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Divination, as defined by Oxford Languages, is as follows: "The practice of seeking knowledge of the future or the unknown by supernatural means." Nowadays, within the ever-growing community of witchcraft, wicca, paganism, and spirituality, divination has become extremely widespread and much more common. This post will explain several different types of divination available, including some electronic and closet witch options! Please enjoy!
Cartomancy is perhaps the most well-known form of divination! It is typically done through random selection of playing cards, a formal tarot deck, and more. Traditional tarot decks consist of 78 cards in total, divided into the Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana. The Major Arcana, as its name might suggest, refer to major universal experiences, or archetypes of different forces that affect our daily lives, such as hope, fear, society, nature, and more! The Minor Arcana is more associated with day-to-day experiences someone may go through. The Minor Arcana is divided into four suits, Pentacles, Swords, Cups, and Wands. While it is most common to select three cards at random from a shuffled deck, a lot of diviners choose to create tarot spreads in accordance with what they are trying to scry from their cards. Anyone can create their own tarot spreads and are welcome to experiment with what they find works best for them.
A traditional tarot deck is in no way needed to properly perform cartomancy, especially with financial and familial constraints that may limit our capabilities. Some people assign meaning to normal playing cards, which can be passed as inventing a one player game for those in the broom closet. Another method is simply using any number of cards in one's possession, even uno cards or Pokémon cards. You can draw and create your own tarot cards, download a tarot app on your phone, utilize various discord bots.........even download a free spin-the-wheel app and assign each possible section with an upright and reversed side of a card for ultimate secrecy. That is the beauty of witchcraft, it is highly versatile.
Rune casting is the art of employing stones/crystals/wood marked with symbols to divine the future. For the sake of convenience, we will focus on the Elder Futhark, the eldest form of the runic alphabet which consists of 24 pieces. Each stone holds an upright and reversed (mervstake) meaning, just like cartomancy. There are several different ways to cast runes: randomly pulling the rune that resonates with you most out of a bag, selecting three stones at random and ordering them in terms of your own spread, the possibilities are endless.
As stated previously, there are many ways to perform a unique type of divination. Mobile apps and discord bots are always efficient, but what if you want something more physical? You can charge certain rocks or stones your find in your backyard with intent, then draw symbols upon them to create your own set- which may work even better for you considering you already have a connection formed with them. You can disguise a little rock/crystal collection as your own divination kit if you don't have the money/freedom to practice as you want. Lithomancy is also an option is you feel connected to stones/earth, but not runes specifically.
Osteomancy is the art of using bones to divine the future. Please remember to ethically source your bones, and to clean them if needed. Ideal osteomancy sets are typically sourced from animals who died of natural causes, less their restless spirits interfere with the reading. Sets do not have the be strictly all bones, they can also incorporate other objects you feel a natural connection to, teeth, feathers, tree bark, old keys, heirlooms, and more. Casting bones is typically done by gently shaking them in your hands, then tossing them onto a mat/the earth to be read by position after assigning personal meaning. Some use the largest piece to represent themself, but this is in no way required. Depending on how close one piece is to another, or where they land on a marked cloth is typically how the reading is performed.
If you cannot utilize bones quite yet, different parts of passed on animals can be used, such as pelts, claws, fangs, and more. The most important thing to remember is to source all of your materials ethically.
Tasseomancy is the art of divining through tea leaves, and another excellent way to perform witchcraft discreetly. Although, it is not limited to tea itself- any kind of beverage that leaves a residue such as coffee can be used. It is easiest to use a white cup for visibility, though certain stores sell teacups with marked sections to aid in divining. Using loose black tea leaves are an excellent starting point, and it is advised to avoid leaves from a teabag considering they're finer and have a more difficult time forming the shapes and symbols needed to properly read them. There are many different shapes that have their own correlation to tasseomancy, and if you're interested in tea readings, I would highly suggest searching all the different symbols that have been traditionally discovered. Intention is especially important within this form of divination and takes time to master. However, with practice, anyone can divine in the simplest and possibly most satisfying way possible.
These are just four examples. There are a million different ways to perform divination, pyromancy, water scrying, pendulum divination, the options are practically limitless. I highly encourage you to perform your own research and discover what best works with you.
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I sincerely hope the information I provided was informative and useful. Please feel free to correct me if anything is incorrect, for I do not practice every single method of divination listed. Thank you so much for reading! <33
