Problem Readings….

“Tell the Querent what he has come for: if wrong, abandon the divination”– Aleister Crowley in Liber LXXVIII  A Description of the Cards of the Tarot

I ran across this quote while doing so reading on another matter entirely. I find this a very thought provoking statement. To put this quote a bit more in context, he is speaking about the start of a reading where you’d tell the querent the general nature of this overall concern (work or business; love, marriage or pleasure; money, goods or other material matters) based on the technique he’s describing.

But it’s not the mechanics of this technique that caught my imagination. The term “abandon the divination” has really struck a cord with me. I recently gave a reading and the client and I were not clicking. One of the first things I do is to try to get a feel for the clients energy and I couldn’t get a good fix on her. Not a good sign, but I went ahead attempted the reading. It did indeed feel flat to me. And worse, it felt flat to her too. I stopped the reading and referred her to a colleague. I am abandoned the reading.

Really, I should have listened to my own initial intuition that counseled against performing the divination. I ignored that voice because I have this idea that I should be able to perform a divination at any time or at any place and for any person. I’ve been examining this belief and I think it is time to let it go.

In fact, the Oracle of Delphi also used a  procedure to screen divination.  Initial divinations were done as to whether the Pythia would even hear the question. I can only imagine the oracular work performed by the Pythia was demanding and thus she took only those that had good omens for a clear outcome. Frankly, if the Oracle of Delphi couldn’t read for some people, I don’t feel so bad that I can’t sometimes too.

So Crowley and the ancient Greeks would either end a reading or reject the petition for one based on initial signs. Not all readings are favored.  Both giving and receiving, I have been in readings that have been amazing to good to fair to (unfortunately) poor. Sometimes I’ve attributed that purely to skill of the diviner or an off day. Now that I’m sat on that other end of the table and given several quality readings only to give a poor one the to a client on the same day, I realize that it is not just about skill or aptitude of the reader. This is something else at play – a personal energetic connection or bit of divine will perhaps. What I am taking away is that a failed reading is not a failure on the reader;s part.  Sometimes, a reading is just not meant to be and to walk away from it gracefully.