Divination is Storytelling

I have surprised many people over the years when they find out about my passion for divination. Sometimes it's cheerful surprise, and sometimes it's disappointed surprise. "Oh! I didn't think you would believe in something like that! Do you do readings for clients?" (In case you're wondering, the answer is yes. And I'm doing what I can to keep things as affordable as possible.)

Or, y'know, then there's the other surprised group. "Oh. I didn't expect you would believe in such foolishness." I often find those people get a lot of their ideas about divination from tv shows, movies, and things other people who don't really know anything about divination say. Actually, in some cases, they do know how divination works, at least from a purely psychological approach. The problem is that they think that completely disproves it. They think they're explaining how a magician didn't really make something disappear, but what they're really doing is attempting to discredit the idea that a car works by explaining exactly how a car works.

Some of my favorite clients over the years have been people who didn't think there was anything meaningful to be found in divination, but hearing me explain how I work made them willing to give it a chance. Those are often the people who give me a very direct question without a lot of unnecessary backstory, and it's usually about something they are truly looking for some guidance on. 

I teach divination and offer my services with a psychological approach. I don't think it's the only valid approach, but my religious and spiritual practices are private and I'm not offering services in that area. When it comes to teaching other people how to do readings, they can choose whether or not to make it part of their own spirituality. It doesn't have to be a one or the other thing. I started learning out of curiosity. I wanted to either find out why it worked, or why people would believe in it if it didn't work. That's probably why I go back to that psychological approach for explaining divination to other people. 

I keep saying "divination", and you might be wondering, "What kind? Tarot cards? Tea leaves?" I did say I've been at this for over 20 years, so there are multiple answers. Tarot cards started it for me. I'm really picky about which oracle card decks I work with. "Oracle cards" is a broad category, not an established system, so it has to be a deck that I work well with. I keep going back to learning Lenormand, and I have gotten a lot better with that system over the years, but you may notice it's not an option in my services. I don't feel like my skills are where they would need to be for me to accept payment for readings with Lenormand cards. I read stones and bones as personal practice, but only rarely do it for other people. Never for strangers. I've learned the basics of runes, Ogham, and a few other systems, but my passion was missing from those practices. But if I ever need to do a reading and don't have the tools for any of that with me, I also read playing cards and dice. In fact, I wrote a book that teaches the dice divination system I developed!

(Cover for the book Roll for Divination! by LK Nesse. Beneath the title are the words "A guide to divination using polyhedral gaming dice.")

My system uses the kind of dice used in tabletop roleplaying games. I explain how the system works, give in-depth explanations on interpretation for a couple of types of readings, and offer some tips for common issues a beginner can come across and not have learned yet what to do in those cases. Some of them are general divination tips, others are tips on handling the dice. 

You can buy Roll for Divination! here or through my ko-fi. 

When you really get down to it, divination is storytelling. I deliver readings to clients by sending a pdf with photos and detailed walkthroughs of readings by email. What I'm doing is telling you a story about yourself. The symbolism is a mix of story elements. Exactly which of them show up, the order they show up in, the meanings for positions in the reading... It all weaves together into a story. That is, to me, an important part of being a divination reader. With something like tarot, anyone can look up the meaning of each card. That's not the same thing as being able to see the story they tell together.

That opportunity for storytelling may be an influence in why I use readings to look at possibilities. I'm not a "You will get the job you applied for" reader. My readings are more like, "Let's look at what's working in your favor, what's working against you, and the likelihood of this going the way you want it to." I don't always know whether or not someone I'm reading for has any previous experience with divination or how much that means they understand about it, so I walk through the reading explaining how I see connections and where things lead. I've been told that some people have had someone suggest they go to me for a reading by saying I'm great at explaining it to people who know nothing about it beforehand. I see it as I'm making sure a client understands the whole story.

One thing I've never done is use divination tools for writing a fictional story. I've told plenty of people they can be used that way, and suggested trying it for getting past creative block. It's been on my list of Stories I Will Write Someday for a long time. I want to see what kind of story I come up with when it's not being applied to help a real person look at possibilities in a real situation. One of the ways I practiced with tarot when I wasn't even ready to offer free readings to friends (with a warning about it just being practice, of course) was doing readings based on favorite characters in shows and books. I knew their interests, concerns, obstacles, strengths, and weaknesses. In fact, I knew more about those characters than I've known about most clients. Even though I was just practicing with possibilities for interpretation, that's still a lot closer to a real reading than it is to prompts for a story. What would I do with creating characters and plot that way?

I can only handle having a few works in progress going at the same time. I did recently release Art Grimoire , though, so it wouldn't hurt to start a side project to see how it goes. Hmm...I'll think about it. Maybe even do a reading on whether or not this would be a good use of my time.