Divination: Mercury & Neptune

The Mercury square Neptune aspect was exact yesterday and still in close contact evoking possibilities of downloading information from divine realms. Neptune rules the upper worlds of our experience and those that connect us with imagination or inspiration beyond our Earthly realm of what we can know with our senses. In its shadow expression, it can have poor boundaries or blur the lines between what is fantasy and reality causing anxiety and confusion. Neptune is also connected to divination and practices of gathering wisdom and knowledge by supernatural means. "Divine" comes from Proto-Indo-European root dyeu- meaning "to shine," and derives from the word for "sky, heaven, god." With Neptune moving into retrograde June 16-November 22 of this year, this phase can offer a "do-over" for hearing messages and musings beyond our own conscious awareness. Be on the look out for dreams, intuitive hits, or somatic messages that point to information you may have missed before. Retrogrades are a wonderful time to look at the more difficult aspects of a planet to bring them into balance. In addition, this retrograde could be a powerful time to heal your own relationship to divination tools or find one that works the best for you.

What are your favorite divination tools or what might you want to revisit during this Neptune Retrograde? Here are some of my favs and also some ideas, including some wacky ones I really want to try out:

• Ailuromancy (observing the behavior of cats)

• Alomancy (spilled salt patterns)

• Apantomancy (interpreting objects as they cross your path)

• Astrology (my personal fav obvi!)

• Augery (bird patterns)

• Belomancy/Bolomancy (shooting, tossing, or balancing an arrow)

• Bibliomancy (opening book to random page)

• Botanomancy (burning leaves, tree branches, herbs)

• Chiromancy/Palmistry

• Dowsing

• Geomancy (ancient practice of drawing symbols with sticks on the Earth)

• Hieromancy/Hieroscopy (interpreting burnt offerings or slaughtered animals)

• I-Ching

• Iridology (Divination through observing the iris of the eye)

• Moleosophy (interpretation of moles on the body)

• Numerology

• Ouija Board

• Pallomancy/Pendulum

• Phyllorhodomancy (sound made by slapping a rose petal against the hand)

• Runes

• Scrying (seeking a vision while gazing into a transparent, translucent, or otherwize reflective object, like a crystal ball)

• Selenomancy (appearance and phase of the moon)

• Tarot

• Tea Leaves/Tasseography/Tasseomancy