covenrochester

Coven Rochester will be hosting its next workday on October 20, 2024, from 2-5 pm. The topic will be The Varied Forms of Divination. I imagine the topics to be covered will be something like this:

By the Law of Correspondence:
-- Astrology (Horary, Natal, Electional, Mundane)
-- Palmistry (Cheiromancy and Cheirognomy)
-- Physiognomy, Phrenology, Feet, Eyes, Forehead
-- Numerology, Acrophonology
-- Geomancy
-- Signs and Omens: By Birds, Haruspicy
-- Graphology

Direct Psychic Perception:
-- Scrying: Crystal, Water, Fire, Mirror, Black Mirror
-- Psychometry
-- Telepathic Games of the Sangoma of Africa
-- Familiar or Ancestral Spirits, Sciomancy, Seances, the Dumb Supper
-- Precognitive Dreams and Dream Spells
-- Dreaming True Potions
-- Dream Interpretation
-- Pendulum/Dowsing Rods
-- Ouija Boards, Planchettes, Automatic Writing
-- Divine Inspiration: Oracles, Sibyls, and Prophets

Image-Finding:
-- Tea Leaves
-- Cloud Gazing
-- Fire Embers and Ashes
-- Smoke
-- Wax in Water (Ceromancy)

Sortilege
-- Cards: Tarot Cards, Playing Cards, Oracle Cards, Witch Cards
-- Nordic Futhark Runes
-- Celtic Ogham
-- Dice and Dominoes (Cleromancy)
-- Bones
-- Lithomancy: Witches' Runes or Precious Stones
-- Bibliomancy: The Bible, the Works of Homer, the Aeneid, the Dictionary
-- The Ifa of Africa, Kola Nuts
-- I Ching, Wen Wang Gua of China
-- Parlor Games, Tables of Fate

Once the participants have a broad grasp of the various forms of divination, we may have future workdays where I teach one specific form.

* Copyright to Coven Rochester
** Blessed be those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father

Mothers: Caput Draconis, Rubeus, Acquisitio, Amissio

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Another truly awesome method of divination for a Witch to specialize in is Geomancy. It is like horary astrology, but without the need for calculations. It can often give an astounding amount of information, and can be used for real-world needs, like finding lost objects, checking if a missing person is dead or alive, and so on. There are almost no reliable books on Geomancy. John Michael Greer wrote a couple, but they are filled with errors. Still, it is a place to start to learn basic vocabulary. After that, however, you will have to find a Geomancy Master to teach you.

Here is an example chart.
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The Querent's question is: Will I be able to travel to London to meet my sister?

Q: House 1: CAPUT DRACONIS
Sister: House 3: ACQUISITIO

We have no perfection between these two houses, so the answer is no, the Q will not see his sister.

CAPUT in House 1 is in CAPITAL COMPANY with RUBEUS in House 2, giving a reception of FORTUNA MAJOR. And that is also the Figure in House 9 that subradiates House 3 by opposition. FORTUNA MAJOR also jumps to House 12, showing that Q, himself has done something that will prevent the perfection.

ACQUISITIO, the sister, in House 3, is in REVERSE COMPANY with AMISSIO, giving a reception of VIA. Hmmmm....might the sister, herself, be traveling away from her London home at the time when Q expected to visit? Let's see. The sister's turned House 9 is radical House 11. What's in House 11? VIA. My conclusion is that Q will not see his sister in London because she, herself, will be away from London at the time. FORTUNA MAJOR jumping from House 9 to House 12 says to me that Q had settled on a certain plan in his mind---perhaps with respect to dates of a visit to London---before checking with his sister that she would be available.

He can still travel to London if he wants (FORTUNA MAJOR in HOUSE 9 jumps to PERFECT with HOUSE by CONJUNCTION), but his sister won't be there when he gets there (Acquisitio + Amission = Via, and Via is in the sister's turned House 9).

Two Witnesses, both Fortuna Minor: Q will have missed the window of opportunity to visit.
Judge: Populus: the outcome is owing to other people -- his sister, for one. Via also jumps the sister's turned house 8: she is worried about someone, and that is why she is travelling to go see that person.

Of course, if you are reading for someone, you can avoid all that technical verbiage. Say, instead: "No, you will not see your sister. You can travel to London, if you wish, but she will not be there. She is worried or anxious about someone, and she herself will be traveling away from London to visit that person. You will have missed your window of opportunity. This is partly your own fault, as it seems that you made some plan in your mind with respect to dates of travel without first consulting your sister to see if she would be available. She won't be."

"The Game of the Hand" is another old French fortune-telling deck. The original deck was created by Adele Moreau, a woman trained in card-reading and palmistry by Madame LeNormand. The modern reprint of the original deck differs in some interpretations, but they are both really good decks. What constitutes a good deck to me is that one can both (a) answer specific questions from them, and (b) accurately predict concrete events for people even in the absence of a question. As with the Grand Jeu of Madame Lenormand, Le Jeu de la Main shoots straight from the hip. Expect the truth, not soothing platitudes.

