EXERCISES
- If you have another person willing to observe and take notes, try the spinning divination where you spin around in the center of the circle. Start with the general question, ‘what’s just ahead for me in the next (choose one): week/fortnight/month’? Your observer should be looking for those cards where you staggered close in your spinning. Keep the notes and refer to them in another week/fortnight/month, whatever period of time you specified. Did your result make sense in retrospect? Was your result only letters, only symbols, or some combination of the two? Did it actually happen?
- If your spin on the first question gave you a rather sparse answer, feel free to ask the follow-up question, ‘can you tell me anything more about what is ahead for me in the next week/fortnight/month?’ Refer to these follow-up notes later. Did they shed any helpful details about the recent past?
- Try spinning divination using a top instead of yourself. For this, you’ll definitely need to come inside and use a table or the floor. Ask the same general question as above. Spin the top as many times as you need, in order to get what feels like a full answer to you. Revisit these notes after whatever period of time you specified in your divining question. Did the answer you received make sense in light of what happened since you spun the top?
- Now that you’ve tried both methods of spinning divination, both the toy top and yourself, which of these two methods do you prefer using, and why? Was one of these two methods more accurate, or did they both appear to be the same in terms of accuracy?
- Experiment. Try spinning using regular playing cards, tarot cards, runes, ogham, or symbols of your own devising. Remember to set a period of time in your question. What was the result? Was it accurate?
Above all, have fun with this method of divination! This might prove to be a great way of introducing children to the subject of divination, since spinning will probably feel like play to them.