Patterns, Puzzles, & Divination

I like to find patterns in things. From random faces picked out on linoleum floors, to repeating brick patterns on buildings. I always thought this was something other people do as well. Maybe they do. Maybe they don't. But it hit me yesterday, that's one of the reasons I love tarot and oracle cards. Well divination in any form really.

Tarot. Oracle decks. Lenormand. Scrying. Whatever it is, I look for the pattern. What does the pattern say to me? If it's a 3 of swords, it could be heartbreak, or paranoia, or martyrdom, or something completely different depending on the cards around it. If it's a picture of a hummingbird, that means speed, agility, flight, smallness, whatever. The pattern is always changing.

Especially when you scry. I've scried?, scryed? using water, smoke, candle wax, tea leaves, for me I term anything that you have to deduce the image from something else as scrying. Heck, if you think about it, my faces from the linoleum floor and wallpaper was a form of scrying. But the point is in the pattern. One day looks like a face, the next day looks like a tree, or a robot. Hmm, note to self, I should think about scrying with clouds. That would be fun on a nice cloudy day.

I also like to solve puzzles. There's a pattern to puzzles. They are logical. Everything fits into place. That's not to say that I am a perfectionist and have to have everything just so. Life is a puzzle, made up of patterns. But it's a giant mess most of the time. Stress. Excitement. Frustration. Anticipation.

Divination can be boiled down to finding patterns in the mess to solve a puzzle. So you start with the overarching puzzle picture. This is what I want clarification on. And you pull cards, read runes, gaze into the smoke/mirror. And then pull out the larger patterns to try to plug into that puzzle framework.

It puts some sort of sense to the world. Or tries to at least. There are times when your cheeky bastard of a deck is like:

Cheeky Deck: You need to think about this more.
Me: Uhhh, duh, that's why I'm asking.
CD: Well you need to have balance in your life.
Me: Okay. How do I do that.
CD: By adding Balance.
Me: I get that. What should I do to add balance?
CD: Add balance.
Me:
Me: Fucking deck.

Though honestly, I tend to only get that when I read for myself. Which is probably because I can't separate myself from the situation. So I typically prefer to read for others. It's a way to help them find something that might help them move forward. If nothing else, divination readings help people find the missing pieces to something in their life. If it didn't, they wouldn't continue to get readings. And that's not to say that Divination will tell you everything. It doesn't, won't, and can't do that.

Maybe it makes sense to think of it like, having new batteries in your flashlight. They are just a bit brighter, to allow you to see a bit better.

Anyway, that was a lot to explain my "AHA" moment of THIS is why I like divination. Isn't it weird how one of those moments where things just finally click in your head, but it takes 500 words or so to explain the entire thing?!?

That's another post, for another day.