Seashell divination?

[RosieMoonflower]

Does anyone here work with seashells? Or feathers?

[Anne Boleyn]

I do seashells.

[RosieMoonflower]

Oh thank you for responding Ann! I was wondering if you could answer a few questions. I collected a few seashells from the Gulf of Mexico recently. I have identified most of them. However, A few Have kept me guessing or I have not identified some of the things that have happened to the shells.

First this lightning whelk is covered in some hard form. I'm sure it was some sort of predator to the snail living in it, but I was wondering if you knew what it was.



I also have this and I'm not sure what it is. My best uneducated guess is a some sort of whelk. But what is happened to it? It's so smooth, it has no ridges a several tiny hole. Could this be the work of cliona?


I also found this oyster drill that has many holes in it, but they are large and organic, or not perfect. How can I tell the difference between holes made by predators and holes made by erosion in the sand. Seashells, if left alone, eventually erode, correct?



A few other quick questions. Do you think using a shell that shows signs of a predator attack or change to it's shell is not good or will cause problems, or is it all just a part of the circle of life and doesn't make a difference?

What do you think about using shells at talisman and totems?

Also, I'm curious about any experiences or knowledge you can share with me about feathers.

Thanks for any info you can provide!

Rosie <3

[RosieMoonflower]

Btw, I have an obsession with Mary and Ann Boleyn, as well as Elizabeth Tudor. I'm not English so I never really knew much of the situation but I ended up with a copy of "The other Boleyn girl", much better than the movie, and from then on I jumped on the English royalty American fan club.

[Anne Boleyn]

Oh thank you for responding Ann! I was wondering if you could answer a few questions. I collected a few seashells from the Gulf of Mexico recently. I have identified most of them. However, A few Have kept me guessing or I have not identified some of the things that have happened to the shells.

Shoot, I thought you were going to ask more "how to" questions as I frely admit I stink at identifying shells. Being up up north and mainly dealing with east coast shells, I double stink at answering your questions.

I can, however, try and ask the lady who taught me to read and see what she says, if I have your permission to forward your post and pictures? It may take a bit, but I bet she will reply.

A few other quick questions. Do you think using a shell that shows signs of a predator attack or change to it's shell is not good or will cause problems, or is it all just a part of the circle of life and doesn't make a difference?

Just like humans, with the occupants of shells, they aren't defined by how they die. It's a moment in time, the final paragraph to a whole book. While there is, like with people, the smallest chance that death can translate into spiritual unrest that remains with what was the creatures, I firmly believe that 99% of the time it just doesn't matter and that 1% of time it does, you'll notice it quick enough and can accommodate the change in energies it causes. Besides, even if it resulted in death, the battle that may have been put up could have fierce.

Think of it like Anne Boleyn... Sure, she died, but what a force of nature she was. Anybody who writes her off simply because of how she died is missing a lot, aren't they?

What do you think about using shells at talisman and totems?

I think it's brilliant. I use them for all of that (though not so much totems... I'm not a totem person), plus as offerings to water elementals, spell tools, divination, and more I can't even think of.

Also, I'm curious about any experiences or knowledge you can share with me about feathers.

Not all that much I'm afraid. I'm really attuned to water, so my fluency in anything other than the basics is pretty low as far as the air elementals. Really, it's the elemental I'm least attuned to.

All I know is the basics... White feathers are luck, the compass point the bottom is pointing at is a form of divination, finding a buried feather means you'll hear a rumor or secret, one found standing up means death, yellow feathers are good luck, black feathers are danger, brown means travel or company is coming, and a whole bunch of feathers in a pile means somebody's cat caught a bird. Um... Other than that... Oh, dead sparrows and/or swallows are really, really bad luck. That about taps me out.

And I'm a big fan of the era too. If you haven't checked out "The Tudors," give it a shot. It is soap opera meets history, but lots of fun. Very NC-17 fun, but fun still. Same with "The White Queen." I have a thousand great Anne Boleyn books... "The Lady In The Tower" is awesome.

[RosieMoonflower]

Thanks for the quick response! I also feel least attuned to the air element. I'm most connected to earth and water, which is why I'm drawn to stones and seashells. But, that's when I asked myself, what are air and fire element people drawn to? And I came up with feathers on my own, and with my native America ancestry, I thought, maybe this is a way to get connected to air.

