Types of Divination

[X-Yami-no-Ko-X]

Hmm... I thought that there might have already been this topic somewhere. confused That or I'm just blind to it right now.

Either way. So. Tarot seems to usually be the go to's when it come divination. So why not discuss other types of divination?

I think oracle or cartomancy with playing cards is fun. But one that popped up on my Tumblr feed a couple days ago was divining with dice. Sounds fun.

So topics to get this thing rolling.
Do you have a favorite divination method?
Do you have one that sounds interesting but haven't tried yet?  

[Sanguina Cruenta]

I like that pretty much anything can be a form of divination if you translate it into Greek and stick -mancy on the end. xd

Personally I prefer the tarot at present. In time I may prefer the runes but I haven't finished studying them yet.  

[iKillCaustic]

Occasionally I use tarot, one day I will hopefully learn to use runes. I've looked into using the I-Ching but, boy is it complicated! Maybe another time. One thing that has intrigued me for a while now is geomancy.  

[X-Yami-no-Ko-X]

Tarot kinda confuses me. Maybe its because there's so many cards and I make myself feel overwhelmed? And that's why I like playing cards and my other oracle decks better because they're smaller. And a lot of the dice stuff I'm seeing is just 3d6. Though I saw one for some number of d10. Gods know I have a ton of dice. I seem to always end up with the dice set that ends up in our club's Christmas dice game and I can't help myself when I find tiny or purple dice.  

[kyndryana3]

Right now I am mainly looking to runes for divination, my morning draw is runes, actually rune dice a friend made for me for Yule a day back (and being 6 sided dice, there are just four of them, so nice and easy for a single rune draw). I do have two sets on stones I will toss for a full reading.

I have tarot decks as well, and several I really like, but since I have been working on learning more about the runes, tarot has stepped back a bit.

I'm not great with pendulum or scrying, so I tend to stay away from them, but someday I would like to work more with them and see what I can learn.  

[Sanguina Cruenta]

X-Yami-no-Ko-X

Tarot kinda confuses me. Maybe its because there's so many cards and I make myself feel overwhelmed? And that's why I like playing cards and my other oracle decks better because they're smaller. And a lot of the dice stuff I'm seeing is just 3d6. Though I saw one for some number of d10. Gods know I have a ton of dice. I seem to always end up with the dice set that ends up in our club's Christmas dice game and I can't help myself when I find tiny or purple dice.

It's much less overwhelming when you think of the suit cards not as individual cards with their own separate meanings but in terms of suit meaning + number meaning. i.e. say two of cups, its meaning will be the two symbolism in terms of the suit meaning.

Doesn't make it any easier for me to remember 'em but it's less overwhelming that way wink  

[Sanguina Cruenta]

kyndryana3

Right now I am mainly looking to runes for divination, my morning draw is runes, actually rune dice a friend made for me for Yule a day back (and being 6 sided dice, there are just four of them, so nice and easy for a single rune draw). I do have two sets on stones I will toss for a full reading.

Do you have any thoughts on Ehwaz? I'm having trouble with it as there are elements that seem similar to Raidho. I'm very interested in your thoughts on Berkana vs Ehwaz and their relation to fertility.

My first instinct of Berkana was that it had a female “flavour” to it and now I’m looking at Ehwaz and its aspects, and wondering if these two are “female fertility” and “male fertility” respectively… or whether it’s more of a flora vs fauna thing, or what.  

[X-Yami-no-Ko-X]

Sanguina Cruenta

X-Yami-no-Ko-X

Tarot kinda confuses me. Maybe its because there's so many cards and I make myself feel overwhelmed? And that's why I like playing cards and my other oracle decks better because they're smaller. And a lot of the dice stuff I'm seeing is just 3d6. Though I saw one for some number of d10. Gods know I have a ton of dice. I seem to always end up with the dice set that ends up in our club's Christmas dice game and I can't help myself when I find tiny or purple dice.

