Divination Part II: Dowsing Rods

Still in the back. We are summarizing the oldest known form of Divination today. Exciting I know. Touched on with Pendulums, the Use of Rods is actually the oldest for of Divination recorded.

Not so common as most other methods of Divination, but people, even those outside of the Occult community know what Dowsing is, it has been used even in the modern world to find lost objects or fresh water.

Dowsing Rods have been used for divination for centuries. Although there is evidence suggesting that dowsing was in use 8,000 years ago, the first historically recorded evidence of the use of dowsing dates back to 16th Century Germany. Dowsing rods were included in ceremonial magick rituals.

While not a part of every pagan household again the history earns this special form of divination an honorable mention. While explaining the "How" Aspect is a little subjective, I'll leave it to you to research the general information is:

Traditionally, the most common divining rod was a Y-shaped branch from a tree or bush. Some dowsers prefer branches from particular trees; hazel twigs in Europe and witch-hazel in the United States were commonly chosen. Some dowsers prefer the branches to be freshly cut. I will admit that I have no idea as to how these branches would be interpreted, as my limited exposure has been to the more modern method.

Many dowsers today use a pair of simple L-shaped metal rods; some even use bent wire coat hangers. One rod is held in each hand, with the short part of the L held upright, and the long part pointing forward. Some dowsers claim best success with rods made of particular metals, such as brass. These rods move freely within the users grip, only crossing when the object is found or objective is reached.

Dowsing Rods have a well known use in finding spirits.

Divination Part I: Pendulums

Moving to the back pages again.

While not every Witch reads Tarot, most believe in divination.

Divination is at the heart of Old Magick, and has a place at the very least as an honorable mention in your Book of Shadows. If Divination is your true love then please consider keeping a Divination Journal.

Divination, or seeking insights from supernatural sources, has been practiced worldwide since ancient times through several methods; one of those secrets in the human psyche that no-one can explain why it perseveres, other than... that it works. Despite religious persecution and scientific questioning, many forms of divination have survived through the centuries. They remain popular as tools for determining the future, and as spiritual resources.

So there are at least two methods that you should record before even looking at Tarot.

Every Witch should Have a Pendulum

A pendulum is one of the simplest and easiest forms of divination. It's a simple matter of Yes/No questions being asked and answered, or they can me used on a map to determine a location. Although you can purchase pendulums commercially, ranging from about $15 - $60, it's not hard to make one of your own. Typically, most people use a crystal or stone, but you can use any object that's got a bit of weight to it.

 Take your time before you start writing. As with a lot of things what you write you need to write as though you are writing for someone else. This is information that you could be passing on to a student and information that we may take for granted as self explanatory isn't always.

With this particular item including pictures are simple, and the most effective explanation.

You can use a pendulum to dowse for just about anything, from buried treasure to the best spot to drill a well. You can dowse an area to find a lost object. You can dowse a house or apartment to see if it's right for you. Or dowse the land to determine the best place to build a home, business, shrine, garden, etc.

You can even dowse a map. This technique is great if you're thinking about taking a trip or looking for a new place to live. Hold the pendulum over a map of an area that interests you and ask, “Is this the place?” If the response is no, try another area. Keep at it until the pendulum says yes, this can be a practice in patience.

Include a simple map and instructions on how to key a pendulum to know what a Yes is.. (Usually done by asking a question you already know the answer to.) and what No is.. (Again asking a question you know the answer to, like 'is my hair red.')

Each persons energies are different, so the answers may not match the map shown.

To utilize a Pendulum....

Example:

• Place your map, either a real land map or a question map/mat.
• Hold the pendulum with the chain positioned lightly between over the ring finger of your power hand and wrapped back up around your middle finger to be caught between your thumb and index.
• Dangle it over the surface until it stops swinging and is still.
• Ask your question.

It takes time to become comfortable with this practice.
 
If you would like to contact me personally for Q&A you can always comment or for private consult my email is listed in my business card, please note that I work at my own pace and you may see your answer in a blog post rather than a responding email. 

 

Your Tool

This is again back to those front pages.This particular entry may take up two or more pages.

I know you are probably confused.

"Which Tool?" You ask me?

With the plethora of Tools used in Witchcraft today, that many of us collect, decorate and then consecrate... before promptly stowing them away and only pulling them out for that one spell a decade.

You see for all the Tools available to us, we don't really need them all, we certainly can't use all of them at once. But we do develop a relationship, and connect to one, it becomes our favorite, our Go-To Tool.

This is where you are going to record about it. Most reach for their Athame, but my tool of choice is the Stang.