In the above small reading, the Q asked to check on a female friend. The cards say:

"Love has failed her. She is sick of being made invisible. She is taking the necessary steps to move toward indifference."

No comforting advice. No everything-will-be-fine-in-the-end. The woman's loved ones have belittled her, made her feel unworthy and invisible. Now, as a defense mechanism, she is moving toward indifference, purely as a matter of personal survival. Not a great message of hope here.

Because Mlle Moreau was palmist, she also encoded further information into the palm drawings and, if you know some palmistry, you will be able to read even more details here. There are stars on the Mount of Venus in two of the palms: great familial stress. The green palm contains a prominent Line of Health rising from the Mount of the Moon and a cross on the third phalange of the Mercury finger: long-term emotional instability has developed into a serious physical health challenge. She must move toward more emotional indifference in order to protect her own health -- you can see a doubled Life Line in the last palm.

Every Witch in the Coven must learn some form of divination. Lots of people pick Tarot. I would love to one day train someone who picks one of these old French decks. Or, I wish someone would translate them into English for publication. I think a good English name for this deck would be The Hands of Fate.

It is very likely that LeNormand, the famous french cartomante, read from cards similar to those now known as Le Grand Jeu -- the Great Game. You can buy all sorts of oracle decks these days, but Le Grand Jeu is the Grand-Mere of them all. Many of the scenes are taken from the Quest of the Golden Fleece, or the War at Troy, the art of Alchemy, and other Greek and Roman myths, and they incorporate such things as constellations, playing cards, and flowers.

If you are very knowledgeable in classical mythology and the magical language, you can read these very, very easily. They should be read, not as a Tarot or a deck of oracles cards, but as if you had seen a series of symbolic images in a crystal ball.

This is a deck for realists, though. If you are a person of delicate mind or constitution, stay away from these, and maybe get an Angel Oracle Deck. Madame LeNormand was practicing her arts in a time of great turmoil and danger in France, and she did not mince words.

In the above reading of three cards, I asked about the Fate of a woman barely known to me, whom I've met with only a single glance and handshake. Some of the great images here: The inconclusive fight between Paris and Menelaus, Zeus instructing Dionysus to drink water from a spring, Helen receiving news from Iris, Odysseus and Diomedes stealing the statue of Athena from the Palladium of Troy, Achilles receiving the weapons of Haphaestus from his mother, Thetis.

Let us pretend that a woman has come to us as a modern Pythia, and she wishes to know the trajectory of her life. What might one say?

You will be chosen among others to be raised up to preferment. It is no contest, really, for you have a powerful woman on your side. You will be unfitted, however, for the tasks that will be assigned to you. You will require leadership and counsel in even the most basic functions, and even after that, you will require the constant support of others to keep yourself afloat. In time, you will be raised even higher. Does this astonish you, as it does me? You will initially consider this further advancement a great boon, but beware what you have agreed to. The Circlet of Leadership is too heavy for your small head. You cannot lift the Sword of Justice unaided. Brazen Greaves will render you unable to walk. You will not have been given a gift, but the instruments of your self-destruction. You were fated for a quieter life, but you will foolishly succumb to others telling you what you should want and what your ambitions should be. I pity your lack of self-knowledge. Now rise, foolish woman, and get out of my house!

Well, maybe I would temper the language a bit . . .

A female querent, mid-20s, asked me when she and her future spouse would have their first child. And so I cast a chart of the heavens at the time to answer her question.

When one is taking questions like this, it is important to make sure that the Querent is asking what she truly wants to know. Even with a question as simple and straight-forward as: "When will we have our first child?" the Querent may be obfuscating the true inquiry. Here are some examples of how querents will think:

(1) Oh my stars! I am five days late in my menstrual cycle. I hope I'm not pregnant right now. I will call an astrologer and ask when I will have my first child. If it is a long way off, then I'll know I am not pregnant! So, the querent calls and asks when she will have her first child. Her REAL question, though, is: "Am I pregnant right now?" That is the question the chart will answer, even if she has obfuscated the matter. Hiding the true question will very likely lead the astrologer into error.

(2) I've been a ballet dancer since the age of 9. I've been vegan since the age of 13. My menstrual cycle is fairly intermittent. Sometimes I will not menstruate for months at a time. I average approximately 2 or 3 light periods per year I'm 26, no longer dancing, but I'm still vegan, and my period is still infrequent. My husband and I want to have a child. "When will we have our first child?" The REAL question here is whether the Querent can return to a normal menstrual cycle and thereafter have a child. The question should be more along the lines of "Will I ever have children?" In a situation such as that, I would probably poke around and look at medical issues, too.

There was no indication in this case that there was some other real, hidden question underlying a pretextual question. So, let's determine an answer:

( Analysis Under The Link )

A missing persons case will occasionally come to my notice. Within an hour of being alerted to this one, I had cast the above chart and knew the story.

