{"id":2039,"date":"2009-07-01T01:10:24","date_gmt":"2009-07-01T06:10:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paganpages.org\/content\/?p=2048"},"modified":"2009-07-01T06:18:27","modified_gmt":"2009-07-01T11:18:27","slug":"new-to-the-craft-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/2009\/07\/01\/new-to-the-craft-9\/","title":{"rendered":"New To The Craft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tarot, Tea Leaves, and Crystal Balls (Oh My!) <\/strong><\/p>\n

A witch can use a spell when s\/he has a clear purpose and intent foremost in mind.\u00a0 The focusing of the will to bring about needed change is an active use of one\u2019s inner abilities.\u00a0 But there are also times when a more passive ability is called for \u2013 when answers are needed.\u00a0 Instead of speaking we need to listen.\u00a0 This is when the time-honored tradition of divination comes in handy, and it is as inseparable from witchcraft as magic.<\/p>\n

With divination the practitioner aims to put aside the typical chatter of the conscious mind so that information from the subconscious\/unconscious can get through.\u00a0 Though both of these voices operate in us constantly, we identify so greatly with our consciousness alone that most people barely recognize the latter.\u00a0 If we have an open mind we can acknowledge flashes of intuition or precognition as legitimate sources of information, but even then we don\u2019t truly understand why those voices are valid or where they come from.\u00a0 Perhaps we attribute it to the Goddess, or a guardian angel.\u00a0 The rational intellect hates what it cannot analyze with logic, and as a result a greater part of the self is pushed under (sub-) the threshold of consciousness, only breaking through in spurts.\u00a0 Divining can aid us in temporarily removing this barrier so that we can tap the vast stores of wisdom we hold within.<\/p>\n

The method chosen to perform divination can vary widely.\u00a0 Systems that use a predetermined symbolic set in layouts or cast as stones include tarot cards, rune stones, and the I Ching.\u00a0 Techniques of skrying are also traditional in witchcraft, and involve methods of softening visual focus and inducing a light trance.\u00a0 Crystal balls, black mirrors, and pools of water are typically used.\u00a0 Other divination methods incorporate focus on randomized patterns.\u00a0 Similar to the way a psychologist would use an inkblot visual, these systems bypass the conscious mind (which can make no sense of random patterns) to get straight to what the subconscious is projecting.\u00a0 Some of these techniques are reading tea leaves and geomancy.<\/p>\n

The key to successful divination is learning to understand the language of the subconscious, which speaks in images rather than words.\u00a0 Your intuition will not get up on a platform and say \u201cyou need to go do this with your life.\u201d\u00a0 You might get a feeling, or a hint of which direction to turn.\u00a0 Intuitive knowledge falls apart when it is scrutinized.\u00a0 As a metaphor it is almost \u201cseen\u201d better via the peripheral vision; it is \u201cheard\u201d best as a whisper.\u00a0 We want to analyze because we want to understand, but if we can learn to put aside our rational egos and be open to the impressions our subconscious is trying to communicate, we can achieve a greater comprehension than through intellect alone.<\/p>\n

Janet and Stewart Farrar have a wonderful analogy for this process in their work The Witches\u2019 Way.\u00a0 They liken the mind to a pet and its human keeper.\u00a0 When the two work together in harmony they draw upon the unique abilities of both for their greater good.\u00a0 And though the conscious mind might like to think of itself as the master, in this case it is actually the pet.\u00a0 The subconscious\/keeper has a wider view and understanding based on a greater source of information.\u00a0 Consciousness does not understand why it is being told to do certain things, and if it thinks it\u2019s the one in charge it disregards the subconscious.\u00a0 And yet it is the keeper that knows when danger is immanent, or when something temporarily difficult must be endured for later benefit.\u00a0 It is not particularly flattering to think of your primary experience of self in such a limited fashion, unless of course you realize that the separation is artificial.\u00a0 Selective consciousness serves a purpose in helping us cope with the world we live in, but it is not all that we are.<\/p>\n

What is it that the subconscious will tell us when we unlock the door?\u00a0 Psychologists have been exploring this area for decades.\u00a0 The writings of Carl Jung in particular are worth considerable study for his work on archetypes and the concept of the collective unconscious.\u00a0 One of the most popular methods for divination, the tarot, is basically a picture book of human archetypes.\u00a0 Jung and others showed us that certain enduring symbols reoccur across peoples and cultures, indicating that they most likely reflect some deeper level of shared psychological meaning.\u00a0 Joseph Campbell demonstrated much the same through his work in comparative mythology.\u00a0 These are symbolic sets that we can reflect on to learn more about ourselves.<\/p>\n

