Divination and its Objections

Welcome back to this series on Why Divination is Real. In Part 3, we discussed the nature of mind, the great thinkers of idealism and the concept of the unconscious mind. Idealism is the paradigm of thought, consisting of many philosophies, which holds that mind and consciousness, not matter, are the forerunner of existence. The unconscious mind is implied by this paradigm, as the field of potential from which existence manifests.

The concept of the unconscious mind has over the last 130 years or so gradually made its way into the mainstream understanding of mind, as well as of psychotherapy and medicine. The likes of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and others, did much to popularise our knowledge of the unconscious throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries.

Idealism, on the other hand, has not been incorporated to the same degree. Our modern paradigm is still very much based in materialism, the primacy of material. Materialism forms the basis of our current scientific enquiry and wider culture. However, the shortfalls of materialism are becoming undeniable, not least in its theoretical basis in new discoveries, but in its very utility in helping to solve the challenges we face as individuals and in societies at large. Thankfully, many of the theories put forward by the great idealist thinkers cover much of the intellectual groundwork needed to help us each synthesise the virtues of rational thought with connection to the deepest parts of ourselves.

The divination arts – of tarot, astrology, numerology and Kabbalah – serve a vital role in this project. They too are ‘ideas,’ reflecting fundamental, timeless aspects of the human mind. They can provide liberating insight into ourselves and our true nature, help us to resolve our inner conflicts and guide us in overcoming necessary rites of passage. As a product of mind, they provide insight into the nature of mind itself, and offer a map of ‘psychological time,’ with which to navigate the seasons of our lives. Practiced critically and correctly, the four divination arts form the most powerful set of tools for self-knowledge gifted to us by our ancestors.

Materialism and the Rise of Idealism

There are many perfectly understandable reasons as to why the divination arts have been misrepresented and misunderstood for hundreds even thousands of years. But, zooming in on the last three centuries, a key reason has simply been the dominance of materialist thought, for better or worse. At the inception of materialism, there was a pressing need to understand and model our physical reality and to move away from non-empirical and absolutist dogma. It is arguable that this offered more immediate benefits, and that the consequences of unilaterally pursuing a materialist approach to progress were less apparent. Meanwhile the shortfalls of pursuing organised religion in an absolutist way were becoming quite apparent to many. Nonetheless a wave of idealist thinkers, sensitive to the shortfalls of both, began to emerge in Western Europe and made attempts to uncover what lied beneath it all. This included the likes of George Berkeley, Immanuel Kant, Georg Hegel, Johann Fichte, Friedrich Schelling and many more.

Like any model, materialism does not constitute an explanation in itself. To over-identify with materialism is to assume that it offers a permanent solution to our challenges, which is essentially to mistake a map for the territory. This creates challenges for the simple reason that not everything in the territory can be captured by any map. Not even close. It may appear to be right, right and right again, and then it will be very very wrong. 

Nonetheless, the ability to model and manipulate physical reality is a prerequisite for any culture that aspires to provide the means for more people to reach more of their potential. It is contingent on us to find the middle way throughout the following astrological age by harnessing the wholesome aspects of this ability without falling prey to its dangers.

But this requires a psychological transformation at the level of the individual. In order to undergo this transformation, they must first experience the downsides of materialism first hand and the agony of their own greed. A minority of individuals in the west have experienced this in the microcosm of their own lives, which, under conditions of taking responsibility, compel them to more nuanced systems of thought. Now the widespread challenges being faced by greater numbers of people, particularly relating to dysfunctional economies, corrupt monetary systems and the dark side of capitalism, are preparing many of the pre-requisite conditions to compel greater numbers of people to a transcendent system of operating. 

The ‘Achiever’ Stage

Materialism is not just about material per se – it is about rational thought, wrangling with the world, progress through technology, personal achievement, ‘being the best,’ crafting ‘the good life,’ ‘survival of the fittest,’ financial metrics, KPIs, meeting expectations, self-interest, ‘healthy competition,’ and the invisible hand. What could possibly go wrong?

What is being described here at its core is not just a worldview, but a psychological stage. It aligns to what is known as the “Orange” stage in Spiral Dynamics, as well as the “Achiever” stage in Ego Development Theory.

