Tag: Knowledge Management

So What’s the Deal With Divination?

So What’s the Deal With Divination?

Author:   Brunhilde  

That everything occurring in our physical world must first have manifested in the astral plane is the traditional theory behind the art or act of ‘divination’. It is in this astral plane that the patterns of our lives and the events affecting our physical world first take shape. So, if you want to know the future on our physical plane, you can look into the astral plane and see what development is occurring there now. It is knowledge from this astral plane that you are accessing when you perform divination.

How Old Is It?

It is believed that some form of divination existed during the Stone Age. This period spans the time when the races of mankind made the transition from nomadic life to life in stationary farming communities. This transition made the individual villages and tribes more reliant on assistance from the local nature spirits. These communities were no longer able to migrate to other areas if their local food supplies ran out. By establishing farming communities, they tied their continued existence to the local food supply. Therefore, people were well motivated to contact the local nature spirits and establish a rapport with them. One clear way to communicate with the spirits was through the practice of divination. We know that the people of the ancient world relied on divination to make many of their important decisions. Each culture had its own methods for seeking advice from the spirit world. Every leader, from the heads of state to tribal councils to family elders, would utilize some form of divination on a regular basis. It was considered wise and prudent to do so.

How Do You See Into the Astral Plane?

Well, you can’t use the eyes in your face. Instead, you will be looking for signs in the astral plane by using your inner eye. You will be using your psychic sense, your spiritual essence, to open a pathway into the astral plane. You can do this by training your mind. For best results in any type of divination, you should practice placing your mind into a meditative state. It is in that altered state of awareness that you can perceive the subtle energies you are seeking.

What Is a Positive Aspect of Performing Divination?

In addition to helping you to make better decisions, another dividend of practicing divination is that it helps you to develop your psychic abilities—even if you think you don’t have any. All forms of divination require the practitioner to use their psychic sense. We all possess this sense, although it is usually not as strongly developed as our other five physical senses. After all, we have used our other five since birth! Your sixth sense may be understandably weak. But by practicing divination, you can develop and strengthen it. So if you want to be more psychic, learn a skill like divination.

Are There Negative Aspects to Performing Divination?

Of course. You can develop an unhealthy need for constant divination. You can become too dependent upon the process for help. You will feel that you are unable to make even a simple decision without consulting the spirits. You certainly don’t want to become insecure in your own decision-making process. Remember that divination can only suggest a certain course of action to you. In the end, it is you who must make the final decision. So use divination wisely.

Can We Really See Into the Future?

No, divination doesn’t do that. It can only show you a probable result, if nothing changes. Of what value is it then? Well, divination allows us to access more information regarding the question we are posing; information that is not readily apparent to us. Taking all of this additional information into account, we can now make a better decision in the here and now.

You Talkin’ To Me?!

When you perform a divination, you are usually posing a question. Some psychic practitioners, especially those who perform divinations professionally, use the aid of a spiritual third party to facilitate their divination. They may call upon this psychic helper to aid them in accessing the astral plane or assist them in interpreting the answer they receive. This third party can be the practitioner’s own personal spirit guide, a guardian angel, or a teacher spirit. You, too, can choose to perform divinations this way. If you choose to use a facilitator, then you can specifically ask them to help you see the answer to your question. And you can ask them to assist you in interpreting the answer you receive.

Talking To Yourself

To what or to whom are you asking your question? You should decide that issue before you practice divination, because your choice of facilitator may have some bearing on the type of answer you receive.

Perhaps you feel you are not accessing the astral plane when you perform divination. Some people believe that they are simply speaking to their own subconscious mind. They believe that they are communicating with their internal psyche and allowing their personal intuition to take control over their practical, pragmatic conscious mind. You may feel more comfortable with this explanation of divination.

When you think about it, all of our senses are constantly recording information that cannot be brought to the immediate attention of our conscious mind. There is simply too much information for our conscious mind to handle at any given moment. As the saying goes, T.M.I! So, our senses wisely store this glut of information in our subconscious mind. Think of your subconscious mind as a vast repository for all the information gathered by your senses. When you perform divination, you are allowing your subconscious mind to access all of that information. You can then use that data to make a better informed decision. That decision will appear as the answer to your divination.