It's much less overwhelming when you think of the suit cards not as individual cards with their own separate meanings but in terms of suit meaning + number meaning. i.e. say two of cups, its meaning will be the two symbolism in terms of the suit meaning.

Doesn't make it any easier for me to remember 'em but it's less overwhelming that way wink

I'll try to put myself into that mind set when I start reading again. That or I should try to do what I did when I started reading Clow Cards. Just go for it and then look up the meanings for what cards came up. Helped when I was learning Clow but what didn't help was that I was always doing stuff for my friends or myself and was getting like the same group of cards so when I ended up doing one for Zane recently and the cards came up to describe him I was all "What does that card mean?!"

Gonna stop rambling now.  

[Sanguina Cruenta]

X-Yami-no-Ko-X

Sanguina Cruenta

X-Yami-no-Ko-X

Tarot kinda confuses me. Maybe its because there's so many cards and I make myself feel overwhelmed? And that's why I like playing cards and my other oracle decks better because they're smaller. And a lot of the dice stuff I'm seeing is just 3d6. Though I saw one for some number of d10. Gods know I have a ton of dice. I seem to always end up with the dice set that ends up in our club's Christmas dice game and I can't help myself when I find tiny or purple dice.

It's much less overwhelming when you think of the suit cards not as individual cards with their own separate meanings but in terms of suit meaning + number meaning. i.e. say two of cups, its meaning will be the two symbolism in terms of the suit meaning.

Doesn't make it any easier for me to remember 'em but it's less overwhelming that way wink

I'll try to put myself into that mind set when I start reading again. That or I should try to do what I did when I started reading Clow Cards. Just go for it and then look up the meanings for what cards came up. Helped when I was learning Clow but what didn't help was that I was always doing stuff for my friends or myself and was getting like the same group of cards so when I ended up doing one for Zane recently and the cards came up to describe him I was all "What does that card mean?!"

Gonna stop rambling now.

Pff I always read with the little book beside me. Because aside from finding it hard to remember the meanings entirely, I find each deck has intricacies in meaning or even in how they're read on top of the basic meaning, and they won't always read clearly if you're just going by the very basic meaning. I know it looks pretty unprofessional wink but I reckon there's more to reading the tarot than memorising the meanings.  

[X-Yami-no-Ko-X]

Sanguina Cruenta

X-Yami-no-Ko-X

Sanguina Cruenta

X-Yami-no-Ko-X

Tarot kinda confuses me. Maybe its because there's so many cards and I make myself feel overwhelmed? And that's why I like playing cards and my other oracle decks better because they're smaller. And a lot of the dice stuff I'm seeing is just 3d6. Though I saw one for some number of d10. Gods know I have a ton of dice. I seem to always end up with the dice set that ends up in our club's Christmas dice game and I can't help myself when I find tiny or purple dice.

It's much less overwhelming when you think of the suit cards not as individual cards with their own separate meanings but in terms of suit meaning + number meaning. i.e. say two of cups, its meaning will be the two symbolism in terms of the suit meaning.

Doesn't make it any easier for me to remember 'em but it's less overwhelming that way wink

I'll try to put myself into that mind set when I start reading again. That or I should try to do what I did when I started reading Clow Cards. Just go for it and then look up the meanings for what cards came up. Helped when I was learning Clow but what didn't help was that I was always doing stuff for my friends or myself and was getting like the same group of cards so when I ended up doing one for Zane recently and the cards came up to describe him I was all "What does that card mean?!"

Gonna stop rambling now.

Pff I always read with the little book beside me. Because aside from finding it hard to remember the meanings entirely, I find each deck has intricacies in meaning or even in how they're read on top of the basic meaning, and they won't always read clearly if you're just going by the very basic meaning. I know it looks pretty unprofessional wink but I reckon there's more to reading the tarot than memorising the meanings.

True. I mean I read Clow with the PDF open (or the notes I took before I lost them). There was also the thing when I was first starting out and I looked at the cards and didn't know if the Major Arcana was supposed to get mixed in with the Minor. In my head it was "ok so they go over them separately so that mean they don't go together?" The books were never clear on it.  

