Some of us have a well-developed sense of what will and won’t work for us. Their spider sense tingles when they’re about to hit an icy patch on the road of life. But maybe you don’t or you’d like more insight. When mine tingles, I’m simply unsure, or there are a lot of balls in the air and it’s difficult to say how they’ll land in a particular situation, I do an I Ching or Tarot reading, or both, to determine the probable outcome.

Not everyone does, it’s a personal choice. I know from experience that my ego sometimes clouds my judgement and I benefit from the insight of divination. In fact, divination has been my one constant tether to the invisible world even through years when I was not practicing magic. I’ve used the I Ching since I was 17 and I’m grateful for the assistance the Shen, or celestials, provide me through this remarkable book. I also use Tarot, playing cards, and other means for information on probable outcomes. If you do it you know how helpful it can be. If you don’t, you might want to try it. Sometimes we just want to take our chances and don’t care a lot about the knocks and bruises life may bring us. If you’re younger than me and better positioned socially than I was in years past, you may not feel the need for a reading. But help is available if you want a little insurance, or you’ve skinned your knee casting a spell and want to do better next time.

If there is a psychic censor or something else that inhibits sigil work or other kinds of magic, it may have a purpose. Would you really like it if every stray thought you had manifested physically? Before you cast a spell, you have the option to find out how the effects might ripple through your life. Sigil making is so easy that you could find yourself launching numerous and even contradictory spells that interfere with one another. It’s been said that “magic follows the path of least resistance.” This means that things with a good probability of success will be helped along by magic, while pursuit of the impossible may be a waste of time and effort. (But never doubt that with the right incentive, skill, and elbow grease, the seemingly miraculous can happen—what we colloquially refer to as magic!) If you want to win the lottery you have to buy a ticket. But millions of others are going to buy one too. Even if buying the ticket and magic get you closer to the prize, do you want to spend the money on dozens of tickets if you’re never going to win? Before undertaking any significant magic, it’s beneficial to determine the likely outcome through some form of divination. It will help you clarify your wishes among competing alternatives and decide which are worth your efforts. If you need more money, the cards may suggest it’s time to find a new job instead of spending more on lotto tickets when it’s not going to pay off. Then you can plan a course of action to improve your chances of landing a dream job.

A good Tarot or I Ching reading can help you gather intelligence, sharpen your focus to improve your chances of success, or may warn you of the unforeseen problems that might follow some act. It’s also been said that every wish is answered, only sometimes the answer is “no,” or the way it might manifest is not something you’d really want. Remember The Monkey’s Paw? If you’d known the outcome in advance, maybe you’d have not wanted what you wished for in the first place.

In the end, it’s up to you to decide the best approach for you. Divination can help you make informed decisions and bolster your internal Spidey sense.

Think about it. You might want revenge for some loss you’ve experienced. Upon reflection, you might be better off pursuing your ultimate goal rather than wasting your time and energy trying to harm an enemy or bitter rival—e.g., finding a new lover worth your time rather than messing up a rival that your ex will eventually throw over just like you. A Tarot reading that includes the Justice card (11, one of my numbers) may be telling you just that.

Similarly, if you’re in a conflict it’s often better to step out of the line of fire rather than to engage in direct combat. That can leave competitors wasting their energy trying to bring you down while you safely move closer to success with your goals. Maybe some protection work would help.
If divination is new to you, try asking a skilled friend to read for you or hire a good professional. In fact, some recommend never reading for yourself, but again that’s a personal choice.

There are countless books about divination. The one I began with was Positive Magic by Marion Weinstein. It gives detailed instructions for getting started with Tarot, the I Ching, and tips on astrology as well. It also gives helpful advice on avoiding common pitfalls and pratfalls in the art. Note that Weinstein’s book is out of print, you might find one used, but there are lots of good books and websites on the topic. Go to the bookstore and skim through some books on the Tarot, I Ching, etc. and see which one feels right to you. Some prefer to work with playing cards rather than the Tarot and just about everyone already has them. I had good results with methods in Professor Charles Porterfield’s A Deck of Spells almost out of the box. The best reader I’ve ever known only used playing cards and whatever kabbalistic significance you want to give to the Tarot (and there’s really no reason you shouldn’t), she was still better than more educated ceremonial magicians. Skills.

Divination gives you a window not on some grim fate that awaits you, but the probable outcome if things continue as they’re going at the time of the reading. I recently talked with someone who said that when she took an abnormal psych course, the teacher warned the class they would probably start to imagine that they had symptoms of the illnesses they were going to learn about, it would freak them out, and they should try to let it pass. In divination, with the wrong interpretive guide or an overactive imagination, before long you may be paralyzed with fear about some hideous, imaginary fate lurking for you in the shadows, especially the first time you draw the Death card! You have to learn to let it pass and take an expansive view of the meanings in divination whether you use Tarot cards, I Ching hexagrams, tea leaves or anything else.

Divination gives you insight on how to alter your trajectory or intention so you can arrive at the kind of outcome you’re looking for. A good way to go about that is to formulate your question for the cards or oracle something like this:

“What will be the probable outcome if I do spell work (or a sigil, or a curse, etc.) to acheive X.”

With magic you enter a quantum world in which exciting new possibilities are just around the corner! Divination will help you to find and follow the paths to your heart’s desire. 

Sources

Porterfield, Charles (2015), A Deck of Spells: Hoodoo Playing Card Magic in Rootwork and Conjure. Lucky Mojo Curio Company.
http://www.professorporterfield.com/a-deck-of-spells.html

Weinstein, Marion (2002), Positive Magic. New Page Books.