Divination
© 2002
>> I hear that one should take preliminary steps not to be fooled or tricked by whoever gives you answers. What can these steps be? I try to collect myself and avoid asking impertinent, indiscreet questions. Humans do not like that kind of thing, so why should other intelligences? <<
A practice that I suggest is that you always direct your query to your own "higher guidance". Ask that your higher guidance speak through whomever you are consulting, be it a set of runes, the tarot, I Ching, or your neighborhood oracle.
The main issue with divination however, is not the truthfulness of the oracle, but whether or not we lie to ourselves about the meaning of the answer. How much does what we want the answer to be, influence our interpretation of the answer we do receive? Unfortunately there's no simple formula for solving this central issue!
What has worked for me personally, is to center and ground myself before consulting an oracle; then focus my mind on the question, remembering to direct my question to my own higher guidance and ask that it speak through the oracle; and then separate my conscious mind from my desire for a particular outcome. I try to remain completely receptive to whatever answer may come and during my interpretation, I try to retain this detachment.
The more you use a particular oracle, such as a set of runes or a tarot deck, the easier it gets. For example, several years ago I made myself a set of runes. When I first started using them, they were more confusing than helpful, but I persisted and now, I use them almost exclusively and find them very helpful.
>> So my second question is, have people actually uncovered their earthly future in advance, and what's their story? Most people try to some extent peep into the future, but would they be happy if they could? (My own guess: the near future, yes, the far, no.) <<
;-) I don't use my oracles for prediction of the future. Instead, I use them to gain insight into the present situation. I find this to be their best use and the arena in which they are the most accurate.
My best to you,
:) Rawn Clark
02 Jun 2002
>> What do you consider to be the problems connected with future prediction? <<
The future hinges on the present and what we do with the present is what determines the future. When we look into the future, what we usually seek is what *will* happen, not what is *likely to* happen given present circumstances. But the truth is, all an oracle can predict is what the future is *likely to* be based upon the factors inherent in the present
moment. If those factors change, the future changes.
The mind-set of looking to see what *will* happen dis-empowers our ability to change the present moment and thus *create* the future. In this sense, it diminishes our power of free will and locks us into a predetermined course. By building into our psyche the idea that this or that *will* happen in this or that way, the likelihood of it happening exactly that way is greatly increased. It becomes set in our mind and our actions naturally follow along.
However, if instead of looking to the future, we look to the dynamics of the present moment and seek clarity concerning our own actions, thoughts, emotions, etc., *in the present moment*, we are then given the opportunity to change. Instead of hemming us in, this liberates us and places the future in our hands.
So long as we are fully conscious in the present moment, the future takes care of itself.
My best to you,
:) Rawn Clark
03 Jun 2002
>> If I understand you correctly, future-divining with the possibly more realistic attitude of looking for 'likely tendencies' and 'probabilities', instead of looking for The Fated Future, is less dis-empowering. <<
Yes and it's more likely to offer productive results.
>> But where does that put Nostradamus. among others? He wrote a long time ago, does that invalidate him totally? <<
Here we see the difference between *prophesy* and *divination*. Divination occurs entirely *within* the temporal realm where future is not fated. Prophesy however, is the product of an eternal perspective in which the whole of time is perceived and everything can then be said to be fated. Prophesy doesn't *predict* -- it *perceives*.
Nostradamus was one of the very few true prophets and one of the most accurate and prolific. Nonetheless, the result of his prophesy is like the product of any oracle -- we must still interpret what he wrote, and that's where we run into trouble.
>> The course of the present has been altered many times since then. Or has it? <<
The present moment is in a constant state of flux and from a temporal perspective its course cannot be predicted with accuracy.
>> How do we know we have changed the factors inherent in the present? <<
;-) By changing them.
>> So much for the future, but what about divining about the past? Is that like reading the "book of Akasha"? <<
No, "reading the Akasha" is a different matter entirely, again having to do with an eternal perspective. The Akasha holds not only past and present, but also "future"; whereas mundane divination, since it occurs within the temporal realm, can comprehend only past and present, but not "future". In other words, with the Akasha, one perceives the full context of any temporal event, but with divination, one perceives the past only in terms of the present and thus in a limited context.
