Divination is one of my true loves. It is an enduring love, a quiet, respectful love of a practice I am sure that I will engage in until the day I die. I practice being in all the roles - diviner for my clients, receiver from others, and receiver on my own behalf.
By divination, I mean consulting with other than human wisdom sources through ritual to gain insight and information. A diviner could consult with a sense of oneness or the universe itself, with a collective of spirit guides, or with their great grandmother who is on the other side. The information could travel through cards or throwing bones, in a vision, clairaudience, and so on. The space they enter when doing it could be light and silly or deep and uncontrollable.
I love this avenue of spirit work, because it calls forward the divine essence within the practitioner and the receiver. It’s not just about finding out when that Pilates teacher that you regret hiring is going to quit, though you may find that out. Divination has taught me to stand on my own two feet in relationship with my deities, ancestors, colleagues, and all that is. It is a process of opening, listening, integrating, and making empowered choices around one’s life.
Divination is about our willingness to cut through the noise. Cultural noise, the noise of our own thinking and habitual ways of seeing the world, the noise of our expectations.
When I order at a restaurant and I muscle test my hand about what to order, I see this as a kind of little divination. I am consulting body wisdom in the most rapid way I can while maintaining conversation with others. After years of practice, it is right almost all the time. Is it radically life changing? No, but it is a low stakes practice in making a decision from a different space. When I order what I received in the muscle test, I show my body that I am listening. I introduced this to two friends last weekend. Everyone did it and ended up with the food that was just right for their body, even though for one it was something she would never normally order!
My favorite divinations meet at least three criteria:
The information is helpful and has good accuracy. I feel seen and reflected.
The diviner’s words as well as the space beyond their words communicate something valuable. When the space of a divination (you could also say the vibe) transmits something outside of my habitual ways of seeing and thinking, my soul stretches into those places I haven’t allowed it go before.
The diviner respects my complete authority over my own life and trusts me to use the information as I see fit. Ethically, we are on the same page. More on this in a future newsletter.
The power of the question
Divinations at their best are collaborative. I’m talking deeper divinations here, beyond food choices…the kind about destiny, about big life changes, about who you are and why you are here. The kind that can accompany and empower you as you walk your path. The kind of divinations that can unfold over months or years, awakening what was dormant in you.
In these kinds of divinations, as the diviner prepares her connection to spirit, the receiver also prepares theirs by finding the right words to hold their question.
I always encourage folks to ask a question that engages their own agency and responsibility in their life. For example, should I get divorced? Is a human question that only the human asking it can really answer. Running to a diviner to pass off the decisions we are afraid of truly making usually just ends in a wild anxiety fuelled goose chase.
What works so much better is asking a question that acknowledges the agency you have over your life and seeks to support that while bringing insight to the situation. For example, instead of “should I get divorced?” a person could ask: “I seek a more fulfilling relationship with my partner. What kind of changes are possible in this relationship now and what best supports those changes?”
To create an unlocking, we must find the words that give a shape to the lock, then work together to call forward the key.
I once heard a story of someone who approached a high seat (a community seidr ritual aka reconstructed old northern european oracular practice) and asked the diviner where they should go on vacation. “What’s a vacation?” The Völva (seiðr practitioner) responded. The deeper divination space that she was in was not tuned to the level of mundane human decisions. She was offering people a different level of guidance and insight if they knew how to ask.
Learning to hone your question is a spiritual practice in itself. Finding words for it that feel true and heart connected and then speaking them OUT LOUD can be a life changing thing.
The strongest divinations come from questions that are truly heartfelt.
Offering
I offer asynchronous divinations by distance. This is how it works:
You reach out saying you want a divination. Tell me if you need help honing your question or if it feels clear already. If you need help crafting the question I can help with that over email or a quick zoom.
You send a voice memo with your question.
Within two weeks I send you a ceremonial recording of your divination. I usually work in the seidr (or seiðr) way that is connected to my Northern ancestors - with song, staff, and spirits. Your question and your divination are sacred and I keep both confidential.
If you feel a pull to divination, but don’t feel that I am the person for you, I recommend African Sangoma John Lockley. When I had a divination from him I experienced a beautiful transmission. My soul moved and clicked and knew what to change in ways he never even mentioned. It was a really wonderful experience.
Practice
If you have your own divination practice, with spirits, cards, or runes for example, it can become more effective as you stretch your questions and the kind of listening space you inhabit when you receive the information.
Questions: When you craft a question how does it feel in your mouth as you speak it? In your body? Does it have the word should in it? (try to rework it if there is a should)
Craft the question in a way that feels like it sings to you. Find the words that feel powerful to you before you start.
Answers: When you receive the messages of the divination, notice if your mind runs a thousand directions to make easy to digest associations. Feel your body instead. Take a deep breath. Give it some room.
Be curious and ask the divination to unfold over time or in your dreams. Walk away forget about it for a bit, and notice how it comes back to you. Allow it unfold over time.
Dear reader, I love this topic and would love to hear from you before I write part 2. I am curious to hear how divination has happened in your life. What works for you? What doesn’t work? Have you ever had a great or a horrible divination experience? Tell me about it in the comments and stay tuned for Part 2.
Rayann is a spirit-worker, artist, and medium. She offers mentoring and healing sessions with compassion, kindness, and integrity. Her work serves those who need help with initiatory experiences, entanglements, loss, and reconnection to their own souls, ancestors, purpose, or place. She co-facilitates workshops on ritual and writing, assists clients who are recovering from spiritual abuse, and practices improvisational dance and quilting on Lekwungen territory in Victoria, BC.
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