Archive for September, 2010


Ask a Witch/Ask Black Witch

Filed under: Ask Black Witch, BW Announcements, Relationships and Dating — Leave a comment
September 24, 2010

I have known this man on and off as a friend of my son’s father.  This summer things got very serious between us very fast, you know, “I love you”, “I will never break your heart.”  Guess what he did.  I don’t know why and I can only guess but my heart is in so many pieces and I find it hard to concentrate. I am 48 years old and you think I would know better. Never had a clue.  Mother of his 20 year old son I guess the bonds are hard to break but I did not even know.  Should I let this go?  When do I finally get my true love or is there even such a thing? Why am I always getting it broken?

– Lisa

I would not believe anyone who says, “I’ll never break your heart.” No one should. It can’t exactly be promised because any relationship can go wrong with or without warning, it can only be shown. Dating someone who says “I’ll never break your heart” sounds too good to be true and it usually is. If the guy (or girl) says, “I’ll never leave you” or “I’ll never break your heart,” chances are strikingly good they’re going to do just that, especially if it’s said so early in the relationship. I hate to say it but it sounds like you’ve been gullible, hoping for a Prince Charming and upset you’re winding up with nothing but frogs.

Everyone wants someone who can give them the moon and stars, even me. There’s nothing wrong with wanting that, it’s perfectly human. True love is something everyone wants, the ultimate companionship that is painless, perfect and forever without doubt. I personally believe that there is true love but I also believe that not everyone meets it in the life they’re currently in (side note: I believe in reincarnation).  True love, just like everything else in life, serves its own purpose so if you’re meant to meet them, then you will. If it’s not for this life, then it’s not. Yes, it sucks but the universe doesn’t work for one person nor plays favorites.

As for figuring out if you have a true love or if you’ll meet them, it isn’t easy. Possible but a total Pandora’s Box. You can’t actively seek out true love like it is simply sitting there and waiting to be discovered. Your true love has (or should have) a life of their own and when it’s right for you two to collide then you will. Otherwise, don’t bother looking incredibly hard for it because you could be screwing up your own chances. Plus, would you be happy with what you get? Right now, you simply might not be ready. I used to do a “True Love Spread” which actually consisted of a series of individual spreads but that had proven to consistently open up a can of worms such as this so I decided to stop. Some things are better not knowing…though it certainly doesn’t make anyone feel better knowing that.

Say you found your true love, then what? Is life going to be perfect or have more meaning? Not really, you still have to provide that for yourself because no one else can or will do that for you. If you don’t set time aside to better yourself and learn about yourself, prepare to get your heart broken over and over and over. You have to at least have a basic gist in mind of what you want in a relationship, in a partner and not be afraid to go after either. Stop believing some Prince Charming is simply going to pop up out of nowhere and sweep you off to Happily Ever After. Make yourself charming for yourself, the person you’re really going to have to live with and die with. When pursuing your own life rather than hoping for another to come along, maybe you’ll find your true love but even if you didn’t, at least you’ll be happier with yourself. It’s a struggle and far easier said than done but the best shot to take in your situation. As for the heartbreak – while it’s terribly cliché and I hate this saying myself but it’s going to take time for your heart to heal. Stop running after others for a while – maybe a year or so – to focus on the life and family you already have and let your heart have a chance to heal itself. So let the guy go and focus on yourself. He needs to figure himself out and so do you.

And for the record in case anyone is wondering, I consider true love and soul mate as two different things. You can meet your soul mate and not meet your true love. A soul mate is just that, someone who syncs very well with you through good times and bad or someone you’re simply supposed to know or be with. That soul mate can be your best friend to that stray constantly on your stoop every morning. True love is someone who helps you grow and reach your highest potential but you do the same for them likewise, you both grow and expand together. Does that mean no more arguments? No. Every relationship that involves two imperfect beings (which is every human relationship on this earth) is going to have its ups and downs. How else will the relationship grow anyways if there isn’t any push or pull? 