My best to you,
:) Rawn Clark
04 Jun 2002
J. commented:
>> I think that when someone is given a glimpse of the future it is for our benefit so that we can make changes happen so that the predicted outcome will not happen. <<
S. replied:
>> Yes, except when the outcome is a vacation on the Riviera with wine, women and song! <<
You raise an important point, S. Namely, that when we are presented with a glimpse of what we *want*, we automatically stop questioning. We immediately assume that this is a clear sign that we're on the right track and therefore don't need to look within or change
anything. At that point, we generally stop *interpreting* and take the divination literally.
Yet when the divination indicates something we don't *want*, we begin hemming and hawing, drawing another card/rune/whatever, and so on, until we get the answers we do *want*.
The question then becomes, are we divining just to make ourselves feel better or are we truly interested in an accurate insight into a situation? If it is to be the latter, then whichever way the divination goes, we must still look within and evaluate our own role.
My best to you,
:) Rawn Clark
06 Jun 2002
>> It seems then that answers depend very much on questions, and types of questions. And questions sometimes spell out negative assumptions, like "life is happening to me" or "I am a victim". Perhaps just by asking better, more intelligent questions things can be changed. Perhaps the oracle gets confused (and pissed off) by "What will be the colour of my fiancé's eyelashes" ? <<
Of greatest importance is the spirit in which a question is asked and the receptivity with which one approaches the "answer".
>> Would it be indiscreet to inquire what kind of questions *you* ask your oracles? I think it could be illuminating. <<
I always ask my oracles for guidance and clarity. I see my oracles as an extension of my own intuition. I find that sometimes I'm too close to a situation for me to simply intuit the proper course. When that happens, I use my oracle to help bring my attention, and thereby the force of my intuition, to the heart of the matter. It helps me pinpoint the crucial issue that I'm otherwise unable to pinpoint.
So, if I'm stymied over situation X, I take my Tarot in hand and think about the situation itself. Then I ask for guidance and clarification and draw my card. Then, I apply my intuition to the symbols of the Tarot card. This always brings clarity to the situation and helps me find my proper course in the matter.
>> Any good exercises for developing prophecy? (I predict you will say: IIH...) <<
Damn you're good! ;-) Can you tell me what the stock market will do next Tuesday at 3pm?
>> So even if prophecy perceives, things are still not clear as water… Or perhaps they are clear in a non-rational, right hemisphere kind of way? <<
Things are always clear to the prophesier. The difficulty is in translating a perception that occurs at an eternal level, into temporal terms. This is why prophesies resort to symbolic language. In the end, prophesies require more than the rational mind to interpret just as they required more than the rational mind to perceive in the first place.
>> I guess "event" is mainly a convenient term, for how can we really say that something started or ended? Do they not flow into each other? Is it not one long thread? <<
Yes. Which begs the question, why bother with trying to peer into the future at all? Why not just be, fully, a part of the *present* flow? Impatience, perhaps?
>> One final point: the future is, from a temporal perspective, fluid and possible to change. But is the past written in stone? I now mean the past as it appears to us, i.e. as memory patterns and traces. <<
From a temporal perspective, the past does not exist, just like the future does not exist (from a temporal perspective). The only thing that truly exists is the present moment which is of infinitely finite duration. This infinitely finite present moment is the product of a "past" which no longer exists except as the body of the present. Similarly, the "future" exists within the present moment only as unrealized potential and is the product of infinite change. The infinitely finite present moment contains both infinite continuity and infinite change.
Hidden within the now-ness of the infinitely finite present moment, lies the infinitely infinite eternal moment (the arena of prophesy).
>> That's all for now. I predict that some people will read this post to the end, and that my next post will be shorter. (But don't count on it ;-) <<
As an example of how changeable the future is, I predict that your next post will be shorter. But of course, since I've made that predication, you will take it as a challenge and write a still longer post. And, having said that, you will of course write something really short just to spite me. Or will you? ;-) Oh well, I guess I'll just have to float along in the present moment and eventually I'll see . . . Or maybe I should exercise my impatience and consult an oracle?
My best to you,
:) Rawn Clark
10 Jun 2002