Kingdom Come: Real Life Divination
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Nick Farrell and Melissa Seims - MAGICIAN - Articles
Kingdom Come: Real Life Divination
Published in the Hermetic Virtues Magazine
Volume 2, Issue 1.
"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes." Marcel Proust Kabbalists will tell you that what you see around you is but a final reflection of God interacting
down the four levels of creation. The Divine has an idea, which is a perfected symbol.
This creates activity and flows down the levels like a river to the sea, gaining more
momentum and more solidity until it manifests as the world we see around us. Emanations
of true reality come rushing down the tree, pushing all before them in their question for manifestation and realisation. All that ever is and all that will ever be already exists.
It is just about finding the correct channel, to bring it down to Earth. That is where
humanity comes in. All the time, new ideas are being hatched through our own powers
of creativity and imagination. Some find their way to birth whilst others are lost for a
while in the morass of anonymity. We are, perhaps paradoxically, both a conduit for and a product of this process.
Everything before you started as a symbol, progressed into a dream, was realised by
someone or something and finally became the solid world we see around us. It is the
path of the magician to work with symbols and these can be traced back to their source
until they reveal a primal reality behind them. This means that matter is belief's shadow, a
thought is re-enforced concrete and a dream is stronger than steel.
This knowledge is recognised, at least unconsciously, by the advertising industry. They
give you a symbol with the goal of getting your to dream their dreams. We are so bombarded
with marketing images and symbols that we are becoming immune to them. But
never doubt that they are still working their magic on us, at a subconscious level, to drive
us back to the dream, where if you buy that shampoo, you will be transported to exotic beaches.
Some brands' ‘magic’ will go as far as openly preying on your insecurities, making you
think that there really is no way that woman is going to look at you unless you have their
aftershave. If your car breaks down, rather than be stuck for hours whilst your fellow human
beings jeer and laugh at your misfortune, all you need to do is join the Automobile
Association, they’ll be your real helpful friend … so long as you pay them in cash, the currency
of the material world's demon soul. This is far removed from the real currency of
the soul, the essence of our being, which is what you are when you are often being decidedly
un-cool; those moments of spiritual connection when your brand of jeans matters
not one iota.
It is unsurprising that many fall prey to popular advertising images and rely on such illusions
to prop up their lives. Indeed, if we weren't so easily affected by symbols within our
immediate surroundings, to the point that they become our desires, then advertising
would not exist. Advertisers often use the power of fear to encourage us to hand over
our power and our choices to them. This results in our own individuality being hammered
into a pine box where no one will see your unique way of being, expressing and
seeing.
I n a world where devoted fans gather under sacred Golden Arches for their Big Macs, it
seems clear that too much magic is being performed by the wrong people, advocates of
the Nephilim.(1) By itself, this ‘magic’ is not inherently evil and manipulative, it is the way it
is applied, the intent behind it. Slogan writers and advertising executives may use its
force to get you to part with your hard earned money, but true artists use it to create
something more resonant and meaningful through the stroke of a brush, the ethereal
words of a good poem or the dream of the fairytale. All art is about manipulating your
emotions, true art, magic, should give you access to emotional power independent of
others’ ulterior motives. Emotions are also the language of your Higher Self which is always
trying to whisper your divine Will to you, if it can just get your attention.
Everything around us is a manifestation
of this creative process, whether
that’s the grandeur of the Trevi
Fountain or the eye-sore of the Millennium
Dome. All these ideas made
manifest, feed directly into modern
culture and society and create all the
symbols in our lives. In this seemingly
anarchic universe that is constantly
vomiting symbols at us and
through us, we can chose to be
more proactive, to use the process in
our favour in an act of divinatory
magic based on ‘real life’. Using this we can glimpse into the mind of ‘God’. All you need
to do is make the decision to look at the world around you in a different way.
When you perform a traditional divination in an open and altered state of consciousness,
you consciously look for some answers in the symbols you are using. This usually occurs
when you are in some sort of heightened emotional state and your human failings doubt
the intensity of the message that your Higher Self is trying to convey to you. If you have
tarot cards you will decide which symbols are correct for the reading. What happens if
we apply the same rules to the universe that is around us? We know our reality is a result
of the outpouring of the mind of ‘God’ – what if we try to read it as if it were a set of tarot
cards?
If you are having a problem or want to try and see what lies ahead, go for a walk and
make the conscious decision to look at the universe unravelling around you, as opposed
to being just a passive subject and a reaction to it.
Formulate your question in your head and give it a time period. Mentally invoke the Angel
Heru, or call upon your own Higher Self for guidance. Then say something like “by
the time I get to the shops 10 minutes away, something will have occurred on my path
that will provide me with some insight about whether or not to quit my troublesome
job”. Instead of worrying over the myriad of possibilities in any situation concerning
one’s livelihood, you are throwing it out to the Universe and in doing so, allowing yourself
to become a more effective channel for your own divine Will.
