Oracular Practices Today: how you do it and prepare for it ?

[SkySamuelle]

I've been interested in Oracular practices for the longest time but, understandably, this is not something the not-initiated in a specific tradition can easily find sound sources to self-teach.

The closest I ever came to find essays over this particular part of the practice in various brances of paganism is the 'priestesses, pythonesses, sybils' anthology by Sorita D'Este, but even there what is presented is more a collection of personal stories pertaining the different practices than a real guide.

So I thought it could be an interesting topic to cover here, to go a bit beyond the basic stuff and delve in waters mostly obscure.

So... Has oracular work a place in your personal practice/tradition?
What is your experience with it?
How is it approached and prepared for ?

[drekfletch]

I've been interested in Oracular practices for the longest time but, understandably, this is not something the not-initiated in a specific tradition can easily find sound sources to self-teach.

Perhaps you can explain what you mean by Oracular practices. I've only heard the word used in a context where Oracle and Divination are mostly synonymous. Most differences coming from grammer rules and one word simply being more common. I've seen it applied to the one doing the divining, the method of divining, and the message divined.

I don't do much divination, so I can't help with that. Have you read Dver's blog over at http://forestdoor.wordpress.com/ ? She does an oracular session for the pagan public roughly once a month for most of the year, and will occasionally talk about it.

[MoonCrone]

Has oracular work a place in your personal practice/tradition? What is your experience with it? How is it approached and prepared for ?

Hi, SkySamuelle

oracular work (scrying and divining) does have a place in my personal practices & tradition, yes...quite a lot actually...

I love to read Tarot, which I learned back in 1980 by employing the "open door" method (imagine every card is an open door to a new room, step through it, take in everything that you see and feel in there, strike up a conversation with the folk in there with you, and they will give you the answers that you seek...) I never fail to be impressed with the outcomes!

I scry with a crystal ball (sodalite) which I learned how to do in 1990 by looking just over it, not into it... I let my mind kind-of drift off, to somewhere I call my favourite destination, which happens to be a beach where I spent many happy hours when I was younger... so it's like semi-meditating or shamanic journeying... then I say what comes to mind as I gaze out over the "ocean"... it always amazes me when the folk I read for tell me how accurate I've been...

I scry with fire, which I discovered I could do almost naturally or by instinct when I was a small child... my family were often on the road back then, and heated food and water and took away the chill of a winter's eve by bonfire... the flames would impart wisdoms and visions upon me and when I spoke of them to my kin, they often came to be...



I scry with water, much the same way as with fire, although results with this have been a bit... hit or miss... I guess not every way works for everybody...

I scry with clouds, but only for my own purposes... don't know why, it's just how it's always been...

I scry with sand, or salt, in a black scrying bowl, getting the querrent to draw patterns in it with their index finger... again, with mixed outcomes...
tried it by pouring cocacola or dark ale in there a few times too, and just doing the favourite destination "visit" thing... that worked better!

I scry with a black scrying mirror, but it's not my favourite method, I worry what negativity I am inviting in... I've always been a bit... funny... with mirrors

I cast and read witches runes, although I'm still learning with them coz they are very new...

and I believe in animal augury... although I'm still reading up on that one...

hope some of this has helped!

[SkySamuelle]

Hi, SkySamuelle

oracular work (scrying and divining) does have a place in my personal practices & tradition, yes...quite a lot actually...

I love to read Tarot, which I learned back in 1980 by employing the "open door" method (imagine every card is an open door to a new room, step through it, take in everything that you see and feel in there, strike up a conversation with the folk in there with you, and they will give you the answers that you seek...) I never fail to be impressed with the outcomes!

I scry with a crystal ball (sodalite) which I learned how to do in 1990 by looking just over it, not into it... I let my mind kind-of drift off, to somewhere I call my favourite destination, which happens to be a beach where I spent many happy hours when I was younger... so it's like semi-meditating or shamanic journeying... then I say what comes to mind as I gaze out over the "ocean"... it always amazes me when the folk I read for tell me how accurate I've been...

I scry with fire, which I discovered I could do almost naturally or by instinct when I was a small child... my family were often on the road back then, and heated food and water and took away the chill of a winter's eve by bonfire... the flames would impart wisdoms and visions upon me and when I spoke of them to my kin, they often came to be...

I scry with water, much the same way as with fire, although results with this have been a bit... hit or miss... I guess not every way works for everybody...

