Signs, Symbols, and Charms
I am an ardent student of divination. I read tarot, I’m an astrologer, I do divinations with tumbled crystals, and I’m a charm-caster. I’ve also dabbled in other forms of cartomancy, such as Lenormand, numerology, palmistry, reading the Akashic records, and dream interpretation. I like to learn how to use tools that help my conscious mind and my intuition partner in seeking answers, and what all of these methods have in common is the use of symbols.
When we are doing a reading, our minds and our energy fields are open as receivers and symbols help us to quickly grasp and interpret information that is sometimes nebulous and complex. Our various tools of divination call on archetypes with which we can all relate that depict events or conditions common to the human experience. The tarot, for example, describes archetypes associated with Luck (Wheel of Fortune) Love (Lovers) and Death.
When people begin to learn how to use a system of divination, they are not starting from the very beginning with the skill of reading symbols. We learn how to work with them throughout our entire lives, whether it’s the classic red octagon of a stop sign, or a complex algebraic formula. Most of us know the glyph for our sun sign of the zodiac. A big red circle with a line crossing through it is the universal symbol for ‘no’. But we also know that receiving a bouquet of flowers often symbolizes friendship or love while an engagement ring symbolizes love in a serious commitment.
So, this Saturday at STAARCON when I present my class on how to do Charm-casting, each of the participants will be looking through their sample sets of charms and creating their own meanings. It’s not surprising that many people would agree that a sun charm can represent success and well-being, but I like to leave the reader room to decide for themselves. There might be one person who hates the heat and doesn’t like to be in the sun!
One great resource for creating meanings is any book on dream interpretation. The dreaming mind treats almost anything, person, animal, environment, or object, as a symbol. A dream about a book, for example, may represent spiritual knowledge and you can figure out more by paying attention to what is happening to the book. Are you reading it? Teaching from it? Searching for it? In a similar manner, a charm depicting a book may land upside down, maybe signifying that there is knowledge to be tapped into, or it may land on or near another charm and refer to the charm to get an idea of what we need to know more about.
If this sounds like something that you would like to explore, I will be presenting my class on “Casting Charms for Divination” at 9:00 a.m. this Saturday, January 22. Whether you’re here in the area or you live far away, STAARCON is a hybrid event and there are still tickets available for attending both in person and virtually.
