diviner
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
In 2015, my friend and colleague on Psychic Access, Salome, peacefully departed from this life. This blog is a tribute to her legacy and the important lessons I learned from her.
Before I met Salome, she had already made a name for herself in the pagan community. She was talked about in almost reverent whispers.
“Have you met her?”
“Isn’t she the psychic who helped the police find that missing girl?”
“You should take a class from her, she really knows her stuff.”
When I finally met Salome, I remember thinking that there was an almost regal bearing to the way she carried herself. Her posture always seemed completely correct, her make-up flawless, not a hair out of place. She seemed to know who she was and was confident in everything about her person, her talent, and her work.
As we got to know each other, she soon recognized something in me as a diviner that she felt needed to be nurtured and encouraged. So, she decided to mentor me. She watched how I handled my Tarot cards and how I applied them to the questions being asked. Her wise guidance added more depth to my readings and boosted my confidence. She also helped me get my first professional psychic job online.
Over the years she became my sister, my confidant, my counselor, one of my very best friends. Every time we met, I learned more about our craft, about being a better psychic reader, and how to practice Wicca, and the consequences and responsibilities that go with it.
She taught me how to connect with my inner guidance and listen to my guides. She taught me how to read auras and what the changes in colors meant. She taught me about energy work, the chakras and how to cleanse and balance my energy flow.
Becoming Aware Of Psychic Signs
We often get so caught up in the technical aspects of divination, in the textbook definitions of our methods and tools, and in the intellectual pursuit of spiritual wisdom and esoteric knowledge gleaned from scholars, teachers and gurus, that we forget to employ the most basic of all techniques: our own awareness and observation of signs and synchronities in our environment.
Now, I’m not questioning book-learning, and the like. Studying our metaphysical craft is a necessary scaffolding on which to build a solid practice. It takes many years for the apprentice to become an expert. And after much practice, the diviner finds a comfortable stride, with their unique voice and style of practicing being sought after by clients who resonate with their unique skills.
The more we practice the esoteric arts, the more intuitive and attuned we become, and a wonderful blending occurs between right-brain and left-brain awareness. This is how we increasingly deliver powerful messages and truths to our clients. This is why it is indeed important to have the foundational training, and the necessary skills and life experience, to offer solid advice and guidance.
But, it also extremely important to be mindful and pay attention to our environment at all times. Not every moment in a reading can always be a profound channeled truth for the client. Sometimes the messages come in much subtler tones that we must tune into in order to appreciate their significance.
Something as simple as the sunlight bursting through a cloud at the moment a question is asked, or the sudden twinkling laughter of a neighbor, can deliver increased awareness to the diviner from her environment.
Throwing The Bones
Before studying various Western disciplines of healing and divination, I trained to become a sangoma some 30 years ago, on the borders of Mozambique and Kwazulu-Natal in Southern Africa, where I learned among other things the divination method known as ‘throwing the bones.’
A ‘sangoma’ casting the bones is the African equivalent of the Native American shaman, the Old Norse rune reader, or the European Tarot reader. To uninformed Westerners, indigenous African methods of divination are often thought of as ‘witchcraft,’ but just like there is good and bad in all cultures and professions, the true calling of the African diviner or shaman is a spiritual one of seeking advice through the wise ancestors. In the same way modern Western diviners rely on spirit guides, angels or the ascended masters for divine guidance, so the African diviner relies upon the ancestors.
My training came about after I consulted another sangoma and was told it was my calling to become sangoma myself. She also cautioned me that until I took up this calling, I would repetitively become ill – and how right she was!
Eventually I heeded the ‘calling’, as unusual as it was at the time for a young English woman to enter the mysterious realm of African mysticism in the country in those days. Training was harsh and intense with my mentor and included coaching in various disciplines, such as divination, dream interpretation, ritual, indigenous medicines, and herbalism over a two and a half year period.
One of the divination methods I was taught is known as ‘throwing the bones’. Since the beginning of recorded history the notion of throwing tokens, casting the dice or drawing lots to interpret the divine will of spirit and the ancestors has been viewed as symbolically linking the diviner to his or her mission. Casting or throwing the bones is an ancient practice native to many regions of the world, including Africa, Asia, and North America. In Southern Africa it is a long-standing ritual among the sangomas of the Zulu, Swazi, Xhosa and Ndebele tribes.
Each bone or token used for casting is part of a kit the sangoma carefully selects with the guidance of spirit, initially with the help of a mentor. Spirit and the ancestors instruct the seeker as to the symbolism and meaning of each sacred item in the collection, and precisely shows the student where to find it and which one to use in a divination. In Southern Africa, a mentor assists the thwasa (trainee sangoma) in the process of learning to receive information from the bones, and in reading the patterns in which the bones are likely to fall.
The Ancient Art Of Dowsing
If you live in a rural, arid area or grew up in a farming community, you might be familiar with the practice of ‘dowsing’ to searching for hidden, underground water. But did you know that dowsing is also used as a divination tool, as well as a spiritual practice?
The art form of dowsing dates back to ancient times, as it can be found depicted in old artwork found in Egypt, China and Babylonia. Dowsing for water, as it is practiced today, is believed to have originated the 16th century in Germany, where it was first used to search for metals.
Dowsing, however, is not only used to find water. It is also used by diviners and metaphysicians to predict future outcomes, perform healings, locate missing objects, and even to help solve crimes.
Instead of a dowsing rod, psychics use a pendulum or weighted item to ask their spiritual guardians or angels for guidance. The pendulum serves as a connection between the physical realm and the spirit realms. The answers from spirit is interpreted through the motion of the pendulum. For example, if the pendulum moves up and down, or counterclockwise, the answer may be no, or negative, while back and forth or clockwise usually suggests yes, or positive.
A skilled diviner is usually able to translate the results very accurately, although a beginner can also practice this art with some success. This allows someone who is new to the practice to ask simple yes or no questions to get results. For more advanced readings, with more complex questions, it’s best to consult a dowser with more experience, who can accurately interpret the results. Dowsing scales and charts are often used for this purpose.
How To Read Angel Cards
I love reading angel cards and consider them as one of my most trusted tools for giving precise and professional forecasts. While I have been a professional psychic for more than a decade, the beauty of oracle cards is that no specialized training, talent, skills or experience is required to begin using them effectively.
You don’t have to be a professional diviner or gifted psychic to use oracle cards in your personal spiritual practice. With a deck of cards anyone connect with the angelic or spirit realm as soon as they feel ready to do so. However, to begin reading angel cards as a part of your spiritual practice, you may want to consider the following guidelines to get the most out of your reading experience.
Choose Your Cards Wisely
There are many places you can buy angel cards both online and offline. Wherever you decide to purchase them from, ask yourself whether or not you feel drawn to a particular pack. By doing so, you will be allowing the spiritual realm to guide you, intuitively, to the best divination tool for you.
Connect With Your Cards
Once you have purchased your angel cards, take a look at each one and shuffle them, gently, to get a ‘feel’ of what they are saying to you. Most cards come with a full set of instructions. However, should an angel card suggest something different to you personally, than what the guidelines state, then always go with your intuition first, as this is how spirit will guide you.
