I built my own witchcraft practice from the following: hedge riding, working with magic (mostly herbal and with items from nature), nature worship, communicating with spirit, and not least, divination. Although not necessary to be a hedge witch, or indeed any type of witch, nevertheless, learning a divination skill is helpful to hedge-riding hedge witches. So what is the importance of divination in hedge riding? Divination helps you engage your psychic senses and enhance your intuition, making it easier to interpret the signs and symbols you see on your ridings to the Otherworld.
In our ordinary lives, we are constantly decoding signs and symbols. We see a logo and know that the product belongs to a company whose products we use, and even see many that we don’t use. We read road-signs, notice logos (for instance a pink ribbon supporting breast cancer awareness or the red poppy on Remembrance Day). Still each symbol, no matter how common and familiar may have a different meaning for each of us. For instance, an entry system might look simple, red for stop or do not enter, and green for go and enter. However, if one day that sign was faulty and showed green even when there was a risk of something and you passed through, whenever you saw that same sign again, you might not take it for granted in the same way as before as red now means stop and green means to be cautious when entering rather than go right in. You see it differently than say a colleague. The signs are not so straightforward.
On a deeper level of decoding signs, we might watch a film that has an underlying message that eventually becomes apparent to us. We might notice or study symbols in a particular poem. The poem may well have a deeper and different meaning for each person that reads it but may also have, in common with others, universal meanings of more common symbols, for instance, a red rose.
In art and literature, we go deeper into the unconscious than we do with the common symbols of everyday life. In divination, we go deeper still.
Interconnection
All things interconnect. Through the magical symbolic language of a divination method, we communicate with spirit, a divine power. We make connections between the microcosm and macrocosm and the conscious and the unconscious mind. We look at the symbols and open our minds to the macrocosm, the omnipresent energies, which reveal past, present, and future events. The symbols shown on runes and tarot and other forms of divination have a surface, archetypal, meaning, but on further study have deeper meanings, variable meanings, intuitive meanings, and spiritual meanings, which are revealed to us during each individual reading. We read clues, interpret what we see, and untangle the web of causes and effect. In doing this we don’t just see what is on the surface (the outside event), we see what is hidden (the inner event). The future is not fixed, and by revealing the hidden, we can adjust patterns in the web of our lives to change direction or lessen the impact of forthcoming events.
Which Method of Divination?
For a witch, more than one method of divination is preferable to aid you in hedge ridings. Each method will have its limitations. Which methods we choose will always be down to personal preference. We often have a favourite that we will use more than the others, usually the one we connect with the most. In the main, I use three methods. First are the Runes – the Elder Futhark – which are my own personal favourite. The numinous runic symbols speak to me on a personal level (I call on the Norse female deities, the Norns: the maiden giantesses who control fate – Urd, Vendandi, and Skuld – before I cast). I also use runes in magic. Second for me is Tarot, which gives an in-depth insight into a problem from the obvious to the hidden and I’m always amazed by what the cards reveal. They can really expand your consciousness by delving into the unconscious. Third is Scrying. I feel this method brings my intuition and analytical skills into play and I love analysing the symbols shown to me personally. Other methods I’ll use randomly are Ogham, lithomancy, tasseomancy, herbal divination, any other card oracle, the hag stones, and even playing cards.
Divination in Hedge Riding
How does divination help with hedge riding? Divination increases psychic skills. During hedge ridings in the Otherworld, a higher magical and spiritual power shows us symbols and signs that may connect with magic we are working on; or expand our general, magical, or spiritual knowledge; or purely help with a personal or someone else’s personal problem. Those signs and symbols can be visual, or in a thought or an action, in the spoken or written word, or through divination within the actual hedge riding (scrying as an example, perhaps by looking at reflections in a pool). Some symbols and signs that are shown to us, as I mention above, are more obvious (archetypal) and we know instantly what they mean, and some are more obscure (as in a poem or a work of art) and need us to analyse them further, to delve deeper into our psyches.
Using divination enhances our analytical skills, sharpens our intuition, and helps us interpret those signs and symbols we see, hear, and feel, tapping into the unconscious mind, deepening our psychic powers, and connecting us with the spiritual. On ridings we draw upon those skills to help us further understand our Otherworld experiences.
This blog entry will be expanded on further in my book Pagan Portals: The Hedge-Riding Hedge Witch, currently in progress. For more information on the Elder Futhark Runes please refer to my book The Spiritual Runes.
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