A New Divination System
gerald burns
This is an approach I designed to suit myself: but other people seem to like it. I have a handful of small polished green stones, as closely matched as I could find to throw, picking through a large basketful. There's also a bloodstone (my birthstone), one clear stone, and a black one I found at a Santa Fe bus stop. They're chosen to be visually and tactilely appealing.
On my knees, usually on carpet, I draw a vertical line with my forefinger an inch or two above the working surface, and a horizontal line through it, like analytic geometry's axis and abscissa. This defines four areas. I think of the lower left one as earth, the upper left as air, the upper right as fire, and the lower right as water. That puts air and fire above the horizontal line, earth and water below. Just the notion of where these sit is enough, but with a fairly clear idea of where the boundaries are.
Take (if you're me) five green stones, your birthstone, and the clear (fortune) stone, cupped in both hands, shake and throw them onto the grid. See where they fall. The pattern they make is surprisingly interpretable. Are they close together (often in one quarter, or spread far apart? In which quarter did your birthstone fall? Did the fortune stone fall in the same quarter or another'? Are more stones above the horizontal line or below it'?
Rarely, for life-and-death problems, I'll substitute the black stone for the clear one. I toyed for a while with a white but no longer have it.
You could, I know, draw the grid with a dagger. I've thought of embroidering one on a drop cloth, but decided against it. Magic is partly style, and my stones are designed as a rough and ready method, usable anywhere. The elements are evocative, but tied to no particular system. They are wordless, and in a sense nearly free of concepts, ideals, as usual. Really the pattern made by all the stones is as important as anything else. So, simply to your own taste, I've kept it free of ritual formality. Using a birthstone puts you in the system, but in no self-announcing way.
The stones, in a small velvet bag, fit in my pocket with no bulge. Ultimately for me this method works because of how well all the parts sit together.
