Divination is not fortune telling. Your future, your present, and even your past, can be
changed. Divination takes a snapshot of your life as it stands, and draws the line forwards,
projecting a future based on the forces at play here and now. Ironically, it can your future
as it would have been had you not looked up, seen where you were heading, and changed course.
The Tarot is such a tool - a way to stand back and recognise the whole of our psychic terrain
in a more objective, less ego-driven manner. I play mostly with the Cosmic Tribe Tarot - a
tarot deck of exceptional beauty and gentleness. It is best suited to meditative and
contemplative readings. Its suits of cards echo the pagan compass - Swords for East and Air,
Wands for South and Fire, Cups for West and Water, and Disks for North and Earth. As a pagan,
no divination session, indeed no healing nor shamanic journey, can begin without calling the
energies of these Four Quarters.
Ancient wisdom, combined with the power of modern communications technology can create the
perfect maps to help us find our way in the world. Such ancient wisdom, however, has been,
and continues to be felled at the same rate as the trees and forests that birthed it. Ancient
Britain was once covered in deep forest, and now only pockets of these incredible ecosystems
remain. Our ancestors were familiar with all our native tree species; but more than this, the
uses and properties of their bark and wood, leaf and fruit, were common knowledge. When the
Druidic Celts sought a way of concealing their communications and wisdom from an encroaching
Christian culture, the first code they created was based on these trees. There is evidence to
sugest that the act of carving the Ogham staves or runes on wood could be an exercise in
divination. The Oghams are a series of slashes perpendicular to a line, and it is feasible that
such marks can be made automatically, and deciphered after carving. Unsurprisingly, it seems
the choice of woods for carving was as important as the carving itself.
Our shamanic ancestors would make use of anything in their environment for divination or
'scrying'. From the behaviour of animals, to the shapes of clouds, shamans would intuit the
flow of life around them. I expect it will take me many years to form a fraction of the
sensitivity and intimate connection with my surroundings as the wise women before me developed.
I try to form this web of connections one synapse at a time - Crow, Wasp, Butterfly, Wren,
Blackbird, Apple and Wagtail have shown me much patience so far. I also make use of the
'Druid Animal Oracle', by Philip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm, and 'The Celtic Wisdom of Trees'
by Jane Gifford, among my mythical research. Robert Moss has an interesting stance I am
exploring on the difference between lucid dreaming, or the control of dreams, and conscious
dreaming, or the interpretation of dreams. My partner loves the cryptic mysticism of the
taoist I Ching, and, finally, I am involved in a long term project awaiting a publisher for
Kathleen Jenks and
Dianne Skafte
to create an oracle based on Goddesses of the Night Sky.
"When we forget to listen to the world speaking through us, we forget our stories. When we forget
our stories, we forget who we are, our purpose, and our spiritual connection. In our frustration
and fear we abuse the planet who mothers us." - Cosmic Tribe Tarot
If you would like my assistance with any of these forms of divination, there is a link to my
contact details above and below.
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