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astrology, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Geomancy

The Geomancy of Peter of Abano – Book I Pt. 4

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Abano quickly summarises the meanings of the planets in traditional Western astrology, so that the geomancer may better understand the meanings of the corresponding figures.

In order to make it even easier to make a judgment, we shall now consider the planet of every figure, and conveniently we shall list the virtue and meaning of every planet.1

Saturn is always evil, wherever it is, and it means sick or vile people, malady, poverty, blind or maimed people, laborers, problems and toil, prison and prisoners. Adversities and obstacles, loss of wealth. It is only good for building and in agriculture and in things that need to last. Its two figures are Tristitia and Carcer.

Jupiter is always good, wherever it is, and it means Church people, prelates, noblemen, rich people, merchants, captains, courtesans and friendly people. It is good and pleasurable, useful in every thing. It is only bad for the sick and the prisoner, whose trouble it prolongs. Its figures are Acquisitio and Laetitia. Acquisitio is the better one.

Mars is sometimes good and sometimes bad, depending on the question, but inclining to evil, and it means malicious people, wrongdoers, traitors, thieves, ruffians, harlots, murderers. It is only good in things of wars and when blood is concerned. Its figures are Puer and Rubeus, and Puer is the worse one.2

Venus is good, but its goodness is minor, for good or ill, depending on the question asked. It means people who are friendly, happy, young, with little troubles in life. But also harlots. Its figures are Puella and Amissio. Puella is the more noxious for travel and sickness and prison. Amissio is the better one.3

Mercury is a mixed planet in terms of good and evil. It means servants, messengers, letters, embassies, writers, scholars and painters, science and doctrine. Its figures are Albus and Conjunctio. Conjunctio is the worse one, as it always shows malicious intention or duplicity, and hexes.

The Sun and Moon are mixed planets in their good and evil import depending on the question, but the Sun is the better of the two,4 and it means nobles, kings, emperors and people of high station, who have dominion. Its figures are Fortuna Major and Fortuna Minor. Minor means more trouble than prosperity.

The Moon is also a mixed planet, but mostly bad, and its figures are Via and Populus. Via is only good for travel, Populus is good for dealing with people, and it means abundance and lots of water.

Caput and Cauda are associated with the planets Jupiter and Venus (Caput) and Mars and Saturn (Cauda).5

MQS

Footnotes
  1. The elaborate psychological attributes that modern astrology assigns to the twelve zodiac signs are virtually unknown to premodern Astrology, having been invented relatively recently to make up for modern astrology’s inability to make verifiable predictions. Instead, traditional astrology relies much more heavily on the planets as celestial actors. ↩︎
  2. This is not the first time Abano alludes to Puer being worse than Rubeus, although in other places he seems to contradict this statement. ↩︎
  3. This statement is also odd, and it reeks of either mistake or blind. ↩︎
  4. In Medieval Astrology the Sun was often considered a benefic when aspecting other planets, but a malefic in conjunction (planets conjunct to the Sun are said to be combust or burned up, except when they are very close, in which case they are said to be in the heart of the Sun and strengthened). The Moon’s evaluation, quite ironically, fluctuated depending on the author, but in general she was believed to be a benefic when waxing and a malefic when waning. ↩︎
  5. The practice of assigning the two Nodes to the benefics and malefics seems to have started possibly with Medieval Muslim philosophers, or at least in the Latin West. In the original Western tradition, the Hellenistic one, there doesn’t seem to have been much talk of the Nodes except in negative terms. ↩︎
astrology, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Reading Example, Uncategorized

The Key Handover (Example Reading)

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As most people reading this blog probably know at this point, we’ve recently bought our first home. A couple of weeke ago we scheduled the key handover with the previous owner, and I asked if everything would run smoothly. The result was a very interesting chart with a clear example or translation of light.

