Divination in Witchcraft and Paganism

Pagan divination is a collection of ancient practices and newer inventions. Pagans and witches read signs to understand why people do what they do, who they are underneath, and what is around the corner. Whether you're looking for answers to what, where, why, how, or when, some signs are sought, including cards laid in a spread, runes pulled from a bag, and a pendulum swinging over a map. Other signs find you, such as a feather crossing your path or an animal visiting your home.

In divination, it doesn't matter which tool you use, as long as it works for you. A deck tells us nothing without a reader, and what the reader brings to the cards is as much a part of the divination as the oracles themselves. The answer may be in the stars, but it takes an astrologer to read the chart, so whether you're casting the runes or reading tea leaves, you aren't just part of the reading—you are the reading.

Types of Divination in Witchcraft

Common Forms of Divination

Magical Timing in Witchcraft and Paganism

How to Practice Divination in Witchcraft and Paganism

Resources and Gifts for Pagans and Witches

Below is an A-to-Z index of sixty divination methods a witch or pagan can learn (and how to say them). From abacomancy to zoomancy, some divination methods are better at complex questions, others at giving you a yes or a no. Scrying is better for images and visions, while omens and dreams arrive without being asked.

While the most common and popular types of divination are shared by millions around the world and woven into every part of witchcraft and paganism, not every "mancy" you'll find on the Wikipedia page is a practice. Dozens of the names on that list were coined by either medieval scholars or modern writers for methods nobody has actually practiced, sometimes even as a joke.

Far more seriously, some types of divination belong to living traditions that are neither pagan nor open, such as Ifá, the Yoruba divination read only by initiated priests. These ancient divination practices are learned by initiation rather than from a book, while everything below is open to anyone willing to learn it.

Abacomancy (AB-uh-koh-man-see), reading the shapes that settle in dust or sand; one of the simplest methods there is, needing nothing but a dusty floor.

Aeromancy (AIR-oh-man-see), reading the sky and weather by cloud shapes, wind shifts, and the color of the air before a storm.

Ailuromancy (eye-LOOR-oh-man-see), reading the behavior of cats, from how they wash to which way they jump; sailors' wives read the ship's cat for the weather.

Alectryomancy (uh-LEK-tree-oh-man-see), letting a rooster peck grain scattered over letters and reading the word it spells; Roman, and still done at country fairs.

Aleuromancy (uh-LOOR-oh-man-see), reading messages baked into flour; the fortune cookie is its living descendant.

Alomancy (AL-oh-man-see), reading thrown salt by the shapes it makes, and the kitchen habit of tossing spilled salt over the shoulder comes from it.

Anthomancy (AN-thoh-man-see), reading flowers by their number, their color, and which petal falls last; "loves me, loves me not" is anthomancy.

Apantomancy (uh-PAN-toh-man-see), reading a chance meeting with an animal, such as a hare crossing the road or a crow on the gate; most animal omens are apantomancy.

Arithmancy (AR-ith-man-see), giving each letter of a name a number and reading the sum; the older cousin of numerology.

Astragalomancy (uh-STRAG-uh-loh-man-see), casting dice or knucklebones and reading the fall; the ancient Greeks threw the ankle bones of sheep.

Astrology (uh-STROL-uh-jee), reading the positions of the sun, moon, and planets for a person's nature and for the timing of events.

Augury (AW-gyur-ee), reading birds by their flight, their calls, and where they land; the Roman augurs made it a state office.

Bibliomancy (BIB-lee-oh-man-see), opening a book at random and reading the line your finger finds; the Romans used Virgil, the Middle Ages the Bible.

Bone-throwing, casting a set of bones and reading how they land and lie against each other; practiced across Africa and the Americas and by many witches today.

Botanomancy (boh-TAN-oh-man-see), burning leaves or branches and reading the smoke and crackle; the old records name vervain and briar.

Capnomancy (KAP-noh-man-see), reading smoke as it rises; straight is a good sign and thick or hanging is a warning.

