Modern Witchcraft: Beginners Guide

Divination 101

Divination is the practice of gaining insight on situations and receiving answers to questions by means of ritualistic acts or standardised processes. It can be used to determine possible future and past events, tap into our own insight and intuition, as well as receive messages from spirits, deities, or universal energies (depending on your beliefs).

Divination is important in witchcraft not only for gaining insight on potential spellwork, but also insight into ourselves. Divination can be used to explore the nature of things around us, and also the world that exists inside of us.

I have briefly mentioned before that divination is essential for practising witchcraft ethically and safely. This is because it's useful for determining possible future events and alerting you to any negative consequences that might occur from spells. You can have the best intentions behind a spell, but a divination reading can point out something you did not consider.

You should always keep in mind that determining the future with divination is not the same as fortune telling. We go to fortune tellers to be told our future; but divination is more akin to a short-term weather forecast. In divination, the future is a tangle of webs and a complex delta of rivers; the aim is to interpret the most likely outcome if you were to do certain actions, not the definite future.

⏳ The future is never set in stone - it is always subject to change. ⏳

This is one of many reasons why a lot of witches do not read for other people concerning pregnancy, how one will die, and life-changing decisions. You cannot hope for a definite answer, nor can you make major life decisions based on a single divination reading.

💡 Divination can be used as a deciding factor alongside logic, research, and deep thought, but not as a replacement. 💡

Below is an explanation of some of the most basic methods of divination you will find witches using. In truth though, there are countless ways to divine, including homemade systems you can create yourself. Later in this book I will take you through some more advanced methods of divination, but for now we are keeping it as plain and simple as possible!

Synchronicities

Other than omens, I consider synchronicities to be one of the most basic forms of divination. Synchronicities are a series of small, unrelated events that have meaning to the person observing them. This concept may be hard to understand to someone who's never experienced them, but essentially they are like little "ah-ha!" moments that stick out at you and alert you to something. That "something" can be anything; a reminder to do something, a sign that something is going well, a warning for upcoming events, etc.

Example: imagine you have a friend who really likes a certain type of flower, say peonies. Maybe one day you're coming home from work and a traffic accident causes you to take a detour. On this detour someone's garden catches your eye; they have a lovely bush of peonies. You get home, and when you check your mail there's a magazine featuring peonies on the front page. Maybe you go on your computer and someone's artwork of peonies comes up in your newsfeed. That's when you remember your friend's birthday is coming up soon; all these synchronicities were trying to remind you of something important. All these events were completely unrelated, yet they have meaning to you, like the universe is desperately trying to tell you something. Those are called synchronicities.

Because of the subjective nature of synchronicities, it is up to you to interpret them and figure out what they mean. To one person, peonies remind them of their friend, and to someone else, peonies are just flowers. These kinds of signs are highly personal so it helps to just go with your gut and don't worry about what anyone else thinks.