The human mind is usually preoccupied with the physical details of the material world. Usually we are concerned with what-is.
But what-is, even though it appears to be present or current, is actually the past in vibrational terms. It is the remnant of the mental and emotional activity that has already taken place. It is the product of the energetic momentum you have already gathered, and in that sense it is like dead wood.
To be preoccupied with what-is is to be preoccupied with changing the look and smell of a flower that has already blossomed. It is clearly a much better use of your time and energy to focus on choosing new seeds and finding fertile soil, and this is exactly what oracles can help us with, if used properly.
Look without looking inside
It is generally believed that oracles predict the future, and it is true that this is the main purpose for which they are sought. However, the way oracles indicate what is about to happen is by displaying which factors or elements are most active straight away.
An oracle is like an energetic mirror that reflects the relevant influences of a situation – both those of which the questioner is aware and those of which he or she is not yet aware.
The prophecy, then, is not a static decision, as on a tablet inscribed with a proclamation of a sealed fate, but is instead an inference drawn from the active factors in their present state of transformation. Each card, trigram, rune, or symbol of the divining medium denotes a cardinal energy, which has a certain way of being and behaves according to certain, predictable laws. So we read the future by looking at the ‘character cast’ of energies and witnessing the natural trajectory that will evolve as a result of their interaction.
Sometimes the energies indicated by the cards or symbols represent a person who is active in the situation. Sometimes they represent an entire situation, place or even an object. More often, however, an oracle’s essential commentary is not about the objective situation or any element of it as such, but about the subjective experience, approach or attitude of the questioner.
The Hero’s Journey
Fortunately, or unfortunately, you are always at the center of your story!
The events that occur are, for better or for worse, a reflection of what is going on inside you.
If we look to an oracle to confirm our belief that someone else is responsible for our problems, or that everything can change without us changing anything, our readings will be seriously disappointing! Usually the temperament or personality of the questioner is involved in the reading – and this makes sense since you are of course the main mover of the movers in your life.
An oracle presents not so much the precise, concrete details of your circumstances as the meaning of the experience and your emotional response to it. A card in a tarot reading does not so much represent a particular person as it does your perception or experience of this person, for whatever the circumstance, the way you watch the people in your life have a much greater influence on the outcome of events than the actual “objective” individuals. Events happen not so much to people as to events.
This can be annoying and unwelcome news, as it puts a responsibility on you that you would rather delegate to someone else. However, this is also the beginning of true liberation, since it is this responsibility that makes you the author of your destiny, and not the victim of tyrannical circumstances.
The ultimate mediator of fate is the individual who executes and implements free will. The most fantastic possibilities can be left unattended and unexploited, never yielding anything; and in the same way, the most vulnerable weaknesses can be overcome and turned into our most cherished strengths or achievements. It depends entirely on our willingness to take responsibility for our own lives by paying attention to the way we choose to perceive, focus, and relate to each other.
The magic mirror
Your focus, approach, attitude and perceptions are changeable, which is why any information you get from a fortune telling game should be understood in terms of possibility/probabilityrather than certainty or inevitability.
As your focus becomes more consistent in any situation, some potential futures become more likely than others, some will almost drop completely, and others will fluctuate. It is possible for a timeline to become so dominant that it is unavoidable in practice. But nothing is set in stone until it has already happened.
As you work to change your perceptions, approaches, and attitudes, you change the timelines that form in your future. Change the “character cast” of energies you activate, and you change the trajectory that will develop.
In this way Divination is not so much about reading the past, present or future as it is about reading the Self. It appears to be concerned only with ‘outside’ matters; the path of divination leads to the inner sanctum of the heart through the outer world, which is after all but its reflection.
Readings help us to intervene decisively in events in our lives. If, as we watch the pattern unfold, we don’t like where we seem to be going, we can choose to forego a particular course of action. We do this by finding the seed of this future possibility currently sprouting in the Self and uprooting it; then we can plant the seed of the flower we want to bloom in the gardens of our domain.