Cartomancy (KAR-toh-man-see), reading cards of any kind, from a fifty-two card deck to a tarot or oracle deck.

Catoptromancy (kuh-TOP-troh-man-see), gazing into a mirror, usually black or turned to the moon, until an image forms; a form of scrying.

Ceraunoscopy (seh-raw-NOSS-koh-pee), reading thunder and lightning by the direction of the bolt and the count between flash and sound; Etruscan, and kept by the Romans.

Ceromancy (SEER-oh-man-see), dripping melted wax into cold water and reading the shapes it hardens into; a candle-witch method still done at Samhain.

Cledonism (KLED-oh-niz-um), reading a chance word overheard in a crowd as an answer to the question you were holding; Greek, and still practiced.

Cleromancy (KLAIR-oh-man-see), casting lots of any kind, such as stones, sticks, shells, or dice, and reading the fall; the family that runes, ogham, and dice belong to.

Cromniomancy (KROM-nee-oh-man-see), writing names or answers on onions, setting them to sprout, and reading which sprouts first; a European folk method for choosing between suitors.

Crystallomancy (KRIS-tuh-loh-man-see), gazing into a crystal ball or a clear stone until a picture forms; the best-known form of scrying.

Dendromancy (DEN-droh-man-see), reading trees, above all the oak and the mistletoe; the druids' method as the Romans described it.

Dowsing (DOW-zing), finding water, metal, or a lost thing with a forked stick or a pendulum; also called rhabdomancy and water witching.

Favomancy (FAV-oh-man-see), casting beans and reading how they fall; done in Russia, the Balkans, and Central Asia to this day.

Geomancy (JEE-oh-man-see), marking sixteen random dots and lines in sand or on paper and reading the figures they form; Arabic in origin, and Europe's most used method after astrology for five hundred years.

Gematria (guh-MAY-tree-uh), reading the number-values of Hebrew letters to find the hidden meaning of a word or verse; the root of much Western numerology.

Haruspicy (huh-RUS-pih-see), reading the liver and entrails of a sacrificed animal; the Etruscans and Babylonians made it a science, and it is named here for the record, not for practice.

Hippomancy (HIP-oh-man-see), reading the behavior of horses, such as the way a sacred horse stepped over crossed spears; a Germanic method in Tacitus.

Hydromancy (HY-droh-man-see), reading water by its ripples, its color, and what appears in a still bowl of it; a form of scrying.

I Ching (EE-ching), casting yarrow stalks or three coins to build one of sixty-four hexagrams and reading the text that belongs to it; Chinese, three thousand years old, and read worldwide.

Lecanomancy (leh-KAN-oh-man-see), reading the shapes oil makes when dropped on water in a basin; Babylonian, and one of the earliest methods with a written manual.

Libanomancy (lih-BAN-oh-man-see), reading the smoke of burning incense by its direction and shape; Babylonian, and the ancestor of every smoke reading.

Lithomancy (LITH-oh-man-see), reading stones cast from a bag or set in a pattern, each with its own meaning; the pagan cousin of the crystal chart.

Lychnomancy (LIK-noh-man-see), reading a candle flame by its height, its color, its flicker, and whether it gutters; the candle witch's daily divination.

Molybdomancy (moh-LIB-doh-man-see), pouring molten tin or lead into cold water and reading the shape it freezes into; done at New Year across Germany and the Nordic countries.

Necromancy (NEK-roh-man-see), seeking answers from the dead; in the old sense a divination, in practice the tending of the dead that belongs to Spirit Work.

Nephomancy (NEF-oh-man-see), reading clouds by their shapes, their direction, and how fast they move.

Numerology (noo-mer-OL-uh-jee), reducing a birth date or a name to a single digit and reading the number's meaning; the modern system dates to the early twentieth century.

Ogham casting (OH-um), drawing or casting staves marked with the twenty letters of the Irish tree alphabet; the divination is modern, the letters are not.