Key handover, horary reading. App used: Aquarius2go

We are represented by Venus, ruler of Libra on the Ascendant. The previous owner is Mars, ruler of Aries on the Seventh. The Moon represents action. Notice the South Node of the Moon on the Ascendant, indicating troubles.

The second thing I noticed is that both Venus and Mars have recently changed signs, and especially that Mars has moved from Pisces, the sign of Venus’ exaltation, to its own sign, and Venus has moved from Mars’ sign to her own sign. Furthermore, the Moon has also just changed signs while being in the Fourth house which represents the property.

The Moon is the most interesting factor here: she is separating from a sextile with reception of Mars (back when she was in the last minutes of Capricorn) and applies to a square with reception of Venus from Aquarius. By this translation of light the Moon shows very well the passage from one owner to the other.

A square aspect is technically a negative indication, showing either friction or obstacles. The reception, though, allows the obstacle to be overcome. In his chapter on reception, the Medieval astrologer Guido Bonatti seems to hint at the idea that a square with reception is basically like a sextile without reception, but this doesn’t seem to be the case here: a square is a square, and it shows trouble, even though reception shows the overcoming of the difficulty.

And this is what happened: the owner cancelled on us two times for other appointments that took up a lot of his time, so the handover happened (reception) but with delay (square).

NOTE: the two aspects made by the Moon were both with reception: she was received by Mars in his exaltation and then received Venus in her (the Moon’s) own exaltation, thus smoothly transfering the ‘virtue’ she had received.

MQS

astrology, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Geomancy

Friend or Acquaintance?

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In Astrology, and therefore in Geomancy, we distinguish between a friend and an acquaintance, the former being eleventh house matter, the latter seventh house. Obviously, the difference is not as clear cut as it may seem, especially in the age of social media, where all it takes to be someone’s friend is to click on the ‘add’ button.

In the old texts, both of Geomancy and Astrology, we often find examples of how to judge questions like “Will my friends be useful to me?” This may sound callous compared to our sentimental notions of friendship, but keep in mind that 1) the old notion of usefulness was broader back then, and it included everything concerned with the person’s well-being, both inner and outer 2) friends formed part of the person’s network of alliances in tackling the hardships of life 3) the eleventh house is the second from the tenth, which represents heaven, so it represents friends as wealth from heaven. Clearly friends were highly revered (just read Plato, Seneca, Xenophon or even Confucius for proofs).

As I mentioned somewhere else, my husband and I are in the process or moving, and as usual when moving, we suddenly discovered that we own three times more stuff than we thought. One friend volunteered to help us the following day, bringing us boxes and helping us with her car. In the evening though she said she didn’t know if she would make it. I cast a reading to see whether she would come:

Will she come to help us? (app used: Simple Geomancy)

Let us forget the Judge for a second and concentrate on the chart. If we take the girl as ‘our friend’ she should be eleventh house, and the eleventh house is occupied by Cauda, which also doesn’t move anywhere.

Now if my mom asked me who she is, I would say ‘a friend’. Yet she is more my husband’s friend. I am just on good terms with her, but I wouldn’t call her to spill my guts or even to ask for help, though it was of course very nice of her to volunteer.

If I take her to be my acquaintance, she is seventh house, and occupied by a more promising Conjunctio, which does spring to the second toward me. And she did end up coming.

The negative Judge, Amissio, possibly refers to the fact that we ended up losing a couple of objects due to recklessness (notice the Via Puncti reaching back to Puer in the fourth house). I also ended up losing a friend to gain an acquaintance, it seems.

MQS

astrology, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Geomancy, I Ching / Yi Jing, Occultism and Esoterism, Tarot, Uncategorized, Vera Sibilla

The Spiritual Aim of Divination

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I had a short but interesting conversation with a visitor of this site. He quite liked many of my articles but was somewhat perplexed by my iconoclastic attitude toward the spiritual side of divination. I think this is a good time to clarify my views further, since the reason I am so scathing is not that I hate spiritual work, but that I take it seriously.