The missing person here is symbolized by Lord 7 inasmuch as the person was unknown to me. So, it is the Moon. The Moon is also the natural ruler of missing persons, but we don't need to rely on a natural rulership here.

One can see that the Moon recently crossed from an Air sign (say, 29 Aquarius) into a Water sign (say 1 Pisces), and as it did so, it immediately hit the Sun, Lord 8, by antiscion, and then immediately hit Saturn, turned Lord 8, bodily. When I cast the chart, the Moon was on Fomalhaut, in the Mouth of the Fish, and also conjunct the South Node by antiscion. I picked one person to whom to announce my findings: fell into water, death by drowning. And so, unfortunately, it was.

I sometimes use this spread when I want the predictions to fall in chronological order. The first prediction for this Seeker was that a male family member (K of Clubs) would contact him to issue an invitation to a wedding (the Aces of Diamonds and Hearts flanking the K of Clubs). It would be a small wedding (no 8s present), to be followed by a dinner at night (A and 2 of Diamonds with 10 of Spades). That came to pass, as foretold, two days later, when he received a call from his younger brother: the younger brother would be getting married in November in a small Saturday afternoon wedding, to be followed by dinner.

The clock of fate will tick around through the predictions, until the last one, which will be a cancelled flight that will not get rebooked. They will all come true.

After that happens, the Seeker can come for another reading.

I do not share these things to brag, but to share with others what can be done. I hope it builds your confidence.

*** Blessed be to those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father.

* Copyright to Coven Rochester

Oracle Cards are not a new phenomenon. The French seemed to be fond of them in the 19th century. There is the famous Oracle Belline. And then there is this one, the Oracle Planetaire, which also sometimes went by the name Sorcier Tarots Parisiens, published in 1867.

Some Cards of Jupiter

( Other Planets Under the Cut )

The virtue of the old French Oracle decks is that they were based on the planets, and thus, built into them was the cosmological reality of the universe. And when you have a deck that mirrors cosmological reality, you can actually trust it to provide you accurate answers and forecasts that conform to reality. A deck of playing cards is another mirror of the universe. Tarot decks in the Marseille tradition are similar.

*** Blessed be to those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father.

* Copyright to Coven Rochester

This is a chart that an apprentice astrologer asked me to look at for a second opinion.

FACTS: The Querent is a woman. She was married recently, but the husband now wants a divorce. They no longer live together and the divorce is scheduled to take place next month. Q is working on some projects with a male colleague in her field, although they live in different cities. Q thinks that she and the male colleague both have feelings for one another, and she wants to know whether this will turn into a romantic relationship? Unfortunately, it is not known whether MC is currently in a relationship.

The Querent (Q) is Lord 1, Mars in Libra, and the Moon in Leo.

The Male Colleague (MC) is Lord 7, Venus in Leo, and the Sun in Virgo.

When I first read the facts, I thought it could be possible that Lord 7 could be the ex-husband, and that we would have to find another significator for MC, but from the receptions, I think the apprentice was quite right to give Lord 7 and the Sun to MC. The receptions also make it clear that the Ex-Husband (XH) is Saturn.

Q as Mars in detriment is feeling down on herself, but is very keen on MC as Venus by rulership and term. It is a bit unfortunate to see that Mars is in the other Venus-ruled sign, and not the sign on the 7th house cusp. That usually indicates that Q's feelings for the other person are not real, but masked by the fact that she is feeling sad or depressed, and so she thinks this other person in her environment is going to cheer her up, rather like a beneficial distraction or a rebound relationship. Mars also carries the Sun into fall, so her head is disappointed in men in general. Mars is exalting Saturn, the XH, but this is a very common thing to see at the end of a relationship. It doesn't mean she is holding up the XH on a pedestal, but that she is daydreaming about "what could have been" -- oh, this could have been a great relationship XH, if you were other than you are. But, Mars carrying Saturn into triplicity means she is not bitter toward him as a person.

Notably, Mars is on the fixed star Vindemiatrix, the Widow Maker. So, that naturally signifies the divorce process. Mars has yet to perfect the conjunction with the star, so it is not a helpful testimony at all, for a future relationship with MC, either.

Q as the Moon is very much infatuated with MC as the Sun. And the Moon also carries Saturn into detriment: her heart/emotions are very much disappointed in the XH. We also see that the antiscion of the Moon is just past the conjunction of Uranus on the 7th house cusp. That was the scheduling of the divorce that recently occurred.

So, both of her significators have contacts indicating the divorce from the XH, as we would expect.

The Part of Marriage/Relationship in this chart is at 8 Virgo 2, with Mercury as the dispositor. So, Mercury could represent the role of a potential relationship with MC.

MC's Venus is in strong dignities of the Sun, and the Sun is in strong dignities of Mercury. MC thinks highly of himself in many ways, and he would like a relationship, but he also values his own manly freedom. Mercury is under the sunbeams in its own sign, so if MC is already in another relationship, I would take Mercury as being his partner. That would make sense of the Sun's strong Mercury dignities. Unfortunately, we don't have enough facts to clear that up.

