Tools vs. No Tools

[creatrix]

Don't get me wrong, I love divination tools like tarot, but sometimes I think it is important to close your eyes and get messages without using any tools. What are your thoughts on this? Does anyone have any methods of further developing pure psychic ability?

[Xiao Rong]

Well, I don't know if I consider it "psychic ability" (still agnostic on that front), so much as just really getting good at listening to and trusting your intuition. Divination tools are great for triggering your intuition, making connections you never might have made before, and learning to think laterally (the "acrostic eye", as Starhawk puts it). I absolutely think you can develop that in the absence of traditional tools. I haven't personally thought much about closing my eyes and letting my mind get messages, but I suppose that could be done. Lately I've been discovering that most of the time when I get a flash of intuition in some situation (especially when my intuition concludes something that makes my brain go, "Whaaa??? How did you get that?!") that my intuition is usually right. But that happens when I'm going about on my day, not from meditation or deliberate attempts to access my intuition.

[WillowMoon]

I think tools are good for focus points as props to kickstart or trigger the information through, but really, they are but just that, for focusing. Any tool can be used but each and every tool is different and it will also teach you different ways of interpretation. From experience, I have used a fair number of tools, but at the moment I find myself leaning towards the more natural tools such as runes, stones, tea leaves (which are pretty easy to scry with), tree leaves, hedges sometimes see shapes in hedges or the formation of the leaves same as the way how you see shapes in clouds or fire or water, so yep, think its to everyone's cuppa tea or taste of tool which tools of the trade they use... or don't use. If in doubt, trust your first thoughts and set aside all second thoughts as that is doubt settling in.

Blessings

[Isis3Anubis]

Yes, I think you can develop your abilities naturally but even your mind is a tool. Meditation is a tool.
The more traditional tools of Runes or Tarot cards hold many profound secrets, as they have been used for centuries all over the world. They can impart wisdom you may never have encountered with simple meditation alone. It is the vast collective unconscious of archetypes held by sacred symbols and pictures that your mind alone may not have access too. I would not intentionally avoid using them because they are complex rather than more personally intuitional. You could pick up something just by holding a card or a rune, so I would at least think of trying to learn from them.

[Kat]

I don't have new age shops where I am so I make my own tools. I hear it's also great for infusing the tools with your energy. II don't know what u mean with closing your eyes; u mean meditation? I lye down at night and watch the moon or the formation of the clouds; that's not divination, is it?

[creatrix]

Yes, I think you can develop your abilities naturally but even your mind is a tool. Meditation is a tool.
The more traditional tools of Runes or Tarot cards hold many profound secrets, as they have been used for centuries all over the world. They can impart wisdom you may never have encountered with simple meditation alone. It is the vast collective unconscious of archetypes held by sacred symbols and pictures that your mind alone may not have access too. I would not intentionally avoid using them because they are complex rather than more personally intuitional. You could pick up something just by holding a card or a rune, so I would at least think of trying to learn from them.

I dig complex tools and use them a lot, especially tarot, but I like to get psychic info on top of what I see in the cards. Sometimes I get clairaudient, clairsentient, and clairvoyant messages but it doesn't happen with every querent. I would like to further develop these abilities so I can access them for each person I do a reading for.

[creatrix]

I don't have new age shops where I am so I make my own tools. I hear it's also great for infusing the tools with your energy. II don't know what u mean with closing your eyes; u mean meditation? I lye down at night and watch the moon or the formation of the clouds; that's not divination, is it?

Yes like closing your eyes and receiving messages from guides is what I mean. If you are seeing images in the clouds that could be divination, yes.

[Seraphin_npocampo]

If you are seeing images in the clouds that could be divination, yes.

Yes, it is called Austromancy.

I've done very, very little work or play with Tarot (I've done almost no reading on the subject; I like to look at the cards and see where the images take me), so my impressions are based on intuition rather than any knowledge of the cards' traditions.

Anyhow, I believe tarots and other divination tools such crystal balls and tea leaves have no power of their own. They are merely used by psychic readers as focus of their attention in order to reach the subconscious mind. They are stimulator of psychic vision or clairvoyance. Therefore for me, I think that it's not the object at all that's important, but the psychic's ability to focus his attention or go into his/her higher consciousness so he or she can tap the power of his own subconscious to see the things in this lifetime. Our subconscious mind keeps information about the past, present and future and is also in touch with the subconscious of other beings.

Not much of an answer there, I suppose . I'd be interested in hearing what some of our readers here have to say!

[Kat]

astomancy? lol I thought it was daydreaming. I ve been doing this before 15 yo and I bet everyone does. no tools needed. yes I agree tools are only to focus your own psychic abilites.

[Seraphin_npocampo]

Well I must be in touch with my inner child this morning: The sky is full of cotton ball clouds, and they all looked like toys to me -- sheep, a bear, winged horses, a turtle, Cookie Monster (from Sesame Street) , the sabre-tooth squirrel from the animated film Ice Age, and uhmmm... there were a few others, but I can't recall them now. Short, short little span of attention.

Beats the heck out of all the skeletal images I was seeing a few days ago (also in the clouds).

This time of year, cloud watching is always so interesting. Last night I went outside and saw a really well-defined bust of man in the clouds. It had hair, beard, nose, all properly proportioned. Looked like I was looking up at a giant head, looking down. Only lasted a couple of minutes, then disappeared.

Sky watching is one of my favorite pastimes these days.

[Holdasown]

I practiced remote viewing a bit. Where you have a number to focus on and it corresponds with a picture. It can be cool to do.