A Beginner's Guide to Divination Witchcraft
Last Updated: July 25, 2023
What is divination witchcraft? What even is divination? Divination is an element of modern witchcraft that as a practice has been around for millenia. It can be practised by anyone, regardless of their religious affiliation (or lack thereof). If you have a preference for fire elements, or for water, whether you have clair abilities or you are completely secular and want to just be introspective, everyone can practice divination and likely has done at some point in their life.
Whether you used to read your horoscope growing up, pulled flower petals off recounting a love rhyme, or even had a weird dream and looked up it’s meaning… these are all examples of divination. In this blog post, we will explore what divination witchcraft is in more depth, how it’s different from other forms of witchcraft, and maybe even how to become a divination witch yourself.
What Does Divination Witch Mean?
As we’ve likely covered before, witches are the energy manipulators with respect for the natural environment, working with the unseen for tangible and ineffable results, and divination is a form of witchcraft. A divination witch is one who practices various forms of divination including reading tarot cards, reading runes, reading tea leaves, and who incorporates divination as a key element or just specifically centres their craft around divination as a practice.
This is the witch who you usually ask what is happening with the planets, as they’re up to date on their astrology. This is the witch you go to for guidance from the cards. This is the witch that when she says “don’t go out to this restaurant”, you take note and go somewhere else. Divination is it’s own umbrella of excellent curiosities to share, explore, and discover. Divination witches do not look a certain way, they can be solitary or in a coven, they do not have either introverted or extraverted personalities, and they don’t have specific levels of formal education – but they do intuitively listen, and they do have a lot of respect for the ways of the universe even if they don’t completely understand what they are interpreting in the moment, but just trust it.
As a witch, who also identifies as the eternal student, you’ll find that divination in your practice can help you uncover so many pieces of the puzzle that we call life.
What Does Divination Magick Do?
There is so much that it covers, it might even be easier to list what it doesn’t do.
A good example would be when you’re researching your ancestral history, you may find cultural roots of divination that can connect you to your ancestors through practices they used to engage in too, such as bone casting or rainmaking. Divination is an excellent tool for piecing together the past, present, and future of a situation or person. It can help you to make decisions, gain clarity and insight into a situation, and even help you to uncover alternative paths or solutions. It can also provide guidance on how to handle the situations that you are presented with.
Divination witchcraft is also a powerful source of inspiration and creativity, so if you feel stuck on a project or have writer’s block for example, pulling a card can help you to look at the situation from another perspective and see things that you might not have noticed before.
Divination magick can also be used to uncover and heal any trauma or wounds that you may not even be aware of, allowing you to move through any feelings of fear or anxiety that might be holding you back.
Don’t be afraid to use tools to build on your intuitive skills. Divination witchcraft is built on the idea that intuition is a skill, and it can be honed and sharpened with practice. There are plenty of tools that you can use to help you practice and build your intuition, such as tarot cards, runes, astrology, oracle cards, numerology, pendulums, herbs, moonwater, meteor showers and even scrying. It’s important to pick the tool that resonates with you, as it will help you to feel more connected and empowered when you already embrace and have preference towards your specific method.
For myself, I enjoy fire elements (lol Aries much) as well as I love astrology. Finding tarot decks with the astrology elements, using candles that have fantastic wicks for flame scrying, watching incense post-ritual to decipher timings or if my magick is working how I want it to (like a post-game debrief!!!). These are all the types of ways I listen to what the hell I genuinely enjoy, and how it makes it that much easier to deep dive into something I might like too, without wasting money or energy or time.
What Is Divination In Spirituality, Really?
Whether we are talking to angels, spirits or ancestors… whether we are taking time for self-reflection… whether we are pursuing shadow work or healing in our lives… divination provides a support across any spiritual path or religion. It is a method/tool/process that can be used to gain knowledge about the energies around us or situations we may find ourselves in, and it works on an intuitive level (or by utilising clair abilities if we have them) by providing insight into our current situations, and by using meditation to help us to uncover truths that we may not have been aware of. Divination is a powerful magick for helping us live our lives with clarity, with insight, and with support.
What Do People Get Out Of Divination?