(1) In Hebrew, ‘nephilim’ translates to “those causing others to fall”.
It may be that in this case, your eye is drawn to
some leaves dancing about in a gust of wind;
something that under normal circumstances, you
would have barely noticed. It could be surmised
that the leaves are telling you that it is time to
turn over a new leaf, to change your job. By
opening up to the possibility of receiving divine
answers in this way, you have enabled your
Higher Self to more effectively communicate to
you in the same way that occurs when reading
tarot cards or using any other divination process.
But rather than using someone else’s symbolic system, you are using your own and by
choosing to interact with the world around you, you are closer to the mind of ‘God’, for it
is more clearly reflected there than anywhere else.
Another example of this principle in action can be seen in the case of two star-crossed
lovers whom life has decreed are unable to be together by virtue of the fact that they are
both married to other people. On an illicit drive one day, they decide to throw it out to
fate and the Gods, to divine real life in order to find out what would happen to them if
they followed the overwhelming emotional impulses that typify such situations. They
turn left into a road and find their way blocked by a dustbin lorry collecting the recycling.
The lorry has a badge on the front, it is an eagle a symbol that is often seen as being a
messenger of the Gods and a go-between for your Higher Self. The lovers had to pull
over to the side of the road and wait patiently for the lorry to pass them by. As it did,
they noticed the word ‘together’ on the side of the van. Real life seemed to be saying to
them that there would be a delay whilst baggage was being recycled but that it would
ultimately work out and they would be together.
This 'reading' could be interpreted in another way, for example it may have been saying
that all they are doing is repeating and recycling past habits. But it is how they chose to
read the symbol that is the most important thing. It has to feel right, the first emotional
response usually indicates a connection to the power of the Higher Self, don’t let the
head try to rationalise things too much and let matters of the mundane snap at your
heels. Be the fool who is also the innocent magician. The head is there to serve the heart
and the Higher Self, not the other way round. The heart is the seat of the spirit and as
such has much better access to your spiritual self, than the head.
This is why emotional situations so often taunt us with their seeming intangibility of feelings
that seem to come from somewhere ‘up there’. Often defying logic, they frustrate us
in the process but their transformative power invites you to visit transcendence – and it
often has teeth.
Humans often struggle with the threat of change when the past is known and the future
is undetermined. Our societies are built on the concept of some sort of stability, a home,
a married life, a regular job. The ‘Powers that Be’ like to know where you live, what you
do for a living, how many children you have and whether you buy anything that could
be used in an act of trendy terrorism. They don’t want you to be the magician; they pacify
you with organised religion, which also requires that the access to your own divinity is
through their chosen spiritual front-man.
When you had that heated argument with you girlfriend last week, emotions ran high
and Beelzebub's barbs were creeping their way into being through your heightened
emotional state. This is a manifestation of a negative force channelled by a foul mood because your Higher Self is trying to tell you that there is something wrong in your relationship
that needs to be looked at. It may be that you are destined to split up, or that
you need this jolt in order to work things out and grow as an individual. Jump in the car,
go for a drive. Maybe your eye will be drawn to the slogan, ‘It’s the Real thing’, the
‘Genuine Article’, or maybe it’s a ‘Marlboro Moment’ and its time ‘to take a break, have a
Kit-Kat’. Use the images, instead of letting them use you. It is only through moments like
this that you can take those advertising symbols that are battering you, like a Mars bar in
a Scottish chip shop and turning into something really toxic. Symbols that are normally
designed to make you buy something pointless can help you understand your life. A Kit-
Kat advert might be telling you that you really do need to take a break and stop working
so hard. A car advert might be telling you that, although the path seems confused,
'taking the long way home' will eventually get you there.
Let us have a look at some other examples. Troubled by thoughts of his new girlfriend,
who he thought had been acting a bit weird of late, Toby decided to go for a drive in a
bid to clear his head and to get some perspective. It was then that he saw a cat spraying
up the side of his new car. Toby, who loved his feline friends, thought the cat was a protective
aspect of the Goddess Bast. “The Goddess of the home looks like she really wants
a nice home life with me. All this weirdness is really her marking her territory to make
sure that I am in the picture”, he thought.
It is, however, also important to realise that everyone has their own symbolic language,
based on their path through life. One man's rose is another's thorn. A stray dog in the
path will be a symbol of doom to a person who is terrified of them, but a sign of companionship
to those who grew up with a faithful hound. That’s the thing with symbols, some
are fairly universal, but others depend on personal experience and can take on new and
radically different meanings from the conventional ones.