[kyndryana3]

Sanguina Cruenta

kyndryana3

Right now I am mainly looking to runes for divination, my morning draw is runes, actually rune dice a friend made for me for Yule a day back (and being 6 sided dice, there are just four of them, so nice and easy for a single rune draw). I do have two sets on stones I will toss for a full reading.

Do you have any thoughts on Ehwaz? I'm having trouble with it as there are elements that seem similar to Raidho. I'm very interested in your thoughts on Berkana vs Ehwaz and their relation to fertility.

My first instinct of Berkana was that it had a female “flavour” to it and now I’m looking at Ehwaz and its aspects, and wondering if these two are “female fertility” and “male fertility” respectively… or whether it’s more of a flora vs fauna thing, or what.

One thing I like about the runes is that even though they tend to have a major meaning, they often have minor meanings that sometimes have nothing to do with the major. It leads to a very fluid way of interpreting, sometimes a rune will mean one thing to me and other times something very different.

Ehwaz is typically given the single word meaning of Horse. And while this does have travel implications, it is so much more to me. Horses not only enable people (especially in previous eras where other forms of transportation aren't as common) to travel great distances, they can haul loads and be used as beasts of burden. However, unlike other animals that we use as beasts of burden, horses connect more with us. They are more like a companion or pet than a tool.

I think this ties well into Ehwaz's other two main meanings for me: the fetch and dualities/twin-ness. When dealing with the fetch, or the animal spirit side of our selves, there is very much a duality going on. Together, we have spiritual and physical beings, and are made whole. A rider and horse who have bonded and worked together often have this kind of wholeness: two beings working together often as if they were one being.

Duality often comes to me in very opposite energies that either work together towards a common goal or cancel each other out (so that there is no major backlash, more like an absorbing). It is like if you and your mirror image were both tugging on opposite ends of a rope: everything you do, they would do in opposite and so your forces would cancel out.

As far as fertility, I do see Berkana as more of a feminine fertility, but I see male fertility more in Laguz and Ingwas. Berkana reads to me like bringing something into being over long and labored effort: something that you are going to incubate for a while. Laguz is the sudden burst of energy that goes towards creating something whereas Ingwas is creating through sacrifice (and often with a period of waiting between the sacrifice and creation).  

[kyndryana3]

Sanguina Cruenta

X-Yami-no-Ko-X

Tarot kinda confuses me. Maybe its because there's so many cards and I make myself feel overwhelmed? And that's why I like playing cards and my other oracle decks better because they're smaller. And a lot of the dice stuff I'm seeing is just 3d6. Though I saw one for some number of d10. Gods know I have a ton of dice. I seem to always end up with the dice set that ends up in our club's Christmas dice game and I can't help myself when I find tiny or purple dice.

It's much less overwhelming when you think of the suit cards not as individual cards with their own separate meanings but in terms of suit meaning + number meaning. i.e. say two of cups, its meaning will be the two symbolism in terms of the suit meaning.

Doesn't make it any easier for me to remember 'em but it's less overwhelming that way wink

One thing I found helped with tarot was I took quite a lot of time with my first deck, meditating and really examining each card. I did it all at once, but you could also do one card a day. I would see what came to my mind, what thoughts and feelings came up. Then I would look at the book (and my first deck came with a very small book, so pretty much a paragraph of single word meanings), and see if I could see a part of the card that related to each meaning.

I tend to read tarot very intuitively. I will draw the cards and look at them while thinking about the purpose of the reading, and see what they have to tell me. I don't really go by book meanings at all anymore.

What I have done many times though is find a new interpretation system I like, and spend some time studying it. I find this does effect my readings, as sometimes bits and pieces will pop up when I am looking at cards.

I really enjoyed looking at the major arcana through the lens of the Hero/Fools Journey, and the minor as suit + numerology.