First off, let us distinguish inspired divination from technical divination. Inspired divination is the downloading of information, as it were, from a spirit, a deity, an inner contact or some such. This depends wholly on either the inborn talent or the level of initiation of the diviner.

Technical divination works for the same reason that stones fall: because that’s how things are. One learns it the same way one learns math: they must be predisposed to it and must put in the work. Of course, one can mix the two types of divination, but they are essentially different.

Either type can be used to obtain concrete information. Either type can be used to fool yourself or others (but especially yourself). The difference is that inspired divination, especially as a consequence of initiation, has the perk that the diviner must have somewhat balanced themselves out of many of the delusions typical of the spiritual community at large. Technical divination may be just as hard for other reasons, but the counters used in the prediction are available to everyone.

From here come the hordes of tarot readers and astrologers that (believe they) are using divination for spiritual aims, or inner work, when in fact they are sinking more and more into Delululand, as most of the time they aren’t really speaking to gods or angels or ancestors but rather to their own ego (have you ever heard any tarot reader or astrologer that uses this approach say something that goes against their convictions? How come their gods or ancestors always have their same values, their same political bias, their same preferences?)

The preconception here is that divination, in order to be spiritual, must be about spiritual topics. This is as a result of two widespread phenomena: 1) most people in our society see spirituality as something separate from concrete life, something that takes place in a bubble of white light 2) most people who become interested in divination are initially interested in concrete answers, but finding that getting these is hard and not immediately rewarding, they reframe divination as ‘not really to know the future but to improve yourself’. This is at the heart of the deadly divination/fortune-telling distinction that plagues our art.

In reality, divination is an inherently spiritual practice: 1) by the mere fact of working it deflates the modern ego 2) by its ability to pinpoint how the future is likely to pan out it puts a stop to the marketable but untrue ‘you are the master of your own destiny’ nonsense 3) by showing how the intricacies of real life can be mirrored in a microcosmic mirror it teaches the diviner to rise above himself and his preconceptions and adopt a more universal standpoint 4) by proving that some things are fated it teaches the practitioner to have compassion for themselves and others and to reevaluate their priorities.

Once again, a geographic analogy could help. A traditional diviner who seeks to understand life is like one using a map of a territory to find his way around. By studying it closely the traveler can eventually form a good understanding of the land he is in. A (pseudo)spiritual approach to divination though is like that same traveler painting the map with a uniform white paint because, at the end of the day, everything is one divine unity. That may very well be, but now the traveler is lost without the map and can only sink deeper in his preconceptions in trying to picture the route.

MQS

astrology, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Geomancy, Occultism and Esoterism, Uncategorized

Veggie Delivery Service! (Double reading)

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Background: hubby and I are on a weekly veggie delivery service from a nearby farm. Yesterday they told us they might come a bit later than usual (normally they deliver at around 12-13pm). As hubby needed to go to work and I had a ritual to carry out and carefully timed, I needed to know that I wouldn’t be disturbed during the ceremony. So I asked when the veggies would come.

Horary Astrology

Here’s the horary chart (the time was 12:56)

Horary question: when will the veggies arrive? App used: Aquarius2go

Leo rises, so Leo’s ruler, the Sun, is my significator. The delivery service is our business partner, since we buy stuff from them and they bring it to us, so they are signified by the seventh house ruler Saturn (ruling planet of Aquarius). The veggies are their moveable possession, so they are indicated by the second house from the seventh, i.e., the eighth house, and its ruler Jupiter. The Moon is given to us as cosignificator and indicator of the flow of action.

Right off the bat we notice the Moon, weakly dignified in the seventh house, so action (obviously) starts from the delivery service. The Moon has separated from a square with reception with Jupiter, i.e., the veggies, and is now void of course. Clearly there are some problems (a square with reception is still a square). Still, there is a promising sextile (a positive aspect) between the Sun and Saturn, though it’s odd to see our significator applying to theirs (see the Outcome for why).

