moon child

Folk Divination Practices I Grew Up With.

Learning and experiencing the power of divination at a young age was such a rewarding experience. I am so thankful for my family, spiritual elders and the wisdom that they have instilled in me throughout my life. It is because of their teachings that I am the proud diviner that I am today. I learned early on to embrace the power of my roots and the lineage of my ancestral line with respect and humility. While chatting with my mother and father over the weekend, we were discussing some of the divinatory practices and teachings they learned as kids and what they taught me as a child. We began to discuss how some of our practices evolved and others stayed the same over time. This inspired me to share some of the folk divination practices I grew up with. As always, I share this post with an open heart and I ask that you please be respectful of these folk divination practices.

Knock before entering your reading room or reading space out of respect for the spirits. 

Feed the spirits, your dead, and illuminate the ancestors in the morning before any divination is performed. Replenish any water, coffee and alcohol for them.

Bathe yourself as the sun rises with a sweet herbal bath to bring good fortune and vitality to your readings that day.

Burn a white candle near an open Bible turned to Psalm 91 to repel evil.

Always end a reading by choosing a prayer from your personal book of prayers as the final message.

Keep a mirror facing out, near the door to repel any negativity that may try to enter.

Keep a large clear bowl of fresh water under the reading table to filter out any impure energies during a reading.

Dump this water out towards the street in front of your home and refresh it with clean water after every new reading.

Keep Florida water nearby to spiritually sanitize yourself.

Hide your spiritual jewelry and protection charms tucked under your shirt, in your bra, underwear and in your pockets.

Always ask the person’s ancestors and head angel for permission in a pre-reading before beginning the full reading process. This pre-reading helps ensure all parties involved are consenting and okay with the divination to take place.

The client must always bring a small offering to the spirits.  Let them know this prior to the reading.  Always ask the spirits beforehand what is suggested and preferred. This can be in the form of bread, candy, coins, stones, alcohol, art, jewelry,etc.  Failure to do this will have both you and the client in spiritual debt.

No money should ever touch your hands after a reading. Have the client leave the payment in a bowl of soil from the backyard mixed with cornmeal.

Pray over this money and use half of it to replenish the spirits and ancestors, while the other half to help with the household finances.

Spiritually bathe in a bitter herbal bath after all readings have been finished for three consecutive nights followed by a sweet herbal bath for four nights. No readings should be done for others during this time.

Never give your full name to clients.

Tie a string around your abdomen so that wayward spirits cannot mount you during a reading session.

Keep your head covered at all times, especially around new clients.

Surround the perimeter of the home and your reading space with cascarilla and cornmeal for protection and spiritual warding.

- A 3 dollar playing card deck form a drugstore can be used for divination. (Usually, this is done by having the suits represent the minor arcana, but I’ve seen other ways of doing this as well) 

-The fabric section of goodwill is really good for finding altar cloths 

-While we’re on the topic of Goodwill, if you live somewhere with a large Buddhist, Shinto or Catholic population you can probably find incense, incense holders, candles, candles holders, and candle snuffers at any thrift store. 

-The dollar store has lots of candles too and they work just as well as any other candle.

- ¢15  composition notebooks make perfectly usable grimoire’s and Books of Shadows. If you really want it to be pretty cover it in construction paper and draw on it. 

-You want runes? Cool, go to goodwill, find a bag of those little glass mancala vase filler things (I always see like 3 bags of them there) and use a sharpy to write runes onto them. Presto you have runes. 

- Athame’s do not need to be fancy. I know third-degree Wiccans who still use their dad’s old pocket or hunting knife as athame’s and it works just fine. Use a kitchen knife if you want to. It’s not the end of the world.

- Chalices are just fancy cups and you can use a normal cup to the same effect. 

- A 3 dollar playing card deck form a drugstore can be used for divination. (Usually, this is done by having the suits represent the minor arcana, but I’ve seen other ways of doing this as well) 

-The fabric section of goodwill is really good for finding altar cloths 

-While we’re on the topic of Goodwill, if you live somewhere with a large Buddhist, Shinto or Catholic population you can probably find incense, incense holders, candles, candles holders, and candle snuffers at any thrift store. 

-The dollar store has lots of candles too and they work just as well as any other candle.

- ¢15  composition notebooks make perfectly usable grimoire’s and Books of Shadows. If you really want it to be pretty cover it in construction paper and draw on it. 

-You want runes? Cool, go to goodwill, find a bag of those little glass mancala vase filler things (I always see like 3 bags of them there) and use a sharpy to write runes onto them. Presto you have runes. 

- Athame’s do not need to be fancy. I know third-degree Wiccans who still use their dad’s old pocket or hunting knife as athame’s and it works just fine. Use a kitchen knife if you want to. It’s not the end of the world.

- Chalices are just fancy cups and you can use a normal cup to the same effect.