What is abundantly clear, though, is that both of MC's significators are completely indifferent to Q's significators. Even if he were in the market for a relationship, it would not be with Q.

We do have an aspect here, though. Q's Moon is going to sextile Mars and then conjunct Venus. This signifies an OPPORTUNITY for a relationship to develop. But, inasmuch as MC is completely uninterested in Q's significators, there will be NO MOTIVATION or NO INCLINATION on his part to start a romantic relationship.

After that lunar aspect the Sun is going to oppose the antiscion of Mars. Even if MC gives some kind of informal or sexual relationship a shot, he is going to regret it.

Then the antiscion of Venus is going to apply to conjunct Jupiter, which is MC's turned Lord 10. After the above, he will call off the work projects.

Judgment to the question: No.

*** Blessed be to those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father.

* Copyright to Coven Rochester

A Bone Casting with a Full Set. Answering a real question.

A Closer View of the same reading.

This set of Reading Bones contains 23 items.

1, QUARTZ CRYSTAL, to represent the Seeker.

2-8, BONES: a straight bone, a curved bone, a broken bone, a good tooth, a bad tooth, a talus, a claw

9-10, TWO DICE. The numbers 1-6 have different meanings.

11, AN ACORN: Beginning, progress, growth.

12, A SKULL: Ending, stagnation, delay. This could be a skull carved out of a stone.

13, A KEY: To show a solution to a problem, but could also indicate an open or closed door.

14-23: SIGNIFICATORS

14: For LOVE, DESIRE, SENSUALITY: I use a SHELL.

15: For HOME OR FAMILY: I use a ROSE QUARTZ chunk.

16: For WORK OR EFFORT: I use a chunk of dark green BLOODSTONE.

17: For HEALTH: I use an oval piece of LIGHT GREEN AGATE (not pictured . . . it was way off in the north east).

18: For a WISH/GOAL: I use a striped WISHING STONE.

19: For MONEY: I use an OLD COIN.

20: For SPIRIT or RELIGION: I use an 1-0 domino carved from a bone. Sometimes this falls upward (the Divine Eye looking at you!) and sometimes face down.

21: For TRAVEL, JOURNEY, MOVEMENT: I use a circlet of DEER ANTLER.

22: A BUTTON: face up meaning open, yes, honest, revealed, speaking. face down, meaning closed, no, deception, secret, silent.

23: A STONE HEART: to represent another person who might be involved in the question.

The only thing I did not have when I put this set together was a CLAW. I used a COYOTE TOOTH as a temporary substitute. But, today I ordered a 1.5 inch BEAR CLAW from MOSCOW HIDE AND FUR (MOSCOW, IDAHO). They are lovely and efficient people.

There is a trick to reading bones, and someone will teach it to you by word of mouth.

It is a very easy method for answering specific questions. The above reading is for such a question. The Seeker asked: "Should I seek the help of my friend XYZ?" The spirits answered (for it is through the bones that the spirits speak, as all shamans and sangomas have always agreed): XYZ is your most direct and fastest solution, but there is another woman, further off, whose assistance you should seek first. That other woman is older, and of inestimable worth to your cause. You will have to travel to meet her. Do you know who she is?" And the Seeker did.

More difficult are general questions. When a Seeker comes and has no particular question in mind. You must be able to throw the bones and tell future events. They can be general, but your statements must be events, capable of being right or wrong. "You daughter will be pregnant in six months", "you will get a speeding ticket next month," "your boss at work is leaving for another job soon," etc. are all events. "You are entering a period of financial difficulty" is not an event. Moreover, it is too general if you cannot tell the Seeker what will occasion the financial difficulty (medical costs, loss of job, car failure, and so on). You may see only the generalities in the cast of the bones, but the spirits will supply the details. If you cannot hear the spirits, then your teacher has not helped you sufficiently to rend the veil from that part of your mind.

*** Blessed be to those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father.

* Copyright to Coven Rochester

A Witch should have a reliable means of divination at her disposal. Each person has different strengths, though. Not everyone will take to astrology, or card reading, or the pendulum. When a new initiate, it is important to consider and explore the various options available. Reading the Bones, sometimes called Osteomancy, is a less common option. Coven Rochester will eventually hold a Workday on the subject. I was fortunate enough to learn a Zulu method and a Cameroonian method from an old Sangoma from central Africa. The photo above is not from either of those methods, but I will interpret it as a general bone reading example, and as an example of what can be told with a small set of bones.

The Seeker is going to come into a large amount of money soon.
His relationship is and will continue to be strong, although he must be flexible in practical matters associated with that relationship. Plans often get formed or cancelled at the last minute, and that will continue.
He is working on a project that has had a false start. It is moving now, but there will be strong delays and interference as it moves forward. Nonetheless, the project will eventually be brought to completion successfully in accordance with the Seeker's wishes, and to his great satisfaction.

