Hi Guys,
Continuing or Spirits part of the elements series today, we are looking at ways to communicate with Spirit, concentrating mainly on the tools I have used. If you have a preferred method, please let us know in the comments below.
The way I think of communicating with spirit, is to help others by guidance through messages received and passing on these massages to others. We have a TikTok channel on which I deliver daily (or mostly daily) card readings.
Scrying
Scrying is said to be a way of 'foretelling the future' using a crystal ball, or other reflective object or surface.
I prefer to say that I am telling it the way it is, rather than fortune telling. A person's free will alone makes the reader into a liar when the customers are determined that a foretold thing will NOT happen.
You can scry with water in a black bowl, or ink-blackened water, using a candle flame, using a crystal ball, crystals or a mirror, among other things. Scrying is a form of gazing at (or rather through) an object until another picture or vision becomes visible, then deciphering that vision.
I shall start with the crystal ball, or orbuculum. Mine, pictured above, is a quartz one. Technically, as it is quartz, any scrying performed with this crystal ball, would be called crystallomancy, as would using any other type of crystal.
They can also be made of glass, leaded glass or stone, and are very highly polished.
The first mention of a crystal ball in history comes from Pliny the Elder in the first century, describing the soothsayers of Ancient Rome. By the fifth century it was in widespread use, but the early mediaeval Christian religion decried the practice of scrying as heretical.
Crystal balls made a comeback during the 15th and 16th centuries with the rise of Alchemy and Hermeticism, most notably used by John Dee, a consultant to Queen Elizabeth I.
It gained massive traction in the Victorian era, where the Victorians claimed that crystal balls worked best when the sun was in its Northernmost declination. The vision is said to occur just after the ball mists up from within.
Romani (closed practice) fortune tellers use the crystal ball for prediction for their customers.
Remember to cover your crystal ball if it is kept anywhere direct sunlight can reach it - these things can amplify sunlight. Think f what happens when we use a magnifying glass to focus sunlight....
Also used in scrying are obsidian mirrors, here is mine:
It did used to have a stand, but the stand was plastic and has broken. I will get a new one at some point.I thought that the use of obsidian mirrors was a fairly recent practice, until I started research into it for my crystal course.
Obsidian mirrors were used by Aztec Priests to produce visions and make predictions. The mirrors were linked to the God Tezcatlipoca, God of obsidian and sorcery. His name can be translated from the Nahuatl language as meaning smoking mirror.
Obsidian was also reputed to have been used by Incans for scrying purposes.
John Dee, as mentioned above, also had an obsidian mirror in his possession, which now resides in The British Museum in London.
Due to being dark in colour, and fortune-telling being heretical, there are massively negative connotations with the obsidian mirror. I, however, have found no negativity at all from using this item as a scrying tool.
Pendulums
Pendulums are literally anything that can be hung from a string or chain, as you can see, mine are crystal ones (surprise, surprise, I hear you cry!). I have heard of people tying paperclips to thread to use as a pendulum, and I am sure you have heard of hanging a gold ring over a pregnant lady's stomach to determine the sex of the unborn baby.
Pendulums can be used for dowsing, which is finding things such as water, mineral lodes, missing items etc.
Ancient Egyptians used pendulums to determine where to plant crops, or, as mentioned above, to sex an unborn baby.
Dowsing using divining rods was popularised in 1300s Europe.
Pendulums were used in the Vietnam War where American GIs used them to determine if tunnels or mines were lurking waiting to trap them.
Pendulums are used in science too! Think of a grandfather clock.
They can also be used to answer questions. Whether you used a pendulum answer board or simply read the direction of the movement of the pendulum is a matter of personal preference. I use my hand nowadays.
People who have specialised in pendulum readings can professionally be called pendulumists.
Cartomancy
Cartomancy is simply the use of cards as a tool to pass on messages from spirit.The above are a set of tarot cards. I own many packs of tarot cards, although I normally use oracle cards to deliver readings to clients. I just find oracle cards easier to read, and more accessible.
Cards have been around since ancient times, variously said to have been first made by either the Chinese or Babylonian cultures
The tarot as we know it now was first popularised in France in the 1700s, although its roots can go back to Italy in the 1500s, with a card game called Tarocchini.
Most famously, Josephine, consort and first wife of Napoleon I.
