Divination

Most people are initially attracted to the tarot because of its "ability" to tell the future, sometimes even bringing in the past. That a set of pictures on paper can do this is mysterious, intriguing, and even for some, powerful. What we will be doing in this class is looking at some of the facts, and non-facts, as related to tarot divination. Some people say that they are particularly intuitive, and therefore can easily read the tarot. Yet there have been many who claim that you don't need intuition to read the tarot, simply an understanding of the symbolism is enough to put together a complete picture. Most of us who have been doing this for awhile believe that there is a place between those two extremes wherein lies a good tarot reader. In my opinion this also includes someone who has put in much time, energy and work at understanding the tarot- its history, the symbolism we find in it, and working with each card with a certain amount of focus.

When I first looked into the tarot, as a footnote to some historical research I was doing, I fell into the intuition area, finding it easy to grasp the meanings of cards and give readings that could hit the mark somewhat-in hindsight I shudder at some of those readings which, while not incorrect were pretty darn superficial and wonder...was this intuition, or a solid basis in the humanities, mythology and art?

Fortunately I have slowly plodded along, keeping on the road of studying the tarot, and I have come to learn that it takes alot of work to understand the tarot cards, to learn the myriad of symbols, signs, and stories that are told by them-and to see how they've changed throughout history. After that kind of work can I say that I believe that my readings are better, because what I bring to the querant is more than just some guesswork, at least is it some 'guesswork' tempered and refined with facts, experience, and hard work.

So how do we begin a discussion of the tarot? I think the best way is to do this by looking at it first as a divination tool and discussing divination. When we get to the history of the tarot in a later lecture you will see that there are some scholars who believe the tarot was simply a card game, and by golly, should have been left that way. My response is SO? The reality blurb here is that people DO use tarot for divination, and with some modicum of success. I would imagine there are many inventions whose original purpose is long buried under subsequent uses. This is not to negate those theories by the way, but for the purpose of this class, let's stay on track with using tarot for divination--although I will digress and say that to do so means you will need to spend time working with each card, seeing how it is a tool for growth and development of the individual--the two are intertwined.

Divination. There are a few resources I'm using to give you this information: Scott Cunningham's The Art of Divination, Max Maven's Book of Fortunetelling, (which thankfully I bought sight unseen as the cover is a bit hokey but thankfully the text was surprisingly good), The World Atlas of Divination- edited by John Matthews, and Derek & Julia Parker's The Future Now, (another dubious cover). I'm using other resources as I go along, but these are the four main books I've consulted for this first lesson.

Cunningham's book is the best overall introduction to the concepts of Divination. Perhaps I like it because he starts off with explaining one of my favorite trails of historical divination-- what are the Gods and Goddesses thinking up there? For a long time there were many many cultures who believed that everything was preordained and that if you could figure out what it was then you could perhaps, with the aid of your well meaning (and perhaps well paid) divination expert, figure out a way to get the deities to help you either change the ill fortune, or certainly praise them enough that good fortune would come your way again. The Greeks and Romans began to see the future as more of chance dependent mostly on what the deities were up to at that time- as well as how the humans interacted with them. I've always thought it rather grand of the ever optimistic humans to believe that, despite any preordination, they had a chance and hope of changing coming ill fortune-- although in the alternative we do see proof in some cultures of complete acceptance of such dire predictions. It was ordained to be a certain way, thus it will be-- we see that in today's cultures as well. Look at the influence of the media in telling us how bad the economy is and poof, many buy into that message. Actually, I personally believe that the weather predictors are diviners, they just have fancier tools that the rest of us, although I think my cards (and aching back) are far more accurate predictors than their stormtrackers!!!

A general way of looking at divination is to see that "our actions and thoughts produce non-physical 'waves' of energy that extend into the future, and, thus, shape it to a certain extent. They produce a map of tomorrow based on our current speed and direction, but many destinations lie upon its surface, and we can change course at any time." (Cunningham). When one performs divination one is calling upon the querants already known facts- those existing actions, those existing thoughts and history, and using that energy to see the most probably picture of what could happen based on that past. Perhaps even the intuition that is described by how a diviner "feels" something during a reading is in reality those waves or patterns of energy that the diviner is picking up of things done and said, the past speaking up in a way. Or perhaps the tarot cards, as shuffled, are simply gathering the energy of the querant, and their pattern-often so very accurate-is the result of this energy.