Please feel free to forward my questions on to others who may know the answers, I would greatly appreciate it! I have searched online for hours with no luck. Not a lot out there crossing shells with divination.. I did find this page useful though: https://laetitialathamjones.wordpress.c ... ea-shells/

I currently have about 25 shells and I plan to use many of them as talismans. I have already given one to my good friend, a pieces who I thought could connect with it. And, I was planning to use the large oyster drill shell as a talisman for my brother, a cancer, who needs positive change in his life right now. The rest I figured some I would give away and some I would keep. I will visit the ocean again and collect more. One day I will have a collection of shells that I kept for myself and I would like to use those for divination.

Sooo... No rush, but how about that "how to" you mentioned? Once been googling and such but would love to hear from someone who practices. I am versed in tarot cards so I'm good at using my intuition. In fact I already felt that the shells who had been attacked where fine to use, but I asked just to double check myself.

Thanks again for responding!

I have seen the Tudors on Netflix and have been meaning to sit down and check it out! I did however sit down and watch "The Monarchy" which walks you through just about everyone from Alfred the great to Queen E. II. Mega interesting!

.

[Anne Boleyn]

Thanks for the quick response! I also feel least attuned to the air element. I'm most connected to earth and water, which is why I'm drawn to stones and seashells. But, that's when I asked myself, what are air and fire element people drawn to? And I came up with feathers on my own, and with my native America ancestry, I thought, maybe this is a way to get connected to air.

I agree, that is a great idea!

Please feel free to forward my questions on to others who may know the answers, I would greatly appreciate it! I have searched online for hours with no luck. Not a lot out there crossing shells with divination.. I did find this page useful though: https://laetitialathamjones.wordpress.c ... ea-shells/

Ooooh... I like that resource!

I currently have about 25 shells and I plan to use many of them as talismans. I have already given one to my good friend, a pieces who I thought could connect with it. And, I was planning to use the large oyster drill shell as a talisman for my brother, a cancer, who needs positive change in his life right now. The rest I figured some I would give away and some I would keep. I will visit the ocean again and collect more. One day I will have a collection of shells that I kept for myself and I would like to use those for divination.

Collecting the shells is the hard part. Living up north, we don't have the assortment of shells easily available that you'd have in the Gulf, so I'm really jealous. I tried to buy a lot of shells to make up my collection, but for some reason it was hard for me to work up a connection to the shells I bought. I never thought it'd be an issue since I buy stones without a problem, but for some reason I just had such a hard time buying them. Maybe it's because the only shell stores I've been to were... Uh... Less than great with lots of bad energy. One of them has a dehydrated octopus on display and it just skidges me out.

Sooo... No rush, but how about that "how to" you mentioned? Once been googling and such but would love to hear from someone who practices. I am versed in tarot cards so I'm good at using my intuition. In fact I already felt that the shells who had been attacked where fine to use, but I asked just to double check myself.

There area few ways to do it... One of them is by really researching out the shell and how it was in nature. As in barnacles are strong, hard to break, so in divination they'd be strength and resilience. A mussel would be abundance, negative or positive, or the sign of something coming with great force. Periwinkles are unseen factors that work to make changes slowly. Etc etc. If you're using smaller shells, non fragile ones, make a imaginary circle and define the center point on a bed or soft surface, then you'd scatter them and read. The shells closer to the center are in immediate play or influence, the ones further out are less so, and the ones out of the circle are of no influence. Some even go so far as to determine how they land (open side or creature-side up) to be a sign of overall positivity or negativity (open sides down). So like, using mussels again, if you had one land close to your center face up, then you could (depending on what's around it) read it as a strong showing or force of a positive element coming to you immediately. Whereas if it landed face down, there is something big coming that's not going to be so great...

Or, a more complete reading, say I dropped the mussel, the periwinkle, the barnacle and the mussel landed face up near the periwinkle which was face down kind of midway to the edge of the circle, and the barnacle was close to center. I'd read that to mean that you're going through a period that requires great strength, but that may transition when a great positive influence or energy is coming your way, and this change is not going to be small or subtle or behind-the-scenes, it's going to be an in-your-face, maybe even immediate event or force.