The Sun perfects the aspect at 17 degrees and 10 minutes of Taurus. The difference from its current position is of 4 degrees and 38 minutes, so they will come in 4 and 38 somethings. I would need to see serious testimonies to judge they won’t come. The Moon being void of course can delay them, but there is a clear aspect showing they’ll come. So they will come today, I thought.

Therefore, they will either come in 4 minutes and 38 seconds or in 4 hours and 38 minutes. I thought the second option was the most likely, so since the chart was cast at 12:56, and allowing some wiggle room for reality to follow astrology, I judged they’d come anywhere between 17.30 and 18, though I was somewhat skeptical, since this timing would have been unprecedented for them, and they’d told us they would come only a little bit later than usual. But at least this gave me plenty of time for my ritual.

Geomancy

After my ritual, which was timed for around 15 in the afternoon, I decided to have a look at what Geomancy had to say about this delivery:

Geomancy reading: veggie delivery service. App used: Simple Geomancy

The Geomantic court is positive, with the Judge Acquisitio showing we’ll get the veggies, but the Witnesses are mixed, showing problems. Albus is in the first, and it’s a good figure for commerce. A very unpromising Cauda Draconis is in the seventh house (which is also the left witness). I must say that I have seldom seen things resolved satisfactorily when Cauda is involved. However, Cauda does spring to the second house, perfecting. I was also relieved, but also a bit puzzled, to see Albus spring to the eighth, also perfecting the chart. Usually, the figure that moves makes the effort. In this case, it seems both of us will make some effort, and that our effort is better than theirs.

Outcome

They did come between 17.30 and 18 (around 17.45). However, they gave us the wrong delivery, which we only noticed when they’d already gone away. So we had to call them back and go meet them to exchange the wrong veggies for the right ones. Note how in the horary our significator applies to theirs and how, in the Geomantic chart, Albus moves to the eighth.

Lessons to be learned

1. Horary questions must not be idle, but they need not be life-changing. Knowing when a delivery service will arrive may seem idle curiosity, but I had a serious reason to want to know the answer (I take my magic work seriously)

2. The divination device, whatever it may be, ALWAYS knows best, though we may be fallible in interpreting it. People like to say that divination lets you contact your unconscious. I think there is altogether too much talk about the unconscious, and not enough talk about the superconscious. I saw from the Geomancy reading that there were problems connected with the delivery, though I could not pinpoint them exactly. In hindsight it is clear what the chart meant.

3. It is a humbling and inspiring experience to see how perfectly the cosmic mechanism works.

MQS

astrology, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Geomancy, Uncategorized

The Shield Chart is the Only Chart

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One of the things newcomers to Geomancy learn first is the distinction between shield chart and astrological chart. This distinction has been popularized by Greer in his two books on Geomancy, but it doesn’t originate with him, though he is, to my limited knowledge, the first to insinuate that the shield chart is a beginner’s tool and the astrological chart a more advanced one (his attitude changes in his Golden Dawn writings, where he tries to purge astrology from geomancy and render the shield chart autonomous).

Agrippa (followed centuries later by the Golden Dawn) clearly has the astrological chart in mind, since he advocates putting the four Mothers in the four angles, the four Daughters in the four succedent houses and the four Nieces in the four cadent houses. This idea can only come to mind to someone who primarily uses the astrological square chart, or at least pictures the geomantic reading in those terms.

There are other authors, however, like Cattan, Abano and Alfakini (note that some attribute Alfakini’s work, found in the Fasciculus Geomanticus, to Gerard of Cremona) who clearly think of geomantic practice in terms of the shield chart alone. Not because they are unaware of the possible correspondence with the astrological houses, which all employ, nor because they never attempt to draw the square astrological chart (Christopher Cattan does it in the first part of his book), but because it is clear to them that the twelve astrological houses are meant as a technique to be used to draw meaning out of the shield chart and not as a new or different way of doing geomancy.