You can use regular playing cards as divination tools too.
The following is copied from a card reading workshop that I put together some years ago:
Evolution of Playing Cards Timeline.
- Circa 6-700 A.D.: The Chinese invent paper dominoes.
- C7 A.D.: Cards reach Japan and result in many new games and uses. The Moslem world creates four suits with ‘court’ cards.
- Circa 1370 A.D.: European incidences of four suited playing cards.
- 1376 A.D.: A law in Italy is passed banning the playing of ‘Naibbe’, with the implication that the game had only recently arrived there.
- 1377 A.D. A law in Paris forbade the playing of card games on weekdays.
- Late C14th A.D.: Invention of the woodcut technique reduces time and cost of printing.
Belgium becomes a big exporter. Some of the best written records come from this time and country.
- C15th A.D.: 56 card decks popular in France. Tarot first recognised in Milan.
- C16th A.D.: Introduction of playing cards to South America.
- 1770 A.D.: Brazil – Playing card production sanctioned by Royal Decree.
- 1796 A.D.: Founding of the first company in Belgium that were to go on to found the Carta Mundi Company in 1970.
- C18th A.D.: First linking of the occult with playing cards, mainly in English speaking countries.
- C19th A.D.: Mme Lenormand popularises oracle cards in Paris during the reign of Napoleon Bonepart.
- 1889 A.D.: Founding of Nintendo Koppai who published Flower Cards, becoming Nintendo Playing Cards Company Ltd. in 1951, and later Nintendo, who still produce some playing card and collectible card games today, noticeably Pokemon
- 1910 A.D.: Rider Waite Tarot deck first commercially produced.
- 1993 A.D.: Magic: The Gathering, the first customisable trading card game, produced by Wizards of the Coast.
- 1999 A.D.: Doreen Virtue’s first deck published, Healing with the Angels Oracle Cards.
Sources:
http://www.wopc.co.uk/ http://www.holisticshop.co.uk/articles/read-tarot-cards http://www.hayhouse.co.uk/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doreen_Virtue
(Hand out 1)
Card readings using playing cards.
The fore-most rule is easily had,
Red cards are good, black cards are bad!
The second most rule shall bring greater fruits,
It deals with the meaning of each of the suits.
Hearts are love, family & friends,
Diamonds are money, wealth, means and ends.
Clubs mean work, callings and plans,
Spades are the troubles that plague every man.
The third-most rule toward number inclines
Note the cards’ pip and read the signs.
Ace brings beginnings, 2 gives pairs and exchange,
3 is a growing, 4 is no change,
5 is a body, health and stead,
6 shows a path the seeker shall tread,
7 brings trouble that fate has assigned,
8 shows ideas, thoughts in the mind,
9 heralds change, 10 is the end.
Kings are the symbols of power and men,
Queens are the emblems of women and truth,
Knaves are a message, a girl or a youth.
A simple layout involves a drawing of 3,
Note the colour of the cards, then tell what you see,
Times move left to right, where you’ve been, where you are
The 3rd is where you are headed as a result of the other 2 cards.
3rd card is important, and this ends the rhyme,
But remember when a heart ends the trio, it’s a very good sign.
(Hand out 2)
This is just a few of the things that I would cover in that course.
Ouija Board
Did you know that the name Ouija board comes from two words that mean 'yes' - French - Oui and German - Ja?
There is a lot of negativity surrounding this item. I know that in places such as America, this is sold as a child's toy, but then, tarot cards were originally playing cards!
As with all of the objects above, this is merely a tool to focus your energies. So, the key here is making sure that your energies are pure, as is your intent.
NEVER attempt to use a Ouija or Spirit Board if you are tired, drunk, under the influence of drugs or deeply emotional.
We have had a few goes with ours, but never had any positive results.
I am not saying that this is the case for everyone, though, and I do believe that it would be possible to summon some form of entity if the intention was enough to create it. This could easily be accomplished without the board present, though.
As with all things - NEVER SUMMON SOMETHING THAT YOU CANNOT ALSO BANISH!!
* * *
There are many other ways of communicating with spirit, including clairvoyancy, mediumship, bone castings and meditation, but my fingers are exhausted from typing, so I will leave this post here for now.
I hope this has helped.
Kerenza x
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