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August 2 through August 8, 2021

This week produces more talk than action, as Monday and Tuesday unfold under a socially-oriented Gemini Moon. Sharing ideas, spouting opinions and a high volume of google searches and youtube watching are the themes of the day, as we strive to learn something new or get our ideas confirmed. We'll be operating in slow motion as the Moon dances through Cancer Wednesday through Friday, where the most we'll be able to accomplish might be a good house cleaning or redecorating project. We'll need to focus on balance, as a tendency to people-please or give away something we need tends to prevail. So to use this energy more wisely, it's a great time to give to yourself and to go with the flow, rather than worrying about what you "should be doing" or how to get to chores and obligations. There will be plenty of time for that when the Moon moves into Leo on Saturday and revives our energy and focus. Sunday's Leo new Moon promises that we're ready to move into new ventures, projects, and cycles of attainment over the next two weeks, so get ready to rock and roll!

How to Use Everyday Objects for Folk Fortunetelling, by Cory Thomas Hutcheson

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

When you imagine someone "fortunetelling," what images come to mind? For a lot of people, it's a crystal ball or a stack of tarot cards. There's absolutely nothing wrong with those methods when handled with care and thought, but as many witchy folk know, divination goes well beyond what so often gets portrayed by Hollywood. For those inclined towards folk magic, the tools of prognostication and metaphysical diagnosis are often both a bit strange and incredibly commonplace. That's because divination is so commonplace in North American folk magical practices, and therefore it makes use of commonplace objects. Diviners, however, often use those objects in uncanny and unusual ways, which renders them powerful tools for gaining insight into worldly (and Otherworldly) problems.

Below I offer an exploration of a variety of folk magical divinatory methods making use of common objects. What you find here is drawn from the pages and practices of American folklore (a subject about which I am deeply passionate, as evidenced by my rather massive book on the subject). No matter who or where you are within North America, chances are there are similar practices around you and within your own communities if you look for them.