This can be seen from the fact that both Abano and Alfakini (and possibly also Cattan, but I have to study his text more closely) clearly consider the twelfth house NOT to be contiguous to the first, as it would be in the square chart. On the other hand, both consider the ninth house, which in an astrological square chart would have no relation to the first, to be contiguous to the first, just because in a shield chart it belongs to the same triplicity as the first and is close to it (see below)

Shield chart in Geomancy, with first and ninth house connected. App used: Simple Geomancy

In this chart, Puer in the first is close to Cauda in the ninth, but not to Puella in the twelfth.

This new way of looking at the chart is also making me reevaluate the doctrine of the company of houses, which I have somewhat disparaged in a previous article, and it might even shed light on the strange doctrine of the triplicities, which Greer makes much of but which is barely present in the old texts except in an apparently purely decorative sense. I will need to read the texts more closely and experiment.

What seems clear to me though is that there was never meant to be an astrological square chart, for many authors of the Medieval tradition, but rather merely an astrological lens in looking at the shield chart.

MQS

astrology, Card Reading, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Geomancy, I Ching / Yi Jing, Occultism and Esoterism, Philosophy, Playing Cards, Spirituality and Psychology, Tarot, Uncategorized, Vera Sibilla

On Prayer Before Divination

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Some days ago I was talking to a fellow occult student and we were comparing notes on how we go about the process of divination. When I told her that I tend to say a little prayer before divination she was surprised, so I thought it would make for a nice topic.

First off, I do not think that praying before divination is mandatory, nor do I think that it’s the prayer that makes divination work. It doesn’t matter if it’s synchronicity, as Jung said, or if it’s the spirits that live inside the cards, as my first teacher told me, or if it’s the Soul of the World, as the Platonists believe, or if symbols are living beings, as I believe: the point is that the cards always rearrange themselves in a meaningful pattern, the planets always find themselves in the right aspects, the right geomantic figures always emerge, the right I Ching Hexagram always forms.

As such, in a way, divination is a natural activity, so much so that it’s probably one of the earliest activities humans have undertaken. The reading of symbols came much sooner than the reading of characters, because symbols occur naturally to the mind whenever we realize that X means Y. The moment the first men drew any kind or conclusion from any kind of observation, divination was born.

And yet, I believe that divination is also essentially extraordinary. In a way, divining is as normal as cleaning your cat’s litter box, but in another sense it is also very different. In divining we read a part of the whole (the divination system) to derive conclusions on the whole (life itself). Indeed most divination systems are universal languages that mirror the complexity of the Macrocosm.

As such, divination cannot be decoupled from a global understanding of life, and this global plane is where philosophy, spirituality and occultism unfurl their wings.

In my own view, occultism is divided into three branches: devotion, divination and magic. But these three aspects are not discretely separated. For instance, theurgy brings together magic and devotion. Divination and magic are often coupled together, such as in electing the right time to make a talisman or in asking if a magical action is warranted or advisable or effective.

Praying before divination brings together devotion and divination. It is a way of recognizing the extraordinary import of the action I’m about to take, despite this action being, in another sense, perfectly ordinary.

It helps me more than it helps the divination system itself. Nor does it have to be prayer. I know of some people who wash their hands before divining. In Imperial China official diviners had to cleanse themselves before attempting divination, and this is true all over the world.

No one divines willy-nilly. No one *should* divine willy-nilly. This has nothing to do with respect (unless you are receiving information from a particular spirit), it has nothing to do with asking deep questions (divination should always be practical) and it has nothing to do with not having a sense of humor (you can have a sense of humor, in spite of how bland and vapid many of us are). It does have to do with knowing what place divination has in the scheme of things and reaching that place. I do it through prayer, others may do it by just taking a second to clear their mind, but everyone does it one way or another.

