More so than any other aspect of the paranormal, I’ve found my opinion of divination to dance between the poles of belief. During the least skeptical times of my life, I would balk at the idea that the future could be determined through the reading of signs and symbols. I believed that this view of the universe was dependent upon a higher, intelligent power that had determined some path for reality to closely follow. Not only did I find this idea of a higher power to be silly, but I also found the concept of someone who could divine this path to be somehow sillier.
Upon first encountering the I Ching, however, my opinion on divination began to shift. As chance so clearly dictated the answers I got from the I Ching, I became less convinced that a predetermined path was required for divination to pull from. As I learned more about the archetypes of the 64 hexagrams, my interest in the potency of other forms of divination began to grow. I have, for the past few years, been on a slow journey through the different forms of divination techniques. While I may not be any closer to a comprehensive understanding of the universe, I am always engrossed in new ways of perceiving reality. Like the crystal gazer I met on a trip to Poland, the more time I spend looking into these forms of occulted knowledge, the clearer the hidden truths come to be.
Tarot
The only form of divination that I practice professionally is tarot. My beliefs are Jungian, which is to say that I believe the tarot taps into the archetypical relationships that govern our daily lives. When reading cards, I connect with the probable outcomes which can occur within the situation of my inquiry. I take great pleasure in reading cards, and am always looking for new clients.
Due to the pandemic, I currently provide video tarot readings for clients. A sampling of which can be viewed here.
Palmistry
Whenever the opportunity presents itself, I obtain psychic readings from palmists. In all honesty, I find the premise of lines on the hand that correspond to personality traits to be rather fraught. Not only is palmistry a slippery slope into the dodgy world of physiognomy, but the meanings of different lines differ between sources on the matter. In my personal experience, I have found that palm readers attribute drastically different characteristics between observances of the same line. I've also experienced numerous readers who become defensive when I ask which aspect of my hand corresponds to the statement that they have just made.
With that being said, my interest in palmistry has everything to do with the imagery that festoons the readings and the palmists themselves. Here are a few different images that I have received of my palm throughout the years. Notice the similarities and differences between the ways in which the same lines are drawn and labelled.
Residue Divination
Within my personal ranking of divinatory techniques, I rate residue divination fairly high. Though I can't say I believe it to be as reliable as tarot or the I Ching, there is something to be said about the unique images that emerge in the various residues. These two images come from a visit to an old friend who is an expert in reading all manner of objects. The tea cup was an omen that emerged in a standard tasseographic reading that they were kind enough to do for me. The plate is from their personal collection of oddities. Apparently the sitter had received this omen of death while my friend read the residue of their barbecue dinner. The sitter has since passed on.