Oneiromancy (oh-NY-roh-man-see), reading dreams, both the images and the feeling they leave behind; Artemidorus wrote the manual in the second century and it is still in print.

Onomancy (ON-oh-man-see), reading a person's name by its letters and their count; medieval Europe used it to predict the winner of a fight.

Oomancy (OH-oh-man-see), dropping an egg white into water and reading the shapes it forms; the "Venus glass" of the Salem girls, and a folk method across Europe.

Osteomancy (OSS-tee-oh-man-see), reading bones, cast or cracked by fire; the Chinese oracle bones are the oldest written divination on earth.

Palmistry (PAHM-iss-tree), reading the lines, mounts, and shape of the hand; also called cheiromancy, and Indian in origin.

Pallomancy (PAL-oh-man-see), reading a pendulum, a weight on a chain that swings to answer yes or no.

Pessomancy (PESS-oh-man-see), drawing marked pebbles from a bag; Greek, and a direct ancestor of runecasting.

Pyromancy (PY-roh-man-see), reading fire by its color, its sound, and the way it takes an offering; the hearth was the first oracle.

Rhapsodomancy (RAP-soh-doh-man-see), opening a book of poetry at random and reading the line; bibliomancy done with verse.

Runecasting (ROON-kast-ing), drawing or casting the twenty-four letters of the Elder Futhark and reading them by their meanings; Tacitus saw the Germanic tribes casting marked lots.

Scapulimancy (SKAP-yoo-lih-man-see), heating an animal's shoulder blade and reading the cracks; done from Shang China to the Scottish Highlands, where it is called slinneanachd.

Scrying (SKRY-ing), gazing into a reflective or moving surface, such as a mirror, water, a crystal, fire, or smoke, until an image forms; the family that catoptromancy, hydromancy, and crystallomancy belong to.

Selenomancy (seh-LEN-oh-man-see), reading the moon by its phase, its halo, and its color; the root of every moon-timed practice.

Sortes (SOR-teez), the Roman casting of lots; the word survives in "sortilege" and the practice in every drawn straw.

Spodomancy (SPOD-oh-man-see), reading the patterns ashes leave in a fire pit or on the hearth after the fire has died.

Stichomancy (STIK-oh-man-see), reading a randomly chosen line of any text; the general form of bibliomancy.

Sycomancy (SY-koh-man-see), writing a question on a fig leaf and reading how quickly it dries; a Greek method, and any broad leaf will serve.

Taromancy (TAIR-oh-man-see), reading the seventy-eight card tarot deck; the most practiced divination in the world today.

Tasseography (tass-ee-OG-ruh-fee), reading the leaves left in a teacup or the grounds left in a coffee cup by the shapes they make; also called tasseomancy.

Tyromancy (TY-roh-man-see), reading cheese by the shape of its holes and the pattern of its mold; medieval, and a method for choosing between suitors.

Uranomancy (yoor-AN-oh-man-see), reading the sky as a whole, with stars, planets, and weather read together; the broad form of astrology.

Xylomancy (ZY-loh-man-see), reading wood, such as the pattern of fallen branches on a path or the way a log burns.

Zoomancy (ZOH-oh-man-see), reading the behavior of animals of any kind; also called theriomancy, and the family that augury, ailuromancy, and hippomancy belong to.

The thirteen most-practiced forms of divination take years to master yet are simple enough to begin in one sitting. Discover the history, tools, and methods of each one.

Tarot began as an Italian card game in the fifteenth century and was first read for meaning in the late eighteenth. The seventy-eight card deck of cartomancy includes twenty-two Major Arcana for the big turns of life and fifty-six Minor for the everyday ones.

Tarot is read in spreads, a set of positions laid out in a pattern, so that each card means something by where it falls as well as what it shows. Simple one- or three-card readings, such as a Past, Present, and Future spread, can be the most powerful readings and are good for beginners. Today, you can even find tarot cards for kids.