I scry with clouds, but only for my own purposes... don't know why, it's just how it's always been...

I scry with sand, or salt, in a black scrying bowl, getting the querrent to draw patterns in it with their index finger... again, with mixed outcomes...
tried it by pouring cocacola or dark ale in there a few times too, and just doing the favourite destination "visit" thing... that worked better!

I scry with a black scrying mirror, but it's not my favourite method, I worry what negativity I am inviting in... I've always been a bit... funny... with mirrors

I cast and read witches runes, although I'm still learning with them coz they are very new...

and I believe in animal augury... although I'm still reading up on that one...

hope some of this has helped!

Thanks both for answering.

Oracular work and divination are not synonimous for me. For me, oracular work is receiving information through contact with a deity and in that aspect I have practiced it recently, most often expressing the flow of information via something that resembles automatic writing.

I am still very green at it , but I understand now how it might be hard to discuss.

I can just say I was suggested the method via meditation with my 'first' Lady, Hekate and involves connecting as deeper as possible with Her serpent energy.

[Catherine]

I am still very green at it , but I understand now how it might be hard to discuss.

I can just say I was suggested the method via meditation with my 'first' Lady, Hekate and involves connecting as deeper as possible with Her serpent energy.

For what it's worth, I think you're doing a great job! Especially since you zeroed in on something that I had been thinking about, but hadn't been talking about. I think the more you practice the better you'll get.

[SkySamuelle]

For what it's worth, I think you're doing a great job! Especially since you zeroed in on something that I had been thinking about, but hadn't been talking about. I think the more you practice the better you'll get.

Thank you. I want to keep practicing it regularly, but I think I am going to have figure out a schedule with it, to test out my limits without going drained toward the end.

[Annie Roonie]

Oracular work and divination are not synonimous for me. For me, oracular work is receiving information through contact with a deity and in that aspect I have practiced it recently, most often expressing the flow of information via something that resembles automatic writing.

I am still very green at it , but I understand now how it might be hard to discuss.

I can just say I was suggested the method via meditation with my 'first' Lady, Hekate and involves connecting as deeper as possible with Her serpent energy.

I was hoping you would post about this since I read your offer on your blog. It is fascinating to me.

I understand the distinction you make between the standard forms of divination and oracular work. I wonder if it might still be considered a form of divination, just very different from the others in its focus on one voice. Instead of the witch using a tool to get answers, the witch is the apparatus of a deity that's laying down some info of his or her choosing. Like channeling a deity. Do I have that right?

My experiences with such things have been so very strange. Writing in the sand. I have felt something, like an internal truth that disallows even my favorite inner peace strategies to function if that truth is going to be compromised. Like it is my purest intent with out without my knowing. I have regarded it as connection and would love to be able to give it voice.

The problem is my brain. It is too active. I have years of advice from professionals etc about how to meditate or get to the blank slate. All of it is geared toward people who fit on a standard bell curve. No advice for outliers of any stripe. So I think I will have to chemically sedate part of my brain in order to have it leave the helms. I've been working on flying ointment and that will continue, but more and more I think, it is not what I am looking for. I'd talk to a shaman but I do not know a self proclaimed one personally who is not a dick.

You have any suggestions about how to open up and allow Her to come through? I do not know if my voice is the same or another. It's just there. I think it is a her, but who knows?

I keep doing art and other creative things hoping that one of them will be the ideal outlet.

Anyway, even if you are still green, you've found a way to make that leap! That's outstanding IMO!

Overall, from preparation thru process to after recovery, would you say you are better off for having found and used this outlet?

Thank you for posting about this. It has been on my mind too!

[SkySamuelle]

I was hoping you would post about this since I read your offer on your blog. It is fascinating to me.

I understand the distinction you make between the standard forms of divination and oracular work. I wonder if it might still be considered a form of divination, just very different from the others in its focus on one voice. Instead of the witch using a tool to get answers, the witch is the apparatus of a deity that's laying down some info of his or her choosing. Like channeling a deity. Do I have that right?

Oracular comunication can be about prophecy and divining solutions to problems. But it can also be about something different. Can you picture those medieval themed movies where the king has one fixed day to listen to his subjects about their problems?
Some times oracular work is like this. The querent has a problem that can or cannot be openly revealed and the deity has an 'informed opinion' about how it can be resolved.
I have found that generally, the less I know about the querent situation, clearer is the message, because there's none of my opinions or feelings getting in the way of the translation.