You can get crazier and use the seam or points of shells and what direction it's facing in the compass points to determine what kind of change it may be... Like if they're mostly facing east, a new beginning, anything from a new relationship, job, etc etc, but if they're facing mostly west, something is being taken away or leaving (in the case of the reading above with it being positive, we can assume that whatever is leaving is a negative force in the person's life, a job, a relationship, etc etc). You can notice color clumpings of the shells, like if there are a bunch of blue shells close together, or red shells mostly away from the center, that could mean peaceful changes more than change following destruction... You can even count the shells, how many are up, how many are down, if there are evens or odds, and all of that helps paint a picture... But that's, like, crazy advanced. A layer you add once you get comfortable with everything else, like with reading Tarot.

Alternatively, you can write on the shells... Personal inscriptions, Rune symbols, Tarot symbols, horoscope signs, even just numbers, and then use that to cast divination. You can use all the same shells, all the same shells but slightly different in color and shape, different shells... Whatever. Then read in a way similar to above.

Or, you can go even simpler than that, think of it as the one or three card draws on Tarot. Pick out a shell and lay it out, see what it means to you.

Reading with shells is really fun, and when you read for people I have found they love the "drama" of it, which is both good and bad I guess. Some people have this idea that when you read divination, it's all like you see on TV where somebody casts bones and somehow manages to make sense of it. For better or worse, that appeals to some people's sense of drama. Better because of the show it makes, worse because when you have a reading taken as "negative," some people take it very dramatically... Kind of like when you draw "Death" for somebody who doesn't know any better. As a reader, I love getting that card but I've had people come totally unhinged.

On a pure selfish level, I like reading shells for people because so few people do it so I don't have somebody correcting me on what I see and what I don't like I have with Tarot. I've done readings for people with Tarot and I've told them what I found, but I get the "doesn't the X card reversed mean A, B, C and not Y and Z like you said?" I get less exasperated.

I have seen the Tudors on Netflix and have been meaning to sit down and check it out! I did however sit down and watch "The Monarchy" which walks you through just about everyone from Alfred the great to Queen E. II. Mega interesting!.

I'm going to have to watch that... I've never gotten around to it and I have no good excuse. I always get sucked into the real-but-not-real shows that have a healthy mix of fantasy and reality, like "The Tudors," but when I read the books I have no patience for the fantasy like on "The Tudors," I'm all "just the facts, ma'am." LoL!

[kandi.potter]

I know this about shells
But I am new here how can I post pictures and such.

[RosieMoonflower]

Ann, thank you so much for you time and patience in typing out all of that! That was immensely helpful. I need to read it over and over again to process and reply a full response. However, I was showing my seashells to my friend tonight. She's from FL and loves seashells. I sat them all out and told her she could have one and she was delighted and picked one. So I was putting them all back into the jar, and I was thinking of your response, and of you. I was thinking of offering you one of my Cockles, since I read cockles were a sign of friendship. I wanted to say thank you for typing out all of that helpful information. And, even though I don't live on the gulf I travel there about once a year, so I do have an advantage of getting really pure shells. So I'm thinking all of this while slowly putting each shell in the jar one by one, wondering if you would like one since you don't connect with the store bought ones and BAM! This little cockle just shot our of my hand across the floor! It jumped! So I think this cockle would like to come and live with you. It's a really interesting one. I only have two like this. Mostly white and brown with dark blue (coal grey, maybe black? It looks different in different light) edges around the outside and inside.



Anyways, if you would like it, I would like to send it to you. You can PM me. If you don't wish to revive it, I completely understand! People from the internet sending you stuff is kinda odd.. But, I'm a totally normal person (besides all the divination, lol) and don't think the shell could have been clearer about wishing to be with you.

Also, kandi, about the photos. I have Tapatalk on my iPhone, and it's really easy to take pics with my phone and load them. However, it's not simple to make multiple quotes..

[Anne Boleyn]

Hey there! Thanks for your PM and sorry for abandoning you.

Thank you very much for your offer... I feel really drawn to that guy too!

Can I have a bit to focus on how I want to respond? I may ask if you can send it to me, or I may ask if you could use it as an offering on my behalf regarding the things we spoke about via PM. If I forget, just remind me.

[RosieMoonflower]

Hey there! Thanks for your PM and sorry for abandoning you.

Thank you very much for your offer... I feel really drawn to that guy too!

Can I have a bit to focus on how I want to respond? I may ask if you can send it to me, or I may ask if you could use it as an offering on my behalf regarding the things we spoke about via PM. If I forget, just remind me.

No apologies necessary, I was only afraid I had been too forward. Take all the time that you need, the shell will be here for you when you need it, however you need it.