Ordinary playing cards were being read for fortunes in Europe by the sixteenth century, before anyone read the tarot for meaning. The fifty-two card deck is the plainest cartomancy there is, with each suit and each number carrying its own meaning.

Playing cards are read the way tarot is, in spreads, with the suits and numbers given meanings. The deck's advantage is that it goes anywhere without announcing itself. It also appears frequently in everyday life.

An oracle deck is any divination deck that isn't a tarot deck. Tarot always has seventy-eight cards in a fixed system, while an oracle deck has no set rules, so one might hold thirty cards and another sixty, each with its own theme and its own meanings printed in the small book that comes with it. The themed decks sold today are a twentieth-century invention, built around everything from animals and herbs to moons, goddesses, and affirmations. The Lenormand, thirty-six cards from Germany in 1799, is often called an oracle deck but is a system of its own, read in pairs.

Oracle cards can be pulled in any number, from a single card for a message of the day to a full tarot spread. Many tarot readers keep an oracle deck beside the tarot and pull from it during a reading as a clarifier, one card or several, however the reading calls for it. Because each deck is its own system, the reading leans on the symbols in the picture and what they stir in the reader more than on memorized meanings.

The runes are the letters of the old Germanic alphabets. The alphabet most commonly used for divination by pagans and witches is the Elder Futhark, twenty-four letters cut into wood, bone, or stone. Tacitus described the Germanic tribes casting marked lots two thousand years ago, but much of the runecasting practiced today, with each letter carrying a meaning behind its sound, took its current shape in the twentieth century.

In this divination method, the symbols can be read one at a time, drawn from a pouch, or cast onto a cloth. They can also be laid in spreads, and since the symbol is the only part that is read, you can draw them on cards and turn them into a deck if you want. The Elder Futhark is also a shaman's journey, and the symbols are often studied in sequence as a method of self-discovery.

Ogham is the earliest writing system of the Irish language, twenty letters made of strokes cut along a central line and read from the bottom up. Ogham comes from the Celts the way the runes came from the Norse. About four hundred inscriptions survive on standing stones in Ireland and western Britain, carved between the fourth and ninth centuries as boundary markers and memorials.

Many of the letters share names with trees, including birch, oak, and hazel, which is why it is called the tree alphabet. However, both that name and its use in divination are modern. Today, ogham is read from a set of staves, short lengths of wood each marked with one letter, drawn from a bag or cast onto a cloth. Some readers cut their own set from the tree each letter is named for, and a single stave drawn for the day is the place to start.

A pendulum is a small weight on a chain or cord that swings in answer to a question. Divining rods are a similar tool, usually a forked stick or a pair of bent wires that dips or crosses in the hand when an object is found. Both are dowsing tools, an old craft for finding hidden water, ore, and lost items. Dowsing was described in mining manuals by the sixteenth century and is still used throughout the world to site wells. In rural America it is called water witching, and most dowsers don't think of it as divination at all, though every list of divination methods includes it.

A pendulum is read by holding it still, asking a question, and watching the swing. Before the first reading the reader programs it, asking it to show a yes, a no, and a maybe, since the directions differ from one hand to the next. The skill is in asking questions that can be answered yes or no, and a pendulum held over a map, a list, or a lettered board can point at a place, a name, or a word. Divining rods are read by walking around while holding them loosely and noticing where the energy moves or pulls them.

Throwing bones, also called bone casting, bone reading, and osteomancy, is reading a handful of small objects by how they fall. Bone throwing has roots on every continent, and in many traditions the bones are read to speak with the ancestors. In paganism and witchcraft, it is the form casting lots takes, the earliest family of divination there is, which the scholars call cleromancy. Charm casting, a set of small charms thrown the same way, is its newest form.

A set for throwing bones is usually built rather than bought. It can include bones, shells, stones, dice, and small curios such as a key, a coin, or a ring. The pieces are gathered over time, and each one is given a meaning by the reader. Bones are read by throwing the set onto a cloth, often marked with a circle, and noting where each piece lands, which pieces fall together, and which fall outside the circle. The reading is as personal as the set, which is why most readers develop their own system.

