Introduction :

Divination is the art or practise of foretelling the future using different methods that the divinor may decide. The art of Divination has been practised by all countries, cultures and religions around the world for thousands of years. In this section I will be talking about some of the methods of divination that can be used , and is indeed used in Wicca. I will be highlighting the methods I personally use :

Tarot:

For five centuries or more Tarot cards have been used in Europe , ostensibly for games and fortune-telling, but really to preserve the essentials of a secret doctrine. They form a symbolic alphabet of the ancient wisdom, and to their influence upon the minds of a few enlightened thinkers we may trace the modern revival of interest in that wisdom.

This revival may be said to date from 1854, when Eliphas Levi published Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie, the first of a series of occult books in which he named the Tarot as his most important source of information. His influence appears in the writings of H. P. Blavatsky; it pervades the teachings of the French occult school, headed by Papus (Dr. Gerard Encausse); it is developed for English readers in the works of S. L. MacGregor Mathers, A. E. Waite, Dr. W. Wynn Westcott, and others; it enters the New Thought movement in various ways, notably through the essays of Judge Troward, and it even extends to Scottish Rite Masonry in the United States, by way of Albert Pike's Morals and Dogma, which repeats verbatim passage after passage from Levi's Dogme et Rituel.

Levi's opinion of the Tarot was very high. He recommended it to occult students as a key to all mysteries. "A prisoner devoid of books," he declared, "had he only a Tarot of which he knew how to make use, could in a few years acquire a universal science, and converse with an unequalled doctrine and inexhaustible eloquence.

A Tarot pack contains seventy-eight cards. Fifty-six - minor trumps, or lesser arcana - are divided into four suits: wands (clubs), cups (hearts), swords (spades) and pentacles (diamonds). Each suit includes four court cards - king, queen, knight and page - and ten spot cards, numbered from ace to ten. The spots, usually grouped in geometrical designs, are sometimes combined with pictures illustrating the divinatory meanings of the cards. The rest of the pack - major trumps, or greater arcana - is a series of symbolic pictures. Each has a special title, and bears a number.

The doctrine behind these symbols has assumed many forms. The Vedas are its oldest literary expression, but it was known, and transmitted orally from generation to generation, long before the Vedas passed into writing. In one sense it is that true Christian religion which, according to St. Augustine , always existed, and only began to be called Christian after the time of Jesus. It is the truth taught by such organized schools as the Rosicrucians and Craft Masonry, and by the Great School from which these and other similar societies have proceeded. It is veiled also by the symbols of alchemy and astrology. Hence the Tarot speaks many languages, and its emblems are full of meaning to every student of the ancient mysteries, no matter by what path he may have approached the truth which is at the heart of them all. Yet, though its symbolism is catholic, because it expresses universal ideas, the Tarot also represents a particular version of the sacred science. It is a symbolic alphabet of the occult philosophy of Israel -an emblematic synthesis of the Qabalah.

Runes:

The oldest runes that have been reliably researched by conventional archaeological methods date from more than 1,700 years ago. This set is therefore known as the Elder Futhark, although because it is associated with the culture of the Germanic peoples of Northern Europe, it is sometimes called the Common Germanic Futhark. Some theories say these runes are based a derivation from Latin script, whereas others suggest a Gothic script was the origin. The theory with the least objections to it (though by no means without detractors) is that runes were derived from the North Italic script, which itself was derived from Etruscan.

More recently the Futhark became modified, and 1,200 years ago the 24 runes of the Elder Futhark became as many as 33 when they arrived in Northumbria (North-Eastern England). Across the North Sea their needs were different, and the Viking Futhark instead shrank to a meagre 16 staves (though this was later re-expanded by the use of "dotted" runes).

What can they be used for? - As the runes each represent sounds, not surprisingly they can be used for writing. Historically, runes were often used for inscriptions on monuments in the same way that modern monuments carry inscriptions using an alphabet. They were also used for passing messages. Yet although very many thousands of runic artifacts have been discovered across Northern Europe, few people nowadays use them much for this, apart from inscriptions of some special meaning.

Runes were definitely used for magical purposes. Not only is this use described in ancient writings such as the Eddas, there have been many artefacts found whose runic inscriptions do not make linguistic sense and whose purpose can only be understood in terms of magic. Unfortunately the ancients left scant instructions on how actually to use runes for magical purposes! Some people in modern times have experimented with rune magic and have attempted to rediscover these arts.