It’s All in the Past

This idea of communicating with your subconscious mind is valid on more than one level. Many people believe in the idea of past lives and reincarnation. Some folks who believe in reincarnation propose that all the knowledge of our past lives is stored in our subconscious mind. Which makes for a huge personal database! If you believe in this idea, then for you divination is a way to access past-life information.

For example, perhaps you are seeking to answer a question concerning a problem you are having in this life. Maybe you had the same problem in a past life. Or many past lives. Wouldn’t it be great to draw upon all that previous experience dealing with the same problem? Your divination question could be worded to partake of that previous experience in your past lifetimes. For you, divination may be the simple act of viewing your personal storehouse of knowledge. You are scanning your database to help you to make a wise decision in this life.

It’s Already IN There

Some folks believe that all the knowledge you need to succeed in this lifetime is already stored in your brain. When you were on the Other Side, you decided what tasks you would accomplish in this current lifetime. You formulated your goals and decided how best to achieve them. You gathered and stored the information you would need to meet those goals. You arrived here, in this physical plane; with your life-plan and your necessary data already stored in your subconscious. You just need a way to access it and divination is one way to accomplish that task.

Info In Your Aura

There is some evidence that your thoughts and memories are not stored in your mind, conscious or otherwise. You may store information in your light body or aura body, that part of you that transits to the afterlife when your physical body dies. As noted by Debbora Wiles of Psychic Schoolhouse, there are numerous accounts of patients who have been declared clinically dead, but were resuscitated and survived. These patients later described a scenario in which they lifted up out of their physical bodies and hovered in the air above the scene of their death. They heard and saw everything that took place while they were dead. Then their physical body was revived and they floated down back into it. After being revived, they were able to recall in vivid detail all of the activity taking place around them while they were dead.

They have memories and thoughts of the event, even though their brain at the time was no longer functioning, no longer receiving data. These accounts would seem to indicate that our thoughts and memories are not stored in our brains. They are stored in our light body. When we die, our light body detaches from our physical body. Our light body takes our thoughts and memories with it into the afterlife. If we are revived and must transition back into our physical body, our light body reattaches, bringing our thoughts and memories back in with it. So it may be that we are all accessing information stored in our light bodies when we perform divination. That explanation is just one of many ideas on this topic.

What Are Good Times to Perform Divination?

Personally, I like to follow lunar cycles. Through experience, I have found that my divinations performed on the dark of the moon, when the moon and the sun occupy the same zodiac sign, are always more profound for me. The dark of the moon is the lunar phase associated with the Crone, and I have always been drawn to the Crone aspect of the goddess. But you should try performing your divinations in all the lunar phases and see which one works better for you. Start with the lunar phase that appeals to you the most.

Perhaps you are more influenced by solar energy. You may feel that sunlight energizes you psychically. Then changes in sunlight may affect your divination. You may choose to perform divination during certain times of the day, or in the first half of the year (northern hemisphere) when the sunlight is growing stronger every day.

You may be more influenced by seasonal energies. Perhaps there is a certain season of the year that holds more attraction for you than the others. During that season, you may feel more emotionally energized and attuned to psychic energies. For you then, that season may be the time when your divinations are most accurate.

Why Should I Care?

Another element that influences the success of your divination is the importance of your question. How vital is your need for an answer? The more crucial the question, the more heightened are your emotions and the more psychic energy you will pour into the divination process. That surplus of psychic energy will strongly empower your ability to receive the answer you seek.

How Do I Begin?

Examine some of the divination methods currently available. There are many. Tarot, scrying, runes, pendulums, they all require you to use your psychic ability. Explore all the methods you can find. Over time, one method will intrigue you more than the others. Begin your journey with that one. You may add other methods down the line.

Divination is a skill. And like all skills, it must be practiced in order to achieve familiarity and success. Some people have a special innate talent for it, a knack, as it were and they will achieve success at divination sooner than others. But most people will improve their abilities with practice. So don’t give up too soon and cheat yourself out of this wonderful experience.