Can divination tell us the future?\u00a0 There are different schools of thought on this, and the quick answer would be it depends.\u00a0 If you are doing a reading on yourself, it is usually to achieve clarification on an issue or choice before you.\u00a0 In that case what you are doing is quieting your mind and reflecting on the tool before you to seek answers within.\u00a0 Your subconscious may know what you want better than your conscious mind can tell you.\u00a0 You determine your future by your choices, so if you find your answers you can predict your course.\u00a0 But using divinatory methods to demand answers from the universe on the future would probably produce few results.\u00a0 The same goes if you seek a reading from someone else only to tell you what to do.\u00a0 Divining will only yield what you put into it.\u00a0 After all it is not the tool that determines the outcome, but rather the willingness on your part to listen to what your subconscious has to say.\u00a0 Once you are listening with an open heart and mind, the answers will come.<\/p>\n

Journal for the Month of June: <\/strong><\/p>\n

I can\u2019t believe this is the 12th article I\u2019ve written!\u00a0 Over the past year I have learned so much about Wicca, witchcraft, myself\u2026 so much.\u00a0 A lot of my exploration has led me to other paths too, and when everything is so new I find it hard to focus sometimes or find the time to learn everything I want to.\u00a0 I think a lot of solitaries who travel these paths are probably eclectic as I am, but I have to say there is probably something to be said for mastering one way before trying to dive into all the rest.\u00a0 In my case I\u2019ve at least tried to limit myself to a certain extent.\u00a0 Mid year I felt so overloaded and overcommitted that I had to learn to say no, and back away from things that though I enjoyed them I just didn\u2019t have the energy to pursue at that time.\u00a0 But I look forward to pursuing them in the future.<\/p>\n

