What is Scrying?

Scrying can be performed utilising any number of different surfaces, from tea leaves to crystal balls, even to shag-pile carpets, the basic technique being similar in all cases.  By using or 'attuning to' an external source or object, you can enhance the peace and stillness required to start the visions.

The scryer gazes steadily into the scrying surface, eventually being able to pick out an odd shape or image in/on the surface.  Those surfaces which provide a random, high contrast visual texture, such as dark tea leaves in a white teacup are particularly good for the first stage of the scrying process.  However, it would seem that the vividness of the images formed in this way probably tend to divert the scryer's attention from the purely mental images that should appear automatically, thus disrupting or preventing any 'natural flow of ideas'.

Smooth, neutral surfaces, such as those to be found in a bowl of still water, a crystal ball, or a black mirror, although providing relatively few visual clues to get you started, will almost certainly help to make the transition to mental imagery much quicker if you persist.  The visual surface will obligingly fade into the background with some surprising and remarkable effects.  My Aspects of the Occult CD contains a PDF document explaining how to make your very own scrying mirror very cheaply.

Traditional scrying is usually associated with such rituals as blessing the apparatus and asking for help in its use.  These are considered to be aids to focusing and tuning yourself in.  This preparation is apparently just as important as the scrying process since it helps to make the act itself easier by preparing the mind and opening up channels which allow you to operate better.

Many people find candlelight very useful when learning the art of scrying as it creates great imagery and shadows upon the reflective surface, thus allowing you more opportunities to interpret the visions.  As with all forms of scrying, when viewing imagery in a crystal ball it is necessary to view them as symbols since not everything comes through in the form of a 'video image'.  There is usually a degree of interpretation required, which is where skill is required and where practice helps you to achieve better results.

As with all psychic matters do not allow any conscious logic to interrupt the thought or visual processes, something much easier said than done!

People have been scrying for centuries, from ancient times through to the modern day.  One of the most famous during the 16th century, and even more renowned nowadays, is Michel de Notredame (Nostradamus (1503 - 1566)) who apparently sat on a three-legged brass stool while using a scrying bowl to foresee the future.  One point of interest about Nostradamus is that many scholars suggest this French seer's name was actually Michel de Nostredame or Nostradame, hence the name by which he is known much better, although most spellings tend to prefer the name Notredame.

He published the first volume of his 'Centuries' (100 quatrains - 4-line verses) in Lyon in 1555.  This was to be the first volume of ten, although the tenth contains only 42 quatrains.  His prophecies still fascinate those people today who study them intensely, trying to assign new interpretations to them.  They are available on my Aspects of the Occult CD, both in the translated and the original French versions, and a poem relating to Nostradamus can be read from my Poetry page.

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