Pagan Speak February 2004 – Topic 1: Divination

What are your favourite (if any) forms of divination? Tarot? Pendulums? Other Oracle Cards? Runes? Witch Stones? I Ching? Give us a little history behind your favourite oracle, why you like to use it, how often you use it, do you do readings for other people or just yourself? etc.

I am a big fan of divination. I have used many methods – runes, oracles, pendulum. But my favourite method by far is the Tarot.

I’ve been studying the Tarot, off and on, for approximately 14 years. In 1990, I had managed to convince my parents to buy me Ultima IV for my Sega Master System, a role playing game who’s objective is to save the world by becoming the avatar of eight virtues. The character creation sequence consists of a gypsy woman asking questions using cards featuring figures representing the virtues. (See the above link for an example.) As I was showing the game to my older cousin, he said that they looked like Tarot cards. When I expressed interest, he agreed to take me out to buy a deck.

A few weeks later, we took a bus trip to Hamilton’s Hess Village to a small shop cleverly named “The Occult Shoppe.” They had such amazing things there! I remember choosing between three decks – the B.O.T.A. black and white deck, the Rider-Waite deck, and the Aquarian Tarot. I chose the Aquarian Tarot because the artwork and backs appealed to me, and, quite frankly, I didn’t care for the other two decks. I would visit that store many more times until it closed a few years later.
Over the years I have collected many decks, keeping some and trading away others. My current collection consists of The Robin Wood Tarot (my current favourite), Aquarian Tarot, Witches Tarot, Goddess Tarot, Tarot of the New Vision, Hallowquest, Hanson-Roberts Tarot, Legend: Arthurian Tarot, Thoth Tarot, Faery Wicca Tarot, Osho Zen Tarot, Tarot of the Cloisters, tiny Universal Waite, and the Spiral Tarot. I also have a few oracle decks – Goddess Oracle, Soul Cards 2, and Goddess Knowledge cards. In addition, I have a small pendulum and two sets of runes; one came in a kit and the other I made myself from stones I collected on a beach. I am currently considering paring down my Tarot collection because it is way to overwhelming. I am finding it difficult to focus on any particular deck. But, it is so hard to part with any of them!