Draw it, if you can, but do not take up the whole page. You need to be able to fill in information.

At the top of the page you may choose to Name it in the Witches Alphabet: Example "Staff of Worlds".

Description: This tool is often used interchangeably with your Ritual Staff. More Shamanic in history than ceremonial the Stang embodies each realm of existence and acts as a direct tie between you and the World Tree in meditations and astral work.

Crafting: Crafted of length of Ash collected at Solstice and stripped of its bark, laid flat to allow the wood to age and cure until Imbolc when we entered into the first creation ritual... (Wood used, how the wood was harvested, special ceremonial aspects..)

Element: Air (You will disagree with me)
Symbolism: The Tree of Life
Uses: A Ritual Weapon, designed for the purpose of Hedgecrossing

Details: How it was crafted and what went into it, type of wood etc..

Meditation: Specific visualizations or Meditations entered in to with the aid of the tool.

Rites: This would be a special consecration process, if it had one different from your other Tools.


Now, you may choose to write up information on more than one tool.  If you want to, feel free. But part of the magick and mystery comes from your own connection to the things that you record.

 

References

Now I stated before that you can leave most reference material out and save it for your Book of Mirrors, but you should have something quick and dirty. However, this post does have a little bit of homework. I don't want to write your BoS for you after all, what would you learn?

To the Back! Of the Book that is.

You may have guessed that I am of the old school and have a natural tendency to want to make my writing hard for an outsider to muddle through. 

You are not writing a book, however, you can put a major cheat sheet that encompasses most kinds of Magick. Do some reading on the Doctrine of Signatures it is very helpful and dives into some ancient magick.

The most important reference you can have is colors. Whats that? Your surprised? Let me share a secret with you. Knowing the color to correspond with your need will help you find the right herb or crystal, it won't help you so much with scent but of everything it is the broadest in scope and what I suggest you scribble on these back pages.

White - The Presence of All Colors: All Planets, All Genders, All Days, The God and Goddess, Spirit and Astral Work. In plants it boosts your Immune System and helps fight Cancer and improve Heart Health.

Instead of:

"Symbolize and reinforce the contact with pure spirit. Elemental spirits, Angels, Gods of wisdom, divination and prophecy. Purification and cleaning on all levels, contact with higher self and spiritual helpers, aura-healing, truth seeking, consecration, spiritual enlightenment, protection against negativity, breaking curses, exorcism, meditation, divination, inspiration, and clairvoyance. White can be a replacement for any other color."

You see my version is very generic, it give you the information to find what you need without holding your hand. That single sentence tells me everything that I NEED to know. Without question some of that is because of early exposure and my parents but the knowledge will come with time and that hint of mystery speaks volumes. I'll give you one more example and then send you out in the world to create your own list.


Yellow - Planet: Mercury, Gender: Male, Day: Wednesday. Commerce/Trade and Travel Dieties. Study, Intellect, Clarity and Presentation. Plants contain B-Vitamins, essential in Cellular Metabolism and Reproduction necessary in healing.

*********

Gold
Sun-deities, solar energies, and masculine energy. Abundant self confidence, creativity, perfection, financial richess, success in investments, luxury, worldly power, magickal power, overcoming bad habits and addictions.

Orange
Deities of good luck and good fortune. Charm, kindness, encouragement, stimulation, optimism, success, abundance, prosperity, feast and celebration, achieving business goals, investments, success in legal matters.

Copper or Bronze
Love-goddesses, love and passion, positive relationships in love, friendship in business, career promotions, successful negotiations.

Red
Elemental fire, deities of love, passion, sexuality and war. Courage, will-power, determination, speed, assertivity, aggression, masculinity, independence, physical strength, sports, competition, conflicts, health, sexual attraction and potency, love and passion, fertility.

Magenta
Magnetism, the ability to attract or speed up results. Life purpose, life path.

Pink
Love-goddesses, softness and tenderness, romance, caring, nurturing, youth, peace, friendship, femininity, emotional love, emotional healing.

Green
Elemental earth and elemental water. Nature and fertility deities, Mother goddesses. Nature, fertility, growth, rejuvenation, recovery, healing, harvest and abundance, prosperity, harmony, balance, peace, hope, home, plants and animals.

Turquoise
Changes, intellectual and intuitive insights, inventions and originality, renewal, brotherhood, humananity.

Blue
Elemental water and elemental air. Deities of the sea and sky, truth and wisdom. Peace and tranquility, calmness, truth, wisdom, justice, counsel, guidance, understanding and patience, loyalty and honor, sincerity, devotion, healing, femininity, prophetic dreams, protection during sleep, astral projection.

