“The abuse of divination has been responsible, more than any other cause, for the discredit into which the whole subject of Magick had fallen”.
Aleister Crowley, The Book of Thoth
As an occultist, BWC recommends learning at least two methods of divination. All methods will require time, effort, and patience to both learn and master.
Divination, is the practice of seeking knowledge of the future or the unknown by supernatural means. Divination comes from the Latin word divinatio which means the power of foreseeing. However, it is not an easy thing to characterize and has many definitions.
- Aleister Crowley reduced it to the use of two questions: “Of what are things composed?” and, “How shall we combine them to our greater advantage?“
- The Farrar’s conceived of divination as being “clairvoyance using tools” where it “is the art and science of being aware of facts, objects or situations by psychic means when they are not available to ordinary awareness“(2).
- Golden Dawn Magicians, the Ciceros, it is “the art of uncovering the divine meaning behind chance events“
- Starhawk – “all divinatory techniques work essentially to focus awareness and engage in the heightened intuition and perception that are possible in trance. Today these techniques are not only used for “fortune telling” but as methods of “spiritual and psychological counseling”.
If we were to draw these together we can understand that divination allows us to take an overview of a situation or a thing, to a degree that is not normally possible and, using this knowledge as a basis, it allows the diviner to see a future progression. This information is then offered to the seeker as analysis and advice.
How Divination Works
There are several common notions about how divination functions. In this section some of the better-known viewpoints are considered.
It can be seen that there are four possible foundations for how divination functions:
- An overview of the past and present may be used to predict the future.
- The future is already written and viewing it is possible.
- Knowledge of the future may be accomplished by viewing one or more of a limitless number of possibilities.
- Past data about combinations of objects may be used to extrapolate a likely course of events.
All but the second approach allow for free will; for proponents of this viewpoint the future is fixed and because of this would have to be completely knowable to those that can access it.
Precognition
There is another way that divination may be able to work and that is based on actually seeing the future. That this may be possible, is indicated by scientific research into precognition, which can be defined as seeing that an event is going to happen.
Around the world there are a number of researchers looking into the nature of consciousness. Dean Radin for example, of the Boundary Institute, Los Altos, California, has been monitoring the brainwaves of subjects. They are shown a series of random pictures, the majority of which are pleasant or neutral scenes which are occasionally interspersed with horrific or erotic photos. What the results consistently show, is that an individual’s brainwaves and sweat patterns change just before the horrific or erotic photos are shown. Somehow the brain knows something unusual is about to happen before it takes place(6).
This is but one of many experiments that lead to the conclusion that at some level all of us have precognition. It is important to note that these manifestations of precognition are below the threshold of consciousness. That is, the individual is not consciously aware that there have been changes in their physiology.
Despite this, the research does not rule out the possibility that it may be possible for individuals to consciously experience future events and recognizes, in fact, that there are numerous anecdotal reports in all cultures and throughout all times that precognition occurs.
However, there are two ways of regarding the future:
- to see that it has a fixed existence
- to see that are an infinite range of possible futures that may or may not take place.
Einsteinian Physics – Space-Time Continuum
There are a number of scientists who believe that the future already exists and that there is only one possible set of outcomes. Some seek to base these assertions on Einsteinian Physics (7). One of the conclusions that Einstein’s calculations lead to, is that all of our futures already exist, as do our pasts. Our consciousness merely floats along a line that is already drawn, experiencing events that have already happened as if for the first time. Everything is cut and dried and free will is an illusion, created by the limitations of our mind and the way it processes information.
This view is based on the logic of the Space-Time Continuum. Just as an object exists away from us, so does our future, and we merely step into it, despite all our ideas to the contrary that we have control over what we do. If this is true, if one actually has the right skills to access this information, then it would be possible to accurately tell someone their past and their future.
Quantum Theory
Another scientific view of the future is probabilistic, founded on the idea that there are a range of future outcomes (8). This is based on the so-called “Copenhagen Interpretation” of Quantum Theory.
According to this hypothesis, an unobserved quantum system remains in an uncertain state of many different possibilities. Observation causes “collapse” into a definite condition, which is chosen at random from among the possibilities provided. In effect, consciousness causes patterns to reduce from uncertain states into definite states. This has led some to conclude that there are an infinite variety of possible future outcomes depending on our choices.
[box] In this view of the future, free will exists and we choose which possible outcomes to create. Perhaps then, one may have genuine precognition of a possible future event, which may or may not take place, depending on choices made.[/box]Either of these views allows for the possibility of precognition and for divination; with regard to the first view, the future is fixed and knowable; with the second a range of possible futures can be viewed. It may be then that diviners who claim they are seeing the future really are able to utilize their methods to do just that. However, they are not compatible, one or the other must be wrong; either the future is fixed or either it is probabilistic.
Fixed Patterns and Combinations
Another way of explaining how divination works is that certain patterns and combinations of objects have been observed over time to indicate that there is the potential for certain events, or that such events are extremely likely. This argument is of particular importance to Astrology and Palmistry, although it can also be used to partly explain other forms of divination as well.
- In Astrology combinations of planets, stars and constellations are compared to previous patterns; judgments are then made as to their meaning.
- in Palmistry, the reader knows already that certain features generally mean certain things and indicate the likelihood of them happening.
With both these methods no reference is made to the Akashic records, and they also allow for free will as the combinations observed reveal only tendencies (some more likely than others) which may, or may not, come to pass.
Proponents of this style of divination talk of the similarity between its methods and those of science. Like weather forecasters and the financial industry, past trends and patterns are analyzed on which to base predictions of future events.
