So I came across @maddiviner‘s 30 day challenge prompts, and although I’m not a new practitioner, I haven’t spent a lot of time just reflecting on my craft -- and I’ll admit I’m kind of terrible at keeping up with my Book of Shadows. I thought participating in this challenge might be personally useful, hopefully interesting for some of y’all, and would certainly help my BoS game. So here we go with day 1!
Divination. Does it work? Would you use it? What do you think of those who do? Why?
Yes and Yes! haha. I use tarot and oracle cards fairly frequently, and I believe they have a lot to tell me. I kind of want a pendulum even though they seem somewhat tedious, either limited to yes/no questions or requiring a slow ouija-like spelling of any answers (but having never used one, I’m open to being corrected here). I definitely want to learn runes - both Futhark and Ogham - but want to become more adept with tarot before taking on another system. I’m intrigued by tasseography and palmistry but again, that’s for another time, maybe another life.
I used to believe that divination of any kind was just a tool to help us reflect upon our situation - not an otherworldly message, but a sort of mirror held up to our hearts and minds. However, one of my coven-mates pointed out that if that were true, then how could we ever read the cards for anyone else? There had to be something else happening.
Now, as you may know, I’m a skeptical witch who leans toward the mundane to explain most things, but that argument had me stumped. So while I don’t officially believe in or work with deities, and I’m highly skeptical when someone tells me they had a paranormal experience, I remain open minded to the possibility that there is something bigger going on than just my little brain trying to figure things out.
As far as what I think about others who practice various forms of divination - I have great respect for them, especially those who regularly read for others. I most often read for only myself, but have recently been branching out to read with others (as a joint effort) and for them. It is a totally different thing! It takes so much more energy and articulation to read for others than for myself. I have had several readings done for me in the past, with various degrees of accuracy and honestly, various degrees of care put into it. It’s so obvious when someone doesn’t feel like reading or really doesn’t have the skill to read effectively for other people. But again - it takes a lot, and I recognize that it’s something that takes practice. For now I’m just going to keep reading for me, and sometimes close friends, but maybe someday in the not too distant future you’ll see me offering readings here. Maybe.
