Everything Old Is New Again

 After taking a hiatus from my spiritual practices because of some mundane stuff going on in my life, I decided that it was way past time to come back.  One of the things that I wanted to get back into was divination. Divination was a source of comfort to me when I started undergrad. My first set of runes clicked and clacked away while I jogged from my dorm to my class building each day. I kept them with me at all times. Even when I went to NY to visit my family during Summer Break. It was there that my intolerant mother stole them from me and hid them, and I haven't seen them since. Then I moved on to the Tarot. Their colorful imagery had me transfixed. I had gotten to a point that even when I wasn't using them, I was "seeing" events shown by the cards in my mind's eye, before it happened (and for those who read the adult comic, "Tarot - Witch of the Black Rose," I started reading this comic because of what was happening to me).

As the years went by, I became more and more practiced in using them. And I was pretty accurate with my readings for not only myself, but for friends as well. Unfortunately, between that time and now, my abilities to read the cards have waned greatly. They swirl through my mind as a jumble of images whose deeper meaning escape me. But, I knew I wanted to get back into divining. I knew I was good at it, I just needed to find a system that would help me to unlock my unconscious again, so that I could delve into that unseen world to pull the information that was needed.

While reading about New Orleans voodoo, and about my ruling Orisha, all of a sudden I remember a phrase I had heard of a few times during my life time...Throwing of the Bones. Why not? It is a system I hadn't tried before, I thought. And it just might work. I remember reading about how the game of dice was originally a divination system, so I started looking for actual bone dice to use, but all the meanings for the various number combinations was just dizzying. Wishing for something a bit simpler, I kept researching until I came across a link that showed a set of 4 bones that is used in traditional Tibetan divination. I was in love with them in an instant. So, for three days straight I researched and went to specialty butcher shops with pictures from printouts trying to find the animal and area on the body of the animal I needed to get these beautiful bones. And then, everything fell into place. I found a diagram online that showed me the bone I was looking for, which animal it came from, and where on the body it was located. I called one last shop, and the meat department manager told me that he thought he knew what I was talking about, and to come on in. So I raced over to the store, showed him my final printout, and he went to the back and pulled out a whole sheep carcass. Showing me what I was looking for, he said, "We have tons of these. We cut them off and sell them as soup bones." He gave me a pack with six of them in there, and I went back home happier than a kid at Christmas.

After hours of cleaning the the flesh from the bones, and finally setting them out to dry, I started to research the divination meanings of each throw pattern of these bones. Quite simple in every aspect, I started to realize that they could also give a more detailed picture of a situation, than just yes/no answers. 

A month went by after the initial preparation of the bones, and I finally cleansed, blessed, and fed them. A few days later I was ready to use them. Let me say that they are amazingly accurate. Cause the questions I was asking about a situation I was recently going through in my family life....let's just say the truth was coming out. It was pointing out the obvious influences, as well as the hidden ones that I suspected, but either didn't want to see, or just did not want to believe.

With all of that said, I have found that sometimes reaching into the past and using simpler methods are way better and can bring about better results.

*If you would like to know how to make your own set of divinatory bones, check Hexy Workings, later on this week for full instructions."