Cody’s Column: Using Divination Tools with the Land
April is such a bouquet of emotions, thoughts and experiences here on the farm. Big projects we laid out in the winter are being realized. New projects are coming to light. The forest is waking up and so are the weeds! Many of them are medicinal, I am thinking about the hedge deadnettle, which should be called Purple Dragon’s Breath. This plant wakes up around the time bumble bee queens rise from their slumber and begin the search for a mate and early food to support her soon to be colony. There are so many signs of Spring, it is a wonder to me how many times we miss how we are all connected and a part of nature.
As mentioned in my previous article, this month’s focus is on how runes, tarot, and oracle cards are a part of my work with land and animal spirits, ancestors, and dragons. We are not unlike Spring right now, slowly growing into a Summer landscape, to maturing into a Fall harvest, and going dormant for Winter only to regrow in Spring again. To do this work, it takes observance, diligence, adaptation, and a profound sense of your own being. The runes, tarot, and oracle cards are but a few of the tools I use to help me connect with the rhythms and cycles of nature, the cosmos, and the inner self.
I am partial to my Druid Craft Tarot Deck as it was gifted to me two years ago. My wife carved my runes three years ago. The Animal Guide Rune Cards by Dawid Lipka and Bartosz Mazik are newer to me and I love them! I would not advise going out and purchasing more than one deck at a time. Rather, spend time attuning to a resource, developing your meditation techniques over the course of several months, or seasons. I also work with plant medicines, precious stones, a wand I crafted, and candles to aid in my focus on the work I am doing on the land.
Together these resources, gathered over time, have developed relationships with me. They help me to understand the complex nature of reality and profound power of our imaginative capabilities. I started with walking meditations, allowing my consciousness to wander with the bird songs, cloud formations, new growth on plants, and what my farm critters were up to. I entered a phase next with the runes, drawing one each day, studying the meaning from various sources and carrying that rune with me for the day. I then did the same thing with the Druid Craft Tarot cards.
Gradually I layered daily readings for myself, then general readings for my friends and family. Precious stones, hazelnut, medicinal plants, and the presence of specific spirit guides came in after a while and now I do readings for my community at large using an amalgamation of tools depending on how I feel led. The walking meditations have been at the core of my experience since the beginning, they are both regenerative and how I connect with the cosmos on the deepest level.
I am not rigid in my liking of a particular deck as I find new decks to me to also be particularly meaningful. The Dragon Energy deck, while not perfectly depicted on every card, has made its impact on my psyche. I now use them in conjunction with my dragon spirit guide to help with my emotional intelligence. Having a goal with each tool is important even if your goal is something vast like “I am using this tool to help me connect with the cosmos and my inner self.” Try a smaller goal like, “I am using this tool to help me learn Norse Mythology.” That is my newest project with the Yggdrasil Norse Divination Cards. I try to balance my time with the tools and picture myself as an artist, gradually trying out new brushes, strokes, and mixings of color to capture what so powerfully inspired me to pick them up in the first place.
It is end of April now and Taurus energy is flowing through the land. By next month’s article I hope to be finished planting the 4,000 dahlias with my wife and family. As one season ends another begins and the spirits continue to work through the land, revealing new patterns, paths to take, and ways to protect. I am thinking that next month’s article will focus mostly on protection magick, how it relates to being connected to the land and how it relates to being connected to oneself. Until then, may your gardens bustle and grow, and may your Beltane be like a bright fire and protect your growth spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically.
I am a husband, father, farmer, and friend. I live on the banks of the Magic Skagit River, ancestral lands of the Sauk-Suiattle people. I practice rune reading, tarot, land magic, and work with many spirit guides. My life began Pagan but I veered off into the Christian church in college. I found my way back to my Pagan and ancestral roots in 2005 and have journeyed along this path since then.