Of course this is a general statement, and the various tools of divination vary in the symbols they use to call on this unconscious energy...and then there is the skill of the reader to use those tools effectively. There are divination techniques in all forms and as you learn more about the tarot I think you'll see why it has become such a popular form of divination- the depth it contains, the layers of cultures and patterns that it contains, allow you as a diviner the opportunity to tap into a multi dimensional divining tool.

There are two forms of divination: operational and natural. Operations utilizes tools- the manipulation of things such as stones, shells, etcetera while natural looks for the occurrence of things in nature and then that omen or sign is interpreted. The Etruscans, a group of particular interest to me, gave total reliance to the haruspix, their diviner, who would watch the lightening and thunder and using skills learnt in the diviner's college-interpret the specifics of each bolt. But many folk cultures still have natural omens and divinations... a black cat crossing before you bodes ill luck is one such still common natural divination that comes to mind.

One thing that Cunningham writes, and which I've seen propounded over and over is that divination, while often not understood, does not consist of the use of psychic abilities. Intuition and psychic abilities are delineated, and for those of you out there who think that you have limited intuition let me assure you that some of the best tarot readers are those that have simply worked at this and not relied solely on their intuition. We all have intution at some level, some folks just have given theirs more exercise to help it grow in its intensity and accuracy. Which leads me to another warning...I have seen readers who are rely totally on their intuition, and I have seen them make some glaring errors--particularly in their "advice" to the querant.

Intuition is NOT foolproof, and it can be wrong, you can miss alot even when you think you've got great intuition--and you should ask yourself if this is fair to those for whom you are divining? Please recognize this and take the time to work at whatever divinatory tools so that you use the gift of intuition along with both the backbone and the check of the tool itself. Reading for others is serious stuff, and you owe it to others to be true to the divination tool, to put in the work. If you think of it as simply a game, entertainment, then don't give advice--you never know how it will be understood and used. I am absolutely stunned when I read posts of people who ignore the cards symbols, using their "wonderful intuition"-- puhlease. In my mind this is simply someone who wants to have the power of divination without doing any work. That may be fine for fun and games, but I would not want to have a reading by such a person.

What is interesting is that many divination tools are not just interested in the future, although most of your querants (clients, seekers) will be! The most common tarot spread, the Celtic Cross, has past positions. Why is this important...well, look at what we said above, on the idea that the querant has these waves of energy that have that information...to understand their future there needs to be a recognition of the past and present. Each decision they make affects their future, and changes it. Many times something we've done months before pops up, sometimes happily, sometimes not, with some other effect that we must deal with. Many of the questions you'll get are about relationships--how much has gone on in the past for that person is determinative of their future.

Time is important. "Einstein's theory of Relativity juggles with accepted notions of time. It challenges the common-sense concept of a linear succession of moments by showing that time is affected by speed, slowing down as the speed of light is approached. Our time-space universe is expanding, with galaxies flying apart yet remaining constant to each other like the spots on an inflating balloon. These revelations have forced us to redefine our sense of time- past, present and future." (Parker) Indeed we often think of time as a linear event, it is our perception of natural events.

The most common way of thinking about time is linear, from one point to another to another in a straight line of time. It is indeed how our world is organized, our workdays, schools, government. There are various theories of time, that it can be jumped around, that there are several "times" going on at the same time and one can learn to jump from one time stream to another; I like what Cunningham said: "Some believe, however that time is far more complex than any of these theories. It consists, not of linear (straight) motion or of a spiral, but of motion in all directions; of zig-zags and curves and circles and spirals. It's this activity that's responsible for the creation of what we perceive to be the past, present and future. Time itself is seen as a dimension that intersects with our physical world; that measure it but doesn't in anyway control it. It also brings order into our lives; to paraphrase Einstein, time is what prevents everything from happening at once."