That would be Ask a Witch/Ask Black Witch* for September! It’s really nice to receive submissions, I don’t get enough. Feel free to ask me anything about myself, yourself or about somebody else. Ask a Witch/Ask Black Witch* is your time to give and get feedback about anything. You can ask me about why I believe in reincarnation or why I’m Black but don’t use the Egyptian pantheon, how to come out the broom closet to loved ones or why I can’t stand daily horoscopes but I study and use astrology. Your questions can also be personal issues from your own life such as the one Lisa asked, I’m perfectly okay with this. My only don’t for Ask a Witch/Ask Black Witch* is to ask for readings. I will not do readings for AaW/ABW*, sorry. You’ll have to wait for a sweepstakes or a contest to roll around (like the one that will be in October, the next post “Mental Mentality”) or do it yourself.

Another nota bene: While I can receive submissions through the Ask Black Witch submission form, via comments, on Twitter and email, please note that I get a nasty slush pile of spam in my Black Witch inbox every time I post my email here (You can find my email in the About Me/Contact Me page up top). I work pretty hard to keep that inbox looking nice and presentable so if you’re going to email a submission, please have something like “Ask Black Witch” in the subject line or I’m going to automatically think it’s spam and hit delete. If you can’t think of a decent subject line (and for some odd reason don’t want to use the one I just gave), just use the Ask Black Witch* submission form on the right hand side of this column, that’s what it’s here for.

*Nota bene #3/Editor’s Note: After some thinking, I have decided that this will be the last Ask a Witch – as for the name, that is. “Ask a Witch” shall be renamed “Ask Black Witch”. I just figured it would be a nice change… and the fact that just about every Pagan publication uses the name “Ask a Witch” for submissions is a daunting thought when you want your column to stand out. Just me putting my spin on things as usual. – BW

Comment

The Arts!

Filed under: AfroPunk/The Establishment, The Arts — Leave a comment
September 17, 2010

The Establishment (AfroPunk) Version

Here comes The Arts! How have you been liking them so far? Been a blast for me! Let’s get this show on the road shall we? Starting with the third Wondaland feature!

All the Wondaland Arts Society features have been simply wonderful! First Janelle Monae, then photographer Nastassia Davis! Who’s Wondaland feature number three? Well, follow this lolita and see who is standing on the other end of the rabbit hole this time is none other than:

George 2.0

Janelle Monae’s official Masters of Ceremonies, George 2.0 announces every show, setting the mood for magic, wonder and esteem. Just like any of the other members of Wondaland, George 2.0 has his own projects for himself. Alum of Morehouse (Note how Morehouse keeps sending out ace men? Dr. King, Saul Williams, The 54’s – it certainly is an HBCU that honors its name and reputation), George 2.0 is always busy and his projects are eye-catching! His most noteworthy project is “Turn Off the Tv” (TOTV). George 2.0 best describes the project himself on the official site:

“Turn off the TV is a sitcom mix tape that suggests that anybody and everybody can do what they see on television, as long as they turn it off long enough to be proactive about chasing their dreams. As almost all of the music and videos inspired by the mix tape were developed, recorded, shot, and edited with a Laptop, cell phone, or an improvised audio/video device, TOTV is proof that artists of any age and skill level can produce competitive content with little to no resources.”

Watch the opening credits:

My favorite episodes of TOTV are:

Shepherd’s Words

Channel 12 – Charge a Dream (a jon genius joint)

I really like George 2.0’s poetics. I’m a Baltimorean so I appreciate a good poet and a wonderful poem (word to the wise: there is a very strong hip hop/poetry underground in Baltimore City. We take it straight to the artery.) I really dig George 2.0 works because it’s great poetry, and great art.

Want more 2.0? Check him here:

George 2.0’s blog, the best central hub to keep up with all that he’s doing

TOTV

@twopointoh, George 2.0’s Twitter

Don’t want none? That’s fine. Even if you weren’t watching, even if you weren’t listening, he’d still be doing this anyways. Speaking of turning off the tv, turn off the radio and listen to the next feature:

Atmosphere

This realistic hip hop emcee made Minnesota a musical contender, Atmosphere keeps the heart of hip hop alive in his words and the beats. Never talking about hoes and money, he talks about his experiences and the experiences of the world around him. I first heard him on Pandora and became an avid listener from thereon after, listening to him on his Myspace (say what you will about Myspace but it does serve as a great music hub). Here’s a couple songs of Atmosphere, courtesy of Youtube.

