep breath and relax again. Inhale and visualize a large number in the colour stated, in the order given.
Let the clarity transform into a RED 7. Let red seven fill your visual perception.
Then, let the red seven transform into an ORANGE 6. Let the orange six fill your visual perception.
Then, let the orange six transform into YELLOW 5. Let the yellow five fill your visual perception.
Then, let the orange six transform into GREEN 4. Let the green four fill your visual perception.
Then, let the green four transform into BLUE 3. Let the blue three fill your visual perception.
Then, let the blue three transform into INDIGO 2. Let the indigo two fill your visual perception.
Then, let the indigo two transform into VIOLET 1. Let the violet one fill your visual perception.
Then, let the violet one transform into WHITE 0. Let the white zero fill your visual perception.
Then, let the white zero surround you like a protective egg.
Take a deep breath, and know you are in the alpha state.
Rainbow Bridge: This is my other version of the rainbow trance, it is based loosely on the concept of the Bi-frost bridge from the Norse mythologies. I use it mainly with my seidr work. Follow the same procedure for relaxation, and enter your meditative posture. Visualize a place, generally on a hill. The exact location does not matter, and is a matter of preference. For some a hill works, for others a wooded forest. Just visualize someplace pleasant, and do so intensely.
When you are ready, approach the Rainbow Bridge. See it, feel it there before you. There may be a guardian there you must address. For me, I address and ask permission from Heimdall, to walk upon the bridge.
When you have permission, if needed, proceed on the bridge by visualizing your self stepping onto the bridge, and being surrounded by each colour in turn. It may help to talk out loud to yourself during this process. Move through the colours one by one, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, and white. When you step out of the brilliant white light, you will be in meditation. You may wish to go to a garden inside of your self, an astral power spot, or on of the mythological worlds in your religion. The rainbow bridge works well for this. If you are not going anywhere, then just see yourself surrounded in the white light, as with the first method.
For some the numbers are enough, for others the colours are what do it. The combination is very powerful.
The teachings instruct us to repeat each number or colour to ourselves twenty-one times. You can do this by using your fingers to count by taping each finger on your leg for each time you count, so that moving from your right hand to your left hand, and back from your left hand to your right will give you twenty times, so long as you have ten fingers. This really is only necessary the first time you enter trance. I have never done it the long way, as I had been practicing meditation for several years when I received the Orders teachings.
Divination: I will leave it to the student to decide how they believe divination works. Some of the theories are that we are communicating with Divine beings, that all things are connected and there for what is known as “synchronicity” determines the outcome of divination, that spirits of various types control it and that we are communicating with our subconscious, deep or higher minds.
They main type of divination dealt with here is based in sortilege, the random arraignment of sorted objects. Rune stones, tarot cards, dominos and all such methods rely on the interpretation of the randomized arraignment of these tools.
Other forms of divination include interpreting signs, dreams or the movement of predictable things, as in astrology.
Scrying is the art of looking into a darkened object, sometimes a crystal ball, though I use a small cauldron filled with herbal tea, to “see” or have a vision of some event, or symbols representing the answer.
There are many types of divination, often the boundaries of a type overlap into others.
There are a few things that they have in common.
You have to be in an altered state to interpret the meanings. In order for the wisdom to come through, you must be receptive to it.
They have to have defined meanings. If you do not know what the symbols mean, or cannot find out, then the divination will be meaningless. A balanced mix of intuition and intelligence gives the best results.
You have to pose a clearly formed question. Vague questions yield vague answers. Yes/No questions lend themselves to some types of divination such as the pendulum best, where you can get a clear Yes/No answer. Open ended questions work best with divination systems with a wide variety of combinations, such as the tarot or runes.
I recommend that you become proficient with one or two types of divination before moving on to others. The skill you gain with one will transfer over to others. Simply half learning a dozen methods will yield superficial answers. It really is best to learn one or two well, at first.
In order for you interpretation of a divination to be accurate, you must let yourself be emotionally removed from the situation. Nothing will blind you to the truth better than uncontrolled emotion. A clear heart is as important as a clear mind.
Because of this, it is usually better for beginners to divine on topics to which they have no emotional investment. As you learn to trust your ability to divine, then you can begin to divine on topics that involve your friends, family and eventually yourself. You should also decide if you feel it is ok to perform divinations about other people without their permission. Some psychics feel this is an invasion of privacy. I am inclined to agree.
One last point, the divination you perform will only yield what you put in. Your attitude matters most of all. You must be a sincere seeker of truth, open to the wisdom offered to receive it. If you treat it as a game it will be a game, if you treat it as a joke it will be a joke. A perspective of humility, sincerity and reverence will yield honest and truthful answers, even to hard questions. Doubt will ruin your ability to understand divinatory answers quicker than anything, so let doubt go before you begin.
I would also recommend keeping a dream book, as divination will sometimes come from dreams.
Inspiration is the foundation of interpretation divination. You must be relaxed and open minded. Often just taking sometime to relax and step away from a situation will yield the best answer with no extra work on your part. For this to happen, you must be willing to listen to your intuition. This is how the Divine talks directly to you.
Divinatory tools: I am not going to attempt to cover every tool used in divination, that would take several large books to even start. I will simply cover some of the more common ones. I am leaving it up to the student to research and practice with the ones that feel right. Experience is the only way to learn to divine.
Tarot: The tarot are covered in detail in lesson 15. You must chose a deck that feels right to you. You can also use tarot in meditation by traveling mentally into the picture on the card. You can start by using the rainbow bridge given above.
