Divination

Question

Let's talk about Divination!

How often do you perform divination?

What tools and techniques do you prefer?

What is a method you didn't expect to be effective that actually worked?

What is your best advice for obtaining a clear, concise, and relevant reading?

What would you recommend to a beginner? To an advanced practicioner?

What resources have you found invaluable in your experience?

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Answer

Personally, I've come to prefer the I Ching to Tarot for in-depth questions, it's easy to understand (or rather, I find Tarot much more difficult to interpret).

Paradoxically, I prefer the Wilhelm-Baynes translation to all of the modern translations I have tried - it requires an amount of background knowledge about Confucianism and Daoism to grok what it's getting at, but something always seems to be lost in "plain modern english" type paraphrasings. If anyone knows a good one I'm all ears.

To cast my hexagrams, I use a four-coin method of my own devising which is based upon an alternate three-coin method detailed in The I Ching Handbook by Edward Hacker (my indispensable resource). This alternate method produces identical odds for each type of line as the traditional Yarrow-stalk method. It works like this:

- Get four coins. At least one should be distinct from all the others. I use three US eagleback quarters and a Sacajawea dollar from 2000 (which also has an eagle on the back).

- For our purposes here, I will call the distinct coin the "big coin" and the others the "small coins"

- Throw all of the coins together.

- Check the big coin. If it is heads, your line will be Yang. If it is tails, your line will be Yin.

- Check the small coins.

-- If the big coin is heads, and ONLY two of three small coins are also heads, the line is moving yang, value 9. Otherwise the line is static yang, value 7.

-- If the big coin is tails, and ALL of the small coins are tails, the line is moving yin, value 6. Otherwise the line is static yin, value 8.

For more on-the-fly type stuff, or when I need SPECIFICS RIGHT DAMN NOW, I've come to adore my pendulum. Over the years I have asked it many questions which later had definite answers, and to the best of my knowledge it has not been wrong one single time. It's a pocket sized oracle that produces instant yes/no answers, can be used to locate objects via dowsing, and in tandem with a semicircle of letters can serve identically to the ever-popular Ouija board. It's dead simple, infinitely applicable, and cheap to assemble or purchase, perfect for the absolute beginner.

Overall I've found the thing that helps most regardless of the tool or technique is *asking the right question* - what you get out will generally be as specific as what you put in. And the thing that helps the second most is don't worry about doing it "the right way", trust your intuition to guide you, and your oracles to speak true.

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Answer

The coin divination is interesting, reminds me a lot of divination using bones.

I personally focus my pagan practices around folk magic from places I have ancestral connection to, which for me would be from specific regions of Italy, as well as Celtic and Hellenistic spiritual practice. So I've leaned towards cards (tarot and oracle) for my divination, but I have been wanting to learn how to do Ogham Divination (essentially runes) and will be doing more research into those practices.

When it comes to cards, I tend to do short oracle readings because I tend to overthink and ruminate a lot and doing too much tarot divination does more harm than good at a certain point for me haha. Which is also why I tend to only use divination when I feel called to it by spirit or Deities. Most recently have only really been answering it to Hekate, which is who I have a dedicated altar to and she is a central Goddess to my practice.

My advice for anyone who would be considered a beginner to divination, research is the most important thing you need to do. You should not try to do it without extensive knowledge and understanding. I would also argue you shouldn't attempt to do it without first practicing mediation, because in my opinion it's essential for divination in order to ensure you are in a state where you are able to receive the messages without your brain twisting it with your own bias. You must be in tune with your intuition. If you feel you question it too often or don't have a good connection with spirit in that way I advise to start at the root of your spiritual practice. Divination is not a practice for those who are just beginning on their spiritual journey, in the same way you shouldn't try to practice spell work with deities / other entity invocations.

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Divination

Posted by Nilla

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