Your Glass House

C’mon

Please do check out his older stuff, but here’s this nice little free mixtape called “Leak at Will”:

Leak at Will

I love “White Noise” and “C’mon”. “Mother’s Day” is simply amazing. I dig that Atmosphere is an emcee rather than a talentless rapper who’s simply going through the motions to make it big. Atmosphere puts a good spin on his words. He doesn’t pretend to be a gangsta or harder than he actually is and hip hop needs more emcees like him. And does Rhymesayers give you some déjà vu? It should, we just hosted P.O.S. at this year’s AfroPunk festival and he’s on the same label as Atmosphere. Atmosphere isn’t part of Doomtree, the crew P.O.S. runs with, but they are all hail from the same Minnesota cold. (And expect a few Doomtree features in future The Arts. Just like Wondaland, they’ve got quite a catch in individuals.)

So we went back down the rabbit hole to Wondaland and went straight to Minnesota, final stop is my spot: Baltimore.

Festivals, festivals, festivals. My gods, so many festivals, so little time. Every month is something new but I’ll try to keep it relevant. First up is:

Baltimore Book Festival

Every September is the Baltimore Book Festival, from Sept 24 to the 26th. Like reading? Like spoken word acts? Wanna eat free gourmet? The Mt. Vernon neighborhood hosts the 15th annual festival celebrating books and literacy in all its forms!

For the extent of three days, there’s so much to do!  I really recommend visiting the Radical Bookfair Pavillion! Read and swap zines! There’s going to be a set on Feminism and the Representation of Women at 1 PM featuring Lisa Jervis of B!tch* Magazine and Sheri Parks, author of Fierce Angels: The Strong Black Woman in American Life and Culture. Parks will talk  of the damage created by the mythical image of the “Strong Black Woman” that is very prevalent in the American cultural landscape. Super interesting! Not much of a rebel? That’s fine!  There’s also a children’s park filled with wonderful writers, cooking demonstrations where you can try out the food, open mics and countless speakers such as Holly Robinson Peete and Rodney Peete! Check out the site to see more! If you love literacy, this is a festival you should be at (if you’re in the Baltimore area). I know I’ll be there.

Now, I’m not a big fan but I know plenty are of chocolate. Another year, another…

Baltimore Chocolate Festival

Lexington Market holds the annual chocolate festival. It’s every mid-October, the dates aren’t released yet. Because Lexington Market closes always on Sunday, the festival starts Thursday and ends on a Saturday. I’m generally not a big fan of chocolate but I love getting the chocolate covered potato chips, red velvet cake (my favorite cake), chocolate covered strawberries, apples or chocolate covered anything. I always prefer having my chocolate with something or not at all. The prices aren’t killer either and you’ll enjoy yourself!

This is The Arts and I hope you liked it. Next month, The Arts will be a special one. Why? My favorite holiday is coming up – Samhain/Halloween! That means next month will be featuring books on Witchcraft, Divination, Paganism and anything else magickal, titled “The Arts: Samhain Edition”!

There will also be a Black Witch sweepstake called “Samhain Pickers”. Your prize: a divination reading from me either in the form of tarot, cartomancy, dream interpretation or natal charts. Sweepstake starts on October 1, where you’ll have all the details and how to enter (it’s extremely easy, I can assure you).

Next Week: Ask a Witch. That means y’all need to be sending in some questions! Ask anything! Ask why I feature Wondaland so much? Ask what’s up with my clothes? Ask me about what’s the best way to come out to friends and family and what’s not the best way?