MQS

astrology, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Geomancy, I Ching / Yi Jing, Philosophy, Tarot, Vera Sibilla

Three Enemies of Good Divination (and One Ally)

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Remember those listicles that were much in demand about ten years ago, before people grew tired of the rage-bait? Yea, they still do them, but they have somewhat fallen out of favor, especially since they are so basic even AI can do them better than the poorly paid saps who wrote them back then. Anyway, here’s a short one, hopefully more interesting than the average listicle, on what generally hinders good divination, plus a bonus entry for what helps.

Mechanic Behavior

Divination eschews mechanic repetition. Asking the same question one or two times is fine because there is still enough emotion behind it to put the system into motion. In fact, it is fine to ask the same question many times as long as the querent is truly invested in it, but the more the querent asks the same question with the same emotional drive as the first time, the more you know the querent is cuckoo and is best avoided. In general, it is best to wait a little between divinations.

This point is one that skeptics seem unable to wrap their heads around, because it seems to run against the principle that experiments can be repeated ad libitum, but it is really quite simple: divination is not an experiment, and the more you mechanically ask the same question, the more the real question changes to whatever it was at the beginning to “does divination really work?” and this question cannot be answered by divination itself.

All in all, a balanced relationship to divination as a means of intelligence gathering, together with the understanding that we are attempting something more exceptional than cleaning the cat’s litterbox, is in order.

Shallow Understanding of the System You Work With

If you asked your doctor how he knows his diagnosis is right and he told you it was just his intuition, you’d feel justified in seeking a second opinion. Yet among ‘spiritual seekers’ anything that reeks of effort and study is frowned upon and people go to extraordinary lengths in order to avoid the simple fact that both knowledge and experience are needed to perform satisfactorily in any sector of life. So they come up with anything from intuitive advice (which essentially means “don’t ask me how I know”) to the great angel HRU to fairies to ‘kickass schools of non-duality.’

The reality is that divination is a method for the acquisition of knowledge. If we don’t make the effort of studying the method we don’t get much knowledge. I believe the current distrust of study comes in part from the distrust of intellectual knowledge (see the bonus entry in this list) and in part from the fact that many people who become interested in divination do it to create a little bubble of mystery and mysticism away from the golden cage that is modernity.

Either way, it is a misguided attitude. Divination requires study. Lots of it. In fact, the study will never end. The good news is that we can start practicing much sooner. As for intuition, it does have a place in divination, and I’ll talk about it in the future, but unbridled intuition is just a badly behaved kid.

Bias and Preconceptions

I’ve already talked at length about this, and I will probably still talk about it in the future. It bears repeating: the more we think we know, the less we’re open to discovery.

Aside from ideological forms of bias, which are always bad regardless of the ideology, there are also other forms. One of the most deadly forms of bias is, for instance, the belief that the querent knows what they are talking about. A querent doesn’t need to be malicious in order to confuse us: they can just be confused themselves, or they can have built a whole scenario inside their heads before sitting in front of us.

On the other hand, talking over our querent and treating them like a special needs child won’t do either. There needs to be a balance between our ability to see the truth of the matter in a dispassionate way (thanks to the divination system we are employing) and open-heartedness toward the querent. As a matter of fact, an open heart can go a long way.

Querents can also be biased against us, but we can do nothing about it. People sometimes ask me what happens when someone asks false questions maliciously. What happens is that if I’m lucky, I’ll understand it from the cards, while if I’m not lucky I’ll make a fool of myself. Either way, the person won’t change their mind about divination or about me, so why bother getting worked up about it? Stuff happens.

Your Brain, Your Best Friend

Ever since Madame Blavatsky disgracefully started peddling poorly understood principles of oriental philosophy, the Western esoteric world has become convinced that the “mind is the enemy”. People generally think so (isn’t it ironic? The mind thinking that the mind is the enemy) because they are incapable of using it but want to sound deep in their incompetence.

In reality, if there is such a thing as overthinking, there is also such a thing as underthinking. The idea that everything must come immediately and instinctively to us in a space of pure knowing and that everything resembling logic is the work of the devil is patently wrong.