How Long Does It Take?

It is an unfortunate hallmark of modern society that we are all conditioned to receive instant gratification. We become impatient with standing in lines or waiting our turn. Our ancient ancestors were more conditioned to waiting for results. They knew that some things were worth waiting for, especially esoteric knowledge. They learned vast amounts of information, committing that knowledge to memory over long years of study. In our modern technologically based society, we have forgotten our recent past. We expect to acquire a skill immediately. Sorry, but that is not the case with divination. So try to curb your impatience and give divination, and yourself, a chance to succeed.

My first attempts at divination involved scrying. However, I did not experience success the first time I tried it. But I kept practicing and after a few months I began to receive and interpret messages on a regular basis. And those messages became more and more accurate as I improved my ability to understand and interpret them.

If you can’t decide which method of divination to try, investigate several forms. Over a period of time, you will be attracted to one process and prefer it to all the others. Learn and practice that one process; really work at it. The results will be worth it!

Blessed Be.

________________________________________

Footnotes:
Atwater, P.M.H. The Magical Language of Runes. Bear and Company Publishing, 1990.

McCoy, Edain. Magick and Rituals of the Moon. Llewellyn Publications, 2001.

Thorsson, Edred. Runecaster’s Handbook: the Well of Wyrd. Weiser Books, 1999.

Daily Feng Shui News for Oct. 20th – ‘Information Overload Day’

This ‘Information Overload Day’ is a good time to be reminded that you have all the information you’ll ever need sitting right inside you. Unplug, get quiet, and listen to the small voice within. The information it wants to share can magically and positively change your life. Give yourself three minutes each day to get quiet and connect with your own source. The only thing that will be overloaded is your sense of happiness and harmony.

By Ellen Whitehurst for Astrology.com

The Laws of Magic

The Laws of Magic
[Excerpted from _Authentic_Thaumaturgy_ by P.E.I Bonewits]

The Laws of Magic are not legislative laws, but, like those of
physics or musical harmony, are actually fairly practical
observations that have been accumulated over thousands of years.
These laws describe the way magic seems to behave.  Most of these
laws will make sense to you (I hope), and even the more obscure
ones should make some sense to you, but if they don’t, ignore
them, or send me some e-mail, and I will try to explain.

The LAW OF KNOWLEDGE: This is probably the most widely used law,
and probably encompasses all the others in some way.  The basis of
this law is that understanding brings control.  The more that is
known about a subject, the easier it is to excercise control over
it.  Knowledge is power.

The LAW OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE: An obvious derivative of the LAW OF
KNOWLEDGE, this law carries additional connotations, as a mage who
does not have knowledge of himself does not have knowledge (and
therefore control) of his own magic.  This law is one of the
reason’s “evil” mages are very rare – a dedication to “evil for
evil’s sake” is usually do to a lack of introspection and
awareness of oneself.  It is difficult to do harm to others when
you understand fully what that kind of harm would do to you.  Know
thyself.

The LAW OF CAUSE AND EFFECT: A simple scientific understanding –
if exactly the same actions are done under exactly the same
conditions, they will be associated with exactly the same results.
Magicians have at least as much belief in cause and effect as
modern physicists do, they just realize that a good ritual, like a
good theatrical performance or a good bread recipe, isn’t always
predictable.  In truth, a spell involves so many variables, that
controlling or even understanding them all is impossible.  The key
to magical success is learning which variables are the most
important, and how to keep them constant.  Control over the
variables is icing on the cake.

The LAW OF SYNCHRONICITY: Two or more events happening at the same
time are likely to have more in common than the merely temporal.
Very few events ever happen in isolation from other events.  There
is no such thing as a mere coincidence.

The LAW OF ASSOCIATION: If any two pattern have elements in
common, the patterns interact “through” those common elements, and
control of one pattern facilitates control of the other(s)
depending (among other factors) upon the number of ccommon
elements involved.  This is a very important law, up there with
the LAW OF KNOWLEDGE.