And I’m still on my traveling kick. I’m going to NYC tomorrow and will be there all day. I wanna hit up Haru Hana in Koreatown for their great okonomiyaki (and the shop boys don’t look bad either), any place with cell phone charms and trek to the Japanese Street Fashion shop Tokyo Rebel because I love Putumayo (my favorite punk lolita brand) and I may pop up at Terminal 5 to say hello to a couple friends. Wanna kick it with me? Lemme know! I always want to meet my readers. Show me your New York City!

*Sorry for the self-censor, I don’t curse >.>

Comment

Let’s Dream!

Filed under: Dreams — Leave a comment
September 10, 2010

I remember way back when I had my old dream interpretation thread at the FortMinor.com message boards. It was my little carved out spot in the High Command section of the boards. I honestly thought the thread was going to die but it turned out to be a big success. I really liked the thread, it reached into I think 50-something pages. My rules were no profane sex dreams, especially involving any of the members of Fort Minor (Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park, Styles of Beyond, Lupe Fiasco, Demigodz, Holly Brook, Bobo of Cypress Hill, etc etc etc), be as clear as possible and if they didn’t want the dream interpretation to be public, just say so and I’ll private message (PM) them the interpretation.

I really did get a lot of people and even a few regulars. From the beginning, I managed to handle questions about dreams from both the psychological side and the scientific side with little issue and even help people. I wasn’t afraid to tell people to seek out a counselor if they needed one – quite a few did – and I could deal with anyone ready to start trouble, which thankfully was very little.

Always would I try to make sure to answer in the orderly time period of within a day and keep the interpretation as non-kooky as possible; I didn’t want to come off looking like a hack and I didn’t want the interpretations to be useless. My regular users started to get the hang of mentioning if the dream was reoccurring, a nightmare or if it could have any real world relation, which did help flesh out a better reading but if I felt the issues the reading would uncover were too deep, I would PM the dreamer in question.

What I liked of the dream thread was the near anonymity of the internet. Since Fort Minor.com was a themed site, I wouldn’t be able to pick out much about these kids (well, not all were kids but that’s how I refer to a group of people sometimes) that I could use for the reading and I definitely didn’t participate in the message board enough to know them well enough to dredge any info that could make me look otherworldly and all knowing. As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t even really look at their screen names except to figure out who I’m talking to. I often didn’t know the querent’s gender, age, life or background, I just interpreted the dream for what it was and that’s it. If the dreamer didn’t understand or thought I was wrong, I wanted them to say so. How am I supposed to learn from my mistakes if I don’t know I made any? If I were wrong, I would ask how and see if I could right things.

Did anyone from Fort Minor ever use my dream thread? Nope. I haven’t even a clue if they ever peered into it or even knew that it existed. I always wonder if any of them at least scanned through a couple pages and what they thought of it. I dunno but still it’s something to ponder. At least Lupe Fiasco or Mike Shinoda – don’t ask me why, just seem like something they’d have an interest in.

My dream interpretation thread started back in ’06 but lasted a year because I began to burn out. I should have save the pages of my thread but I didn’t know of the existence of FreezePage or anything like that then. Combined with my laziness, the thread is pretty much gone for good. It does kinda suck and I do regret not saving it because it was a very nice piece of work and the best demonstration I’ve had of public divination on record. Not anymore.

I had started to burn out around the mid year of the thread, I think. My responses weren’t as fast and correct as they used to be and I was getting headaches constantly. I thought I could cure it by doing sabbaticals but nope, I was really becoming run down. This was terrible because I knew the more raggedy I would be, the more incorrect my readings would be and the more incorrect my readings would be, the less valid my interpretations would become. That’s not good. Instead, I opted to leave the thread alone after handling the last requests and letting it die on its own. There was still some chatter in the thread but I never read any of it since they weren’t dream requests.

It was nice when people came to me discussing dream superstitions such as a demon sitting on your chest and how it was actually sleep paralysis because the brain woke up before the body did. I loved those chats because I liked discussing how dreams worked, how they’re not all rubbish and they’re not all decipherable by Freud. Holy snickerdoodles would people think everything could be interpreted by the Freudian school of thought or that all of Freud’s interpretations revolved around sex. I personally like Carl Jung’s ideas of dream interpretation which uses the archetypes but I make sure to keep an open mind. Dreams can vary because of who the dreamer is.