What is often erroneously described in our culture as ‘personal development’ is actually a singular obsession with, and an inflation within, this particular stage of development. What ‘looks like’ progress, according to the prevailing Western cultural persona, is itself often a defence against genuine onward development. The most effective trap is one that looks like a vehicle. Its hallmark is adaptation without transformation. At its best, the ‘Achiever’ stage is a productive and honourable way of creating better circumstances, needing to be integrated into future growth. But at its worst, it is a malignant pathology, a diversion and a trap along the path of true self-knowledge.

What place there is for the divination arts in such a value system, is at best an exoteric system designed for fun, or for placating unintegrated, superstitious inclinations of previous ages. Most of the time, however, they are quickly dismissed as long-debunked tools of ‘fortune-telling’ using ‘supernatural’ means, that are unquestioningly incompatible with the exalted scientific knowledge of today. There is apparently no need to even discuss it. Yet anyone who finds value in the arts, for any degree of self-reflection, is already dangerously close to honouring the existence of an unconscious mind. This, in turn, is leaving the door ajar to idealistic principles.

In this Part, we build on the dual concepts of idealism and the unconscious discussed in Part 3, to examine some of the common objections to the divination arts and their legitimacy that have arisen in our current materialist paradigm. We will see how that, when we incorporate an appreciation of these concepts, that these objections may not be as solid as they first appear through an exoteric or materialist lens.

The Forer Effect

We’ll start with what is perhaps the dominant objection to the arts, understood by anyone who’s ever read a cheesy magazine horoscope and seen through it. Twelve horoscopes are given, one for each zodiac sign, and yet any one of them could seem to apply to you in some situation.

This is known as the Forer (or Barnum) Effect. It refers to the tendency of people to accept general or vague characterisations of themselves and consider them to be accurate. A common criticism of divination arts such as tarot and astrology is that they rely heavily on this effect, producing readings that are so broad or ambiguous that they could apply to many people in many situations. ‘You are just seeing yourself’ in them, one might say.

Now, someone with an appreciation of the unconscious mind and the workings of these arts would agree – you do indeed see yourself and your own assumptions in divinatory readings and charts. That is no accident. To see oneself is the purpose of divination. Consistent with some schools of idealist thought is that, on some level, everything we experience is reflecting a part of ourselves. In this context the divination arts are a tool for reflecting aspects of ourselves that we are not yet conscious of.

The truth is that the content of the unconscious is immeasurable. To object to the arts on these above grounds alone is dangerously close to assuming that one knows everything there is to know about themselves. Which, in turn, is akin to discarding the notion of an unconscious mind and the project of spiritual growth entirely. Whilst it is a natural function of the human mind to project assumptions into our experience, it would be an error to assume that we know what we assume. Coming to know ourselves involves coming to know our assumptions. And the divination arts used correctly can be of immense value in illuminating them.

Imprecision

This fact however only addresses half the objection – the idea that ‘seeing ourselves’ in divination is a flaw and not a benefit. It doesn’t address the issue of precision – the fact that multiple people, of wildly different personalities, can all ‘see themselves’ in identical descriptors. So let’s address the other half of this objection more precisely.

It is true that in principle all people can recognise aspects of themselves in any and all divinatory descriptors. All aspects of all elements of personality and experience, as reflected in the arts, do indeed apply to all people to some degree. In Part 2 we discussed how the 16 Court Royal cards of the tarot, for example, can at once represent different individuals or different aspects of the same individual.

What would be truly preposterous would be to suppose that a particular individual had zero capacity for kindness, for intellect, for sensation, for creativity, for intuition, for introversion or extraversion. What would such an individual even appear to us like?

“There is no such thing as a pure introvert or extrovert. Such a person would be in the lunatic asylum.”

– Jung

Yet, of course, there are real differences between people that can be usefully mapped. And reflecting generic traits common to all individuals is not where the main utility of divination lies. In order for us to understand the full usefulness of divination, it can help us to delineate these differences between people more precisely.

