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Subscribe to this list via RSS Blog posts tagged in divination

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
Marketing Pagan spiritual services

There has been some excellent online dialog recently around the question, "Should I charge for Pagan spiritual services?"  Most of the posts I've seen have been in support of money changing hands, but the comments usually show strong feelings on both sides.  Answering her question of, "Money is Bad, Right?" Shauna Aura Knight posited that the reason for this division is that, "Pagans (and people, for that matter) have a really unhealthy relationship with money."

As tantalizing that quote is to me, I have to lay it down for now.  Observant readers will already be wondering who the woman in the picture is, because it is clearly not Ms. Knight.

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When Bad Things Happen to Good People—A Pagan Perspective

I watch the news with my mother sometimes. For the record, probably not something I would recommend, especially when I have more leftist leanings and she is surprisingly conservative for how open-minded she is on certain topics. I digress. No matter how different our perspectives are, we usually end up saying the same thing after a particularly heart-wrenching news story about yet another murder or tragedy: “What is this world coming to?”

I was raised Episcopal, so I would assume that the whole idea of “God must have needed that person in Heaven, so He took he/she away from us here for a good purpose” filtered into me, by osmosis since I don’t remember anyone ever saying that to me directly. Since I never had to deal with personal tragedy, there was no reason for me to ever hear this statement, so I didn’t really think of it much until lately. Yet I keep saying that good ole phrase in the back of my head: “There must be a reason for this.” What if there isn’t?

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  • Jamie
    Jamie says #
    Ms. Parry, Thanks for sharing a tarot reader's perspective on divination and fate! The Pythia and the priests (when not corrupt)

Divination is a gift from the Gods, a way to contact the Gods directly through oracles and seers. It was something heavily relied upon in ancient Hellas, and in its mythology: many war, quests, and epics started with a visit to Delphi. Especially in Hómēros, divination by way of birds features heavily, and it has had my interest for a long while. Almost a year ago, I wrote about oiônoskopos for the Pagan Blog Project, in a post about oracles, seers and divination, and from that point on, I've been teaching the art to myself. Today, I would like to share what I have discovered.

Oiônoskopos, like many of the divinatory practices, was considered a 'technical' or 'learned' art, opposed by 'natural' or 'unlearned' types of divination. Typically, natural divination was understood to include dreams and the reading of utterances of others or yourself, and to be the older and more reliable form of divination as these types were communicated more directly by the Gods. Aristotle and the Peripatetic philosophers found value only in natural divination. Technical means of divination was everything else; anything that depended on acquired human skills, such as the reading of entrails, the behavior of birds, or birthmarks. Most form of divination, called 'mantikē', playwright Aeschylus states in 'Prometheus Bound', were taught to us by Prometheus himself:
 
"And I marked out many ways by which they might read the future, and among dreams I first discerned which are destined to come true; and voices baffling interpretation I explained to them, and signs from chance meetings. The flight of crook-taloned birds I distinguished clearly—which by nature are auspicious, which sinister—their various modes of life, their mutual feuds and loves, and their consorting's; and the smoothness of their entrails, and what color the gall must have to please the gods, also the speckled symmetry of the liver-lobe; and the thigh-bones, wrapped in fat, and the long chine I burned and initiated mankind into an occult art. Also I cleared their vision to discern signs from flames, which were obscure before this." [477]

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Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Suzanne Corbie
    Suzanne Corbie says #
    Hello Elani, interesting blog as many moons ago, I read that the Athenians, in an attempt to galvanise and motivate their army, wo
  • Elani Temperance
    Elani Temperance says #
    This practice would not surprise me at all Thanks!
  • Jamie
    Jamie says #
    This is just great stuff! Many thanks again.

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
A Tarot Deck for Everyone

 This article originally appeared at www.tarotbyhilary.com.

I firmly believe that there is a tarot deck out there for everyone. I realized this as I was looking down at my Joie de Vivre deck and wondering, “What kind of person would choose this deck?” Someone that is fun-loving and appreciative of the whimsy in life.

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Posted by on in Studies Blogs

Speech is one of the oldest forms of magic. I’m not just talking about the fact that it’s long been used in incantation or divination (runes being one example); it’s much more fundamental than that. Words are vessels designed to contain thoughts and transfer them across time and space from one mind to another. If that’s not magical, I don’t know what is.

On its surface, the process appears simple. We insert a thought into our chosen vessel and send it on its way. We trust that it will arrive at its destination, dutifully delivering its precious contents to our intended recipient(s).

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Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Ted Czukor
    Ted Czukor says #
    "It’s not enough just to know how to communicate; we have to know how to communicate with the people to whom we’re speaking." Exc
  • Cat
    Cat says #
    Looking forward to your words, sir!

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
Devotional Forms: Storytelling

 

While debate rages on in other corners of the web about what kinds of Gods we do or don’t believe in, I have been thinking about the way that we worship whatever/whomever we hold dear, sacred, and holy. I decided a series of posts that tackle this question from a deeply personal point of view would be useful to me, and perhaps to a few readers as well. I have also been thinking about shadows, storytelling, and ceremonies-so it seemed natural that I would start there.

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  • Naya Aerodiode
    Naya Aerodiode says #
    To tell a story is to take one on a journey through another realm, places of infinite possibility, to bring back the treasures of
  • Miss Bri Saussy
    Miss Bri Saussy says #
    Beautifully said Naya!
  • Stifyn Emrys
    Stifyn Emrys says #
    What a fascinating topic. As a writer, I love to engage in storytelling with pen and ink, but although I've sung and spoken in fro
  • Miss Bri Saussy
    Miss Bri Saussy says #
    I have also heard Neil Gaiman read and how wonderful it is. I actually think reading aloud is a great practice for those who want
  • Stifyn Emrys
    Stifyn Emrys says #
    As I write, I pay a lot of attention to rhythm, cadence and variance in the words I'm using. That would be a very interesting work

Posted by on in Culture Blogs

I recently did a reading for a repeat client. "I looked up the cards after I left here the last time I visited you," she said, " and the meanings that you told me were not the meanings I found when I looked up the cards online." 

One of the reasons that people go to a reader -- and often pay good money to do so -- is because of the reader's experience. Anyone can get a deck of cards and do the readings themselves from the little white book that comes with the deck. How accurate is that going to be, though? Is the novice experienced enough to be able to intuit what the cards are saying? Is a beginner going to examine all aspects of the messages from the cards, or will they jump to the nearest conclusion and run with it?

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