Scrying is gazing into a reflective or translucent surface until images form in it. "Seeing" and "peeping" are the older English words for it, and both are sometimes still used. There are different types of scrying depending on the tool, such as water scrying with a bowl of water or mirror scrying with obsidian or dark glass. Other scrying tools include crystal balls, candle flames, fire, and smoke from incense or a smoldering herb. The moon is scried too, gazed at directly or in its reflection on still water.

Scrying can be practiced almost anywhere quiet and undisturbed, indoors by candlelight or outdoors at night beside a fire. The gaze is relaxed rather than focused, and the mind settles into the light trance most people know from staring into a fire. What may come is often a picture, a symbol, or a flicker of movement rather than an answer in words.

Tea-leaf reading, or tasseography, is reading the patterns left by tea leaves in the bottom of a cup. It began in Europe in the seventeenth century, shortly after tea arrived there. Coffee grounds are read the same way across the Balkans and the Middle East, and more rarely, so is the sediment in a wine glass. All you need is loose-leaf tea and a pale, wide-mouthed cup, then skip the strainer when you brew.

To read tea leaves, think about your question while drinking the cup of tea. When only the last swallow is left, tilt the cup and swirl the tea around the inside three times. Upend the cup on the saucer to drain, then turn it back up. The leaves left on the sides and bottom of the cup are read by the shapes they make and where they sit. In one common method, shapes near the rim of the cup are what is close and shapes near the bottom are what is far off.

Astrology is reading the positions of the sun, moon, and planets as they move through the signs of the zodiac. It is the oldest divination still in daily use. The Babylonians were reading the sky for omens four thousand years ago, and by around 400 BCE they had invented the zodiac and the personal chart, which is where astrology as we know it begins. In witchcraft and paganism, astrology has many uses, including helping to understand personalities or revealing the best times to marry, start a business, move house, or cast a spell.

Astrology is read from a chart, which is a map of the sky at a given moment. A birth chart is the map drawn for the hour and place of birth, and it is read in many ways depending on the astrologer. Transit charts show where the planets are currently, and how they act upon the birth chart. Most people start with their own birth chart, and any free chart calculator will draw one from a date, time, and place of birth.

Numerology is reading the meanings and vibrations of numbers, from a birth date and a name to an address, a wedding date, or a number you keep seeing. Each number from one to nine carries a meaning. The practice traces back to Pythagoras, though the system most people use today was put together in the early 1900s by an American music teacher who taught that every number has its own vibration and gave each one a musical note.

Numerology works in many ways. The most common method is to calculate the life-path number by adding the digits of a birth date and reducing them to a single number. A birthday of January 29, 2022 becomes 1 + 2 + 9 + 2 + 0 + 2 + 2 = 18, and 1 + 8 = 9, which gives a life-path number of nine. Another method calculates the destiny number by adding up the numbers assigned to letters in a name. Numerology has grown to include the divination practice behind angel numbers, which are the repeating 111s and 444s people notice in their everyday lives.

Omens just appear, without asking. They come as signs, like a black cat crossing your path or a bird at your window. In witchcraft and paganism, omens are read as messages from the ancestors, the spirits, or the gods. Animals carry many of the signs and omens, and the animal ones are at Animals in Witchcraft, but the weather, the moon, a dropped object, or a word overheard in a crowd can be an omen too.

Omens are read by noticing, which is a skill. A sign is something out of place or out of season, the owl in daylight or the crow that lands on the fence every morning for a week, and it helps to write it down before you decide what it means. Folklore gives each sign a meaning, but readers will notice repeating signs unique to their own lives. Ancient Romans divided omens into the kind that come on their own and the kind you ask for, and many pagans and witches still ask for a sign outright and then watch the day for the answer.