Runes: The runes are a category of Germanic based letter, each with huge amounts of lore. They are my specialty. They work for magick, divination, healing, personal development and so much more. There is a lot of information on the net and in books about them.
Pendulum: The pendulum should be cleansed and blessed first. A pendulum cam be made of anything, a ring on a string, a needle on a thread, or a stone on a cord or chain. Hold the string loosely in your hand. Rest your elbow on a flat surface. If you are using a mat or board suspend the pendulum above the center. Clear your mind and pose your question. You will have to experiment as to what swings mean what for you. There are many mats and boards you can make. The easiest is a yes on top and on bottom, no on the left and right. Circles mean maybe, or cannot answer. There are many variations on this basic system.
Radiesthesia: Is using a pendulum to detect illness in the body. There are several ways to do this. You can simply allow the pendulum to swing over the patients body, and watch for areas of increased or decreased activity. You can also hold it over each of the patients main chakras. I have seen instances where people have even used the pendulums to balance the chakras. Usually a quartz or other stone is used for the pendulum. Of course the stone must be charged for healing before this can work.
The pendulum can also be used to detect psychic energy by holding it over an object. You can hold your pendulum over the palm of your hand. Try this before and after doing the activation of the head and hand centers given in lesson 6.
Automatic writing: This is probably the easiest form of divination to learn. You can use it to communicate with spirits as well. To do it you need to spend some time practicing first. Have a good pen and some clean paper ready on a flat surface that you can comfortably write at. You may want to light a candle and some incense and do your power chants. Perform the cross of power and protection given in lesson 1. Begin by entering a meditative state. Relax as fully as you can. I recommend sitting up while doing this, so you do not fall asleep. When you are ready, take the pen in your hand and place it on the paper. Let your mind be clear. Ask a simple question. Let the writing happen on it’s own.
For some automatic writing works great. Personally, I don’t do it often because I can hear what is going to be written by clairaudience, before it is written. The only danger with automatic writing is if you begin to allow lower spirits to write through you. I would recommend only working with your own Higher or Deep mind, or your guardian angel/spirit guide/whatever you want to call them before trying to contact other spirits. Deities can also be contacted this way.
Automatic writing is not limited to mere pen and paper. Many psychics use computers for automatic typing.
Sand/Salt divination: This is a simple form of divination in which sand, salt or any fine but grainy substance is allowed to slowly pour out of your closed hand. The speed at which the sand or salt leaves your hand is a matter of personal preference, so try several ways of casting the sand/salt. Most people just take up a hand full of sand and slowly let it trickle from their loosely closed hand on to a flat, clean, blank surface, You then gaze at the sand looking for patterns. I would recommend entering the rainbow trance before you cast the sand. I believe in the Crone’s Book of Magical Words by Valerie Worth, there is more information on sand divination. The symbols and chant given by her are included in the Orders teachings.
Runes: In the teachings a section from P.M.H. Atwater’s book The Goddess Runes is also reproduced. This was one of the first books on runes I read back in the late ‘90’s. The lessons in that book continue to influence the way I cast and read runes. I do not use the same symbols that she did in her book, but I do highly recommend it.
There is enough information about the runes on the net that I feel that putting the basics here would be very redundant.
I will however voice my opinion on a few things beyond the basics. I do not agree with Ralph Blum’s The Healing Runes on several points. It was the first book on runes I read, and the more I have learned, the more I disagree with his method. I am not saying that it doesn’t work, because it does. Most of the information you find on the basics of the runes is based on his work. I am a bit more of a traditionalist when it comes to the runes, however. I have not used a “blank” rune for many years. I realized how silly the idea was a long time ago. I hand made the runes I currently use out of wood, and believe this to be the best way. I did not include the “blank” rune because the runes represent a complete cosmology. Nothing is beyond their symbolism. The blank rune limit’s the power of the runes, and hinders their ability to represent the universe. When I was using a set with a blank rune, I would pick it out and use it as a querent stone. I would cast the other runes around it, and let it represent the questioner. It was also explained to me that there are several orders that the runes can be placed in. The order that he uses in the book is a personal order, specific to him. In order to effectively learn the runes you must know the cosmic order first. This is the order typically given in rune books written by people who really know the runes, like Edred Thorsson, Freya Aswynn or Diana Paxson. Once understood, you can move on to discovering your personal order, which shows how the patterns of your life unfold.
If one rune in a set is damaged or lost, the whole set becomes unusable. I learned this by experience, and was told that the broken rune could not be replaced. The whole set had to be destroyed and buried. Because of this, I no longer use clay runes.
The only way to learn the runes is from the runes them selves! A book or teacher can get you started, but you must develop a relationship with them. After years of working with them I was finally directed to receive my runic initiation. During the night I spent tied to a tree, as each rune was presented to me, it opened up a whole new world within me. I was given a great gift for my hard work and studies. They gave me a truly life changing experience, and have been the best of friends and the best of council in times of need.
I never experienced power or wisdom form other forms of divination like I have from the runes.
The rune sticks of the Druid Priests: I have no idea where this came from. It holds similarities to geomancy as taught by the Golden Dawn. The system is complicated to use, but effective. I have only used it on occasion because it takes so long to perform one reading. According to the Order this divination system began in the Himalayas and was spread by the Celtic peoples, though I have never found any reference to it anywhere else. They have no resemblance to the Ogham. If you would like to learn more about them, contact me and I will work on getting them up.
End Lesson #7