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callistolivia · 3 years

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Is there any divinatory Practice / spiritual communication that originated in Western Europe? I've heard runes Are historically originat from Roman occupation. And the use of runes Have no historical basis as a tool of divination. Don't want to steal anybody's culture but need a way to do Deviation / spiritual work with out cultural appropriation. Any ideas would be helpful and I would prefer something old as apposed to just make your own with no roots to anything.

I'm assuming this is in response to the article I shared on tarot, so here's a couple things I want to clear up,

the point of that article wasn't to say "no, you can't use tarot" nor was it a clear "yes"; the main point of the article was acknowledging that profiting off tarot, particularly when you're someone who picked it up because you thought it was cool or trendy to do so, may be unethical as it takes away from/harms a particular group of that ethnicity who has cultural ties to the practice. I also wanted to address, I think in general, that there are a lot of spiritual practices adopted by people not of that culture who put in minimal effort to really understand its background and the ancestral ties to them. I personally believe there is no place for ignorance when learning spirituality (or I should say particular practices and ancient teachings), you have to be open and welcoming to the full history to actually have a good grasp on a particular practice. Cultural appropriation isn't necessarily about "stealing" culture, as we as humans have been borrowing each other's culture since the beginning of time. It isn't cultural appropriation to eat sushi in America just because sushi is Japanese cuisine. Cultural appropriation is when people outside that culture decide when something is suddenly appropriate to be practiced meanwhile all the time leading up to that point or even thereafter, the people of that particular culture are being harmed for practicing THEIR culture. So that's the essential pain that comes from the women discussing tarot in that article, and honestly I hate bringing this up again because a lot of people got really pissed at me for sharing that article claiming I said a bunch of stuff I didn't say, but there is a reason why there's such mixed opinions coming from that community. There's a reason why huge portions of that community have completely rejected or disassociated themselves from tarot and its past and it's because of the way people outside their culture, particularly white people, harmed them and continue to harm them for practicing it (among other cultural practices, of course). It's so easy for us 21st century westernized people to look at tarot, for example, and just see it as a game. We are very comfortable in our freedom, and that's great, but remembering what got us to that point is also very important. You can use this entire framework with any spiritual practice you may delve into; just understanding its history and listening to people who have incorporated it into their culture for generations. So if you were a tarot user, read that article, and thought it was the authority to tell you to stop, it wasn't. You should continue to do spiritual practices that make you feel empowered and connected. However, if you feel absolutely compelled to stop for your own personal moral and ethical reasons, that's perfectly fine too. There's no shame at all in extending deep respect to people who you don't know personally.

If you want something really ancient and you happen to have the privilege of looking into your family tree, there were (and still are) several indigenous groups all over western Europe. You may have ancestral links to one of these groups and you can research into their cultural and spiritual practices. This may be somewhat difficult to uncover and link to yourself though, as these groups were targeted, pushed out of their land, or forcibly converted to Christianity. Runes were used long before Romans invaded Northern Europe by different tribes (though the runes we know quite well today are an evolution of those roots) so I wouldn't write off rune work. And I know you don't view runes as a form of divination, but the point of divination is to gain a deeper understanding of something (e.i you, God, the world) and one of the many ways some of these Northern and Western European groups would feel connected spiritually was through rune work (particularly carving runes into divination tools, bones, etc.) I don't specialize in runes, but I definitely recommend looking into books or people who teach rune magic (if it interests you, of course) because Wikipedia isn't going to give you good grasp on the history or proper use. Anything esoteric requires digging.

-Many cultures around the world, including parts of Western Europe, believe in fae and many people presently incorporate this belief as a part of divination (as it counts as calling upon some other being to give you knowledge, technically). You could look into fae magick.

-The Oracle of Delphi; the Pythia; priestesses of ancient Greece who would essentially get high off of volcanic fumes and do trance work. I'm not condoning drugs or altered mind states at all, but this is one example of many where cultures will use something to put themselves into an altered state to perceive the world differently. You definitely don't need drugs to do this either, breath work can put you into altered states too.

-I don't know much about this one either, but weather watching is also considered a form of divination.

-I know you want ancient over new, and technically this is ancient, but dream work/shifting. Like literally there's an entire community on Tik Tok doing that shit and probably don't realize the spiritual element to being in control of your dreams. To add onto this as well, you can develop your own symbol system (and this is what a lot of psychics do to sharpen their understanding of psychic visions). Symbol systems are literally anything from numbers to words to symbols to objects, literally anything, that represent something specific to you so that when they appear to you, you know what they symbolize. To give an example, a lot of psychics will incorporate numbers having specific meanings in their symbol systems. A number can represent a binary answer, a birth date, a month, heck even a zodiac sign. A symbol system enhances your understanding of information being presented to you; in a lot of ways its similar to tarot or astrology, but it's a system created in your mind.

-Not specifically western European, but Psalm and Angel magick/divination is considered an open practice. I recommend Ariel Gatoga on youtube for more information on this.

Finally once again, I know you prefer something ancient or old over new and created, but don't underestimate your abilities to be connected spiritually without well known tools. That umbilical cord is so strong in us as children, before even understanding or really knowing about divination tools; we let the wind hold our hand, stare deeply into the flame of candles, collect things outside and make pretend potions and spells, believe every creak in our houses are a spirit, pick petals off a flower for a "they love me, they love me not," and make wishes on shooting stars. Divination is innate; our urge to understand beyond. You don't necessarily need ancient tools, though the tools make us feel connected to everyone who gathered knowledge before us.

I hope this was helpful in anyway!

#ask #divination

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