Dream reading, or oneiromancy, is reading dreams for messages and for what is coming. Greece, Egypt, and Babylon all took dreams as messages from the gods and the ancestors, and the Greeks slept in the temples of Asclepius to be sent messages in their sleep. In witchcraft and paganism today, dreams are often read as messages from the ancestors, the gods, or the dreamer's own deeper mind.

Dream symbol divination reads the images in a dream, such as water, a snake, a house, or a fall. Always consider what something means to you personally when reading dream messages, since each symbol has a traditional meaning but also carries personal associations that may matter even more. Write the dream down as soon as you wake, before it fades, and include how it felt as well as what you saw. A dream that repeats deserves to be taken seriously. Many witches ask for a dream before sleep, and some drink mugwort tea or keep a sachet of mugwort and other herbs under the pillow to bring the dreams on. Dream work as a practice, keeping and steering dreams, belongs to Energy Work.

Magical timing in witchcraft and paganism is choosing the right moment for a spell, a ritual, or a reading by lining it up with the cycles of the moon, the sun, and the planets. The moon's phase, the day of the week, the planetary hour, the time of day, and the turn of the season each carry their own energy, and matching your practices to the moment is the oldest way of giving them an extra push. Anything that matters to you can be timed this way, from a spell to a wedding, and it is the calendar behind every other practice in the craft.

Planetary days and hours are the oldest timing system in Western magic, and each day of the week belongs to one of the seven classical planets:

• Sunday: the sun
• Monday: the moon
• Tuesday: Mars
• Wednesday: Mercury
• Thursday: Jupiter
• Friday: Venus
• Saturday: Saturn

Each day, the ruling planet sets the kind of work that suits it, such as love on a Friday, money on a Thursday, or divination on a Wednesday. Each hour of the day has a ruling planet too, so a witch can choose the planet of the day, the planet of the hour, or both. Planetary hour calculators and apps show which planet rules the hour where you are.

Dawn, noon, dusk, and midnight each carry their own energy for spellwork:

• Dawn: for beginnings and cleansing
• Noon: for strength and success
• Dusk: for endings and letting go
• Midnight, the witching hour: for spirit work and anything done best in the dark

Many pagans and witches do important work at dawn or dusk and pair it with the moon's phase, but timing can also come down to the exact minute, since an electional chart is cast for a precise time and place. Some like to watch the clock for numbers that repeat, like 11:11, and take the moment as a sign.

In witchcraft and paganism, herbalists plant and harvest according to the moon's signs and phases. Crops that grow above ground are sown on the waxing moon and root crops on the waning moon, along with harvesting and weeding. Harvesting is done when a plant's vibrations and energies are at their peak, which depends on their profile and correspondences.

Moon-phase timing follows the moon through its cycle of twenty-nine and a half days. Think of it as breathing in and out. From the new moon to the full, the moon is breathing in, and many pagans and witches use those two weeks for setting intentions and starting what they want to grow. From the light of the full moon to the dark of the new one, the moon is breathing out, and those two weeks are used for releasing, cleansing, and banishing. The full moon itself is the peak of the cycle, when witches and pagans gather for ritual, charge their tools, and do a full-moon reading.

As the moon moves through every sign in its month-long cycle, it makes contact with the planets from different angles. When it has made its last contact in one sign and hasn't yet moved into the next, the moon is void of course, and the traditional rule is that nothing begun in that stretch comes to anything. Witches who time by the moon avoid starting spells, signing contracts, or launching anything during a void, and use the hours for rest, cleansing, or routine work instead. The voids fall every two or three days and can last from a few minutes to most of a day.

