🪞 Weekly Witchy CHALLENGE - The Art of Scrying

[Susurrus]

Challenge Entry

Inspired by @brandy20 because I got curious about the history & uses over the ages

The use of crystal balls has been recorded back to at least the 1st century & even today are used by psychics, fortune tellers, & mediums as a tool for fortune telling & clairvoyance. Clairvoyance: - perceiving things or events in the future or beyond normal sensory contact.

They have been traced back to Ancient Rome by the Roman Pliny the Elder, they were described as being used by ‘soothsayers’ & the balls themselves were called “crystallum orbis” then later as “orbuculum”. Over the next several hundred years the practice was widely accepted by the Romans & then it was condemned by the Catholic Church as being specifically mentioned in the Bible in The Book of Deuteronomy 18:14, where it says: “for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this.”

Around the same time, the Druids of the British Isles were also using crystal balls for scrying & seeing into the future. However, the practice basically vanished for a while once the Romans annexed Great Britain & all but wiped out the Druids & Pagans.

Between the centuries 500 & 1500 crystal balls were more decorative, however there were some throughout Europe that still practiced crystallomancy while keeping it hidden from the church. According to stories of the time, the great wizard Merlin carried one with him however, it’s still in question whether Merlin was a true historic figure or one passed down through stories, myths, & lore.

As mentioned in @brandy20 challenge entry, Queen Elizabeth I reignited the use of the crystal ball for fortune telling through her advisor John Dee. He used a Black Obsidian ball to scry & believed that he was receiving messages from various Angels & Demons then shared his findings with the queen. Once it became more widely accepted occult practitioners began to read things by Indian & Arabic writers such as The Picatrix which was written around the 11th century about astrology & magic. This gave other gazers support that it was a legitimate tool for telling the future.

When the Roma people migrated from India to Europe they were ostracized by the church however, many were drawn to seeking them out for their fortune telling. At first the crystal ball wasn’t what they typically used, but due to the European popularity of the crystal ball, they started to accept the use of it & since they were easy enough to transport they became a staple of their fortune telling services. After that the Roma people became widely associated with the crystal ball & fortune telling.

From the 19th century on crystal gazing became a fashionable practice, as well as all things related to the occult & spiritualism. “One of the most famous was the American Claude Conlin, who performed as “Alexander, the Man Who Knows.” A stage “mentalist,” Conlin used the crystal ball to magically answer sealed questions from audience members. Performing between 1915 and 1924, Conlin may have originated the image of the crystal ball gazer wearing flowing robes and a turban.”

During the 20th century, Jeane Dixon became one of the most popular psychics that used a crystal ball & would make political predictions. “In 1956 she correctly predicted Kennedy’s assassination. She later advised Richard Nixon and Nancy Reagan. After her death, Dixon’s crystal ball was auctioned off to the tune of $12,000.”

Now within the 21st century crystal balls are a popular tool among Neo-Pagan, New Age, & other belief systems & still used by psychics, mediums, & fortune tellers alike.

→ Information from the article Origins & Uses of the Crystal Ball on Learn Religions by Lisa Jo Rudy in February 2020

[tracyS]

Fabulous. So old and yet survived the test of time. Thank you for sharing.

[tracyS]

@Ancient_Queen My daughter would like to try scrying with a black mirror, can she just paint mirror with black glass paint or is it something else to make the mirror? Thankyou lovely

[Ancient_Queen]

@tracyS - Merry Meet Tracy,
You use black paint.
I followed the instructions in How to Make and Use a Magic Mirror by Donald Tyson.
It is a great book. The book goes into how you can charge it with lunar magnetism, and rituals to aid in the mirror’s efficiency. I did all of these and the mirror works great.

[tracyS]

Yes, I found 1 copy on amazon, £36.00 and not even new. And itll be gone by the time I write this

[Susurrus]

@tracyS we have a couple of topics on black mirrors & creating one:

→ Scrying Mirrors
→ Scrying Questions

From what I can tell, you can paint the mirror black with black paint too. There’s also a section on the site about using one too that mentions how to make one:

→ Mirrors in Magick: Spells8

[tracyS]

Thankyou, I’ll take a look. Ive never done mirror work.

