Scrying and Other Methods of Divination
Glimpsing the Future?
People have always felt a need to see into the future, to feel guided by an unseen hand. We like to think we can peek into the unknown. While whether we can or not remains debatable, divination is always an engaging experience.
Divination is the Devil’s Work
One important thing to clear up about divination is that it’s not evil. While it can be used in conjunction with some religions, divination is not a religion and certainly not devil worship. It’s not the work of demons, evil spirits or impish sprites who dance about our heads, whispering thoughts to our unsuspecting ears.
Forget what you’ve seen in the movies and on television. Divination has more to do with people trying to muck around with their own fate and view the possible future than anything else.
As people, we’re fickle and prone to misconceptions, so let’s get this straight: divination isn’t inherently anything but an interesting way to pass the time.
Some Ancient Forms
Runes are one of the oldest documented divination systems. They are of Norse and Germanic origin, from areas that are modern day Scandinavia. The runes, or small stones engraved with symbols, carry the meaning of the symbol inscribed. Some stones relate to Norse gods like Odin and Freyja, some to symbols in an ancient alphabet.
The Runes are mixed into a bag or enclosed bowl, and the questioner draws them out. They are then read in the order in which they were drawn.
Runes can be purchased or fashioned from natural stones or bits of bark, but they should never be plastic. Rune Cards are also available, with the symbols in illustrated form.
Scrying
Scrying is one of the easiest and most widespread methods of divination. I think this is partly due to its accessibility. You don’t need fancy tools or anyone to interpret for you. Scrying is simply the art or action of looking into or at something and trying to sort out a meaning from the shapes you see.
Two of the oldest styles of scrying are accomplished by using water or fire. With water, a dark bowl is usually used, and one focuses on the question he would like answered while staring at the surface of the water. The trick to this is to let your eyes un-focus, the way you would with a 3-D puzzle found in the kid’s section of the newspaper. One then interprets the waves, shapes or patterns upon the surface of the water.
Sometimes water can work as a crystal ball of sorts, allowing a prognosticator to see through the water and into the possible future. This is a great method for beginners and more experienced diviners alike.
Using fire, one stares into the flames, and the movements within are supposed to portend the future or answer a question. This can also be done with a single candle flame. If the flame jumps high, the answer might be yes, if it sputters or goes out, the answer is no.
Candle-scrying is the most popular form touted in New Age movements and earth religions like Wicca and Paganism.
Other Methods of Scrying
Some forms of scrying are as simple as looking for shapes in the clouds or a rain puddle into which a stone is thrown. Some scryers look for patterns in newly-mown grass or the flight patterns of birds. The natural world has always fascinated us, and we’ve always hoped for answers in its bounty.
Throwing the Bones
This was much more common when people killed their dinner themselves, and often practiced by women on farms. If a big decision was forthcoming, a woman might boil chicken bones, and then throw, or cast them, into a circle of stones on the ground. The shapes, or sometimes letters, that the bones formed would then be interpreted. This is oft-depicted in movies featuring older Norse customs.
Bird bones are the most commonly documented bones to have been used in divination, and crow’s bones were once considered especially portentous.
Bone-throwing is much less common in today’s society because we value the life of animals much more highly, and understand it would be cruel to hurt or kill an animal just for the use of its bones.
Crystal Balls
Reading the future using a crystal ball is not an ancient method, but one that came to America from Europe pre-World War II. It was much practiced in the Romany, or Gypsy, culture. Crystal ball reading employs the same basic idea as water scrying, but requires a reader skilled at seeing into the ball. There is no movement to be interpreted as in water or fire scrying. The reader must develop the skill of looking through the crystal ball.
Some people believe that images seen in a crystal ball are merely imprints of the reader’s subconscious mind, the result of focusing on the question. Some people would disagree, saying that the ball will show what it wants to be seen.
Crystal balls usually aren’t made of crystal at all. Clear and rose colored quartz are popular choices, as well as various colors of agate. The balls can vary in size and expense, though the larger versions are most popular. Smaller, more portable balls are becoming more available through catalogs and occult suppliers.
Palm Reading
This is a popular method in the modern world, and books on its intricacies are easily found. The basic method is to assess the shape of the hand and fingers, and the lines or patterns on the palm.
Square fingers might indicate a stubborn person, while willowy hands might suggest an artistic soul. There are three major lines on any hand: the head line, the heart line, and the life line. These are interpreted based on length, position, and the amount of cross-hatching lines through them. A short life line with many small hatch marks might mean a brief life full of physical accidents.
The Pendulum
A pendulum is an object suspended from a cord or string. Pendulums can be as simple as a bit of yarn tied on a wedding ring (a method once used to predict the sex of an unborn baby) or fancy chunks of quartz or amethyst with a hole drilled in and a delicate chain looped through.