Dreams aren’t very one-size-fits-all, the interpretation could be modified drastically by the dreamer’s background, culture and way of thinking. One good example is on the Fort Minor dream thread, I would frequently come across many dreams involving the members of Linkin Park (since many Fort Minor fans were Linkin Park fans as well). I once had gotten a dream request where the dreamer was choking Chester, one of the members. The dreamer was very scared because Chester was his favorite member, never would he do something so violent and harmful to Chester. Thankfully the person’s dream did not refer to hidden motives to murder but a suppression of creative energy and appeasing those that the querent doesn’t like. Chester is known to be quite an eccentric livewire and the act of strangulation generally means forcibly retaining something whether it is emotion, truth or facets of personality, usually to bend into the norms. Basically, the dreamer was forcing back his own individuality for social approval. Before long, I learned to have a special definition for each member of Linkin Park because they were just as acceptable symbols as dreaming up a sink or a bear because for these dreamers, every member of the band has a special meaning. And with these specially created definitions, I really gave accurate readings because usually they would hit the nail right on the head.

Though I am a dream interpreter, I don’t always interpret my own dreams. Some dreams simply don’t need to be interpreted and some dreams make me go, “Ooookaaay, not lookin’ into that one.” I have accidentally done lucid dreaming (being in control of your dream) and interpreted the dream while dreaming. As in, I could see a house being hit by a tornado and instead of getting out of the way and going somewhere safe (since I can feel in my dreams), I just stood there and went, “Ok, that’s a tornado, it refers to emotional turmoil and it’s hitting a house which is in reference to me and – Oh crap!” Boy, I’m one weird cookie.

And speaking of being in control of your dream – a wonderful friend of mine had taken me to see the movie Inception. It was a terrific movie, I really recommend seeing it! As a dream interpreter, I really found the movie enjoyable! Now that positive review is out the way, I now have to say that Inception was just that, a movie. There are not people (not that I’m aware of) who creep into your dreams to sow ideas or steal information. It is a wonderful fabrication of the power of ideas and the intricate depths of the mind via dreams but it is just a piece of entertainment, not an instruction video. I’ll write a piece on movies and magick/metaphysics later but this is my little blurb. Onward with the remainder of the column:

I recommend that if you’re going to write down your dream, do it right when you wake up. Have a journal or a tape recorder nearby. If I’m not mistaken, the average person forgets 90% of their dream within 10 minutes and you only remember the last four to five dreams you had that night. When I jot down my dreams, I would keep my eyes closed or completely covered so not to forget any of the dream by being exposed to light. Just write, don’t worry about if it makes sense, just write it all down and review it later. I use dream dictionaries (which I will showcase in The Arts: Samhain Edition) to help interpret my dream but as I have mentioned, I don’t always interpret my dreams. Sometimes I just keep them in the back of my mind and if I have a reoccurring dream, I just note that it happened and put a little more effort into working on what it’s referring to. Not all dreams have to be interpreted but they are very useful insight into what is going on underneath the surface.

One kind of person that I would come across sometimes would claim they never dream. Why they sometimes tote it as a badge of honor I am not sure because it doesn’t make them seem cool or otherworldly but the average person has at least 200 dreams a night as they go through the different stages of sleep but only remember the last 4 to 5 roughly and maybe a couple of the first ones. Not having any dreams simply means you don’t remember the last few dreams you had, not that you don’t dream at all. The brain dreams for three main reasons: 1) It’s assembling the memory of everything you did that very day so your dream could be just a recap. 2) There’s something you’re ignoring that your mind (or body) is throwing up a red flag for, such as a dream about crumbling teeth can be an anxiety dream or a mental memo that you ought to see the dentist immediately. 3) Your mind is just being stupid and random, it happens.