[MeganB]

@tracyS

I found 1 copy on amazon, £36.00

Siofra shared some great links and I just wanted to pop in a few others that are outside sources

If you’ve got Scribd, there’s a copy on there to read for free! (I have a referral code you can use to get 2 months free if you want: https://www.scribd.com/g/8b11np)

→ Donald Tyson - How To Make and Use A Magic Mirror | PDF

I also have a video on my channel where I made something very similar to a scrying mirror. I use it on my ancestor altar as a placeholder for all the ancestors that I don’t have pictures of.

→ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlL3Fnwbb9A

[Shadeweaver]

Challenge Entry

As I understand it, scrying is yet another way of introspection. To looking in and finding ones true self and answering some of the questions we have asked for lifetimes. There are many other things scrying can do for us, but this is the one I will work on for now. It has been a lifelong quest to find …ME. A pursuit that means a great deal to me.

I have not found a suitable “bowl” for water scrying, but will continue looking. Water has a certain affinity with me, being a water dragon and having a strong water personality.

So, I made a black mirror

Cleansed, consecrated and sat with it. No great revelations as yet. I will continue working with it to see what becomes of my efforts. I feel as though I have done this before, but with meditation and not a “tool” as such. Scrying is new to me and I’m sure it is not a practice that doesn’t take some time to develop and learn. Like so much on this path, it is a learning experience. As a baby witch I have learned that I have much to learn. I thank you all for bearing with me and allowing me to learn from you.

[Phoenix_Rose]

**Challenge entry **

I lit a black candle and set up my black mirror. I cast a circle, did some deep breathing then stared in front of the mirror. I only used one cable as I found two made it too bright.

As recommended in the post by Francisco, I only tried to scry for 10 minutes. The hardest part was getting my eyes to stop refocusing. Then when I saw little bits of movement in the mirror to stop trying to focus to see, get excited and or think about what I was seeing. I kept breathing and relaxed. There were outlines in light, red mostly, there was movement. There seemed to be a rolling fog. It seemed like there was a constellation being shown, then seemed like feet walking then like there were wings beating. There was definite movement. Not discernable but definitely something I want to go back at do again.

Thanks for the challenge @BryWisteria

[Phoenix_Fire]

**challenge entry **
This might be thinking completely outside the box and maybe its completely off track but here goes. So after saw for week the idea of scrying my envitonment itself to see what messages my home or spirits or energy in home might be teling me. Was thekr patterns was there needs unmet, were there energy clogs or spaces needing cleansing . Was i needing some lil TLC in spaces or did i need some TLC because of how things been lately. Another saturday in and out of consciousnrss all day n id debated what to do for challenge but i decided, yep maybe this was what was going to try.
Maybe sit in each room for a while and look and see and feel whats going on in tgat room. What messages were coming through. What areas felt stagnant. I knkw my altar needs as freshen up for sure n that shows respect to clan n myself. But also looking for patterns in the home where ive been so busy maybe they have been neglected. Im just surviving. But slowely this humpty dumpty is showing the signs of broken inside around her. Clothes constantly falling aparr and not replaced, no time to cleanse or clean space, energy or crystals, running out of food all the time. Wirking so hard ive gone through a whole packet of caffeine pills and half paracetamol with caffeine in them plus coffee just to not black out at work. I feel much like a leaf being blown around in the winds of chaos and change and storms amd disaster never getting a chance to stop and ground myself propwly anymore and just observe and see whats going on and maybe make plans based on what i see… esp when im barely getting through the day. So as im off work for a few days ( boss worked hard to try get my days bavk off fulltime) im going ro start in the home and my home environment to see what is goimg on around me. Even if just going into each room and spending some time maybe with candke or inscence or jusr be in room and observe the room, energy etc and see what comes to me, then if i feel a room needs a cleanse or change or if i need to replace sometging. Maybe make a plan. Im still waiting on a full week of pay from nearly 2 weeks ago. So im limited esp as now they changed system without twlling anyone on how to raise flag on pay issue and got told Friday afternoon but eveb then boss still wasnt sure what head office meant, but shed been under impression it had been fixed, but apparemtly ive now got to go raise a tocket n wakt for them to sirt out their mistake n im on a weeks wage for two weeks and all my clothes etc falling apart n i still need food… but in the mean time i can look at whats going on in my home and see wgat i need or whats happening in my home and maybe ill have something on hand alrrady that can help ie cleamsing energy with inscence or essential oils etc, maybe cleaning up or sorting altar. Im still pretty exhausted. So light duties today for self care. I can scan my body enough to know that much.
Maybe scrying an environment or even scryuing own body to see what see and messages there is off tge mark for this challenge so sorry if it is. I see it a bit not looking for flaws but looking for places thst maybr veen neglected and need self care. Scrying to me is looking unto someyhing like flame, warer or space n seeing whar patterns orvmrssages might see.
I was tempted to scry a layout of cards for this one lol, we know i love me cards but i thought id yry this one esp as it seems to be needed. I do feel my home n self has been neglected a bit n as a cottage witch as i feel maybe i connect to at the moment the home is my santuary n place practice magic most. If the home feels off it feels wrong. Also im not sure why n mayve its totally unrelated but the craving for making choc swirl cheesecake has been on my mibd. I have cream cheese but not had energy to maje crackers even. But maybe there is something kitchen witchery i can do with that if my kitchen needs some thing done in there so that i can do more thab just maje protein shakes as thars all i can manage past two days… id like to do some cooking n do more magic in cooking but i barely have strengrh or energy to make a shake yet alone much else. My home feels off n i feel maybe it is just exhaustion. Maybe i need another day to recoop before try too much but something definatly feels ofg in mu unit/‘cottage’ maybe its me, maybe its just thst energy come home with after all the weeks of crap… n built up. but maybe grounding in 'scryung my enrionment ’ ( and even myself) might help see wgereci can fix things or any messages need ot things need to do esp when finally get paid. Its been so long that my next fortnight pay is due to go in this week n only got paid 1 week the previous one… but maybe thjs is a start. . It might be unorthadox form of scrying. Like looking throygh the looking glass to see whats reflected back but i am a little bit weird lol and it jist felt right in this situation and needed. I hadnt realised just how barely i was holding togetger or how much my home felt off till today that i decided yes i need to do this. Hopefully its not too far off fhe matk for this challenge. I might just need to break the spaces of home up for each scrying session so i cam see whats going on in each space. Im not sure if i can do it by finding centrap spot n doing whole unit in one as wont be able to see full unit thar way.