In our day to day lives it can get so hectic that sometimes we may feel as if every hour of the day is scheduled with everything we try to cram in.\u00a0 Then we feel guilty for the 10 other things we couldn\u2019t fit in but somehow expected ourselves to do anyways.\u00a0 But when it seems that we have to rush to do more and more in less time, I\u2019ve realized the only thing you can do is to slow down.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a race!\u00a0 Packing quantity of activities into the day leaves all of them with just a touch less quality.\u00a0 Sometimes we just can\u2019t do all of the things we want to do at once, and that\u2019s ok.\u00a0 As long as we do what we do today with all of ourselves, there will be time to fit in the other things another day.\u00a0 Living every day to its fullest is a commitment best honored by enjoying what you are doing right now, with gratitude and the patience to say \u201ctomorrow is another day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Until next month, blessed be! )O(<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tarot, Tea Leaves, and Crystal Balls (Oh My!) A witch can use a spell when s\/he has a clear purpose and intent foremost in mind.\u00a0 The focusing of the will to bring about needed change is an active use of one\u2019s inner abilities.\u00a0 But there are also times when a more passive ability is called for \u2013 when answers are needed.\u00a0 Instead of speaking we need to listen.\u00a0 This is when the time-honored tradition of divination comes in handy, and it is as inseparable from witchcraft as magic. With divination the practitioner aims to put aside the typical chatter of the conscious mind so that information from the subconscious\/unconscious can get through.\u00a0 Though both of these voices operate in us constantly, we identify so greatly with our consciousness alone that most people barely recognize the latter.\u00a0 If we have an open mind we can acknowledge flashes of intuition or precognition as legitimate sources of information, but even then we don\u2019t truly understand why those voices are valid or where they come from.\u00a0 Perhaps we attribute it to the Goddess, or a guardian angel.\u00a0 The rational intellect hates what it cannot analyze with logic, and as a result a greater part of the self is pushed under (sub-) the threshold of consciousness, only breaking through in spurts.\u00a0 Divining can aid us in temporarily removing this barrier so that we can tap the vast stores of wisdom we hold within. The method chosen to perform divination can vary widely.\u00a0 Systems that use a predetermined symbolic set in layouts or cast as stones include tarot cards, rune stones, and the I Ching.\u00a0 Techniques of skrying are also traditional in witchcraft, and involve methods of softening visual focus and inducing a light trance.\u00a0 Crystal balls, black mirrors, and pools of water are typically used.\u00a0 Other divination methods incorporate focus on randomized patterns.\u00a0 Similar to the way a psychologist would use an inkblot visual, these systems bypass the conscious mind (which can make no sense of random patterns) to get straight to what the subconscious is projecting.\u00a0 Some of these techniques are reading tea leaves and geomancy. The key to successful divination is learning to understand the language of the subconscious, which speaks in images rather than words.\u00a0 Your intuition will not get up on a platform and say \u201cyou need to go do this with your life.\u201d\u00a0 You might get a feeling, or a hint of which direction to turn.\u00a0 Intuitive knowledge falls apart when it is scrutinized.\u00a0 As a metaphor it is almost \u201cseen\u201d better via the peripheral vision; it is \u201cheard\u201d best as a whisper.\u00a0 We want to analyze because we want to understand, but if we can learn to put aside our rational egos and be open to the impressions our subconscious is trying to communicate, we can achieve a greater comprehension than through intellect alone. Janet and Stewart Farrar have a wonderful analogy for this process in their work The Witches\u2019 Way.\u00a0 They liken the mind to a pet and its human keeper.\u00a0 When the two work together in harmony they draw upon the unique abilities of both for their greater good.\u00a0 And though the conscious mind might like to think of itself as the master, in this case it is actually the pet.\u00a0 The subconscious\/keeper has a wider view and understanding based on a greater source of information.\u00a0 Consciousness does not understand why it is being told to do certain things, and if it thinks it\u2019s the one in charge it disregards the subconscious.\u00a0 And yet it is the keeper that knows when danger is immanent, or when something temporarily difficult must be endured for later benefit.\u00a0 It is not particularly flattering to think of your primary experience of self in such a limited fashion, unless of course you realize that the separation is artificial.\u00a0 Selective consciousness serves a purpose in helping us cope with the world we live in, but it is not all that we are. What is it that the subconscious will tell us when we unlock the door?\u00a0 Psychologists have been exploring this area for decades.\u00a0 The writings of Carl Jung in particular are worth considerable study for his work on archetypes and the concept of the collective unconscious.\u00a0 One of the most popular methods for divination, the tarot, is basically a picture book of human archetypes.\u00a0 Jung and others showed us that certain enduring symbols reoccur across peoples and cultures, indicating that they most likely reflect some deeper level of shared psychological meaning.\u00a0 Joseph Campbell demonstrated much the same through his work in comparative mythology.\u00a0 These are symbolic sets that we can reflect on to learn more about ourselves. Can divination tell us the future?\u00a0 There are different schools of thought on this, and the quick answer would be it depends.\u00a0 If you are doing a reading on yourself, it is usually to achieve clarification on an issue or choice before you.\u00a0 In that case what you are doing is quieting your mind and reflecting on the tool before you to seek answers within.\u00a0 Your subconscious may know what you want better than your conscious mind can tell you.\u00a0 You determine your future by your choices, so if you find your answers you can predict your course.\u00a0 But using divinatory methods to demand answers from the universe on the future would probably produce few results.\u00a0 The same goes if you seek a reading from someone else only to tell you what to do.\u00a0 Divining will only yield what you put into it.\u00a0 After all it is not the tool that determines the outcome, but rather the willingness on your part to listen to what your subconscious has to say.\u00a0 Once you are listening with an open heart and mind, the answers will come. Journal for the Month of June: I can\u2019t believe this is the 12th article I\u2019ve written!\u00a0 Over the past year I have learned so much about Wicca, witchcraft, myself\u2026 so much.\u00a0 A lot of my exploration has led me to other paths too, and when everything is so new I find it hard to focus sometimes or find the time to learn everything I want to.\u00a0 I think a lot of solitaries who travel these paths are probably eclectic as I am, but I have to say there is probably something to be said for mastering one way before trying to dive into all the rest.\u00a0 In my case I\u2019ve at least tried to limit myself to a certain extent.\u00a0 Mid year I felt so overloaded and overcommitted that I had to learn to say no, and back away from things that though I enjoyed them I just didn\u2019t have the energy to pursue at that time.\u00a0 But I look forward to pursuing them in the future. In our day to day lives it can get so hectic that sometimes we may feel as if every hour of the day is scheduled with everything we try to cram in.\u00a0 Then we feel guilty for the 10 other things we couldn\u2019t fit in but somehow expected ourselves to do anyways.\u00a0 But when it seems that we have to rush to do more and more in less time, I\u2019ve realized the only thing you can do is to slow down.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a race!\u00a0 Packing quantity of activities into the day leaves all of them with just a touch less quality.\u00a0 Sometimes we just can\u2019t do all of the things we want to do at once, and that\u2019s ok.\u00a0 As long as we do what we do today with all of ourselves, there will be time to fit in the other things another day.\u00a0 Living every day to its fullest is a commitment best honored by enjoying what you are doing right now, with gratitude and the patience to say \u201ctomorrow is another day.\u201d Until next month, blessed be! )O(<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2039"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2032,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2039\/revisions\/2032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}