Talking about dreams, I do have some dreams as a diviner. Silly little hopes, really. I always wanted to do divination for my favorite performers. It’s like taking a picture for me and as a fan it’s the least I could do. It’s either I want to read someone’s palms, interpret their dream or handwriting, draft their natal charts, whatever. I always think I will find something cool in there. I know for fact I want to redo Mike Shinoda and Chester Bennington’s natal charts with them because I wanna get the charts just right. Oddly enough, I never go, “Hey! I want to do their tarot/cartomancy!” because it doesn’t have the same feeling for me as doing palmistry or explaining to someone their Mars sign and how it influences their Jupiter sign. I especially would like to do astrology (i.e. Natal Charts) because there so much crap astrology out there. Ah, dreams.

Next week! The Arts! Who’s going to be featured:

– George 2.0

– Atmosphere

– Baltimore Book Festival

– Baltimore Chocolate Festival

The Chocolate festival is in October but is being featured in September. Why? Because October is The Arts: Samhain Edition! Books and sites on Witchcraft, divination and Paganism galore! And speaking of George 2.0, I will be at the next two Janelle Monae shows in DC on Sept 13 and 14th at the 9:30 Club. Gonna be there too? Say hi to me! I’ll be in lolita (look in the links on the sidebar to see what lolita fashion is). I’ll also be in NYC on Sept 18!

After The Arts is Ask a Witch! You know the rules: comment, email, tweet me or use the Ask a Witch submission form on the right sidebar! Ask a good question, get a good answer. Ask a silly question, get a silly question. Ask a bad question…erm, get a stupid answer? Either way, ask me! You never know till you try!

Comment

Tell Me What You See

Filed under: AfroPunk/The Establishment, Divination — Leave a comment
September 3, 2010

The Establishment (AfroPunk) Version

Ah, divination. The art of looking into the future, usually using a helper tool of some sort such as a bowl of water or a deck of cards (or else it could be describe as clairvoyance or precognition). There is a lot of debate surrounding whether divination is real or not, whether we can actually look into the future or not and whether it is okay to do or not from a spiritual perspective. For me, I believe it so even though I didn’t always feel that way. I get fairly mixed reactions when I tell people that I am a diviner – well, the initial reaction is confusion but once I explain what a diviner is, that’s when I get the varied responses. Either it is from the “You believe in that stuff?” camp or the “You shouldn’t be doing that, it’s a sin for only God knows what the future hold” camp or “Can you read my palm/cards/natal chart/etc?” camp. Let me explain a little further these reactions:

“You believe in that stuff?” – Sayeth the person who believes in an invisible being that he or she cannot and has not touched, seen, heard, met nor can fully prove they exist, otherwise known as God. You believe in that stuff? That when your life is in absolute danger or peril, some invisible force is simply going to swoop down and save you? I believe in a God too but become over-logical or over-skeptical and even the very concept of divinity can seem like a bad case of widespread schizophrenia. But, hey, that doesn’t stop us from building houses of worship to our invisible friends whom we presume can hear us (though that become highly debatable when a catastrophe strikes), “holy” wars that look a lot like normal wars and debating about the few major differences between religions yet a lot of them run on the same lines of forgivness and selfless love. I am willing to explain that, yes I do believe in divination and just toss the idea back at them, you believe in a god? Why? Needless to say, the question“You believe in that stuff?” irritates me as you can see. Besides, that’s how I got started in divination, I was overly skeptical of it as well. But instead of asking stupid questions, I tried it for myself.

“That’s a Sin! Only God Knows!” – Times like these I’m happy I have a love for words. Let’s break down the word “Divination”, shall we? “Divi-“ in “Divination” means “Divine”, as in “God” or “holy figure”. “-nation” is simply an English grammatical suffix referring to the act of doing (if I’m remembering my suffixes right). In short, divination is simply an act where you’re reading from the divine. However, some consider it as opening your mind to the collective unconscious and retrieving the appropriate information of the situation. I consider both reasonings roughly one and the same, I feel that I am opening my mind towards the collective unconscious (which can also be seen as divinity) to get the proper situation about what’s going on, whether general or specific. Since I am not claiming that I am doing this with my own energy – since would make for super tiring and incorrect readings for I do not know all, thus better to connect to the universe anyways – and admitting to working with God, I would feel the “only god knows” reaction would be a fairly moot point because I’m well aware of that or I wouldn’t be working with the universe, now would I? There’s more I could go into this but I have been doing a good job obeying my self-imposed article limit so far and want to keep that up.

