The importance of divination really can't be overstated, but for whatever reason, in the occult community folks tend to forget to do it.  This might be out of laziness or out of ineptitude on their part, but without divination, we are more or less adrift with no insight into why things are occurring the way they are. We've no way of telling whether or not someone is telling the truth or just being an attention whore, barring the existence of available evidence.

That being the case, its a practice that the Ancients took seriously, so why don't we?

If you don't feel that you have the skills to figure it out yourself, you should be talking to someone who does know what they're doing and won't blow smoke up your arse by telling you what you want to hear.  You want someone honest, direct, and, let's face it, blunt. Sugar-coating things obscures the seemingly hard edge of relative truth and waters it down, and that's really not helpful in the long run.

If you're a witch, sorcerer, magician, etc/whatever, neglecting the practice will get you into hot water.  If instead of checking to see if conjuring [X] to do [Y] will get you the result you seek, you just charge in unawares, you may well do irreparable damage to the person(s) you seek to help, oust yourself from your job, or dork up the relationship you're trying to mend. You might just be setting yourself up for failure, so running blind is really just a terrible idea.

Rant aside, there are a great many methods that one can use to sort things out.  You've got the staples of modern magical practice, such as tarot, runes, ogham, geomancy, and i-ching, and then the more obscure practices of hydromancy, divining by pendulum, necromanteia, reading wax, divining by spilled liquid, tea leaves, and so forth, so the toolbox you can pick from isn't exactly tiny, and you can combine various methods to get at the truth. For every method I've mentioned, there are at least thrice-fold more, and many of those methods can be taught by spirits such as Vassago, Bune, Freyja, Wotan, Rudra, and so forth. Many spirits have their own methods, in fact, as do many clans of spirits. Point is that so long as you aren't lazy about it, there's a lot of ways to get it done.

When in doubt, invoke or evoke a spirit that you trust to help you figure things out. There are plenty of examples of folks doing this in the mythical texts, and many deities will have their own interesting insights into the way to read the cards/runes/i-ching/etc.

For example, if I were trying to figure out how to help a male client seduce someone and I didn't understand the runes, I'd invoke Oðin, explain my intentions, then get His input.  For a female, I'd talk to Freyja, Frigga, or Idun, depending on the disposition of the client in question.  If looking to hunt down a client's competition, Skaði'd be my go-to-girl. For matters of fertility and abundance, Thor and Freyjr are likely best.

Involving different spirits at different times can help you to get a different vantage point on the situation, so its a useful pastime when in doubt.

Happy Divining, you lot! ;)

SE

Over the past month or two, I've been noticing a rather irritating trend that bears mentioning: no one wants to take responsibility for their own actions.  The pattern of narcissistic blame-gaming that leaves no one accountable is getting worse, and its to the point where its toxic.

Just yesterday, I was watching an episode of a TV show, and something happened that caught my attention.  One of the characters in the show was going through a rough time, and he finally blurted out the question "Why is God punishing me?!" in front of a Rabbi.  The Rabbi, who had hitherto bit his tongue, simply turned to the man and said (paraphrased) "All God ever did to you was give you a body, a brain, and a soul.  Everything else is on you, so why don't you use that brain that God gave you an figure out which of your actions led you to this experience." Its a simple, short conversation, but it has a lot of merit.  We are all responsible for what we experience, and blaming others for the shitstorm at our doorstep and in our homes doesn't remedy the issue.

The food we eat, the people we interact with, the music we listen to, the shows we watch, the books we read, the places we go, what we think, how we choose to feel, and everything else that we do or don't do is a decision. Every decision changes who we are inside and out, binding us to our fate and changing our course and tying us further to it. That's life, and understanding this immeasurably important fact is the first step towards attaining sovereignty over ourselves and our lives.

Attitude is everything, so the moment you stop blaming others and become accountable for your own actions is the very moment you start realizing what you need to do to fix things.  When you accept what you've done, you can realistically chart a course that'll help you to remedy things.

As a case in point, a friend of a friend recently found out that he has cancer.  He went from being a cheery bloke with a great sense of humor to a shadow of what he was...all overnight. The cancer hadn't changed him, but what did hit him is that all of the chewing tobacco and cigars he had adored up until that point had poisoned him. Now, despite knowing that, he's all but given up. In giving up, he's chosen not to fight the cancer in his body and overcome it; instead, he will be consumed by it. This choice will kill him, but no one can convince him otherwise because he hasn't chosen to do something about it.

Knowing this, be mindful. Go out, pay attention to what you're doing, and then enjoy what you do.  Live a little.

Blessings and warm regards,

SE

As a follow-up to my posts regarding working with the Shadow and Luminous selves, I thought I'd talk a bit about the third and "final" set.

To be frank, I've debated about posting this information, as this is the kind of stuff that can really get you into hot water.  Even writing this stirred things up in and around my home. Working with the light and dark portions of ourselves is perilous at best - walking the middle path after you've walked the aforementioned roads is fraught with traps and pitfalls.  Its easy to get lost, even easier to deceive yourself, and very problematic.  There are setbacks that you encounter, ranging through emotional, mental, and physical realms, and they will, at times, seem uncommonly difficult and problematic.

Do not, under any circumstances, attempt this work before you've successfully gone through and worked through each of the sigils I provided in my earlier posts mentioned at the start of this article.  If you do not abide this warning, you will experience issues, and you will need my help to undo the damage.



To get started, this work is based on working with the Shadow and Luminous Selves, but it takes it a step further.  The intention is to unite both sides and then utilize them as one.  This is, in my opinion, the highest goal of magical practice, and the union of both halves is the seat from which truly effective magic can be performed.

I've already gone into depth regarding the extremes of light and dark, so herein is where I will provide sigils and no handholding.  If you dabble here without being prepared, you won't know how to proceed, but if you're of sufficient talent, sorting these out will be easy for you.

Happy hunting.

Regards,

SE