Some may object that divination based on these methods is a false art, saying that the fundamental difference between these two examples is that the quality of information upon which they base their predictions is more worthy, and furthermore that the success of their predictive technologies can be verified scientifically. Yet it is a common anecdote in the financial world that buying shares based on a blindfolded individual throwing a dart into a list of companies is just as successful over time as the biggest and brightest of investment companies buying shares based on their “scientific” predictions.
Divination Methods
Akashic Records
The akashic records are a universal filing system where every thought, emotion, action, and experience is recorded. The records are written on a substance called ‘akasha’ or soniferous ether. Akasha, combined with earth, water, air, and fire represent the five human senses: sight, smell, touch, hearing, and taste.
You can learn about everything that has ever happened in the history of the universe. You can hear any thought that has ever been conceived. You can feel any emotion that has ever been felt. Everything that has ever existed is at your finger tips.
Think of the akashic records as a super computer that has existed for millions of years, or since the creation of the universe. Everything that has ever occurred has been recorded. Every thought and emotion of every person in the universe is contained in the akashic records.
Astrology
(in which knowledge of the apparent relative positions of celestial bodies is used to interpret and organize information about personality, human affairs and other terrestrial matters – see the Astrology for more details).
Augury
– the interpretation of the will of the gods by studying the flight of the birds!! (Not my thing….but whatever)
Bibliomancy or Stichomancy
- the random picking of a page or passage from sacred or other books. (More used in Hoodoo practice)
Cartomancy
SEE TAROT
Chiromancy or Palmistry
(the art of characterization and fortune-telling through the study of the lines and bumps of the palm of the hand).
Chronomancy
(the divination of the best time to do something and the determination of lucky and unlucky days, especially popular in ancient China).
Cleromancy
(a form of divination using sortition, such as drawing of coloured pebbles from a bag, the casting of lots, or casting of bones, in which an outcome is determined by means that normally would be considered random, but that are believed to reveal the will of God or other supernatural entities).
Crystallomancy or Crystal-Gazing or Scrying or Gastromancy
(fortune-telling, prediction of future events or character analysis by means of gazing at a crystal ball, or any shiny object or convex mirror, to induce a trance or visionary experience in the medium).
Extispicy
(the practice of using animal entrails, especially the liver, intestines, lungs and other major organs, to predict future events, usually using a ritually pure animal slaughtered in a special ceremony, particularly common in ancient Mesopotamian, Hittite, Canaanite and Roman temples).
Feng Shui
(an ancient Chinese system of aesthetics believed to utilize the laws of both heaven and earth to help improve one’s life by receiving positive Qi, traditionally used in choosing a place to live, finding a burial site and agricultural planning, as well as the more modern practice of arranging objects such as furniture to help people achieve their goals).
Geomancy
(a method of divination that interprets markings on the ground, or how handfuls of soil, dirt or sand land when tossed).
Haruspicy or Ooscopy
“Haruspicy” is a method of divination that was practiced by the ancient Etruscans, who had an advanced civilization in Italy before the Roman Empire. In ancient times the haruspex (diviner) interpreted the divine will by inspecting the entrails of a sacrificial animal. Fortunately there is a form of haruspicy, called “ooscopy”, that is quite compatible with the modern world. Ooscopy substitutes an egg for the sacrificial animal and inspection of the opened egg for examination of the entrails. This works just as well as the ancient procedure, and perhaps better.
Hydromancy
(crystal gazing by means of water, including the interpretation of the colour, ebb and flow, or ripples produced by pebbles dropped in a pool).
I Ching
(a form of bibliomancy using the “I Ching” or “Book of Changes”, an ancient Chinese book structured as an 8×8 matrix of sixty-four hexagrams, and a highly complex system of interpretation rules to be applied to the text associated with the resulting random hexagram).
Necromancy
- (a form of divination in which the practitioner seeks to summon, and obtain information from, the spirits or souls of the recently dead, or sometimes from demons, a practice widespread in Western antiquity and the Middle Ages as well as in some African traditions such as Vodun and in Santería).
Numerology
– a belief in a mystical or esoteric relationship between numbers and physical objects or living things, held by many different cultures throughout history, utilizing techniques such as digit-summing and letter values
Oneiromancy
– (a system of dream interpretation that uses dreams to predict the future, particularly common in Greek and Roman religion and literature).
Onomancy
(divination based on a subject’s given name, popular in the Late Middle Ages, usually following practices of Gematria, or the assigning of numerical value to letters of the alphabet).
Ouija Board
– the Spiritualist practice of answering questions from people at a séance using a flat board printed with letters, numbers and other symbols, and a movable indicator or pointer
Also:
Pyromancy
(the art of divination by means of fire, dating from early Chinese and Greek times, including the interpretation of smoke, burning plants or straw, the burning of salt, the heating and cracking of bones or turtle shells, etc).
Rhabdomancy
(divination by means of a rod, wand, staff, stick or arrow, either to point to a recommended direction of travel or to dowse for underground minerals, metals, ores or water sources).
Runecasting
(prediction and divination by runes, or the characters of the ancient Germanic alphabet).
Taromancy or Tarot
– a form of cartomancy using a deck of Tarot cards, comprising the 21 trump cards plus the Fool card which make up the Major Arcana cards, and the fifty-six pip cards and four face cards which make up the Minor Arcana, the divinatory meanings of the cards derived mostly from the Kabbalah of Jewish mysticism and from medieval Alchemy.
Tarot is not suitable for looking lost objects/persons or hardly answers yes or no (it’s possible but it’s tricky and tarot is always adding more then just simple yes/no and thus could be unclear) but pendulum does, so it’s a great complementary technique.
Another method that adds to your divination abilities is to learn some extrasensory or mediumistic ability like seeing aura, object reading, communication with ghost, spiritual entities, scrying in black mirror, crystal ball, bowl of water, etc.
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