The LAW OF SIMILARITY: Having an accurate physical or mental
representation of something facilitates control over it.  This one
is fairly obvious in it’s usage – having a model, picture, or
other representation of your target (like a voodoo doll) gives you
power to effect the target.  Look alikes are alike.

The LAW OF CONTAGION: Objects or beings in physical contact with
each other continue to interact after separation.  Everyone you
have ever touched has a magical link with you, though it is
probably pretty weak unless the contact was intense and/or
prolonged or repeated frequently.  Magical power is contagious.
Naturally, having a part of someone’s body (nails, hair, spit,
etc.) gives the best contagion link.

The LAW OF NAMES: Knowing the complete and TRUE name of an object,
being, or process gives one complete control over it.  This works
because a name is a definition (yes, even “Harold”, “Marie”,
“Kunte”, and “Jasmine” were at one time) as well as a contagion
link, and an association (if you call something the same name over
and over, that name becomes associated with the thing).  This also
works, because knowing the complete and true name of something or
someone means that you have achieved a complete understanding of
it’s or their nature.  This is why, in most pre-industrial
cultures, people are given “secret names”, as well as “public
names”, and why the sharing of a secret name is such an act of
trust – because the secret name is considered to be very close to,
if not identical with, the person’s true name.

The LAW OF WORDS OF POWER: There exist certain words that are able
to alter the internal and external realities of those uttering
them, and the power may rest in the very sounds of the words as
much as their meanings.  Many of such words are names, though the
meanings may have been lost or forgotten.  Very many magical tools
require words to be inscribed upon them and/or said over them
during their construction and/or use.

The LAW OF PERSONIFICATION: Any phenomenon may be considered to be
alive and to have a personality – that is, to “be” an entity or
being.  Anything can be a person.  Most weather mages personify
the winds and the clouds, for example, and thus find focussing
their magic on the atmosphere much easier to do.

The LAW OF INVOCATION: It is possible to establish internal
communication with entities from either inside or outside oneself,
said entities seeming to be inside of oneself during the
communication process.

The LAW OF EVOCATION: It is possible to establish external
communication with entities from either inside or outside oneself,
said entities seeming to be outside oneself during the
communication process.

The LAW OF IDENTIFICATION: It is possible through maximum
association between elements of oneself and those of another being
to actually become that being, to the point of sharing it’s
knowledge and wielding it’s power.  This is the law that controls
most lengthy or permanent possession phenomena.

The LAW OF PERSONAL UNIVERSES: Every sentient being lives in and
quite possibly creates a unique universe which can never be 100%
identical to that lived in by another.  So called “reality” is in
fact a matter of consensus opinions.  This law is nowhere near as
obvious as the other laws in it’s applications, but if you can
figure some out, you can use it.

The LAW OF INFINITE UNIVERSES: The total number of universes into
which all possible combinations of existing phenomena could be
organized is infinite.  Anything is possible, though some things
are more probable than others.  You might consider this to refer
to the “alternate probability worlds” of science fiction, but it
also has a much wider application.

The LAW OF PRAGMATISM: If a pattern of belief or behavior enables
a being to survive and to accomplish chosen goals, then that
belief or behavior is “true” or “real” or “sensible”.  If it
works, it’s true.  Another rather obscure law, but it does have
some very useful applications.

The LAW OF TRUE FALSEHOODS: It is possible for a concept or act to
violate the truth patterns of a given personal universe and still
be “true”, provided that it “works” in a specific situation.  If
it’s a paradox, it’s still probably true.  This law is basically
useless, except to justify use of the above three laws without
screwing things up in your version of the real world.

The LAW OF SYNTHESIS: The synthesis of two or more “opposing”
patterns of data will produce a new pattern that will be truer
than either of the first two were.  That is, it will be applicable
to more levels of reality, and this new pattern may not be a
compromise, but may be something rather new indeed.

The LAW OF POLARITY: Any pattern of data can be split into (at
least) two “opposing” characteristics, and each will contain the
essence of the other within itself.

