PBP- Week 7: Decision making Divination

My apologies if this is disjointed or otherwise random...been feeling a bit off all week, and put off writing it, so putting down thoughts as best I can today!

My personal view of divination is that when we approach the cards, runes or scrying medium, we are opening ourselves up to the divinity within, and focusing on letting it speak to us. Finding that stillness, and learning to interpret the impressions we get is part of the process of learning do divine, just as becoming familiar with the tools we wish to use. One thing I see often said is that it is very hard (some people say impossible) to use divination to answer your own questions.

I definitely don't think this is the case. I use divination all the time for myself. What I do think is that I listen differently when I am reading for myself. I think it is a lot easier to keep a fully open mind when divining for someone else. I am not as invested in the outcome, sometimes I don't even fully know what is weighing on their mind, and I am rarely aware of what their innermost fears and hopes are. This makes it a lot easier to remain impartial, to interpret the information as it comes and not be swayed by personal opinions.

When reading for yourself, I feel like it takes a different focus. I have heard from a lot of different people that you can't get an honest reading because your subconscious mind is influencing the information you receive. But I think this can give a whole new layer of meaning to a reading when you take it into account. I sort of think of it like looking in a mirror. I can look in the mirror and describe myself factually: brown hair, glasses, mole on my nose. I can also look at the mirror and describe what I feel: tired or joyful, sad or angry.

The trick is taking a step back and really thinking about which type of description you are making. When I read for myself, I take a lot of time to think about why certain meanings are coming through. Sometimes I can just feel that it is something outside of my self. Typically these are the readings where something surprises me, or feels completely random. I also find that when I get these unusual interpretations, they also come with the feeling that anything else is just wrong.

On the other hand, sometimes I get meanings that are definitely influenced by my mind, either conscious or subconscious. Sometimes I will logic myself into these meanings (sort of like how you may talk yourself into something by coming up with reason after reason as to why it is true). Sometimes it will be something I know I was thinking about before I looked at the cards, or something that I know I was hoping for or fearing might happen.

When this happens, I find it very helpful to not only examine why my mind is picking these particular things to think about (from the vast number of possible outcomes), but also how they make me feel. Much like looking in a mirror, my mood and general thoughts will influence where I look on a particular day. I find this type of self-reflection very useful in sorting my mind out when thinking about a tricky problem or trying to figure out what I think would be best for me to do. I let the divination become a tool that my own mind can use to speak to me.

I think that divination tools have so many uses, that trying to restrict them to just one thing is not harnessing their full potential. I highly recommend to anyone who has not done readings for themselves to try it, and to see what kinds of personal insight comes up. Sometimes it's not about finding unbiased information....sometimes it is about listening to where the bias' come from.