Divination

Yes, I’m on a roll. It seems I have a lot to say this weekend, all of it just opinionated blathering. No one is required to agree, listen, or even respond.

So I was talking to another member of GD recently and we were discussing people who won’t even wipe their ass without consulting a divination device.  Okay – that’s an exaggeration, but there really are folks out there who literally become addicted to, or dependent on, their divination devices for even the simplest things. There are even some folks who won’t make a move without consulting the pendulum or board or their Daemonic guide.

This confounds me. Trust me — I know the appeal of divination. When I was a teenager and it was brand new to me, I lived and breathed divination devices for a few years (until I was able to use them proficiently). Finally my teacher told me that I needed to learn how to make decisions without consulting a device or spirit.  She explained that divination is only a tool that should be used with discretion. Not something to be used for every little thing that comes along. There is some danger to doing too much divination.

The first danger, obviously, is when you divine every decision you are eventually going to lose (or never develop) your ability to trust your inner voice. You develop a dependency. For most things, divination isn’t required. You already know whether you should trust someone or not. If you have to ask — you don’t trust someone. Period. That’s common sense.

The second danger is addiction. You can actually become addicted to divination. I have repeat customers who seek my readings. I only allow each client two readings a year (four if they have a lot of important stuff going on) because I don’t WANT them to become addicted. An addiction to paid readings can be as dangerous as gambling and some mediums will take you for every dime.

The third danger is damage to your subtle bodies. You can literally exhaust all your energy performing daily divinations and even open yourself up to attracting astral sludge. Enough that you impair your ability to function or your ability to perform effective magick.  I’ve actually seen this happen with people. And while it’s not as likely to happen with tarot or pendulum — it is highly likely to cause issues if you’re doing an excessive amount of of skrying or spirit board work. It will definitely happen if you do a lot of channeling or ascension. Medium work is exhausting. In excess it can also impair your immune system and cause mood shifts. If you’re prone to depression or mental instability – it can bring on episodes there, too. I’m not saying you can never do it, but keep your work to once or twice a week (spaced out so you have time to recover). Not daily unless you want to kick your own ass.

About this time there’s always that one person who screams – “I’m awesome and more powerful! I can handle daily skrying (or board work or whatever).”  I know – twelve foot tall and bullet proof.  I get it! Been there, done that. You’re not the first medium to think you’re all that and a bag of chips and you won’t be the last. To those people I say, cool. But don’t come crying to me when you break because I’ll have no sympathy. I’ll just shake my head and say, “Told you so.”  I mean after all, it’s not like I know what I’m talking about or that I’ve been doing this for 27 years or anything like that.  And sure, I imagine there are exceptions to every rule. Like the people who do divination work for a living. Hell – even I do divination on the side. But I limit my sessions to twice a week. For those who actually own shops and do it daily (and have a genuine gift for it) I imagine they’re very exhausted people. If they’re not – I do seriously question whether or not they have a genuine ability.  Working with the spirits takes a lot out of you and all the mediums I know who have a genuine gift have suffered from exhaustion from excess work. It’s simply the nature of things. Being continually tapped into the spirit world (whether the dead, the Daemonic or other) is like being plugged into an electrical socket. That’s the best way I can describe it. Being plugged in like that can spill over into one’s personal life and cause a great deal of chaos. Don’t believe me? Just ask a walker (seriously sensitive mediums who live between worlds and often find themselves in the presence of portals and spirits constantly).