I find the deck I use greatly influences how a reading will go. I have very different styles of decks and some just don't read well for certain topics.  

[Sanguina Cruenta]

kyndryana3

One thing I like about the runes is that even though they tend to have a major meaning, they often have minor meanings that sometimes have nothing to do with the major. It leads to a very fluid way of interpreting, sometimes a rune will mean one thing to me and other times something very different.

Ehwaz is typically given the single word meaning of Horse. And while this does have travel implications, it is so much more to me. Horses not only enable people (especially in previous eras where other forms of transportation aren't as common) to travel great distances, they can haul loads and be used as beasts of burden. However, unlike other animals that we use as beasts of burden, horses connect more with us. They are more like a companion or pet than a tool.

I think this ties well into Ehwaz's other two main meanings for me: the fetch and dualities/twin-ness. When dealing with the fetch, or the animal spirit side of our selves, there is very much a duality going on. Together, we have spiritual and physical beings, and are made whole. A rider and horse who have bonded and worked together often have this kind of wholeness: two beings working together often as if they were one being.

Duality often comes to me in very opposite energies that either work together towards a common goal or cancel each other out (so that there is no major backlash, more like an absorbing). It is like if you and your mirror image were both tugging on opposite ends of a rope: everything you do, they would do in opposite and so your forces would cancel out.

As far as fertility, I do see Berkana as more of a feminine fertility, but I see male fertility more in Laguz and Ingwas. Berkana reads to me like bringing something into being over long and labored effort: something that you are going to incubate for a while. Laguz is the sudden burst of energy that goes towards creating something whereas Ingwas is creating through sacrifice (and often with a period of waiting between the sacrifice and creation).

I really don't see where you get fertility or creativity from Laguz? I mean...
"water is seemingly endless to men / if they must fare
on a tilting ship / and sea-waves
frighten them mightily / and the sea-steed
does not heed the bridle"
? It's clearly about aspects of water. The other poems touch on other aspects but none are related to fertility.

Ingwaz is totally unrelated too. Like I really don't.... see where you get your UPG here.

Nor am I really getting where you see Berkana as fertility = laboured effort? Please explain?  

[kyndryana3]

Sanguina Cruenta

I really don't see where you get fertility or creativity from Laguz? I mean...
"water is seemingly endless to men / if they must fare
on a tilting ship / and sea-waves
frighten them mightily / and the sea-steed
does not heed the bridle"
? It's clearly about aspects of water. The other poems touch on other aspects but none are related to fertility.

Ingwaz is totally unrelated too. Like I really don't.... see where you get your UPG here.

Nor am I really getting where you see Berkana as fertility = laboured effort? Please explain?

With Lagaz it's twofold, part from the etymology in English and German where it is Leek, and the other part from the Viking and Icelandic rune poems:


Viking Rune Poem

logr (water) is where a cascade
falls from a mountain-side;
but ornaments are made of gold.

Icelandic Rune Poem

Logr (water) is welling stream
and broad geyser
and land of the fish.

For me, when I think about leeks, I think about sprouts growing pretty much straight up. From the blub, there is the one clump of leaves that grows up, not branching out, just going straight up. I've never grown leeks, but I've grown green onions (which associate in my mind), and they are pretty quick to shoot up.

In the poems, that is a lot of bursting water imagery for me. It is a graphic mental image of male sexuality in my mind. I think that is a big factor in my thoughts on Laguz.

Ingwaz, through Ing, takes me to old rites where either sacrifice was offered to ensure a good harvest, or the deity themselves were seen to be sacrificed and reborn in the yearly harvest cycle.

Berkana as fertility has always felt feminine to me, and thus relates strongly to me as pregnancy, which is a long and labored birthing process.  

[X-Yami-no-Ko-X]

So... Divination with dominoes?

I wonder how that would work. I did a quick Google search while I was at Walmart before work and saw books and blog posts about it but didn't look much farther. I had just been dicking around like "Oh I wonder" kind of thing.