There are several books that have been published on reading the bones. But, as always, it is better to learn from a teacher. There is a trick to reading bones, and you either have to learn it from a teacher, or struggle through long practice until the trick dawns on you.

*** Blessed be to those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father.

* Copyright to Coven Rochester

I gave a two-hour lesson on Tarot this weekend. It mainly concerned the mechanics of reading, and was not focused on meanings. The more experienced I get, the firmer I become in the belief that card reading is mostly an inborn thing. If you were born on earth and get some basic instruction on how the cards must be interpreted in the framework of cosmology, you can read cards. The language of the universe is not particularly difficult to learn, but you must learn it if you want it to communicate to you. The universe will not learn your language and quirks, it should perhaps go without saying. Moreover, a Tarot deck, and even a regular card deck, is something like a Book of Life and Time. So it should be allowed to express that as cleanly as possible. A Marseille deck is good. As is a regular playing card deck. A Rider Waite deck is not good because the images on the Minor Arcana are often at odds with the Universal language. Anyway, so much for meanings.

One thing I advise people to do when reading for others is to try to tell the Querent some minor thing that has just happened to the Querent. Immediately give an event -- something you could not possibly know except for the cards -- in order to instill confidence in the Querent of your abilities. This is usually easy for me because my favorite spread is an unstructured 21-card Gypsy Spread -- 3 rows of 7 cards each. Something usually pops up at the beginning of the spread that you can mention.

The Empress, 5 of Pentacles, 9 of Swords, 3 of Cups

Above, for instance, I was reading for a woman in her 40s. She had a friend tag along because the friend was visiting her from out-of-state. I laid out 21 cards (a Marseille deck, which is not the deck picture above), and saw these four together at the beginning of the spread. I said: "I see that you are planning to renovate your kitchen. Do it. It will go smoothly without any problems or delays." She gasped and turned to her friend, who exclaimed: "We were just talking about that this morning!" Nothing earth-shattering, but it helps to indicate to the Querent that you are not a fake.

I think it is reasonable for a Querent to ask a diviner about something that has recently happened. If the reader says something like, "That's not what Tarot is for," one would be entirely justified in getting up and walking out. Tarot is absolutely for the telling of events --- past, present, and future. It can be for other things, too -- clarifying one's emotional state, exploring possible options in making a decision, and so on. If a reader says, however, that Tarot is not for the telling of events, there is something seriously amiss in the reader's training.

I cannot emphasize it enough . . . the Universe will speak clearly to you if you learn its language. Initially, this requires humility and ignorance. They are easy possessions, but virtue seldom gets willing heirs.

A couple other clear examples:

Empress, 9 of Swords, Ace of Cups, 7 of Swords: A break-in of a residence, and the beginning of a police investigation.

Knight of Swords, Chariot, 4 of Swords: A speeding ticket.

King of Wands, 9 of Cups, 3 of Swords, Moon: The Querent's grandfather is not feeling well. He has high blood pressure and takes medication for it. The medication is off in dosage and causing his problems. The grandfather needs to go to the doctor to have the medication adjusted.

Ace of Cups, 6 of Swords, 10 of Cups, 9 of Swords: Something will go wrong with the Querent's water pipes, and the house will be without water. I told her to stock up on jugs of water. The Querent literally scoffed at me and assured me that it could not be true. The house had just been built within the year, and it had been inspected 6 months before, when she and her family purchased it. She called me a week later and told me that the water main supplying the neighborhood had burst.

So, that one was true, as were all the others.

In a future entry, I will write about methods of divination in which the Querent says nothing. The reader must tell the Querent the question, and then answer the question. That can be done in horary astrology, horary numerology, geomancy, and in the sangoma bone-reading tradition.

The following is a case study on curse removal that two Witches of Coven Rochester effectuated within one week. It is an example of how these things can be dealt with quickly and efficiently when there is knowledge and power present.

Miss Q recently confided to Mrs. B (not knowing Mrs. B was of the Wicca) that she had been having nightmares every night for the past 10 years. These nightmares were very violent, and caused Miss Q to wake up screaming. Read that again: violent nightmares and waking screaming every night for the past 10 years. She did not want Mrs. B to think she was crazy, but she believed that she was under a curse.

Miss Q related a history that Mrs. B found credible: Miss Q had traced the start of the nightmares to an abusive relationship with a boyfriend ten years prior in another state. She had actually been forced to move away from him to escape the relationship. While they were together, Mr. BF started cutting Miss Q's hair while she was sleeping and, every time she awakened, her hair was significantly shorter. Miss Q could not understand why she was not waking up while he was cutting it. Mr. BF's mother was a "psychic reader" and involved in occult matters. Mr. BF kept telling Miss Q that he was "trying to remove her demons." Miss Q started feeling like she was being stabbed by needles periodically and would feel a strange sense of wetness on her ankles.