My experiences with such things have been so very strange. Writing in the sand. I have felt something, like an internal truth that disallows even my favorite inner peace strategies to function if that truth is going to be compromised. Like it is my purest intent with out without my knowing. I have regarded it as connection and would love to be able to give it voice.

The problem is my brain. It is too active. I have years of advice from professionals etc about how to meditate or get to the blank slate. All of it is geared toward people who fit on a standard bell curve. No advice for outliers of any stripe. So I think I will have to chemically sedate part of my brain in order to have it leave the helms. I've been working on flying ointment and that will continue, but more and more I think, it is not what I am looking for. I'd talk to a shaman but I do not know a self proclaimed one personally who is not a dick.

You have any suggestions about how to open up and allow Her to come through? I do not know if my voice is the same or another. It's just there. I think it is a her, but who knows?

I keep doing art and other creative things hoping that one of them will be the ideal outlet.

Anyway, even if you are still green, you've found a way to make that leap! That's outstanding IMO!

Thanks.

My first issue with automatic writing was the concept that, according 'official sources' you had to distract your brain with other stuff and let the spirit/deity make all the work of moving your arm.
The first time I ever tried, years ago, I felt like a tool and I didn't lift a finger.

What I do today is different. I don't think I can explain it better than 'I open my head and write' but I will try.

Turning off the brain is not necessary (or possible, according myself ) because the brain is focused on 'listening mode'. I know the arm is moving and I am the one who gets the writing willingly done - it just is not me the one who decides the words that are getting written. I don't even know the words I am writing until they are on paper and when I read I either know the message is complete or that I have to change the wording or adding x or turning y into z because I missed part of the meaning. This actually made me to suspect that when we mentally talk to our deities, we probably miss part of what we receive because the deity is 'bigger' than our brains and we struggle to take it in all at once.

Part of why I apprecciate this new method of communication is that allows me to recover part of what I missed the first time around.

Maybe if you want to try, the next time She gives you a nudge or a feeling, you try to write it down and see how it goes from there. Keep in account that it should be more 'active listening' toward the flow of your thoughts than you, trying actively to shape them.
Or, if you want to invite comunication for the first time, try doing it inside a circle, so you both focus your energies better and cut out the interference.

Overall, from preparation thru process to after recovery, would you say you are better off for having found and used this outlet?

Thank you for posting about this. It has been on my mind too!

Yes. I feel like I have learned a lot from it. And as for the recovery, it' not very different from the 'psychic numbness ' I usually experience for a day or two after doing ritual that required splitting into more days of work.

It's also true that once I accepted Hekate's offer to play channell, I had to listen until She saw it to fit (and here is where I truly differentiate automatic writing from oracle work) - if She wanted three days straight out of a week, She would get them and hover around me in between ritual time very strongly.

Opening a channell is a committment that is different from 'temporary' comunication you open via cards or automatic writing per se, because it's not entirely in your hands the what or when or 'if ' something is comunicated.

At least, that my opinion so far. I am not claiming to be an expert.

I find, for one, rather ironic I am answering my thread with actually experienced answers. LOL.

[Annie Roonie]

I find, for one, rather ironic I am answering my thread with actually experienced answers. LOL.

Ooh I find it helpful. And when I saw it posted I said to myself "I hope she describes her experience!"

[Aster Breo]

So... Has oracular work a place in your personal practice/tradition?
What is your experience with it?
How is it approached and prepared for ?

I'm building my own path, so I can't answer w/r/t oracular work in the context of a specific tradition, although I'm definitely interested in incorporating some variation into my path.

However, I have a little training in a "reconstructed and adapted" version of oracular seidh, which is based in Norse lore. The kind I've worked with was developed by Diana Paxson and her group. You can google for her and her website (sorry -- I'm posting from my phone and can't do links) for more info.

Just be aware that there are many conflicting opinions about Paxson, her group, and her work. I'm not Asatru, so I can't really speak to those issues. All I can say is that I found my own experiences with her method to be very powerful.

There are also a couple of books out there on seidh, although the ones I've read weren't "how to" books. Which it's probably a good thing. I think seidh is something that would be extremely difficult to learn on your own.

Anyway, it might be something you'd be interested in looking into, if you haven't already.

~ Aster