To this end, there are four categories that I find useful as a way to think about traits, as well as the evolution of an individual’s traits throughout the journey of individuation. These four categories are as follows:

  1. Possibilities – character traits that are sometimes exhibited, or have some theoretical potential to be exhibited under certain conditions. Essentially, this is all traits in all people.
  2. Tendencies of behaviour – character traits that we tend to behave as. These are differentiated behaviours, often in line with expectations placed upon us and not necessarily how we would naturally prefer to behave. Although they may be how we want to be seen by others.
  3. Preferences – character traits that we have a leaning or a preference towards. Also a differentiated behaviour, but not necessarily how we tend to behave when under pressure of perceived expectations of others.
  4. Individuated – traits that are an authentic reflection of our whole, undivided nature, and the unique value that we have to offer. These are consistent with Jung’s ideas on the transcendent function, and involve a synthesis of our core qualities and their opposites.

Whilst there is overlap between all four of these categories of traits and behaviour, it’s important to be able to delineate between them. In doing so we can understand that everybody has the free will and capacity to behave in any and all ways if they choose, at least fleetingly. But that is not the same as having an inherent talent, nor a preference for behaving that way, nor it being exhibitive of your whole and unified personality.

The Process of Growth

These four categories of traits also loosely outline the process by which awareness of our traits develops through individuation. Early in the process, it may be tempting to identify with just about every possible description found in one’s astrology or Tarot Birth Chart (at least the flattering ones). We might recall situations when we behaved in an outgoing way, an introverted way, an energetic way, times we were emotional, times we thought hard about something and times when we had to embody some physical ability or craft. All of these are aspects of everyone’s character and hence are part of the Self. So it is no surprise when one can find some way to identify with any and all descriptors.

Beyond that, however, one notices that they tend to behave in certain ways and not others, and they would be forgiven for mistakenly identifying with those tendencies. More often than not, however, our tendencies for behaviour prior to individuation are largely confined by the expectations placed on us, during our upbringing, by our family, friends, wider culture and not least the workplace. We behave how we want others to see us, and how we think they expect us to behave.

These tendencies of behaviours however can be quite distinct from what are our natural preferences for behaviour, although there is usually some overlap. An attempt to capture such dynamics of preference, as well as mark out pathways for growth, can be found in the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality assessment method. A primary reason for people being mistyped under the MBTI is this very conflation of how they behave, what others expect of them, and how they would prefer to behave. One of the core benefits of such tools is that they help to shine a light on the differences between our behaviour and our preferences. This feature alone makes the MBTI a valuable instrument in the pursuit of self-knowledge.

However, discovering our true preferences, whilst vital, is itself not the end goal of individuation. Behaving solely in line with our preferences can also lead to one-sidedness and conflict. For example, someone with a preference for “introverted thinking” in the Myers Briggs system cannot attain to wholeness simply by doubling down on “introverted thinking” alone. There will be much they are missing out on in life, and a large part of them will know it.

To resolve this, they must synthesise the opposite trait, which in this example would be technically described as “extroverted feeling.” Without integrating some “extraverted feeling” into the conscious ego, this part of them will continue to serve as a major source of conflict, manifesting challenges in life and producing a perpetual sense of separation from the True Self.

Growing into the True Self requires us to use our preferred traits consciously and non-defensively. That, in turn, is predicated on the integration of our opposing aspects that have been hidden in the unconscious. The journey requires us to keep evolving. It never requires the same task of us two days in a row. In much the same way as in the example given, individuation requires that we both embrace the energies of our core qualities, reflected in our significator cards, astrological chart and personality type, whilst also learning to mitigate their pitfalls and avoid using them in a one-sided or ego-defensive way.

The Role of Responsibility and Intention

At this point I must highlight the importance of responsibility and intention when seeking self-knowledge through divination. If the intention is to bolster one’s ego, and there is little conscious interest in genuine spiritual growth, then of course one will be more inclined to see aspects of themselves in the most flattering elements of any and all readings and descriptors.

The negative is also true. If there is a defensive, egoic drive to put another down – to engage in power games – then one can readily notice and highlight negative traits from any descriptor as apparently applying to the target individual, regardless of their genuine applicability or the legitimacy or accuracy of the methodology used.

We can see how exoteric, surface level divination, such as that found in typical magazine horoscopes, market primarily to the egoic intentions of the reader, rather than to a sincere desire for upwards differentiation and individuation. They generally offer little by way of specific or useful information or divinatory utility.