Many people just use a favorite necklace or meaningful ring on a chain. Any of these methods of making a pendulum can be effective.
The pendulum is held in one’s hand, usually the non-dominant one-a righty would hold the pendulum in his left hand. A pattern of swings must be first determined with control questions, or questions to which one already knows the answer. A back and forth swing to a question with a positive answer would mean that movement will stand for yes. Once answers are determined for yes, no and maybe, the questioning can begin!
Many people believe that the inherent qualities of the stone or object that the pendulum is made from will increase its effectiveness in certain matters.
For instance, a wedding ring would be more effective for questions regarding marriage, a coin on a string would be preferred for money matters. The pendulum making possibilities are seemingly endless.
Bibliomancy
This is the form of divination that uses a book, usually a Bible, opened at random to tell the future. One opens a book, and places his finger blindly on the page. The sentence his finger rests on is said to answer the question or foretell the day’s events.
Other holy books, such as the Kabala and Koran are popular choices, as well as classics in literature-especially Dante’s Divine Comedy or any Shakespearian work.
Methods for Love Divination
An old Halloween favorite for determining the name of one’s spouse uses an apple. The apple is peeled with a knife so that the peel is a long, curved strip. The strip of peel is placed in a bowl of water and the letter it forms reveals the first letter of the name of one’s lover. This is supposed to be more accurate when one bobs for the apple and uses the water from the bobbing barrel for the peel reading.
An egg can also be used to determine the name of a future mate. One pokes a hole in the shell of a raw egg, and lets the liquid ooze into boiling water. The shape the solidified string of egg forms determines the name of one’s mate.
Uncooked grains of rice can also be dropped into boiling water and the pattern used to determine a lover’s name. Rice that has been thrown at a wedding and collected after the happy couple has walked over it is best.
All of these methods are best done on a night of portent, such as Valentine’s Day, Halloween, or New Year’s Eve.
Tea Leaves
This method is a favorite among all of the ways to divine the future. Some teas, such as marigold or chamomile, are said to be more effective than others.
The key is to brew the tea using loose tea leaves and a strainer, rather than tea bags. Usually when tea leaves are to be read, the questioner and the reader will discuss the matter over steaming cups of tea. When all the liquid has been consumed, the dregs are upturned into the tea cup’s saucer.
Both parties attempt to discern the meaning from the shape or pattern of the leaves in the saucer. If they form a letter, it is used to determine a name. If the leaves form a symbol, such as a heart, the matter concerns happy love. If an X is formed, the outcome cannot be good.
Often, the saucer is symbolically drawn into quarters, with the leaves falling in each section pertaining to a different aspect of life. One quarter might represent love matters, another career, another fate, etc. Tea leaf reading was at the height of its popularity in the Victorian Era.
Tarot and Playing Cards
Cards are perhaps the best known of all divination devices, and some of the most complicated. Tarot cards are certainly popular, as well as Angel Cards, Russian Fortune Cards, Shamanic Cards and Animal Totem Cards.
All are systems of divination themselves, with different methods of use for prognostication. But readings cards can be as simple as breaking out a pack of playing cards.
Using a full deck, including jokers, the reader shuffles and the questioner draws a number of cards from the deck. These can be laid out face down or up and in varying patterns.
The Celtic Cross Design
One of the most common is the Celtic Cross design, borrowed from traditional Tarot. One card is laid in the middle, with one above, below and to each side. Then, next to this, four cards are laid out vertically.
The first card represents the heart of the situation, and the four surrounding cards represent common influences, or the past and present of the situation. The four cards in a vertical row represent the future, or outcome, of the situation or question.
Playing Card Meanings
In most cases, the jokers represent the hand of fate or destiny-they are unpredictable and unknowable. Some see these cards as the hand of karma in a situation.
Face cards represent people. Kings and Queens will be older adults, and jacks younger people with less power over their lives.
The suits mirror the meanings of the Tarot: spades for monetary and career influences, hearts for love, diamonds for intellectual pursuits and clubs for the more earthy dimensions of life.
Aces usually signify beginnings; deuces lovers; threes, sixes and nines are either lucky or unlucky numbers, depending upon whom you ask.
No Matter The Form
Whichever form of divination you choose to try, further study is needed to be an effective fortune-teller, if such a person exists. Each method has its own quirks, and some will be preferable to others. Usually the best method for a person to use becomes clear after a few attempts. Some people are natural ball gazers, some are better with cards.
Whether we can divine the future or not, it’s full of possibilities, and entirely open to interpretation. Never take a prophecy for a fact until it happens.