Another similar technique is divination by Spam. You can use annoying eMails, which
promise you longer erections and multiple orgasms, to understand your life direction. If
you are stuck behind a PC a lot of the time, this is an easy way to get your answers. Formulate
your question and check your inbox. Often these spam eMails have peculiar sentences,
stories or words in them to make them appear like they are real messages. You
should also check the bogus name and eMail address of the senders. Somewhere in the
text there will be an answer.
Working magic and receiving insight through electrical items is an interesting phenomenon.
MP3 players, set to random, will sometimes synchronistically play a song, which,
when combined with your real life circumstances, merge the evocative creativity inherent
in music with the reality of life to give you an aural experience that really moves you.
With this marriage there can be a cacophonous realisation which creates a type of spiritual experience that brings with it a new layer of understanding and certainty.
Helena P. Blavatsky wrote in Isis Unveiled: “The corner-stone of magic is an intimate practical
knowledge of magnetism and electricity, their qualities, correlations, and potencies.
Especially necessary is a familiarity with their effects in and upon the
animal kingdom and man...To sum up all in a few words, Magic is spiritual
Wisdom; nature the material ally, pupil and servant of the magician.”
Divination by real life is not new. The ancients used to use something
like it all the time. The idea of looking for omens has been passed
down to us in many different superstitions, ranging from saluting single
magpies, to being careful about black cats crossing your path.
One of the most famous methods, used by the Romans, was
divination by flights of birds. Using this technique in a Golden
Dawn setting is not difficult and can be surprisingly accurate.
Go to a site where you have a clear view to the skies of the North, South, East and West.
Perform a lesser banishing ritual of the pentagram and call upon the Angel Heru, who is
the Angel of the Golden Dawn and is set over secret wisdom, to unveil to you the answer
to your question through the flights of birds. Then turn around clockwise until you see a
bird in the sky. If you don't see any after turning around three times then the answer
cannot be revealed to you yet.
Birds in the East mean good fortune in terms of what the questioner wants. If there are
birds in the South, this means that good fortune is starting to ebb away but is strong at
the present in terms of the question. Birds in the West mean bad fortune. If there are
birds in the North then bad fortune will start to improve.
The numbers of birds are important. The greater the number, the more 'power' and
weight that quarter has. So, if you see four birds in the south, and ten in the north that
would mean that although all seems to be falling away, things will get better soon.
Note then the direction that the birds you
have seen are moving towards. This is the
direction that the fates are moving. Birds
that start in the North, moving to the East
show that a bleak situation will get better,
while the same birds moving towards the
North will indicate that while things seem
to be getting better, they will soon become
still more bleak. If several stay still or
go in an opposite direction from others
then it indicates that there are several
courses that a man may follow. He
should go towards
the point
where the
greater number of birds travelled, even if this should take him
to the North or West.
Two or more flocks of birds coming together is a sign that many
forces shall be marshalled to bring about a matter for good or
for ill.
Birds that fly overhead indicate that the matter will soon be resolved. Sounds of birds,
either coming from the direction you are looking, or from another direction, should also
be taken into account as if you were watching that quarter.
Different species of birds mean different things:
Blackbirds: secrets
Cranes: stillness, birth and death
Crows: death, war, magic
Ducks: dreams, communication, flexibility.
Eagles: the forces of Spirit
Geese: war, defence, the Astral
Gulls: the forces of Earth
Hawks: meditation followed by action
Magpies: theft, writing and law
Owls (by day): ill omen, spirits of the dead
Pigeons: stupidity, adaptability and love.
Rooks: wisdom
Sparrows and tits: industry and work
Starlings: groups, dramas, mimicry
Swallows: travel and journeys
Swans: love, commitment, silence
Birds rising suddenly from a tree or landing upon one indicate something connected with
the meaning of that tree, i.e. an oak would mean Saturn. Everything should be interpreted
in the order that it happens.
One person who used this particular system was the last member of the Druidic Order of
Pendragon, Colin Robertson.(2) In his book he used an example of asking a question
about his wife who was ill. He looked up to the East, South and West, there was nothing.
In the North a flock of starlings were flying to the East. A group of seven sparrows rose
up from an old yew tree and in the distance he heard the quacking of a duck. He interpreted
this as: "My wife is getting better and indeed the only reason that she is not completely
better is that after such a long time being unwell she is used to it. She
needs to get more activity and to become more interested in life again. We
need to talk about this issue."
What this method of divination calls you to be is active in your search for answers. You
don’t just wait for those moments of glaring synchronicities to happen, for your ‘God’ to
show you the right way. By reading the signs around you, it is as if you are asking the
Universe to talk to you. One of the scary things is that if you open yourself up to this sort
of thing, it generally does do just that and the results are far more humorous than anything
you will find in the bottom of a tea cup.
Copyright © 2008 Melissa Seims and Nick Farrell
(2) See The Druidic Order of Pendragon, by Colin Robertson, Thoth Publications
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