However, where there is a deliberate and genuine intention to realise aspects of the Self, then divination will ultimately carry the individual ebbing and flowing towards a more nuanced understanding of ‘who they are’ and, ultimately, its realisation. Responsibility and intention are of vital importance which is why they are captured in Habits 1 and 2 respectively of the Seven Habits of Individuation.

So it is entirely possible that someone might identify with any and all aspects of a description, but their propensity to do so depends on the extent of their individuation, their level of self-awareness, their prevailing intention, and their willingness to take responsibility for their mind. By thinking about traits in the ways described above, we can be more precise in our understanding of what exactly a divinatory reading might be reflecting about ourselves or our clients, and how the development of these traits might unfold in sequence.

The divination arts can help facilitate every step of this journey. They are, again, not there to prescriptively ‘tell you who you are,’ but are tools for insight and reflection so that you can realise who you are. The idea is not to cling to certain aspects of yourself, or to build a persona around them, but to use them for facilitating self-realisation.

Making disparate apparent traits or choices conscious enables us to find what is really true about us, or a given situation. By bringing unconscious aspects to light, whilst cultivating wholesome intentions, these apparent contradictions can be synthesised, our way forward becomes clear and we reduce our tendency to see ourselves, others and situations through the lens of our attachments and unquestioned assumptions. There is, as it turns out, an ultimate truth beneath it all, in the mind of spirit.

Non-Definitive Results

So this goes some way to explain why multiple people might resonate to varying extents with the same descriptors. But what about the fact that apparently mature and well-developed people sharing similar features in their chart are also highly-differentiated, seemingly presenting very different traits, behaviours, lifestyles, professions, etc?

Clearly the divination arts cannot be approached or function like a ‘science’ in the sense of modern materialist science, which is built on testability and repeatability. Of course, if you mix lithium and water, a more-or-less singular outcome can be produced. However causes and conditions of mind can not work in such a linear way. Imagine if they did, it would be a very odd world.

There are in fact an infinite number of ways in which any underlying principle of mind can manifest, in line with the idealist paradigm and the concept of the unconscious. And we need not look very far to see ‘evidence’ of this fact. The entire study of symbolism, for example, is predicated on it. Look at how, whilst distinct cultures develop very differently in their physical representations, there are underlying themes giving rise to them which are quite universal, not least in the multitude of world religions.

This truth is the very basis for Jung’s theories of the collective unconscious and the archetypes, as well as the Hero’s journey as depicted by Joseph Campbell. It is the reason we enjoy myth and stories, why we like movies, and why there are certain formulas in them that just ‘work.’ It is why some pieces of art resonate with more people more than others. We can deduce this truth from our dreams, imagination and memories, where it is rare for the exact same depiction to appear more than once, yet it often re-appears in new forms. The concept of the unconscious, for example, may be represented through dreams in countless ways: as a dark room, a cave, an ocean, a well or a basement beneath a house. These are all expressions of the same underlying principle, appearing symbolically in multiple ways.

It would be impossible to have a world as we know it where this was not the case, but where only single, predictable and repeatable manifestations of the same idea were possible. It certainly wouldn’t be very diverse, and art itself would be non-existent. There would, in essence, be little depth to the unconscious and therefore little depth to our conscious experience either.

In much the same way, different people who share certain influences in their Tarot Birth Charts will all embody that energy in very different ways.

Let’s imagine three individuals who each share the Four of Disks as their Purpose Card. Each would express the energy represented by this card in different ways.

The Four of Disks is a card that relates to structure, organisation and material security.

One of these three individuals might choose to build a career as a dentist, opening and establishing their own successful but nonetheless independent and local practice. Another might choose to enter a career in corporate accountancy and operate within a wider organisational structure. Whereas a third might be perfectly content working a modest manual job, provided that they are in control of their world and have sufficient resources to cater for the needs of their family. All of these, whilst looking very different on the surface, could be expressions of the same energy represented by the Four of Disks.

Now compare all three of these seemingly different individuals to a fourth individual who is signified by, say, the Two of Swords as their Purpose Card, and you might get a sense of how different the three are from the one, and the essence that unifies them.