• Sieve and Shears: A sieve—a straining device most often used for food—could be suspended on the end of a pair of shears or scissors to answer questions. These were often used in fortunetelling games (not dissimilar to games like MASH or those little paper fortune tellers that kids used when I was growing up). If the sieve began rotating clockwise when a question was asked, it indicated "yes." If it went counterclockwise or fell off balance, that was a "no." In a bygone era, a sieve would have been made from materials like willow withes, which have their own magical lore (as they are often used to bind a witch's broom, or "besom"). The sieve and shears method even appears in Aggripa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy, published in the sixteenth century, so the practice has a decent pedigree.
• Bible and Key: The use of a Bible or other book for divination is known as "bibliomancy," and it's a subject I've written about before on my own website in terms of folk practice. In most cases, book divination is done by turning randomly to specific passages and reading the first thing found by pointing at the page, a process known as "scanning." There are more prescriptive methods, too, such as predicting fortunes based on one's birthday by indexing them to particular Psalms based on gender and date. One method, however, that we find imported from Europe and fairly well-known in areas settled by English, Irish, or Scottish-speaking colonizers, is the use of a Bible and key. The key is inserted into a Bible (sometimes at a specific passage such as Psalm 49), then the book is bound up tightly so that the key can't slip out. The person making this charm suspends the key between their fingers, using the Bible as a sort of pendulum weight, and asks questions. The key will begin moving in response to queries, with the reader needing to establish which direction means "yes" and which "no" at the beginning of the divination session. This method is even mentioned in Reginald Scott's Discoverie of Witchcraft from 1584, so it's quite old!
• Coins and Cards: Plenty of people know about using tarot cards for divination, but in recent years a burgeoning vogue has appeared for learning to read fortunes using playing cards. Playing cards derive from the same sources as tarot cards (with most scholarship suggesting all such cards emerged from games involving tiles printed paper cards from places like India and China). So it makes sense that playing cards have just as much a place in fortunetelling as their better-known tarot cousins. There are a wide variety of methods for reading them, ranging from the very detailed and intricate Lenormand card system to the Spanish method involving removing all the Queens to variations found in places like Kentucky or other parts of the American South that were often codified in well-known rhymed verses. It seems most readers had their own particular methods based on years of practice and fine-tuning, so each person's approach might inspire someone else but be distinctly different as well (I am no stranger to this phenomenon, as I have even written a book about my own method for doing readings and then interpreting them by linking them to folk or fairy tales). Similarly, coins are incorporated into divination in a few ways. One divinatory ritual known as the "Calling Circle" involves surrounding a young baby with a variety of objects like coins, a knife, a Bible, and a whiskey bottle, and then seeing which the baby chooses. If they choose the coins, they will go into banking (or, depending on your interpretation, be stingy with money), while the other objects indicate a life of violence, holiness, or vice, respectively. The Chinese fortunetelling system known as the I Ching also makes use of coins in some cases, interpreting them through a process known as geomancy.
• The Egg and Glass: This method is simple enough that you can go to your kitchen and do it anytime (so long as you keep eggs on hand). There are several different variations on this practice. One of the best-known is the limpia found in Mexican and Mexican-American curanderismo. In that system, the egg is usually used to cleanse a person of spiritual maladies by rubbing them and praying. The egg is then cracked into a glass of water and interpreted based on the shapes that appear, such as bubbles or "curtains" of egg whites draping down like ghosts. Spots on the yolk or foul smells can indicate witchcraft or curses as well. This method was also connected to the Salem witch trials, as an account (published a good bit after the trials were done) indicates that some of the young women involved in the early hysteria had been playing a game called a "Venus glass," in which an egg was cracked into water and then read or interpreted to provide information about future husbands.
• Ring and Hair: The last method is one used in very particular circumstances, but one that might be adaptable to even broader work by a clever folk magician. In parts of the rural South and even into the Midwest, a woman can discover the sex of her baby by taking her wedding ring and suspending it by a piece of her hair over her tummy. If it moves back and forth, it indicates a girl, while movement in a circle usually indicates a boy (although some sources wind up reversing these, so it's a good idea to ask the ring to show you which is which first). While this is almost exclusively used in pregnancy situations in folklore, I can easily imagine someone seeing the links between things like marriage, birth, and more as indicative of other fortunetelling possibilities (such as asking the ring to help choose between various potential suitors).

These methods are simply a small handful of the incredible variety of everyday divinatory practices found in American folklore. Truly, almost anything, from dish rags to brooms to broken plates and dropped knives, could potentially tell a tuned-in reader about what they might expect to happen.

What makes these methods so valuable to us today isn't just the actual practices, but the sense of "ordinariness" that we see in them. While it's all well and good to collect tarot decks like they're going out of style (and I do the same with playing card decks, so I'm absolutely not judging!), understanding that everyday methods of divination are valuable and rich traditions of their own can help us figure out what works best for us. You may be the sort of person who can divine based on the way your soup boils on the stove, or the way smoke rises from a candle you've extinguished, or even which song comes up next on your Spotify playlist. All of those are the sort of folk magic our forebears would have turned to, and they can be sources of insight and inspiration to us today, as well.

Whatever method you turn to, I encourage you to look within your folk communities like family and neighbors (and family here can be chosen family just as readily as anything biological). You'll likely find plenty of divinatory possibilities if you just listen, pay attention, and ask the right questions. Which is really what divination is all about, right?

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2021. All rights reserved.

I have been told that I have healing hands. The Universe seems to be opening doorways to make the study of kinesiology easily accessible to me, but I hesitate to begin this course because I feel there must be more I need to do to become a competent healer. Do you have any suggestions regarding what all I need to study and master in order to be an energy healer? I am really tuned in to dowsing, and my pendulum gives very accurate readings. Thank you!

Patti

Susyn:

Sometimes it's hard for us to trust in our gifts. Your hesitation to begin a course of study in kinesiology reflects this lack of trust.

