A sincere effort
Perseverance"
This was a tiny powerful moment because I found myself reading the definition of how I had earlier in my spiritual life started on a different path wile still retaining my use of scripture - and coming to the spiritual place in which I now live.
I did not buy that book then, but as I continued scanning that "New Age" shelf I came across a marvelous book by Cynthia Giles, "The Tarot: Methods, Mastery and More."
Expecting at first a Tarot "how to" what I discovered was that Giles, who has a Ph.D. specializing in Jungian Studies, was touting the Tarot as a means of self-exploration rather than a means of telling one's own and other's futures.
Among other things, she wrote of divination as a means of expanding ways of knowing one's self, of wellness and rejoining body and mind, of growth uniting body and soul.
I bought that book and read it ... and reread it.
For the next 2-3 years in the 1990's I bought a set of Runes, a Tarot deck, the I Ching book, commenced my exploration ... and found myself amazed.
In all three contexts, that which I learned as "revealed to me through divination tools" was essentially identical -the same information - in each context. I realized then that journaling and techniques that task the mind and imagination creatively became a fascinating and enjoyable labor of love. I found a means of exploring the inner self in a deliberate absence of seeking external mystical sources as portrayed by others who also used these tools. I was not seeking to know the future, or some sort of channeled wisdom.
Carried on independent of the need for outside religious approval based on someone else's magic or assumptions, I found myself further down my path toward a more direct communion with the reality of God than I'd ever intended or anticipated.
In the end, for the most part, I put my Tarot cards and my Runes away, no longer feeling a need for their help. With a greater understanding of myself, I designed another device for divination more in line with how I seem to be wired.
It's a book I built in which I've collected what I consider the most important grains of wisdom I have found. It is also dominated by but not limited to the words of Jesus which I believe to be authentic or close to it. It's a living book in that it grows when I encounter something new that merits inclusion in my Muse Book.
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