One historical magical use of runes was in healing. Egil's Saga was written about 775 years ago, and describes events that happened 250 or more years earlier. When the subject of the story, Egil, visits a farm, he finds that the farmer's daughter is sick and has been wasting away for some time. Egil asks whether anything has been done, and is told, "Runes have been graven, and it is a farmer's son a short way off who did that; but ever since it has been far worse for her than before." Egil then finds the runes carved on a piece of whalebone in the bed. He scrapes the bone clean and burns both it and the shavings. Then he carves new runes, laying them under her pillow, and she quickly becomes well. Egil says (in poetry), "No leech should unleash runes save rightly he can read them. Of men it happens to many a mirky stave benights him. Well, spied I on scraped whalebone ten secret runestaves graven. Those to leeklinden maiden brought wasting all too lasting." (Egil's Saga - translated from the Old Icelandic by Jones.) Nowadays, runes are sometimes used for healing. Practitioners have discovered how to use runes to tap energies which can be directed magically.

What do people use runes for mostly nowadays? Divination. Yet this is strange, for there is NO historical evidence that runes were ever used for divination! In fact there is no evidence that runic divination was ever practised before the late 20th century, from around 1970 onwards. The Roman Tacitus, writing 1,900 years ago about the customs of Germanic tribes, describes a divination technique which is supposed by some to describe the use of runes. "For omens and the casting of lots they have the highest regard. Their procedure is always the same. They cut off a branch of a nut-bearing tree and slice it into strips; these they mark with different signs and throw them completely at random onto a white cloth. Then the priest of the state, if the consultation is a public one, or the father of the family if it is private, offers a prayer to the gods, and looking up to the sky picks up three strips, one at a time, and reads their meaning from the signs previously scored on them." (Germania - translated from the Latin by Mattingly.) These "signs" (or notæ in the original Latin) could be anything, and it's only wishful thinking that would make them runes.

Yet since it is possible to do successful divination with almost anything provided you know how divination in general works, divination with runes has become very popular. It takes advantage of the meanings of the runes. Each rune has at least one meaning. Most have many meanings linked by a common thread. These meanings exist because the runes are more than just graphical symbols. They are also symbols in the same sense that dreams may contain symbols or a poem may contain symbols. They stand for things, objects and actions, but they can also stand for values - the values that pervaded the Germanic society of earlier tribal times. The runes can also be used to gain an insight into the values of the Germanic peoples of Northern Europe during the Dark Ages. They can be used in meditation and in healing. They can be used in magic and in divination. Certainly a whole lifetime could be spent in learning about them and using them.

Pendulum Dowsing:

The ancient Romans were renowned for pendulum scrying and their methods were detailed in the writings of Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus. It is also possible that French seer Nostradamus used this same Roman method of basin scrying by means of a pendulum to produce individual letters that formed intelligible prophetic verses. The bowl used was a composite material of many metals, meaning it was made of electrum, an alloy of gold and silver. A ring was attached by thread to a wand. The ring was probably a band of electrum with occult characters engraved upon it. The twenty four letters of the Greek alphabet were engraved into the flange of the basin. The table used was probably a tripod in which to support the basin. It was made out of branches of laural and had three legs.

Laural was the substance specified by the Enochian angels for the scrying table of John Dee. Another method which has been used in Europe for centuries involves the suspension of a ring from a thin silk thread inside an ordinary water goblet. The responses come in the form of tapping sounds as the ring gently raps the side of the glass. The seer asks a specific question that can be answered with a yes or a no. A single tap indicates a yes while two taps indicate a no. More than two taps indicates the spirit is not certain of the response.

Another method is to use a sheet of paper with a cross marked upon it. The ring is held suspended over the cross in the left hand upon a silk thread. A simple question is asked which only requires a yes or no. If the answer is yes it will swing back and forth along the vertical arm of the cross. If the answer is no it will swing side to side along the horizontal arm of the cross. Some scryers prefer to use a crystal instead of a ring. Once you have made your pendulum you should purify it.

Fill a clear bowl with fresh pure water. Say a cleansing prayer : "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean, Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow, Create in me a clean heart, And renew a right spirit within me".

Dip the crystal and thread into the water and leave for a few minutes.

On the night of a full moon place the pendulum and thread in the moonlight and leave for several hours. Never allow your pendulum to be placed in direct sunlight