Aside from the fact that this is philosophically delusional, most people who think only the mind lies never stop to consider how many times their instincts or their heart actually let them down on a day-to-day basis. The reality is that our mind, our body and our heart are ways for us to acquaint ourselves with the world, and all three can lead us astray depending on the context, just as much as they can guide us to profound insight.

Therefore, if it is not correct to let the other two dry up, it is also not correct to become mindless pseudomystics, sacrificing our understanding on the altar of an ill-digested and rather offensive orientalism (“Counterfeit Asian philosophy 101 says the mind is poo poo, therefore it’s true. See how smart I am? I misquote exotic people!”)

The funny thing is that most Eastern forms of divination are not at all intuitive, and in fact verge on the overly technical (see Da Liu Ren, Qi Men Dun Jia, Wen Wang Gua, Vedic Astrology, Purple Emperor Astrology, etc.) They are also incredibly accurate exactly because of how majestically brainy they are, though they may not have the glamour of the latest useless set of empowering witchy cards. Traditional Western divination systems, of course, can be just as accurate, but people usually have the expectation that they need to unplug their brains on the way in. Let’s not do this. Our mind can sometimes lead us astray. It can also help a great deal.

MQS

astrology, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Geomancy, I Ching / Yi Jing, Philosophy, Playing Cards, Tarot, Vera Sibilla

Should Diviners Give Advice? Yes, But…

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I come from a rather traditionalist school of divination. One of the ways I learned was that my teacher often told me to do a spread on an aspect of her past I knew nothing about to see if I managed to discover what happened. Another way was when she told me to do a spread to see what would be the problem of the next person going to her for a reading. Interestingly, I have met other people, who have taught me other techniques, who used the same method.

As can be expected, there was little room for anything other than the literal interpretation of the cards. This has helped me a lot to remain  with my feet on the ground as I forged my path, which is very good, considering how littered with nonsense the esoteric landscape is.

On the other side of the spectrum you have a sizeable chunk of diviners today, though the situation now is slightly more balanced than it was just twenty years ago. These readers simply interpret the cards (or the planets, or whatever) as if they were benevolent tips from the universe about some inner issue that the person needs to work through to progress.

The problem I have with this approach, aside from the fact that it leads to unverifiable predicitions, is that it presupposes a superstitious view of the universe as some kind of benevolent nanny that teaches you how you ought to behave. These people, I should remind you, are the ones who often loathe Christianity as a bundle of silly dogmas and think they are the reasonable ones.

If there is one thing that my study of philosophy as well as my experience as fortune-teller has taught me is that there is no such thing as an ‘ought’. There’s what is and what isn’t, what was and what wasn’t, what will be and what won’t be, as well as what can be, or is more or less likely to be. For instance, there is no way you ‘ought’ to eat. You either eat well or you don’t. Eating well only becomes an ought when your current diet is checked against your desire to minimize health risks. It’s your desires that create oughts, not the universe.

I already discussed how I believe that divination tools are essentially something that gives us a bird-eye view of existence, affording us a glance at a number of considerations about our situation that we might not otherwise have. To use my old analogy, it is like being in a crowded city center and talking to a person on a walkie talkie, this person looking at your position from the top of a skyscraper and therefore seeing things you cannot see.

It goes without saying that I believe divination tools never give advice.* As maps, they simply tell you what is. Advice is contingent on what either someone wants to do or what they believe a superior authority wants them to do. My view of the superior authority is that it is too occupied exploring all its potential through us to pick and choose what’s best for us.

Does it therefore mean that a diviner should not give advice? I actually believe advice is a perfectly fine thing, as long as it is not delusional advice. I think a good divination session should always be of help to the querent in living their own life better. This is done by checking the querent’s wishes (sometimes implied, sometimes stated outright) against the wider situation as portrayed by the oracle, with its potentials, its risks, its possibilities and impossibilities, its certainties and its uncertainties.

