Yesterday I told you about how I used a form of divination—runes—to try to figure out who I should be using as my patron deities this month. So today I thought we’d look at some of the other popular forms of divination in paganism.
Divination isn’t strictly about telling the future. It’s about figuring out what’s going on in your present life and determining how best to proceed. As Carl McColman explains in The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Paganism, “Divination involves using a tool . . . or simply accessing your own deep inner wisdom (through meditation or a trance) to tap into divine wisdom and knowledge—that is to say, the wisdom of the God and Goddess.”
Before we go any further, I think I should say that I have a tendency to think that all this stuff about “signs” and “inner wisdom” and everything is a lot of hocus-pocus nonsense. I know lots of people swear by it, particularly in the pagan community, but I’ve never had any kind of “psychic” reading that actually made any sense, so I may be a tad biased. Still, let’s press on.
One common method of divination is something we’ve all probably tried, at least on a superficial level: astrology. Despite the fact that not many people these days really believe that the stars and planets influence our daily lives, there are still horoscopes printed in newspapers and magazines, and you can find them everywhere on the Internet. So (whether you admit it or not) you’ve probably used astrology at some point in your life. I mean, obviously, somebody’s reading that stuff, or they wouldn’t bother putting it out there.
I’ll readily admit that I check my horoscope once in a while, if only because it usually amuses me with its inaccuracy. I mean, it’s never even close. But then again, I’m not even remotely like the kind of person I should be, astrologically speaking. As a Pisces, I’m supposed to be sensitive, intuitive, artistic, and empathetic—good at relating to other people.
Truth is, I’m kind of a bitch. And, as for the artistic part, you’ve seen some of my “art” projects, so you can attest to the fact that I don’t have the tiniest hint of artistic talent.
So, is astrology just a load of bunk? I don’t know. I’d never tell someone else what to believe—all I can say is that it’s never worked for me.
But never fear. If astrology doesn’t work for you, there’s always the Tarot—you know, those fancy illustrated cards that are supposed to tell you the future, depending on which cards come up in which pattern during a reading.
Somebody gave me a set of Tarot cards once, and I tried using them. It didn’t work out all that great. Maybe if you know what every card represents offhand and you don’t have to flip furiously through the little explanatory booklet to understand the symbolism, the reading is a little more meaningful. But, just like I’m no artist, I’m definitely no psychic, so I’ll just leave the Tarot cards to other people.
The Chinese devised another system of divination—the I Ching. Basically, you have a set of coins or sticks that you throw on the ground, and based on the patterns that come up, you’re supposed to get an answer to your questions or some kind of guidance in your life.
Somebody once gave some I Ching coins and a book on how to interpret them. (Apparently, a lot of people seem to think that I’m interested in pursuing a career as a psychic advisor. Wish I could convince them otherwise.)
Anyway, I tried my hand at the I Ching, but nothing that came up ever made any sense. Maybe it’s all in the interpretation, but I always seem to get readings about “defeating enemies in battle” or “expanded vision in the third eye”—things that don’t really apply in my life, no matter how hard I try to stretch my interpretive muscles.
So, if not I Ching, what’s left? There’s always numerology—using the numbers associated with, for example, the letters of your name or your birth date to figure out what “energies” are working in your life.
I had never tried numerology before, and it’s always sounded a little kooky to me (no offense intended to any numerologists out there). But since this is all part of paganism, I thought it was worth a shot. So I went online and entered my full name into a numerology Website to get a free reading.
Apparently, my number is 11, which means I am “intuitive, an idealist, a dreamer.” I exist on a “high spiritual plane.” Oh, yeah. That sounds exactly like me.
Okay, so that part of the reading was bull crap, but I went through the entire page of results—and I was kind of surprised by some of what it told me.
According to numerology, I am “too sensitive and temperamental.” I’m sure my boyfriend would agree with that assessment wholeheartedly.
I’m also “prone to sometimes express . . . negative attitudes.” I think we can all agree that part is true.
The part of the reading I liked best was this: “You secretly believe there is more to life than we can know or prove, and you would like to be provider of the ‘word’ from on high.”
Well, hallelujah! Ain’t that the truth? Isn’t the desire to “provide the word from on high” the main ambition behind anything as self-absorbed as blogging? And doing this blog in particular seems to fit in with the idea of “secretly believing there is more to life than we can know or prove.”
Maybe there’s something to all this divination stuff after all.
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