“Can you read my…?” – It’s a great question and one I don’t usually mind obliging to. I love doing divination and I’m pretty good at it. It’s fun, interesting and it’s good to get an overhead perspective (if the form of divination allows that as some don’t such as dowsing). I don’t mind doing divination but I do mind if you’re going to sit there an act like a complete idiot about it. What I mean is do things like ask moronic questions such as “Am I going to die?” To that I will respond, “Yes.” Mainly because unless you got a special immortality elixir you’re keeping a secret, you will one day die – but not soon enough if this is the highest level of intellect you have. Divination does require work, some methods more than others. Please don’t assume that I just so happen to be walking around with a heavy tarot deck in my bag or a deck of playing cards at the ready. I don’t have my computer on me wherever I go so I can’t do natal charts and I’m not a walking computer myself so just telling me your information will not work either if you don’t write it down with at least an email and a name accompanying it. I’m not being mystical by asking you for your name either, I merely want to know what to call you while talking to you or I could very well temporarily name you “moron” or “doofus” instead. Palmistry is probably the only form of divination I can honestly do on the go really because it doesn’t require me toting about anything but know that your reading may be short because I do like referring to my books so I don’t give an incorrect readout and if I’m out and about, chances are I am running an errand or just hanging out. I will sit and chat with people for hours but don’t expect anything excruciatingly detailed because I’m prolly thinking, “Man, I hope they won’t run out of cupcakes/subs/pizza. I’m hungry.” I have built genuine friendships from impromptu divination encounters but not when the person acts crazy or stupid so take it easy, okay?

“I’m going to test you.” – And you’ve already proven to me that you’re probably an idiot. I like doing readings but putting me under a microscope for your own joy makes me incredibly irritated. Not that I’m worry I’ll get it wrong but because the personality traits that usually accompany these people list fairly well under “jerk” status: arrogant, pretty cocky, terrible jokes and puns that sounds borrowed from SNL, most likely never had their own beliefs tested before, possibly mainstream to the core to the point most of their personal views stem from cable television and magazines with very few true life experiences to account for their own. I have met people myself that I did not exactly believe what they did or believed but I never did any jerk-moves because A) I know what it feels like B) if the person is honest about it, it will show by itself. But then again, I have met enough people and had enough experiences to determine whether someone is crazy, a total megalomaniac, real or wishing they were for whatever reason. Can’t say the same for the testers.

“You think you’re God. [Insert biblical quote here]” – Hoo boy, the God complex. I haven’t gotten this much but some of my other diviner friends have. You read cards and work with a god, all of a sudden people assume you think you are one. No, I don’t think that I am the alpha and omega or anything snazzy like that. I still have to go to school, argue with my teachers, work a normal job, pay normal bills and deal with fools I can’t smite constantly just like everyone else. Diviners shouldn’t think they are god because they’re not, they merely listen to what the universe has to say.

Divination, just like anything else, does take work to get down. I find it easy to do but I’ve been doing it for years and have a knack at it. This isn’t to say no one should try it, go for it if that’s what you want because if I never did, I wouldn’t have known how good I would have been at it. There’s the act of divination but also the ethics, which there are plenty of. Some ethics are very widely agreed upon, some not. My divinatory ethics may not match another’s, such as I don’t believe in making people pay for my readings but some other diviner may differ. It’s a normal situation with anything remotely resembling public service, the ethics because regardless what you do, the ethics are what make or break what’s happening. That means divination will be a category here because there is a lot to say for it. I won’t be posting any how-to’s however because that’s not what this column is for but I will be posting books, decks and more for The Arts: Samhain Edition. If you have any questions, remember to submit to Ask a Witch on the right side of this page.

Comment