Divination can degenerate into a fatalistic belief that the future is written in stone and that man has no control over his destiny. Many approach a tarot deck or a set of I Ching stalks with the assumption that what is to come may be definitively foretold by the mechanical application of a particular set of rules, and that the answer given is the only answer that they might have received.
This is a highly oversimplified view of the art. Divination is a method of examining the full potentiality of any situation. Any given moment in time can be seen as the product of a set of magnetic stresses; there are certain factors wrestling in a nest of tension with one another, and ultimately these unfold into the present moment.
A Bird’s Eye View
The highest form of divination aims to foretell not merely a single outcome of a particular situation, but all of the many possible outcomes. A real reading reveals not so much what is coming but all the things that might come, and how those potentialities are interacting with one another.
The questioner is then free to approach this crossroads of potential outcomes, bringing to this framework of tensions whatever influence is most beneficial, in the hopes of sculpting the potentialities into the highest possible outcome.
There are a few systems that have been used for many centuries as the vehicle for this information, including tarot cards, the I Ching and pendulums. Yet in truth, anything, and everything around you can be used as an oracle, because the Law of Mirroring obtains in any moment.
Law of Mirroring
The Law of Mirroring is also known as the theory of synchronicity— namely, that everything that occurs a certain moment of time has the qualities of that moment in time.
This is the principle which organizes augury— divination through the activities of birds— the system upon which Rome was founded. It is also the principal accounting for Geomantic Divination— a system of divination which reads the communications of the earth itself.
Within this theory of synchronicity, we would not believe that it is the planets that influence mankind directly; rather that the orbits of the celestial bodies simply correspond to the various conditions of men in the same way that the hands of this clock correspond to our appetite for food.
The coincidence of two people, four objects, the climate and a particular moment in space means something more than mere chance; it is a peculiar interdependence of objective events among themselves, as well as with the subjective or psychic states of the observer or observers.
This is not such an unusual thought, for there are certain connoisseurs who can tell you merely from the appearance, taste, and behavior of a wine the site of its vineyard and the year of its origin.
There are antiquarians who with almost uncanny accuracy will name the time and place of origin and the make of any art piece of furniture merely looking at it.
And there are even astrologers who can tell you without any previous knowledge of your birthday what the position of the sun and moon was, and what zodiacal sign rose above the horizon in your moment of birth.
From these facts we must allow that moments can leave long-lasting traces.
Esotericists take this a step further and say that whatever happens in a given moment possesses indelibly the quality peculiar to that moment.
When one throws the three coins or notes the birds in the sky or divines a symbol from lines scratched into dirt, these chance details enter into the picture of the moment and form a part of it.
The oracle is speaking the truth of that moment just as everything else in its own way is speaking the truth of that moment by embodying a certain set of qualities.
The “language” which an oracle communicates through must consist in a compendium of symbols sufficiently elastic in meaning to describe every possible idea, and one or more of these may always be taken to represent any idea.
We assume that any of these symbols will be understood by the intelligences with whom we wish to communicate in the same sense as it is by ourselves, thus providing us with a common tongue.
The Voice of the Earth
Earth divination is the application of certain elements of astrological techniques to physical earth instead of to the planets and the constellations.
Having posed a question, the questioner makes scratches in the dirt, letting his hand move of its own accord, and from the marks made a symbol is discerned. Although the beginner is compelled to interpret the symbol through traditional meanings, ultimately the aim is to allow intuition to take over.
Geomancy is carried out in collaboration with the elemental spirits of earth— whether you choose to regard these as beings of objective entities or as parts of your own unconscious.
The term ‘divining’ or ‘divination’ comes from ‘divine’ and the art of divination is based upon the recognition of a universal divine principle acting within the soul. The answer is received by means of the power of the living divine spirit of god whose temple is man.
It is this soul which answers the question, not the mind, as the divine light is felt within the soul as the power of intuition.
If the mind of man were to rise entirely above the realm of selfishness to become illuminated by the light of the spirit, there would be no need for geomancy to bring the knowledge of the spirit to the understanding of the material intellect.
We could then not only intuitively feel the truth but see it and know it without any argumentation or reasoning. The more we are able to spiritually rise above these clouds of matter that darken the mental sky the more will we become able to see the sunlight of truth in its purity. Practicing geomancy helps us open this inner eye which can directly see the truth.