Mrs. B found the account credible enough to perform divination to determine whether Miss Q was under a curse. This was Mrs. B's investigatory astrology chart, which she asked me, as her Magister, to check. And, if the chart was positive, she asked me what could be done to help Miss Q. But first, the chart:

Mrs. B's investigatory astrological chart: Is Miss Q cursed?

Miss Q is Lord 7: JUPITER.

The potential curse/curse is the turned 12th from the 7th, or radical Lord 6, MARS.

Radical Lord 12 can sometimes be in play, instead, but that's Venus here, and she's being well-behaved. Moreover, there are a couple of things highlighting to us that we should use Lord 6, MARS: The South Node is somewhat close to the 6th house cusp, and the Moon is just about to oppose the 6th house cusp. Plus, Mars is behaving very badly toward Jupiter.

The curse, if any, was cast upon Miss Q 10 years ago. Therefore, we are looking for a past aspect, not something recent. And we've got just such a past aspect.

Before the Moon changed sign (likely an indication of Miss Q moving across the country after the curse was cast on her to escape Mr. BF), the last thing that the Moon did was translate the light of Jupiter to Mars. Mars, the curse/curser, has tremendous power over Jupiter inasmuch as Jupiter is in Mars's sign. What does Mars do with that power? Mars is in the sign of Jupiter's detriment, so Mars uses its power to HARM Jupiter.

Therefore, the chart is positive for the presence of the curse.

I gave Mrs. B my opinion, which supported her own analysis, but added my thought that the curse could be broken easily. Mars is in 29 Gemini. So it has been detrimenting Jupiter for a long time. But Mars is just about to enter Cancer, where it will cease detrimenting Jupiter, and that was the sign that the curse would be broken.

And so it was. I first heard word of the case on Friday. By Tuesday, I had analyzed the chart and told Mrs. B how to break it. On the next Friday, Mrs. B easily broke the 10-year curse. Being clairvoyant, Mrs. B was able to locate the energy of the curse in Miss Q's body and shift it into the energy lines where the curse had entered Miss Q's body. From there, Mrs. B extracted the curse energy and sent it deep into the Earth, where the Earth Mother maintains her Fires, so that the energy could be transmuted. This, by the way, is why the Earth Mother is associated with curse breaking and protection magic. It is the Goddess in that form, and not in Her form as Lady of the Moon or the Queen of Heaven, who is the Great Protectress and the Great Purifier.

As Mrs. B disposed of the curse, she felt the old anger of Mr. BF's mother well up in her . . . the anger that, for reasons unknown, motivated the curse.

Immediately after, Miss Q felt lighter. Mrs. B checked on her the next day and Miss Q reported that she had enjoyed sleeping through the night without any nightmares. It was the first time in 10 years.

So mote it be.

*** Blessed be to those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father.

* Copyright to Coven Rochester

This was a question asked to one of my students. The Querent, himself, was an astrologer, and he was working on a certain technique to help him make money in the stock market. And that was his question -- could he make money in the stock market by the technique he had devised?

I think it is extremely prudent to check with an astrologer in matters such as this. If the technique is not sound, and if you aren't going to make any profit, you can abandon the thing right away, as opposed to getting stuck in a delusional hope that one just needs to "tweak it a little more." On a related note, I am forever hearing from people things along the lines of . . . geez, I don't know whether I made the right decision in TAKING THIS JOB OVER THAT ONE, GETTING THIS SURGERY, DATING MISS X INSTEAD OF MISS Y, etc. And I am continually responding sarcastically with, "geez, its too fecking bad you don't know an astrologer who could help guide you with such matters." :D But, the above lad . . . good querent. Find out the answer before you join the Fifty Danae pouring water into a bucket with a hole in it.

In any event, the answer here is that the technique will be useless and a waste of time. The technique itself (Lord 9, the Sun) has little power. Any benefit/profit from it (Lord 10, Mercury) is in horrible condition, in detriment and fall. Moreover, the benefit/profit is slowly getting burned up by the Sun (the technique itself) combusting it. You can tell by the placement of the Moon that the Querent is focused on the profit, but the Moon will soon be peregrine, then in the Via Combusta, and then in fall. He will gradually be deeply disappointed.

This is sufficiently terrible to end the judgment right now. But you can also see that the Sun is just past the opposition of Jupiter (Lord 1, the Querent) by antiscion, indicating that the technique itself will be a waste of time and lead to regret for the Querent. This is the aspect that the Querent was feeling, internally, and which motivated him to ask his question of the astrologer. Mercury is soon going to follow suit with an opposition to Jupiter by antiscion. Also a bit notable, the Sun is going to conjunct Neptune in several degrees: the technique is discarded as delusive, unworkable.

The Querent's own money, Lord 2, Saturn, has just lost a ton of dignity upon entering Pisces. This is not a good time for him to muck about risking his money. Also notable is that neither the technique nor any potential profit therefrom increases or benefits the Querent's money.

Jupiter, Lord 1, is in Aries. It carries Saturn, Lord 2, into fall. Who has the potential of damaging the Querent's finances? The Querent, himself.