I like to think that divination is life-changing, but maybe I’m biased. As most of my friends can confirm, I’m super cynical and sceptical on a level unseen – so it’s weird that I’m a secular divination witch then, right? So what if I tell you that horoscopes are generalised rubbish and pseudo-psychology, but a birth natal chart is the most accurate story you’ll ever know about yourself that’s completely unavailable to any other person? What if I tell you that the original Rider Waite Smith tarot deck is problematic and difficult to read, but the Rider Waite Smith tarot system is perfect for learning divination with a structure that has generally perfect truths and shockingly genuine results? What if I show you that Elder Futhark runes for “cattle” don’t really apply to the modern city witch, but that Elder Futhark runes as a whole are incredibly reliable and accurate for anyone who is willing to learn? I’d even advise creating your own set of Witch’s runes that hold key symbolism for you.
What people genuinely get out of divination is the spirituality, synchronicity and connection to something greater than themselves. It’s a bridge between you and the unseen world. What people get out of divination is an experience that is really hard to explain, and a result that’s so much greater than the sum of its parts.
If I Work With Spirits And Ancestors, Am I A Divination Witch Or A Hedge Witch?
There is a lot of hedgewitchery that takes from divination, and vice versa. The two go hand in hand, but they are not the same thing. Hedge witches generally work with spirits and ancestors to heal, protect, and guide. Divination witches use ritual to divine the energies around them and uncover knowledge that may be hidden or obscured, from whatever source you tap into, including spirits and ancestry. You can be both a hedge witch and a divination witch, just as you can be both an agnostic witch and a secular one. It’s all about finding the practices that resonate with you and make the most sense for your experience.
And also, it’s not up to somebody else to tell you what your path is or what your practise should look like. This is personal to you, and if you want to be both – you can be both! 🙂
Am I A Witch If I Practice Divination?
Yes, so let me explain! If you practice witchcraft, you’re a witch even when you don’t try divination, and even if you don’t cast spells on the daily. All witches follow different paths, and it may not always involve divination, but if you don’t identify as a witch normally – just a practitioner of divination, or a diviner, then you’re still in the realms of witchcraft. This is because divination is an act of magick and witchcraft, that has been used and respected by many cultures and religions for centuries to millenia (I write about this history of divination in my upcoming book “An A to Z of Modern Divination”). Whether it’s for empowerment and self-care, or whether it’s to connect with something more in the universe or deities or spirits – it’s still magick and witchcraft on a level of intervening and working with unseen energies of this universe.
So yes, if you practice divination, then you’re a practicing witch. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Modern Divination Witchcraft Practices; What Do They Look Like?
Divination is so bloody nuanced that you couldn’t possibly define it as one specific thing, because divination methods are so varied that you only have to take a quick look at the different divination methods listed on this website to see how varied they really are. If you’ve never tried divination witchcraft from a secular perspective before, if you’re hoping to involve more divination in your life, I hope these ideas can get you inspired;
- Tarot for daily reflection, journalling and introspection.
- Kitchen divination like tasseomancy and ground coffee readings, as well as teabags as pendulums and kitchen knifes as athames.
- Wheel of the Year celebrations with themed tarot decks, astrology, and rituals involving candles, bonfires and snow.
- Bibliomancy readings for when you want to connect with your religion and receive insights from above.
- Astrology readings for business insight, structure and creative inspiration when we are stuck on projects or in life.
- Oracle readings for career guidance, for the days we rage at poor management and need soothing, or for the days when we are on empty and just need a little bit more love than we’ve been receiving.
- Oneiromancy for dream decoding and listening to subconscious messages you are sending yourself in your sleep.
- Shadow work for mental well-being, and a witchcraft structure for those with neurodivergence.
- Ritual baths become opportunities for scrying whilst relaxing in the tub.
- Using runes and pendulums to ask for guidance from our higher selves, with our most loving ancestors or from deities we may not be familiar with yet.
- Lithomancy for protection in those moments you intuitively reach for your obsidian, lunar scrying for emotional healing when you’re struggling and feel a pull towards angelite, and bring in crystals to tarot spreads to provide additional clarity in a reading like with selenite.
- Floromancy for receiving guidance whilst we are gardening, or tending to our kitchen herbs and home plants.
- Pyromancy candle flame scrying when we set alight our intention candles and during our manifestation work, to see how the process works for us.
- Ultimately, being or becoming a walking-talking dream dictionary for our friends, knowing symbolism like we know the alphabet and sharing profound insights when asked, contributing to connection and clarity amongst those we love and care for.
If you have any questions or amendments for this post, please do not hesitate to reach out – I would love to chat! Until next time xox
I love curating divination experiences for those invested in spiritual growth with secular honest vibes. I am that witch you come to for these genuine, interesting and beneficial divination experiences! You can always book a session with me directly to discover yourself 🙂
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