bibliomancy for mercury direct

'groom' d sinclair '08

"After a long rain, we joyously watch the heavens clear.

The sun and moon grow slowly brighter.

The gloomy days are over, so be happy and joyous.

You will bound through the Dragon Door in one leap."


You have found the hidden treasure. Open the spirit world and enjoy its riches.

(The Kuan Yin Oracle, 100 Poems of the Goddess, Karcher: 20)

Sitting here sipping fennel tea, which is said to have 22 separate healing qualities as well as being sacred to our Trickster friend, its a relief to be almost to the end of Mercury's retrograde phase.

Oh OK, it hasn't been too bad. There was costly work to be done on the car - just like last time the god of travellers went AWOL - and two computers went down (I won't bother getting them fixed until we are well out of the danger zone). There was plenty of miscommunication, double-crossed wires, forgotten appointments, late arrivals and more than one person laughed with me about having missed a plane. Over all, though, it has been a good time to go back over some old ground. In one situation where I'd previously had difficulties with billing I discovered money owed to me (it has been delayed in its return, but it must surely be on its way!).

Mercury sure does love to move things around. Today I heard someone say that the planet itself is a big chunk of iron - that would make it the most powerful magnet I've ever heard of.

Yes, I feel the need to renew my sense of equilibrium, to get my polarities lined up.

It occurred to me last night after receiving a comment from a reader here that in spite of what others may expect me to project into the world - a stronger vision, a more realistic representation of my self, or what ever - that the swing between one way of being and another doesn't sit comfortably with me. What I'm saying is that I hope never to be one way or another but to be both.

There are situations in life that require a strong manner of speaking, but that doesn't mean that I am not also scared. Just because I accept the consequences of my past actions doesn't mean that I don't also feel wronged. I'm acutely aware that for every victim a bully is constellated, that heroes call foes into being - every archetypal pattern demands its counterpart be played out. I've found that the way through these mythical forces is simply to walk the path of non-resistance. Acknowledging the gods, if you like. Because they're alive and they will one way or another extract their dues.

Too much energy is wasted in denial - 'I'm not a victim' is something I've told myself over and over again. And so over and over again life has shown me that is exactly what I am. If you've been reading this blog for a while you know that there are things going on here that are challenging me, that sometimes I let these challenges send me plummeting. I go down alright, without fighting. I won't fight anymore.

Resistance just creates more of what isn't wanted.

So with that in mind, in these last moments of Mercury's 'time out', I reckon I'll just go with whatever is. If I'm down, I'll be resting; if I'm strong, I'm using it. And if someone wants to tell me I've failed, I'll listen - and accept that I can only do as I do.

Hm, and I'll have another cup of magical fennel tea. Want one?

and for a Neptunian weekend...

"confirmation is always available, if you're looking for it" (Paracelcus)

For some reason I feel as though I should be diarising like a voyager on a doomed mission - a kind of 'ship's log'; day 31, we're running out of food. The work of keeping the engine running is keeping me from going insane but I'm so tired, even in my dreams I lie down and sleep. I don't know how much longer I can go on. If anyone finds this please tell my children I love them, that I tried....

Yeah OK, I'm overdramatising things a bit. Everything's alright. I look around me now and can see plenty to feel happy about. The house is gorgeous and scrubbed clean; a minimalist paradise (all the clutter is boxed up in the garage, which looks anything but minimalist). With the exertions - scrubbing, shifting around and boxing-up - I've toned up somewhat, so I'm feeling simplified physically too. Not to mention the 'make over' cost not a cent, so my financial fitness is increasing, as well as having avoided that 'decorated all in one day' look that so many professionally styled homes have. I've lived my axiom 'I have everything I need' to the highest this week, and proved my own resourcefulness. Yep, its pretty good.

So what if the house is officially 'on the market'? In the meantime we live in it, we're here.

Psyche, of course, has something to say about it all. In contrast to my dreams last weekend, which wanted me to wake up, snap out of it, check out of denial; last night's nocturnal images had me lying down under a table where I'd been preparing a meal with the Rigger, unable to stay awake any longer. 'Morning sickness'; I'm pregnant and need to rest. It occurs to me, in daylight, that its more like mourning sickness that points me to the floor, toward less emphasis on being on top of things. Maybe take a time out... I guess I'll dwell on it a while - things aren't always what they seem.

James Hillman writes that the soul makes intelligent statements to our conscious selves all the time. We only have to pay attention to what's being shown and then resist the urge to substitute images for their literal counterparts. What I've found, apart from that the resistance he suggests is easier said than done, is that if I allow it, the message of a dream, image or event really will be understood.