In other words, advice must come from the diviner on the backdrop of the oracle, and not be projected onto the oracle, which just pictures reality as it is, not as it should be (because there is no way reality should be, from an objective standpoint). Sure, sometimes I tell my querents “the cards are advising you to do X”, but this is short for “I am advising you to do X based on what the cards are telling me about your situation.”

Sometimes the right bit of advice at the right time can help the querent make a turn for the better in life. These are the readings I love the most. Sometimes it can improve a situation. Sometimes, though, the advice is not enough to change an objectively difficult situation. The more heroic and nietzschean reaction to these slings and arrows that life throws at us is that of amor fati: in knowing what’s coming, one can learn to love it, thus overcoming it, making it part of oneself instead it being an alien destiny. But this is not always possible. Sometimes, all the querent can get from a difficult reading is peace of mind. And peace of mind is a great thing, all too often undervalued until it’s no longer there.

MQS

* In this, divination tools are very different from inspired divinations caused by spirits or deities, since these actually do have their own particular views and preferences.

astrology, Card Reading, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Occultism and Esoterism, Playing Cards, Uncategorized

Is This Course for Me? (Playing Cards Reading and Horary Astrology)

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I’m always on the look-out for opportunities to deepen my knowledge of esoteric topics. Since the esoteric world is filled to the brim with junk covering a couple of pearls on the bottom (but don’t worry, things don’t get much better outside of lalaland) it is very useful to know some forms of divination to supplement my bullshitometer.

I recently came across a certain course on traditional Italian witchcraft which passed all my preliminary tests (no mention of Wicca or neopaganism, relating anecdotes on practices I’m already familiar with and know are valid, etc.)

Still something was off, though I couldn’t put my finger on it. On thing was probably the reference to authors, like Raven Grimassi, who have been largely debunked. I asked the heavens for a sign, and then pulled some cards. Let’s start with the cards. They were:

4♣ – 2♠ – K♦ – 2♣ – 6♦

Right off the bat, I don’t like the teacher being represented by a King of Diamonds. The King of Diamonds is the merchant, the banker, the one whose end goal is money. If he had been the King of Hearts or even the King of Spades I would have been reassured. You may argue that obviously a course is offered to earn money, to which I respond that there is a difference between earning through your passion and earning through other people’s passion.

I am unsure about the preceding combination of Four of Clubs and Two of Spades, but it likely represents contradictory (2♠, arguments, going apart) doctrines (4♣, that which is told). The Two of Clubs and Six of Diamonds traditionally represent limping (insecure steps). The King of Diamonds is not secure enough in his knowledge. Limping is still better than being bed-ridden, so there is something good to the course, but probably not enough to offset the negatives.

Horary Astrology Reading

Let’s look at the horary chart:

Is the course good for me?

The Moon is the Lady of the Ascendant and thus represents me. Magic is higher knowledge, so it’s Ninth House. This is Jupiter. The two malefics Mars and Jupiter are present in the Ninth house, and are both peregrine, so they afflict the house.

The Moon is in her sign, but she’s also tucked away in the very malefic Twelfth house. Interestingly, the Twlefth house represents witchcraft, but only in the sense of something done behind the querent’s back to hurt him, not magic in general (which, again, is higher knowledge). So while I’d be capable of learning (Moon in own sign) my position is not good. There’s something iffy.

Jupiter is mildly dignified by term and in the succedent Eleventh house. The Moon is in sextile with Jupiter, which is technically good, but it is separating from it, indicating growing divergence. The Moon’s next aspect is a square of the Sun, which is negative. The Sun rules the second house, the house of money. So proceeding would put a strain on my finances. This isn’t necessarily to say that it costs too much in absolute terms, but it costs too much compared to its quality. Interestingly, Jupiter is disposited by Venus, which is in detriment and moving toward the Sun, which hurts her, so Venus has a rather excessive love of my money compared to the necessary love of knowledge.

All in all, based on both readings, I would say that the course would probably contain some valuable information, but would not be a great investment in my education.

MQS