Water Gazing
The simplest of these is known as gazing or scrying, in which water is used to create symbols of the future. To perform this ancient rite, pour water into a blue ceramic bowl. Ask your question. Sitting with your back to the light in a darkened room, gaze into, but not at, the water. (Some people add a few drops of blue food coloring or ink to the water to darken it; this is particularly useful when using a light-colored bowl.)
As with a crystal ball, the water may cloud. Eventually you may begin to see symbols within its cool depths. Make a note of any such symbols. When no further symbols are seen, begin the process of interpretation.
Some water gazers prefer to have a candle's light reflected on the water's surface. Others take the bowl outside on a cloudless night and, capturing the moon's reflection, divine by its appearance on the water. All three of these techniques can be used.
A method related to water gazing involves wine. Pour wine into a clear glass. Place a candle behind it and light it. Sitting before the glass, ask your question (if any), gaze into the illuminated wine, and search for symbols to appear. This is known as oinomancy.
Sycphomancy is defined as the use of cups or glasses in divination (as in the above technique). It is of uncertain origin. The following procedure allows the reader to discern the past, present, and future. Three cups of three various materials are needed.
Old instructions state that the weather must have been calm for three days prior to the divination, and that the diviner be dressed in white. Fill a silver cup with wine, a copper cup with oil, and a vessel of glass with water. Scry in the silver cup to view the past, in the copper cup to see present events, and in the glass to discover the future. Use of these three scrying tools is ideal when the past, present, and future all pertain to the question-which is usually the case.
Gold cups filled with water were also sometimes used for gazing, but these have always been out of the reach of most diviners. A variant of this practice consists of placing a gold ring in a glass of water. Set this glass before a mirror and gaze into the ring's reflection in the looking glass.
Natural bodies of water provide excellent gazing tools. A calm lake or a small pool that is continuously filled by a running stream is ideal. Sit before the lake or pool. Shut out all distractions and gaze into the water. If appropriate, ask a question. You will see what you need to know.
Finally, toss a lump of gold into a well. The water will become clearer and, thus, more conductive to scrying. (Silver was probably more often used in this rite than gold. This is a relic of the day in which well were considered to be sacred and the gold or silver was an offering to the well's spirit or attendant deity.)
Other methods of water gazing include watching the waves at a beach, gazing into the sea from a high point that juts into it, scrying in the reflections of the sun sent up by water against a flat surface, and many other techniques.
Divination For Beginners
Reading The Past, Present & Future
Scott Cunningham
ISBN 0-7387-0384-2
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