I've written about this before, anyway, so this is revision.

I don't think I can rest yet - there's a lot to be done. There are things that've been calling me - finishing up my series of articles on parenting with soul, for one. I have more to say about soul mates, about dreams and cledons and divination in general, and I've a book to write. Birds land on my back fence, asking to be part of it all - to be drawn into the scene.

The cosmic climate is strange and brilliant and more than ordinarily tricky, just the way I like it. Expect the unexpected...and dream on...

bibliomancy for mercury retrograde

"invitation" by Edith Chow Sinclair, aged 6

"Trust in Allah, but tie up your camel" (Arab saying)

the most important thing you need to learn about divination

angel greeting 2007 all rights reserved

"Hermes, too, gives his followers acute hearing; they call him "the god of the third ear", the one that can hear an essence buried in an accident." (Lewis Hyde, Trickster Makes This World)

Such a promising headline. It deserves an instructional essay or at the very least some dot points to lay down the gist of things. Augury 101; reading signs and omens.

Lets start with a prediction; in a world that wants more and more out of everyday experience, we'll want to know what everything means and want it to fit with our ordinary understanding. We'll want a method for interpretation, a glossary of the terms of the Gods, all the air-borne secrets revealed in one digest.

Friends, divination is one subject that's, well, subjective for one thing. To my mind there's no direct route or hard and fast approach. But we can sneak up on it from behind to catch it by its tail and we can stay very still and wait for it to come over of its own accord. We can 'greet the angel'.

Whatever our system of belief, looking to the Gods for guidance begs us to open up our minds to meet with life around us differently; to assign value to that which ordinarily means nothing and to assign nothing to the usual clout.

What that entails, more or less, is willingness to let go of the stories of how things should be and allow life to present itself as it is; to generate awareness that all the answers to our questions are already given, and detachment from the need to know.

Because as soon as we think we know, it all changes.

Take, for example, a form of divination called cledonomancy - a random remark, a kind of language version of a lucky find. The Greek origin of the word cledon itself refers to two things, rumor, a report and avis, a bird, pointing us to what 'a little birdie told me..' as more than a turn of phrase.

A cledon is when you turn on the radio and hear a message in a song which resonates with something on your mind. Its a voice in the crowd which calls out a message that may or may not be heard by anyone else but nonetheless speaks directly to you. Clear as a bell.

Its the answer to a question of how to proceed at a crossroads in the same manner as bibliomancy or cartomancy or any other 'omancy' (whether you know you've asked a question or not). Its something 'out of the blue' like the kookaburra that appears on the fence outside your house to laugh at you just as you're pondering the seriousness of the matter at hand.

And then its gone, leaving you to wonder if you only imagined it.

In fact it was probably there every day as you left the house and you never noticed until this moment. The voice in the crowd has been calling out for a while and you only just heard it today. The cards have been falling like that, the words were in the book, the song played over and again until you were ready to know. And now you've got the message.

But then comes the temptation to interpret - to consult a text or call a friend - to replace the direction, the resonance, the ah-ha! moment with tangibility and credibility - "does this mean..?", "oh, yes it means this and that". There's the urge to take that received knowledge and examine it from every angle, poking and prodding and squeezing every last drop of what its made of out of it.

This is where we read too much into things. We get our answers and then want to question them.

And its this very mistrust of what's given to us in its own form that destroys the divine part of divination. We apply the scarcity mind-set that proclaims Not Enough and disconnects us from the benevolent source - the larger intelligence - that is soul.

So the challenge is not how to read omens and signs but to contain them. In other words to stick with the original message rather than allow the mind's tricky ways to unravel it and remake it into something else.

Its as simple as this. Trust that if you ask, the answer is on its way. Notice what life is showing you because soul makes intelligent, meaningful statements all the time.

Keep a journal - the act of writing mystical experiences shows you your own understanding of them . Stop interrogating the answers and, above all, sit for just a moment with what you've received and recognise the magic.

Trust it, its part of who you are now. Laugh with that kookaburra, sing along and smile at the voice from the crowd and then keep on walking, you're on your way.

apologies

i am experiencing technical difficulties...

trickster direct

I'm back! I won't go into the saga of what happened to this site, but it was horrible, involved days of wandering lost and alone in the desert of cyberspace, many emails (before they, too, went missing in action) to tech support staff who all seemed to be from another planet, or on their way back there. Enough said.

*sigh* its so good to be home again.