Violet
Elemental spirits, angels, and Gods of divination and prophecy. Psychic abilities, divination, counter-acting negativity and black magick, reversing curses, psychic healing, psychic power, inspiration, meditation, spirituality, spiritual power, astral projection, third eye.

Brown
Elemental earth, stability, grounding, conservation, protection of household, family and pets, healing animals, finding lost objects, buildings, material increase, to make relationships solid, to increase decisiveness and concentration, to attract help in financial crisis.

Gray
Neutralizing negative influences, putting a halt to action.

Silver
Moon-goddesses, female energy, cycles, rebirth, reincarnation, healing of hormonal imbalances, emotional stability, remove or neutralize negativity, intuition, dreams, psychic abilities and psychic workings.

Black
Elemental earth, deities of the Underworld. Repel and banish evil and negativity, protection, breaking free from bad habits and addictions, deep meditation, opens up deep unconscious levels.

 If you would like to contact me personally for Q&A you can always comment or for private consult my email is listed in my business card, please note that I work at my own pace and you may see your answer in a blog post rather than a responding email. 

 

Lunar Lore

Don't let your Book of Shadows lose momentum, keep the energy rolling through its pages. I try not to keep any individual section too heavy.

Timing is pretty important, we have done a lot to over complicate things. Take the next page and break down Lunar timing.

Example:

The New Moon
Don't be afraid of the Dark, embrace it. Many believe that the New Moon should be taken as a time of rest. However, the new moon is a useful period for growth, for starting new ventures, new beginnings. Also love and romance, health or job hunting. It is a great time of increasing Magick and Rebirth. The best time to plant gardens and trim your hair.

Now this might not be a good example (I wrote it quickly), but you could use poetry:

Lady of the Night
Spinning like the gamblers coin
Dark then light and dark again.

As the dark orb rises
Sparks dance in minds and hearts
Inspiration, growth and renewal.

Waxing poetic in the sky
Life springs, all grows
Hair and Herb and Hope.

Swelling, Silver is the Mother
Birthing her light into the world
As the tides reaching the land.

Waning and pulling like a bowstring
Launching power like arrows
Repelling the unwanted.

It is possible to mince your words and still capture the intent.

You'll want to capture, New Moon, Waxing Moon, Full Moon and Waning Moon.

If you would like to contact me personally for Q&A you can always comment or for private consult my email is listed in my business card, please note that I work at my own pace and you may see your answer in a blog post rather than a responding email. 

Tradition 2: The God

While we have a Goddess we are not Monotheistic, our path is one of balance. Directly opposite the Goddess.

As I stated last week. I do not personally call upon the Gods often. So I will leave giving your iconic duo a face up to you. You need to fill in some information, please do not take this post at face value, research your God:

Great Father

Name: If you are working with a specific God.
Myth: (Such as Mercury, Messanger of the Gods.)
Incense: (Recipe if Applicable) Benzoin
Color: Gold
Tree: Oak
Flower: Iris (The root looks phallic)
Preferred Offering: A Personal Possession (Ring, Crystal, Coin or Blade)
Invocation:

"Ancient God of the forest deeps,
Master of beast and Sun;
Here where the world is hushed and sleeps
Now that the day is done.
I call You in the ancient way
Hear me pray and send Your force down. "

Tradition 1: The Goddess

I don't know how much of this I have discussed, but your Book of Shadows is a reflection of your Shadow Self. It is a Sacred Artifact. The way we are laying it out is much like you would design a Temple.

Still working at the front of your BoS. After you have finished with your section on The Pillars (The Elements) we are metaphorically stepping into a Temple, and at the center of the Temple you will always find the Gods.

Every path has their Pantheon, their Mount Olympus if you will. If you do not have a path or lineage within the Craft these next two pages can stay generic "Great Mother" and "Great Father" images. And if you are at all artistic please draw them how you see them, if not the Gods saw fit to provide us with the Internet, find something you like.

Now I do not personally call upon the Gods often. So I will leave giving your iconic duo a face up to you. You need to fill in some information, please do not take this post at face value, research your Goddess:

Great Mother

Name: If you are working with a specific Goddess.
Myth: (Such as The Birth of Venus, Aphrodite and the Clam.. Not in detail, just a source.)
Incense: (Recipe if Applicable) Ylang-Ylang
Color: Silver
Tree: Elder
Flower: Lotus and Tulip
Preferred Offering: Egg
Invocation:

"Oh Goddess Mother
You are the mystery of Night
Your radiant shine is the Day
Infinite realms cascade within You..

I open myself to your Glory!"