Judgment: Cease and desist.

Note: I wrote the question and data in witchoglyphics, so that's the mess at the top of the page, and you can ignore it.

*** Blessed be to those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father.

* Copyright to Coven Rochester

I was reminded of this chart when I mentioned yesterday the traditional witch's birthmarks. It is part of our lore that Witches are reborn to the Craft and the Mysteries lifetime after lifetime, and it is hoped that one is reborn amongst one's covenmates or at least in a traditional lineage. When a new person seeks admittance to a Coven, there are ways of investigating these matters. Sometimes, the whole issue is just readily apparent. For many, the information or signs will come in dreams or visions. Others may have the power to check and conclusively determine the matter by divination. Sometimes the Horned Father or the Great Mother will simply move the initiator's heart in a certain way, metaphorically.

If by divination, the gods will be particularly clear with you, whether yea or nay. The Craft is, after all, made up of the Hidden Children of the Gods, and the Gods hold the honor of the Craft dear to them. Above is a chart asking of a particular person, whether (a) returning to the Craft, and (b) returning to our lineage. Either one may be asked or, as here, both may be asked at a single time and judged from a single chart.

This chart is so clear that it requires no comment.

The issue can be investigated from the other end, too. If you are a Seeker and wondering about the lineage or knowledge or spiritual power of the group you are investigating, it can be answered by a competent diviner.

*** Blessed be to those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father.

* Copyright to Coven Rochester

At Candlemas, the Feast of the Goddess and the Women's Mysteries, if a Witch so chooses, the Lady will speak to him or her and give a Blessing, a Quest, and a Sacrifice. If you take one, you must take all three. The Maiden gives one. The Mother gives another. The Wise One gives the third. Most people take advantage of the opportunity, and think about their messages from the Lady all year round. Each answer is unique and personal between the Witch and the Lady. Of course, you need either an oracular person in your coven or a specialist in divination. You cannot simply pick a card out of an oracle deck and expect to get a specific and coherent message.

My blessing this year was: "My son, I am sending to you a new art to learn and, with it, new knowledge. I hope you can die to your old self sufficiently to accept My blessing."

So She spoke on February 4th. By February 12th, Her words were fulfilled. I was introduced to an Eastern Master from whom I will learn some things.

*** Blessed be to those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father.

* Copyright to Coven Rochester

Diviners in these days of readily accessible pregnancy tests often do not get the question: "Am I pregnant?" They still get, however, questions from both men and women on the subject whether the person will ever have children. The above question came from a married woman in her mid-30s.

We examine the fertility potential of the couple from the Moon (the natural ruler of babies), and Lords 1, 5, 7, 11. We have some fertility potential here, but it is rapidly evaporating.

The Moon in Aquarius: Neutral.

Lord 1: The Sun in Cancer: This is a sign of fertility, but the Sun is just about to shift into Leo, a sign of barrenness.

Lord 5: Jupiter Rx in Capricorn: Neutral

Lord 7: Saturn in Virgo: A sign of barrenness.

Lord 11: Mercury in Cancer: This is a sign of fertility, although Mercury is somewhat afflicted by being under the beams of the Sun, and will continually be so until it follows the Sun into Leo (Mercury enters Leo when the Sun is at about 4 degrees Leo), at which time Mercury becomes severely combust in a barren sign.

This is, accordingly, a very doubtful fertility potential. But there are other factors in play strengthening the conclusion.

(1) The Moon is Void of Course: not much will develop or matters will proceed only with difficulty. Moreover, the Moon (again, natural ruler of babies) is just about to conjunct Neptune over the 7th house cusp (and likewise oppose the ASC). Neptune is the Earthshaker, and the Lord of the Ever-Crashing amd Ever-Tiding Oceans. This is fairly malefic symbolically -- the womb will continually be in motion. No calm seas here for a baby to gestate.

(2) Lord 5, the significator of children, is in fall and retrograde in the 5th house. There is a sign boundary on the cusp, but this still constitutes a minor affliction to the house.

(3) Very significant is the presence of Pluto on the 5th house cusp, and getting closer to it. In mythology, Pluto was generally regarded as an infertile god inasmuch as the god of the dead was thought not able to sire living children.[*] With Lord 7 in a barren sign, and Mercury afflicted, the judgment was that the couple would have no children owing to the husband's infertility issues -- a thing that the couple had never considered as a factor.

And so it was. The couple never had children because of infertility problems with the husband. They divorced for other reasons about 12 years later. The Querent is now over 50 years old, and has not had children.

If there had been sufficient fertility potential in the chart, I would have calculated the year that the first child would be born. But the chart shows that such would have been extra and fruitless work.

[*] Persephone was said to have had three children, but these are regarded to have been sired by Zeus after he had taken the form of Hades/Pluto. You can see that Jupiter (Zeus) will not help the Moon (Persephone) in this chart, anyway, inasmuch as Jupiter carries the Moon into detriment.

