Are Divinations Always Correct?
As we come to the end of 2010, people are naturally interested in what will happen to them and those they care about in the coming year. Many of us will ask questions of astrologers, Tarot readers, etc., while others of us will investigate the charts and cards for ourselves.
But are such divinations accurate and correct? The ancient oracles used to speak in puzzles rather than clearly giving answers to questions. This resulted in plenty of room for interpretation and misinterpretation. Although the interpretation may have been in error, the divination itself was correct.
In 1994, Chic and Sandra Tabatha Cicero edited the first volume of The Golden Dawn Journal (recently republished as Basics of Magic: The Best of the Golden Dawn Journal, Book I). In it I published an original, extensive and modern Tarot divination I had created and been using following a lecture I had heard by the Ciceros. It uses the famous symbol of the Rose Cross as a central focus. I discuss talismanic aspects of the central circle or “rose” of this symbol in Modern Magick.
The Rose Cross
Other writers who contributed to the book included Mary K. Greer, M. Isidora Forrest, Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki, David Godwin, Gareth Knight, and many others.
At the end of the book, the editors questioned all of the contributors as to whether the accuracy of divinations should always be trusted. Different people had different responses. I think my response remains valid. I wrote:
Give a hammer to a child who has never used one and the child may get hurt. Even after the child is instructed on how to use the tool it is likely that many nails will be bent or wasted. Give a hammer to a skilled carpenter and he or she will drive nails home with three blows. Any tool is only as useful as the person who wields it.
A divination can always be trusted to be exactly what it is: a manifestation of the abilities of the person performing the divination. An inexperienced interpreter may be partially or totally incorrect. A reader with an agenda to push (such as trying to work a con game) is likely to focus on that agenda.
With an expert reader the divination can be highly accurate. However, it has been my experience (and the experience of other Tarot readers I have talked with) that when somebody comes for a divination, the cards not only have messages for the client, but also for the reader. Even the expert must be careful to avoid passing messages meant for him or her on to the client.
The true key to this question is the nature of divination. The word means, “to make divine.” The art and science of performing divinations (not “fortune telling”) has the effect of making the interpreter more spiritual. Therefore, I think people should learn to perform divinations for themselves rather than relying on the interpreations of others.
Are divinations you have performed for yourself or others accurate?
Do your divinations have as much meaning for you as the do for the people you are reading for?
Despite her adequate abilities, my lady friend will often insist that I do readings for her. I’ve tried to teach her how to focus and not have any predilection or bias toward any particular outcome but she’s somewhat..ADD I guess you could say (if that is the disorder that applies). Her mind is like a radio or TV that’s constantly changing channels. This seems to be the case with most people these days.
So I’m the one who usually ends up trying to answer her questions. I usually try to get her readings done first and then move on to my own. The thing is a lot of the outcome or future cards in both of our readings end up being the same. This has caused me to wonder whether or not all readings can have some degree of accuracy despite someones lack of concentration or hopefulness for a particular answer.
I’ve also noticed a slight amount of emphasis on me and my life when I do readings for her. Sometimes it’s as if the answers pertain to both of us (this makes sense since we’ve been living together). This is definitely more the case when I do them as opposed to her. The King of Swords (me) pops up all of the time in my spreads but almost never in hers (I wonder what that means).
Generally, if I’ve meditated and done all of my banishings, I always find my readings to have a pretty high degree of accuracy.
One thing I’ve found though is that I usually never really understand what the outcome means for me until I reach that point in time. There could be all sorts of court cards and I’m thinking, “OK, that’s got to be this person or that person, they’re the only people I know with earth signs,” and then the whole outcome ends up involving people I’ve never met before (I’ve actually been quiet accurate in guessing peoples signs this way) or a situation I never could have expected. Then everything suddenly clicks into place and I’m going, “Oh, that makes sense! Of course!”
I’ve still got a lot to learn though. To be honest I almost never shuffle the cards so that some of them will be reversed. If any of them end up that way I’ll usually leave them and interpret them this way but I’ve found that I still get an accurate enough reading for my purposes if all of the cards are right side up. Besides, after all of these years I’m still trying to thoroughly commit all of the meanings of the cards to memory and what the implications are when certain cards wind up in the same spread. Working with the reverse meanings adds a whole lot more info. to deal with. I’m sure I’ll get it all down some day though. The subjects of Qabalah and The Tarot are certainly vast and rich enough to keep someone occupied for their entire life!
My experience with accuracy has been that, 1. keep practicing! If I don’t do a divination for a while, it tends to be quite rusty. 2. resist the urge to “try again” if you don’t get what you like. Even if the cards are confusing and you justify it to yourself as just a way to clarify the answer before you, I find that re-readings on the same issue tend to greatly diminish in accuracy. It’s worth it to spend quality time analyzing the cards you’ve drawn and what they mean to you right now. Work with what you’ve got! 3. toss the explanation books! well, maybe not toss them, but don’t use them as a crutch. It often makes the reading feel like you’re sticking a round peg into a square hole. “Bad” cards (according to the explanation guides that come with most cards, or are available in bookstores) can often be quite “good” in the particular circumstance. Here’s an example: I had to go to the doctor for some blood work and I was nervous about the result. I turned over one card and I got the 8 of cups. I looked it up in my book and to my horror, it said “losing hope, drained energy, leaving behind a hopeless situation.” “Ahhh! I’m doomed!,” I thought. But it didn’t strike me as correct. Something in my gut told me, “it’s saying you’re abandoning your worry that you’ve meticulously built up and have unfortunately let take hold of your life.” I got a renewed sense of confidence, and everything was OK with the doctor after all. So I listened to my inner voice, as opposed to the guide books, and I learned a valuable lesson.