[Phoenix_Rose]

@Nixi

Perhaps it isn’t fair to think of everyone as intolerant but it can be dangerous to think of everyone as tolerant

Well said. I have been caught into this trap

[Nixi]

For those who work with crystal balls - I’m curious, what would you consider an ideal size is for a crystal ball and what do you think is smallest that you would feel comfortable working with?

[tracyS]

For me I go on how the ball feels when I handle it, good to buy from a shop for that. Mine isn’t large, it’s fits in the palm of my hand. There was a bigger one that was just £2 more but didn’t feel right so I went with the little one.

[Nixi]

Thank you so much @tracyS

[crystal59]

That’s a beautiful crystal ball reminds of the one Jareth had in the labyrinth.

[Susurrus]

I have 2, well more than that if you count my crystal spheres I suppose… but they all fit inside the palm of my hand. The crystal & cracked crystal ball that I have for scrying are about that size, I just haven’t tried it yet… one of my apprehensions I suppose.

[Ostara]

Hubby went a bit over board on my crystal ball. It’s the size of a bowling ball and extremely heavy. If I were to drop it, it would go through the floor. I keep it it my bedroom with a purple cloth over it. There was a warning on the box saying if the sun hits it, it could start a fire. I’m not taking any chances

I’m going to work with it today, but I wish I had a smaller one.

[Phoenix_Fire]

**challenge entry 2 **
Ok yeah couodnt help also givibg scrying a full spread of tarot lol bit hard to see on screen shot esp small screen but i thought give it a go, but as laying all cards after mixing had to place eaxh one n a few went side ways oops. But will see if can pick up any messages from this method even if the screen shot iyself hard to see maybe in app can gove it easier go as long as i dont move cards too much trying to zoom in and out lol

This is book of shadows as above deck app incase ppl wonfering. Its hust the one that stuck out when was choosing as as i shuffled cards i spoke domething like

“Help me see what is here
Help the message to be clear
Help me see what i must know
Help the cards wisdom show”

Or something along those lines. Maybe order of how said it different but basically was my chant/spell as shuffled.

[crystal59]

The size of a bowling ball lol that awesome!! I would love to see it. I’ve been looking for a crystal ball myself I would love one that big but I’m afraid it’s a little out of my price range. It sounds like your husband did a great job.