You will be asked often, WHEN will I meet mr. or ms. Right? WHEN will I get a promotion? WHEN....it is a most difficult question . Some tarot authors and readers say that the reading is good for a month, or two months, etcetera. I usually tell them that the reading-since it depends much on what they've done to that point- will be good until enough new things occur to change it. In other words, things could change to make these things different. Perhaps now, armed with the knowledge that something will happen they may do something to enhance or detract from that outcome. I've seen explanations that state firmly, the reading is good for such and such time. The reality of my own experience is that timing is far more complex.

This is an area where some of the more experienced in the class are WELCOME to thrown in their own experiences. I've often thought that part of my problem is that I've not such a great concept of linear time to begin with-- I can lose myself in a book, or a creative project for hours and not realize the time has passed. I need two alarm clocks and a german shepherd (well, ok three german shepherds) breathing down my neck each morning, just to wake up. When I read for someone, I am unaware of time passing, and have had to learn to watch the clock periodically so I am not reading for hours when all someone wanted was a quick reading.

What happens when a diviner is asked a question? First and foremost I think you should spend some time making sure you understand what the question is, and what the querant wants to know. I once read for the young friend of one of my coworker's daughters (birthday party, reminding me about never volunteering again!). Most of the teens questions revolved around boys (well aint that a surprise!) . As did this young ladies questions. Yet the cards came up with about as many strong adult male father figure types as could possibly be crammed into a spread. So after some careful prodding I found out that her real concern was that her father was being very strict on her and she was afraid he would get angry if she even mentioned boys to him. Hmmm, not the original question but a good example of her energy giving the true question there.

Keep in mind too that we bring our own lives into a reading, and what we see and think may be different for someone else. I've learned that the easiest way to start a dialogue on the question is to repeat the question back to the person and then restate it in my own words: "Your question is whether or not you will get a promotion at your job.? Now I take that to mean that you are expecting a promotion, and you think it will be coming soon?" --no, not exactly what was asked, but it gives you a chance to get a clarification: "Well, no I'm not really in line for a promotion, but I've another job offer and I might take it if there's nothing in this job for me." Well, now we are changing the question a bit, but this will help you give that person a better reading.

Oh, but what if you don't know the question? One of my favorite ways of readings is to not know what the querant wants. I do a double spread using two decks of cards on the same spread-onet hey cut, the other I cut. I put the cards face down and turn them up in placement sequence one by one. This does two things-- it forces me to look at each card- to truly get as much from each card as possible. This also helps me give as much information to the querant as possible rather than relying on the "total picture" that I usually can "get" with a glance- and yes, there is merit in doing that type of reading, I just like to do BOTH when there is the time because I have learned from doing this type of reading that my focus is forced into the cards despite any other rhythm or pattern, and then I can take the step back and see the total picture, how the cards interrelate and affect each other.

A final note on the kind of questions you will get...you will get the first type of question that asks for a "binary" response, yes/no. You are using that in your exercise this week. There are tarot spreads to help with that and as we work through the majors we can get to that. The second is the one we are dealing with mostly in tarot, the symbolic. Images and symbols predate alphabets, and have been used as language, indication of some event or fact, as quick ways of knowing tablets of information, and sometimes to evoke the unconscious into action. We will discuss symbols in more detail later.

There are hundreds of types of divination...using all sorts of objects, tools, and techniques. As an exercise for you I would like you to choose one other type of divination tool to research and put that in your notebook. You can post it to the group if you'd like.

Your OTHER exercise is to take a coin, choose one side as "yes", the other as "no". Ask the coin yes/no type questions, toss it and see how it lands. Keep a record of the questions and the answers. I suggest doing some questions that you know the answers to (Do I have red hair?, e.g.) and some answers that you don't know the answers for.

This exercise will be interesting, trust me. Let us know your results--success rate, or lack of success with this binary divination tool you've just created.

Questions? Post them to the group. This is a class for beginners-- I am assuming you know little or nothing, ergo no stupid questions (Thankfully for you I've probably asked all those <G>).

ShadowWolf