Tarot Cards, Pendulums, Crystal Ball Scrying, and Other Devices) By Lilly Tarot Cards date back officially to the early 1400's, however, there were "divination tools" prior in many of the ancient civilizations up to the current moment. In order to better acquaint you with the whole issue of tools used for psychic purposes, I will list some of the main devices that people have used to open up their Third Eye to receive clairvoyant messages:  Staring into a Crystal Ball or Scrying which is staring into a bowl of water, much like Nostradamus notably did, to activate the Third Eye.   People would stare at an object having a clear 3-D surface or shiny surface until they saw something, hopefully a vision or an image of something.  Scrying comes from the English word "descry" which mean "to make out dimly" or "to reveal.  Even in the recent movie "Cold Mountain" there is the woman "Ada" played by Nicole Kidman being aided to see into the future by a couple. They help her to look backwards into a well holding a mirror and see into the dark water of the well to see her future.  A new thing for kids now is that Three-D book series that people can hold the book close to their nose and then view the busy-printed page full of tiny images all closely grouped together, then a few moments later see the three-dimensional image of a horse, a rose, the Statue of Liberty, and many other objects suddenly appear in front of them when they hold the pose. It gives the person the depth of field connection, so that they can view the images hidden on the pages of the book, but it is similar with the scrying ability, as it links to our Third Eye with this exercise. The Egyptians used ink, blood and other dark liquids.  The Romans used shiny objects and stones, but water has been used for gazing often, and now there is the term that Dr. Raymond Moody, the author and parapsychologist made popular with "psychomantiums" by being in a darkened room staring into a darkened mirror. Again this will open up your Third Eye.  The Oracles of ancient Greece was where this psychomantium has its roots.  The Pendulum basically uses the energy of the Earth's magnetic poles plus the energy of the Spirit person causing the swaying in a certain direction for an answer. For a "Yes" answer the Spirit responds with either an up-down movement or a clockwise motion with the Pendulum. For a "No" answer it responds with a crossways left-right or counter-clockwise direction. In the case of the Spirit not knowing the answer it can pause the motion or have an eratic motion, depending upon the individual Spirit. Basically what all these tools do is aid us to open up our "Third Eye" whereby we can view in a different altered way something that has to do with another dimension.  What I want to point out here are two things:  First, with these various ways and methods used, they work to a point, but it is all governed by the Lord, so you see what He allows you to see no matter what. Second, with Tarot Cards, you are still doing a basic-level access of the Spirit Realm.  The Tarot Cards generalize basic elements of the human emotional level, and with their printed categories listed in a book describing each card and the "meaning", you can see that just by shuffling and dealing out the cards, placing them out and thinking that you have the future foretold isn't going to work. There is no "magic" at work with the cards being placed in "just the right order" so that you will have a revelation of your future occur.  As with any type of "fortune telling", ethics are always foremost important.  I can relate one instance when I was a child of about ten when an adult in my family used the Tarot Cards to give a neighbor lady a reading.  The neighbor shuffled the deck of cards the required amount of times and the queen of spades came up in the "death category" three times in a row.  The neighbor lady was told it meant she was going to die soon since it occurred three times in a row. I came down the stairs just then and saw the poor woman rush out of the house all worried and her face quite white. I asked what happened and was told what had just occurred with the Tarot Cards. I remember being quite shocked at that and upset as I wondered why would some deck of cards know that?  Just because she shuffled it three times and it laid out that way with that particular card, it was only cards and not anything more than that. Well, to make a long story short, that was 43 years ago, and the lady lived a full long life well into her late 80's, even outliving the person who did that reading, so that was proof for me about the Tarot Cards accuracy rate. With a Tarot Card deck, you just have what is written in a book explaining what each card represents. They remind me of a type of garment labeled as "One Size Fits All".  Sure, you are going to have comments listed on a page that will describe your general personality somewhat, but ask yourself, could it also describe a lot of others?  So unless the person doing the Tarot Card reading is also using their own clairvoyance sensing, it will just be a generalized "reading" that will basically not do what you want it to do, which is tell you something of yourself that you need to hear. What if you used both Tarot cards and psychic sensing to receive information?  