I recall when I first stumbled upon the idea of becoming an astrologer and psychic. I had very little information but boundless passion to move into this line of work. I felt a bit defeated when a respected colleague quickly pointed out that I was operating with very limited information.

I signed up for an astrology class, but the first teacher I chose was more interested in the degrees and aspects of an astrology chart than in taking that information and making it valuable for living a better life. I moved on to a second mentor who understood what I wanted to do with astrology and was patient with my Gemini-based learning style. (I tend to jump all over the map and don't do well with linear learning.)

What I'm trying to tell you is if you start a class and find it unfulfilling, you should question the teacher and venue, not your goals. It's always helpful to build a foundation for the path you want to follow, so keep looking for the instruction or mentor who can help you bring your healing gifts to life.

There are all sorts of ways we are led to our perfect careers. Because you were born on the cusp between Sagittarius and Capricorn, it's easy to see why you are hesitant to move in any one direction. The Sagittarius in you can hold you at bay while you worry about competency and qualifications, while the Capricorn in you would probably like to skip over any studies and preparation and dive right into the practice of energy healing or whatever it is you are destined to do.

I recommend you address the fears your Sagittarius nature is bringing up by going ahead and signing up for a class in kinesiology. The information and skills you get in class will help you build a stronger foundation of trust and confidence. As you move through these studies, your desire will grow stronger and you may discover other talents you want to develop and use as a healer one day.

At times the Universe will open a door to us but we refuse to walk through it. In my experience, if we ignore the obvious, Spirit will continue to open doors and send messages our way until we are ready to act on them. When you take the first step by signing up for a class, you are letting the Divine know that you are ready to move forward to fulfill your destiny. When you tell the Universe this, you can trust that a clear path will take shape and take you where you want to go.

*****

Oceania:

Look at that birthdate, 12/21: it's a perfect mirror image. The number 1 represents your ability to stand strong as an individual and to vertically bridge heaven and earth as a channel for divine energy. The number 2 is your ability to relate to and horizontally connect with others here on earth, and to connect THEM to spirit.

You have 1 spine, branching into 2 hands. In the mirror stands your client, seeing their own potential in your reflection. Your inspiration, guidance and role-modeling will help your clients become strong individuals who are also capable of relating. That's the 1-2 punch!

It is wise and wonderful that you are open to continued learning and education. Humbleness is a virtue! However, I invite you to balance your modesty with confidence based upon your strengths and experience, and also upon your connection to a higher power. Take a leap of faith and begin the course! See yourself as an energy healer NOW. Your pendulum is accurate because YOU are accurate and because Truth is accurate and you are allowing it to flow through you.

As you go along in your studies, you will be guided to other opportunities to receive knowledge and wisdom through books, radio (especially public radio), television (especially public television,) movies, websites and direct channeling. Trust your intuition as you dabble with various modalities and sources of information, and invest your time where you feel the best fit.

Once you start looking, serendipity will lead you to many websites jam-packed with treasures to assist you. Your intuition will tell you when to stop and spend time and when to move on. (Some of my own favorite spiritual websites are those of Abraham-Hicks, Byron Katie, Rob Brezsny, and Juicy Living Tour.)

Your journey is underway; it's too late to turn back! You will step through the doorway and begin the course that has become readily available to you with grace, ease and gratitude. To turn your back on such an opportunity would be like rejecting a personalized gift from Spirit. It's as if the Publisher's Clearinghouse Sweepstakes crew is knocking on your door, and you won't answer because you're not sure you're ready. Open the door! Receive and welcome the gift!

Of course, it's an abundant universe, so if you choose to wait, that's okay too. Just don't wait because you think you're not ready. You're way past ready - that's why you attracted and manifested this opportunity in the first place. The course is a reflection of your readiness!

Astrea:

Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.

Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!

While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!

I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!

As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.

I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.

You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!

Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.

A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.

You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.