🔮 PREPARING A LITHOMANCY SET 🔮
Lithomancy – the practise of divination through casting stones and reading how they fall – is one of the most ancient and (in my opinion) effective divining methods out there, as well as costing nothing to set up and being something you can completely teach yourself and make your own. I recently went on a trip to an incredible and magical beach where I collected an array of exceptional rocks, pebbles, shells and fossils for this purpose, so I thought I’d make a long post on creating and preparing a kit.
🔮 First of all – they need not be stones, or all be stones, although the name “lithomancy” refers specifically to stones. Some cast with bones, or sticks, or shells. Some cast with whatever the hell they can find at the time. Use whatever speaks to you.
🔮 It will feel more organic to find your stones out in their natural habitat, preferably in a place that you feel a connection with, but it’s okay to purchase. The most important thing is that the set is personalised to you and that each piece of it has been chosen by you, connected to you, for a reason. Even if that reason isn’t immediately clear – it doesn’t have to be yet. Assignation will happen later.
🔮 You should use a level of instinctive guidance to find your casting stones. Perhaps you’ve even been gathering them already, drawn to them and bringing them home with you – don’t rule out stones and bits and bobs already in your possession.
🔮 Take a moment for every potential casting stone you pick up. Hold it in your hand, roll it around, look at it, think on it, get a feel for it. Start to form a picture of what it may contribute to a divination. Keep what you can’t bear the thought of throwing away. Discard everything else.
🔮 First of all, a physical cleaning. Nothing too harsh – you don’t want to damage the stones or scrub them raw. (For bones and the like though, research and follow good hygiene practises accordingly. Also recommended: the law.) Generally I find a shortish soak in some warm saltwater effective enough. A light sponging to get rid of any mud, sand, etc, if there is any. Apply common sense.
🔮 Then comes the more metaphysical cleansing. Depending on your practise, you could also consecrate or bless them. Some ideas: passing through incense or smoke, cleansing with blessed/spiritually purified or charged water (you could combine this with the physical cleaning), put into a grid with cleansing crystals, using bells/sound, and personally I’ve been using sunlight to cleanse as well as charge mine.
🔮 Set aside some time, fire up the incense, get some mood music on, ground and centre and get yourself in a good headspace. Ideally you’ll also have a nice cleansed and moody space to carry out the assignation process. This will be when you give each of your stones/objects a ‘meaning’, similar to each Tarot card having its own set of meanings and associations, or the runes that some cast. But stones are more free-form and intuitive, and the meanings are discerned and given only by you.
🔮 What you’ll be doing is almost like meditating with each of your stones. Pick up the ones that speak strongly to you first, maybe the ones that you already have some idea of their meaning – these will be the easiest to assign meanings to.
🔮 The physical appearance of the stone is a good starting point. Make sure to have a good inspection of each one. Then, enclose it in your hand and close your eyes. Feel the life inside of the stone and what it says to you. Tell it what its name and meaning is – whisper it aloud into the stone if you must. Make contact. Make sure it’s working in accord with you.
🔮 The easiest way to note down these meanings for you to memorise is to set out a piece of paper or two, and once you know what a stone means, lay it down on the piece of paper and write underneath it the name, meanings and associations. This gives you a sort of physical ‘key.’ Taking a photo of the paper spread/s once it’s done will act as a handy cheat sheet.
🔮 You’ll want a nice, rounded-out set of associations in order to give your divination depth and reach. Some traditions suggest using the different planets (and their associations) for the stones, and other simple suggestions might be elements, deities, past/present/future, etc. There are some out there that suggest a lithomancy set must contain a certain number of stones and they must have certain fixed meanings, but my opinion is that using your own intuition will make it more powerful for you. Plus, most of these traditions I could find were western European in origin, which obviously isn’t where all of our practises are from anyway. Research your traditions or make your own meanings – it’s all down to you.
🔮 There are a ton of resources on charging out there, and you’ll likely learn or already know best what works for you. This is a good, simple post on it for beginners. My favourite method is charging by sunlight, not only because it’s simple but because of how it falls into my belief system too.
🔮 Some suggestions: sunlight, moonlight, starlight, charged crystals and crystal grids, water of various properties (rain, storm, sea), laying out on grass or soil or tree roots or in herb planters, bones (bone grid?) and feathers and such…
🔮 After taking some time to familiarise yourself with your set and its meanings, it’s time to begin practising. Just chuck ‘em! Start off by doing readings for and about yourself. Get a feel for your set and how it speaks. This is also the time to make adjustments to the meanings of some of the stones, or add new associations.
🔮 You’ll also want to start putting together your pre-divination rituals. A cleanse and a charge, a bit of grounding with incense, a hearty meal, a word with your ancestors? What works for you will become clear with practise.
🔮 In terms of the reading itself: make note of the shape that they have fallen in. The stones that are close together, and the ones that are far apart. Any that line up or form a shape. Some like to use a “self” stone or object that they can use to orient the reading around.
🔮 Some don’t cast all of their stones in one reading – I don’t. You can pick relevant stones for readings that are more specific, or just grab a random handful of stones from a bag and use those. That way, which stones are ‘drawn’ will tell you something all by itself. Change up how you cast and read during your practise period, try every method you can think of. Get creative!
🔮 I don’t think casting stones is good for yes/no answers personally, but did find this quick tip: pick a stone to mean yes/positive, and one to mean no/negative. Pick a ‘self’ stone or object. Cast them. Whichever one lands closest to the ‘self,’ there’s your answer.
🔮 I don’t know if I will, but you may also want to look into creating and incorporating a casting grid. These are shape and charts (usually on cloth) that you can cast upon, and act as a ‘map’ so that stones landing in certain quadrants will let you know what that particular stone is relevant to.
🔮 Over time you can add to, take away from and generally change up your lithomancy set – what you pick to start off with isn’t the end all, be all. The best divination sets will change and become more attuned to you over time.
🔮 I tie my stones up in a square of batik fabric when not using them, and also use the fabric to cast upon. Simple, neat, effective.
🔮 Remember to keep on cleansing and charging your set as required.
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