The LAW OF OPPOSITES: A sub-law of POLARITY.  The “opposite” of a
pattern contains information about that pattern, by providing
information on what the pattern is not.  Thus, control over a
pattern’s opposite (or close to it’s opposite) facilitates control
over the pattern itself.  (Note that this one I alone take the
blame for, as it is my own extension of POLARITY and SIMILARITY)

The LAW OF DYNAMIC BALANCE: To survive, let alone to become
powerful, one must keep every aspect of one’s universe in a state
of dynamic balance with every other aspect.  Extremism is
dangerous, as the extreme being becomes so associated with the
extreme aspect, that they lose the ability to avoid that aspect at
all.  This is another reason “evil” mages are rare, as continuous
association with pain or death will cause a mage pain or death,
ending the mage’s ability to continue actively with “evil”.  This
is also why “good” mages, especially healers, tend to live a long
time.

The LAW OF PERVERSITY: Sometimes known as Murphy’s Law.  If
anything can go wrong, it will, and in the most annoying manner
possible.  Magical associations sometimes operate in the reverse
of what was desired, and meaningful coincidences are just as
likely to be unpleasant as pleasant.  Even if nothing can go
wrong, some element of the universe may change so that things will
go wrong anyway.  Whether we like it or not, the gods (or fates,
or what have you) do have a sense of humor.  Emotionally healthy
mages have less problems with this law than others do, as the
mages own subconscious mind is probably a major perpetrator of
this law.

The LAW OF UNITY: Every phenomena in existance is linked directly
or indirectly to every other one, past, present, or future.
Perceived seperations between phenomena are based on incomplete
sensing and/or understanding.

Daily OM for November 7th – Consulting Heart and Mind

Consulting Heart and Mind

Making Choices From a Place of Balance

by Madisyn Taylor

It is important to make decisions from a place of balance in your life by taking a breath and checking in with heart and mind.

 

Each of the myriad decisions we make every day has the potential to have a deep impact on our lives. Some choices touch us to our very cores, awakening poignant feelings within us. Others seem at first to be simple but prove to be confusingly complex. We make the best decisions when we approach the decision-making process from a balanced emotional and intellectual foundation. When we have achieved equilibrium in our hearts and in our minds, we can clearly see both sides of an issue or alternative. Likewise, we can accept compromise as a natural fact of life. Instead of relying solely on our feelings or our rationality, we utilize both in equal measure, empowering ourselves to come to a life-affirming and balanced conclusion.

Balance within and balance without go hand in hand. When you are called upon to choose between two or more options, whether they are attractive or distasteful, you should understand all you can about the choice ahead of you before moving forward. If you do not come to the decision from a place of balance, you risk making choices that are irrational and overly emotional or are wholly logical and don’t take your feelings into account. In bringing your thoughts and emotions together during the decision-making process, you ensure that you are taking everything possible into account before moving forward. Nothing is left up to chance, and you have ample opportunity to determine which options are in accordance with your values.

Though some major decisions may oblige you to act and react quickly, most will allow you an abundance of time in which to mull over your choices. If you doubt your ability to approach your options in a balanced fashion, take an extended time-out before responding to the decision. This will give you the interlude you need to make certain that your thoughts and feelings are in equilibrium. As you practice achieving balance, you will ultimately reach a state of mind in which you can easily make decisions that honor every aspect of the self.

The Daily Motivator for March 11th – Creative living

Creative living

Creativity is more than just making stuff, and more than just making stuff up. Creativity is expressing, in all sorts of ways that have no limit, what it means to be alive.

You can be creative in such a way that the whole world celebrates your creativity. Or you can be just as creative in ways that only you will ever know.

Being alive is being immersed in an ever-expanding set of possibilities. Being creative is giving your own special meaning and purpose to those possibilities.

Creativity is a special kind of magic. It produces more value than it consumes.

When you are stuck, creativity will move you forward. When the goal seems completely out of reach, creativity will open up a way there.

In all you do, find new ways to be creative. Creativity is one of your most valuable skills, so put its power to work every chance you get.

— Ralph Marston

The Daily Motivator