This Podcast Got Me Thinking

Hello and happy October! I am excited that Modern Musings opened the month up with an artes magicae topic such as Palmistry. I have always had a love for anything esoteric, supernatural, and occult. And what better time than the month of October to explore those topics. As we mentioned in the podcast, we are not very experienced with the art of palm reading. I really felt like I was having a sleepover and reading my hands as if I were a teenager. I had a blast participating in that episode and it got me thinking. 

You may or may not know that I have a grimoire. Well, the black cat’s out of the bag. What is a grimoire you might ask?  It is a book of knowledge (some call it a book of shadows) that I am putting together of all things artes magicae, if you will. It comprises all that I am learning, studying and putting to use. I have a little bit of everything in my book from herbs, moon water, affirmations, chakras and tarot. I have a whole section dedicated to divination, but I have not dedicated much of my time to it. After the podcast, I decided that I should move forward with my notes and exploration. 

I have hopes to study and explore many forms of divination, and really get a feel for the ones that interest me the most. There are so many different types of divination, it can be overwhelming. I have a deep interest in knowing where a technique comes from, how it is named, and how it compares in another culture. Let’s just say that when I asked Google how many types of divination there are, and I clicked the link for Wikipedia, I almost fell out of my chair, I counted almost 400!  I was so excited to see the nomenclature and explanation of why some words end in ‘scopia’ and some in ‘mancy’. The reasoning being that ‘scopia’ was more scientific whereas ‘mantia’ is more mystical. Yes, I am a nerd, and etymology excites me!

John William Waterhouse - The Crystal Ball

I hope that we can touch on this topic more in the future. I know all three of us have enjoyed discussing tarot cards, although tarot is my favorite, I would like to know more about reading tea leaves, rune stones, scrying, dowsing rods, and more about tapping into my intuition by opening that so-called third eye. What are your thoughts? I would love to know what you think. Tell us in the comments. 

My Take on Astrology

Hey guys, Christen here. This week on the podcast we dove into the topic of astrology.  Well, I guess you could say we cannonballed into it. I know that the three of us,  Amber, Cindy and I, really enjoy discussing topics like astrology, numerology, tarot, crystals, and spiritualism. There are so many topics that I know we want to discuss, and during the podcast we  sometimes barely scratch the surface. 

Observing  the Earth’s position with regards to the sun, stars and moon has been a practice for thousands of years. Only in the last few centuries has that science diverged into astronomy, leaving astrology in the dust. Many consider astrology to be a pseudoscience.  There was a strong pull away from astrology when scientists argued that it could not be proven by fact. Ultimately, once we were able to prove that the earth revolves around the sun, the two “sciences” split ways, and astrology became the scientific fact, and anything else is considered pseudoscience and parapsychology. So Capernicus, the leading mathematician and astronomer of his day, decided that he would follow astrological phenomena, and not astrology, and boom, astrology is “fake news”. He was a Pisces (just saying), and he studied at the University of Bologna - no joke! The shift actually happened over a longer period of time, but astronomy phased in and astrology phased out. But astrology has never died. Over the past 200 years, there has been a new wave of interest in the occult, esoteric topics, and parapsychology. In the 1840’s with spiritualism, and in the 1970’s with the New Age movement, many of the beliefs within astrology have seen a resurgence and are still followed today.

Even so, I will sometimes swap out the words astrology and astronomy by mistake. I have always enjoyed the study of outer space and the ideas of the beyond pertaining to astronomy, the study of space and the universe, but astrology is a topic that has piqued my interests far beyond the facts and figures of astronomy. I was drawn to it at a young age. I know we have mentioned that my mom used to have some books by Linda Goodman, Sun Signs and Love Signs , that went into detail about each zodiac personality type. I discovered those books and was hooked. 

When I got older, I bought a book for myself that I highly recommend called The Secret Language of Birthdays: Your Complete Personology Guide for Each Day of the Year by Goldschneider and Joost. This book features a two-page, in-depth personality report for each day of the year. I have lugged this book from home to home, and it was always a favorite when guests came over. I could almost guarantee that someone would open it and take a look. I often would crack it open myself if I met a new person and happened to know their birthdate. It was an easy way to “get to know'' someone without having to be too nosey.

I will admit though that using the book, or any horoscope, zodiac website, or book to discern a person’s characteristics is not the best way to get to know someone. In reality, it can create a biased opinion of someone, and cause you to inadvertently treat them differently than you would if you had met them and learned about them organically. It is like knowing the future or a possible future outcome, and making different choices based on something that might or might not happen in reality. For example, I know that people born under the Cancer sign are prone to be temperamental according to many personality trait sources, however one Cancer in my life that I am very close to is probably one of the most level-headed people that I know; I actually admire her for it. Had I read that she was temperamental, I probably would have avoided her, and missed out on an opportunity to build the relationship that I have with her today. I know another Cancer, and love-her-to-death, she has a volatile personality that is easily triggered. Cool as a cucumber and volcanic emotions are far from similar, yet they both have the same astrological sign. I have to consider Nature vs. Nurture and wonder how their environment and raising come into play. But I digress... astrology is a tool, and just like a hammer, you can build things, and you can smash things, so use the tool wisely.

Another tool that interests me is Witches’ Almanacs. I have never purchased one, but I am thinking of getting one this year. Very soon actually. The LLewellyn’s 2023 Magical Almanac should be available here in July, from my favorite publishing company, Llewellyn. This almanac, like the Farmer's Almanac, gives the reader guidance based on the sun, moon, and stars, but from a metaphysical approach. If any of this interests you, I recommend checking it out. I have used the internet to pull dates and put them into my own day planner in the past, so I look forward to adding this to my planning rituals. 

I will be sure to follow up once I get one and look forward to sharing it with our readers. I would love for you to share as well. We love to carry the conversation over to our MMC chat group on Facebook. I hope that you enjoy listening to our podcasts as well, if you are not listening, then you are missing out on part of the conversation. Be sure to click on the Listen link at the top of this page or find us on Apple Music or wherever you get your podcasts. We also have a YouTube channel where you can listen to the podcast or watch an instructional video.