Divination Styles: Crystal Ball Reading

Howdy Folks,

**(Oct. 14th 2018)

This is the companion article to the talk that I gave at our Halloween Psychic fair this past Saturday, as promised 😀

My editor (Dennis McCullough) hasn’t had a chance to have a look at it yet, so I apologize for any poor grammar in advance lols.**

Divination styles: Crystal Ball reading

I have had quite a few questions about the multitude of different divination devices and practices,

so this will be the first in a series of Articles devoted to Divination tools & Practices.

I will be doing a more comprehensive article on the topic in a few months,

but for now, let’s get started….Crystal Balls!!!!!!

I think almost everyone is familiar with the Crystal ball.

Crystal balls are one of the TOP images that people connect with the psychic field in popular culture,

and there are also a lot of misconceptions about this reading practice due to a misinterpretation of the reading practice.

Crystal ball reading is, in actuality,

Scrying ( trancing out and allowing your mind to relax enough to pick up on Clairvoyant images),

and it is only one tool of many that can be used.

*For example,

You can use a bowl of water, a mirror, fire, etc…..heck you could use the back of a coffee spoon.

Any surface (though traditionally it should be reflective) that allows you to “trance out” (go into a self-induced semi-hypnotic state) while looking into it can be used to Scry.

*Quick note:

Many people use black mirrors

(Mirror scrying actually evolved from water scrying, the mirror was felt to be a point of fixed water, so many astrology jokes so little time lols), black bowls for water scrying, black obsidian spheres or Obsidian mirrors for their scrying.

Some Scryers feel that the dark color leads to quicker mental relaxation and therefore easier transition from regular consciousness into the trance state.

I personally prefer the lights off (except for a few candles acting as an anchor to keep me focused) when I’m using the scrying technique no matter the tool that I’m using.

Again, as always, the gift Lay with the person scrying- not the tool used.

A little History of Crystal Balls:

The technical term for a Crystal ball is an Orbuculum.

And the technical term for using a Crystal ball to scry with is called Crystallomancy…fun hunh!?!?!

Say those 3 times fast lols

The practice of Crystallomancy is purported to have begun with the Druids,

who used Beryl Balls to foretell events with.

By the 5th century AD, Scrying was ridiculously widespread throughout the Roman empire, but once the Medieval Christian church rose to power Scrying was deemed Heretical.

And so the practices faded into the shadows in most European circles, until the Victorian era.

In the Victorian era, The Crystal ball shot to popularity again, and it was a very popular pastime to read with an orbuculum. Almost like Tarot cards in this era.

They felt that they needed the sun in its northernmost position to get the best results from their readings.

An Important figure in the resurgence of the esoteric in mainstream culture was Dr. John Dee.

Now,

The good doctor’s reputation is a little nutty in my opinion….but what Dr. Dee brought back into view was an amazing gift that helped to herd mainstream society back towards the esoteric.

Dr. John Dee was a noted British mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and consultant to Queen Elizabeth I.

He devoted much of his life to alchemy, divination, and Hermetic philosophy, of which the use of crystal balls was quite often included.

*Hermetic Philosophy:

Hermeticism, also called Hermetism, is a religious, philosophical, and esoteric tradition (a triple threat if you will) mostly based on the writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus.

The tradition claims to have evolved from a prisca theologia, a doctrine that affirms the existence of one single, true theology that is present in all religions and that was given by God to man in antiquity

(wtf does that mean, right?

Classical antiquity -also the classical era, classical period or classical age- is the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th or 6th century AD centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece & ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world.

That’s what that means)

Many great writers consider him a wise pagan prophet who foresaw the coming of Christianity among other major societal shifts.

So now you know a little bit about how the Crystal ball came to be and a bit about how to use one.

But as always,

Don’t just take my word for it, get out there and research it!!!!!

~Alicia Anspaugh-Mccullough, DMNAS

Link to Crystal ball reading demonstration video:

https://www.facebook.com/desmoinesnewageshop/videos/698877270494952/