*** Blessed be to those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father.

* Copyright to Coven Rochester

Asking for an oracle on the subject of a burgeoning relationship.

Hornèd Father, wise and bold,
How will time their love unfold?

DECEIT
WILL DOOM
THIS BOND
TO DEATH

Welp, that seems like a fairly direct and unambiguous answer [1]. You know He means business when He answers in iambic monometer.

You might think this is too fatalistic a declaration. You will have to take that up with Him.

I also recently did an astrological chart revealing deception on the part of a man. Wooing Ms. One while enjoying sexual pleasures with Ms. Two, unbeknownst to Ms. One. And the deception certainly did a number on the whole situation. No pun intended.

[1] The cards are The Snake, The Ring, and Death

The statue is a bust of the Horned Father in the form he was known at his ancient oracle in Libya. Did you know the ancient Greeks had a form of Apollo with horns? Indeed they did: Apollo Karneios. He was even depicted on coinage in that form. Horn in ancient Greek was KERAS (or KERATO), and horns was KERATA.

*** Blessed be to those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father.

* Copyright to Coven Rochester

This is a set of 28 cards created by Mike Richmond (ShiningMoonStudio on Etsy). I thought it was a cool concept, although somewhat limited in the number of cards. When they first arrived, I shuffled them up and got this reading:

FEATHER ----> HAT ----> PUMPKIN

The deck contains two cards that list potential interpretations but, of course, everything is up to the diviner. Some of the listed meanings make sense to me; some of the meanings I alter or extend. I wrote down:

Message, Work, Prosperity

That seemed positive. And so I waited. Two days later, I had not yet received a message at work about prosperity. I decided to use the cards again. I got almost the same message:

FEATHER ----> PUMPKIN ----> RING

I wrote down:

Message, Prosperity, Promise/Wealth

As if the cards were saying, "Yep, the message of prosperity is still coming, I promise. And its going to be big!"

And then I forgot all about the matter. Until the message about work prosperity hit me square between the eyes today.

A nice little deck, if your mind has the power to guide your hands to pick out the future.

Mr. Richmond also sells a set of 13 oracle dice marked with the letters of the Theban Alphabet and various symbols, like the symbol of the Moon Goddess, the Horned God, a Pentagram and so on. I also have them, but I find that they require almost a prophetic mania to use. It is very much like operating akin to the Cumaean Sybil, who wrote down letters on the leaves of laurel (sacred to Apollo) and then cast them to be all mixed up in a drum-like vessel. The last time I used them, the oracle came from the Horned Father, and He said:

THE GATES OPEN AT SIX.

Somewhat mystifying, yes? Unless you are a Qabalist. Then it is perfectly clear. And wise and funny at the same time, too. Even if you aren't a Qabalist, but know something about occult geometry and numbers (for instance, from cosmology or from card reading), it still makes sense. The Divine Powers, I find, have a sense of humor.

*** Blessed be to those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father.

* Copyright to Coven Rochester

Astrology is, by far, the most efficient way of dealing with occult uncertainties such as whether one has a ghost in the house, whether a person is being oppressed by a spirit, whether someone has been cursed, and so on. These are questions that a Witch gets not infrequently. Even if you have been gifted with clairvoyance, as bestowed at your birth or at your initiation into the Craft, it can take a bit of time (and silence and stillness) to do an inner plane investigation of something like this, and there is always the subjective element to deal with. The subjective element and the "excitement of it all" tend to create "false positives" in these cases. Astrology cuts through all of that fairly efficiently. In 16 years, I have probably done 30-40 "Am I cursed?" or "Am I bewitched?" charts. Exactly three have been positive, i.e., less than 10%. All three were broken easily within a couple of days of the chart. As for ghosts in the house, I have had exactly ONE chart in 16 years turn up positive for that, and that is the chart depicted above.

The sister of the Querent's father had recently crossed over to the Other Side, but the Querent and the family had the notion she had not moved on completely. You can read the story in the chart. Can you see where the Querent's concern over her aunt's death is depicted? Can you tell whether the woman has moved on? If not, where is she gadding about? If you check your ephemeris, you can also probably figure out the deceased's future movements. :D

*** Blessed be to those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father.

* Copyright to Coven Rochester

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Entries tagged with divination

Workday: Divination

Geomancy Chart: Travel to London to Meet Sister?

Le Jeu de la Main

Le Grand Jeu de Marie Anne Adelaide LeNormand

Astrology, Prediction

Astrology: Missing Person Case

Cartomancy

Old Oracle Cards

Astrology: Will This Turn Into a Romantic Relationship?

Reading Bones

Reading the Bones

Tarot, Predicting Events

Curse Removal

Astrology: Make Money with Astrological Technique?

Astrology: Returning Witch?

Thus She Spoke To Me

Astrology: Ever Have Children?

Theban Oracle Cards: No Sugar Coating

Witches' Alphabet Oracle Cards

Astrology and Occult Matters