Sabbat timing is based on the sun's cycle of three hundred and sixty-five days. The eight sabbats of the Wheel of the Year fall at the turning points of each season. Many pagans and witches time their divination practices and readings to the sabbats:

• Samhain: the traditional night for divination of every kind, and for readings on the year ahead
• Yule: dream divination on the longest night, and readings for the year to come
• Imbolc: weather divination, and readings on new ideas and plans
• Ostara: egg divination, seed scrying, and dawn omens for the season ahead
• Beltane: love readings, flower divination, and fire scrying while the fae are near
• Litha: love divination, mirror scrying by candlelight, and readings at the peak of the light
• Lammas: weather and crop signs for the season ahead, and readings on what has come to fruit
• Mabon: apple divination, and readings on what to keep and what to let go

Spells and rituals are timed the same way, such as ancestor work at Samhain or love and fertility work at Beltane. Each season also carries one of the four elements, and a working that belongs to an element is often timed to its season.

No matter what divination method you choose, you'll learn more by practicing it than you will by reading about it or watching someone else do it. Pick up a divination tool, whether it's a deck of cards or a set of dice, and get to know it. Eat, sleep, and breathe it until you feel comfortable with the tool, and through listening to your intuition, you'll discover a divination system that works for you.

Most people do not choose a divination method so much as one finds them. A friend gives you a tarot deck, you're walking a Norse path and the runes are calling you, or a pendulum from a magic shop caught your eye. The method that fascinates you is the one to practice, because you're more likely to stick with it long enough to master it. If no divination method is calling you, consider choosing by your tradition. Although anyone can use these divination methods, if your pagan path is Celtic, consider the ogham. If you're a Heathen, try rune stones. You can even make your own symbols and language that speak to your heart and spirit.

Becoming more intuitive for divination is a habit and a practice, not a gift. The more you listen to your inner voice, the clearer and more confident it becomes. If you're working with tarot, pull one card a day and say what it means before you open the book, notice the symbols on the card, and write down any messages you get.

Take time to come back later and read what you wrote, whether it's later that day or a month down the road. Listen to the answer that lies deep in your heart and soul. Your inner voice may be quiet at first, but if you are reflective, you will hear it louder and clearer as time goes on. Meditation and grounding practices can also help you become more intuitive.

To combine divination methods, learn each tool on its own first, then layer them rather than repeat them. A spread gives the shape of a situation, a pendulum confirms a single point, a rune names the action, and where two readings overlap is where the answer sits. Ask a question once; three readings on the same question is shopping for the answer you wanted, and every tool will tell you so.

Using divination in your practice comes down to four steps:

• Quiet the mind.
• Choose the tool.
• Ask one clear question.
• Read what comes without arguing with it.

Many witches also read at the turning points of the year. The solstices and equinoxes are powerful times for it, when the balance of light and dark shifts, and a short reading at any sabbat or full moon can show what is ending, what is beginning, and what to carry into the next turn. If you keep a book of shadows, consider keeping your readings in it beside the spells and rituals they belong to; over a year, the record can show patterns that no single reading could.

Divination can be used in spellwork before the spell, during it, or after it. Before a spell, a reading can help you choose the kind of working and see the likely outcome. A simple three-card spread will do:

• The first card: the working that fits
• The second card: what stands in the way
• The third card: what comes of it

During a spell, a card can be the spell's focus. Choose one that symbolizes what you're hoping for, such as the Ten of Cups for a happy home or the Ace of Pentacles for a new start with money, and set it on the altar while you cast. After a spell, a reading can tell you whether it worked. About a week later, try pulling a card for the same situation and see what has shifted. If the same card that sent you to the spell comes back, the spell may not be finished.

Explore Witchcraft and Pagan Practices

• Spellwork, the spells, castings, and rituals that can be paired with divination practices
• Herbal Witchcraft, the herbs and correspondences that can support divination, from mugwort to the moon-planted garden
• Energy Work, the grounding, centering, and dream work that can go with any reading
• Spirit Work, the ancestors and spirits that many readings are addressed to
• Animals in Witchcraft, the animal omens, familiars, and folklore that divination can draw on
• Kitchen Witchcraft, the home practices where tea leaves and egg divination belong
• The Four Elements, the fire, water, and air that scrying and elemental timing can draw on
• Wheel of the Year, the eight sabbats that divination practices can be timed to

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