Your accuracy level isn't going to be any higher by using a Tarot deck as an added resource. If the person uses their own intuitive connection then that is not the Tarot Cards doing anything, but the reader's own intuitive connection at work. Tarot Cards mention a certain category of a personal nature, and list vague and/or generalized comments about that, so if you then use your own intuition and go beyond that with what you personally pick up, then you are using your own intuition. Have you ever gone to a Chinese food restaurant, opened up the fortune cookie at the end of the meal and read a verse that made you feel like it applied to you?  If you say yes, then figure into it the same level of accuracy there with Tarot cards. But really isn't prayer and meditation also a way that you could connect with your higher self and be aware of how your life is going?   If you are sincere about it and your intention is highest and best good, you will get an answer.  All prayers are answered; it is just that sometimes the answers are not what we want, but actually what we need to hear.  So "want versus need" comes again into the picture with psychic abilities all governed by the Lord, and what He allows you to see and be told.  You could pray then meditate and clear your mind so that you could access a higher vibration consciousness level, which is the Divine Guidance Level.  In that domain the Lord rules and it is given you what you would need to learn. Guides may contribute by showing visions, which are mental images projected from one mind to another to the reader if the reader is using the Tarot Cards but relying on their own intuition.  There is no guarantee either, as you can sense the need to keep all of it in the highest level of energy. Guides can see and sense if the person using the Tarot Cards is capable of distinguishing between what is written down in the Tarot book and what is coming from the reader's own intuition. Basic level tools like Tarot Cards, Ouija Boards, Pendulums, Crystal Ball Scrying, etc. decrease the chances of reaching a higher level if you truly want to learn psychic development.  If you start using Tarot cards, chances are that you will stay "at that level entirely" without gaining further development of more Gifts of the Spirit.  Why?  Because you are relying on a tool rather than your own innate abilities.  Liken it to a child learning to ride a bike with training wheels on.  Once the child has mastered balancing on their bicycle, don't they remove the training wheels? Gifts of the Spirit are mentioned in the Holy Bible, and nowhere is there any reference to using a tool such as these Tarot Cards or Pendulums.  In 1st Corinthians, Chapters 12-14 Paul goes into the subject of Gifts of the Spirit in detail.  Nothing is mentioned about needing anything other than your own link to the Lord, and that link basically is Love.  In 1st Corin. 13, V.1-2:  "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing."  And in the same letter in Chapter 14 Paul states "Make love your aim, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts especially that you may prophesy." My point is that Love is the connection tool.  If you are psychic, then you really don't need tools of any kind that are supposed to do something on their own.  Gifts of the Spirit are given by God and through God they are delivered to another with Highest and Best Good the intent, and Love is the connection we need to make which is the Heart Chakra directly linked to God first.  In that way God comes in and handles the information, giving the psychic what is important to share with the certain individual, regardless of what type of psychic tool someone chooses to use.  You choose your cell phone company based upon their range coverage and clear connection, why not choose your psychic connection the same way?  Why not choose the highest linkage for the best level of clarity with psychic abilities? In order to attain the strongest Christ Consciousness Energy link, the Gifts of the Spirit are supposed to be given freely, as Jesus said to his twelve Apostles, "you received without pay, give without pay".  Jesus gave the twelve Apostles the highest energy level a human being could receive here on Earth, and that is why the issue of remuneration is mentioned as payment takes down the level of Energy used to do anything involved in the Gifts of the Spirit.  They had to keep the level at its very highest in order to do such major healing.  If you have ever given a reading freely for someone and then later a reading whereby you know you are going to be paid for your services, you would definitely notice the difference in the energy.  With this being said, you can sense that if a person goes to a Tarot Card reader and pays the reader for the reading, then the accuracy level is lowered considerably, since the Tarot Cards allow for access to just the basic level of the ability, plus the issue of remuneration also takes down the vibration level, too.  I personally have never used Tarot cards or other devices and as you can sense by now I would never recommend them.  You just don't need them anymore than you would need to use a crystal ball to access your Mind's Eye, or the Ouija Board to contact a Spirit. If you've ever watched James VanPraagh, Sylvia Browne, or John Edwards give public readings on television you would not see them using such devices, as they don't need them to use their psychic gifts, so getting involved in using Tarot Cards might be the ending instead of the beginning of your psychic abilities developing and going further into the higher vibrations.                                   ©© Copyright 2004, 2005 - All Rights Reserved ©