Observing the similarities in this way between multiple people who share the same significators in their chart, far from being proof of their inaccuracy, can be a powerful way to grasp the deeper, non-prescriptive essence of what a chart or reading is really reflecting. Words, like cards, numbers and astrological signs, are mere descriptors that signify an underlying energy or truth. Descriptions offered in reports, books, readings, or anywhere, are not to be taken prescriptively, but used as signposts for this kind of insight. Of course, in the absence of a concept for the unconscious mind, nothing I am saying here would make any sense.

Now compound this with the fact that few people are living in alignment with their significators.

Most are not living according to their blueprint – their Star Sign Card, their Purpose Card their Destiny Card, their Rising Sign – nor in line with their numerological forecast over time. Understanding the discrepancies between how they are living now, vs. what living authentically would mean, is a key element in coaching, including shadow work, and for which the divination arts serve an invaluable role.

Innumerable Influences

Another factor behind the manifest differences between people is simply that every individual is a representation of countless different influences – not just a star sign or even the 12-16 cards in a typical Tarot Birth Chart.

Consider for a moment the staggering complexity of our DNA, which itself cannot determine destiny. Then consider the vast multitude of unique experiences that each individual has gone through. Clearly a tarot or astrological chart is not going to delineate every nuance of an individual, and neither is it intended to. The very nature of a description or symbol is that it is a manifestation of something deeper and that no individual can be wholly captured in it – certainly not in words, and not even by a series of meaningful images. These things are all derivative of the wholeness and realness that is there.

Nonetheless, many of the manifest differences between individuals who share elements in their charts can be seen in the differing aspects of their respective Tarot Birth Charts. Earlier I used the example of three individuals each sharing the Four of Disks as their Purpose Card. Each of these people would likely have other cards in their chart, namely in the Destiny Card and Planet Card positions, which may account for many of the differences in their behaviour, preferences and potential.

The Purpose Card however is often of particular interest, because it is a card you share with less than 3% of the global population. So on its own it already provides a fairly nuanced and meaningful depiction of a key force at play in your character, that influences your particular challenges and potential. Your Star Sign Card, on the other hand, is shared by a larger portion of the population (approximately 8%) in the same position.

Lack of Standardisation

So far, I have discussed how approaching the divination arts with the scientific method is not the correct way to understand them. Not because they cannot be understood, and not because there’s something inherently wrong with the scientific method, but because to do so would be to project entirely the wrong presumptions into our understanding.

Divination is not a tool for modelling physical reality in the prescriptive and repeatable way required of science. It is a tool for self-discovery, that reflects back aspects of ourselves that we are not conscious of. Now, in the absence of knowledge of the unconscious mind – and believing that there isn’t really anything more to know about ourselves as individuals, organisations or societies – then one might assume the divination arts to be mere superstition, born out of nothing more than an inferior and immature understanding of reality. 

Yet, it would be nothing short of denial at this point in time to attempt to reject the idea of an unconscious mind, and equivalent concepts, even within mainstream scientific circles. And once we open ourselves up to this simple but transformative idea, we tacitly open the floodgates to a whole new paradigm of thought including idealist principles.

With that all said, there is a degree of ‘correctness’ and ‘standardisation’ that must be applied in practice of the divination arts. Many of the criticisms around their lack of standardisation are valid. There are, for example, multiple ‘kinds’ of tarot deck, many ‘kinds’ of astrology, many interpretations of numerology and so on, many of which are illegitimate. This is much to the dismay of committed students of esoteric matters, who understand that these deviations on the arts are flawed as meaningful maps of the psyche.

In a sense, one can ‘see themselves’ in anything – a Rorschach test, tea leaves, the palm of their hand, a walk down the street, the markings on the ground. The human mind can make meaning out of anything. This is a feature, not a bug. For those undergoing individuation, seeking meaning and to discover themselves through experience, everyday life is like a tarot reading. Synchronicities abound.

But for tools deliberately intended to facilitate this process – the four divination arts – it is necessary that they accurately and comprehensively reflect the nature of human experience as it is, and in its most essential symbolic form. For this reason, there is a ‘correct’ way of standardising these arts, which must strike a synthesis between truthfulness and comprehensiveness on one hand, and of remaining symbolic and non-prescriptive on the other. Maintaining this middle has been part of the art and skill of the custodians of the divination arts over the millennia, and the measure by which they have succeeded. Each has been tasked with upholding the art’s esoteric integrity, whilst also ensuring their symbols are relevant to the current and upcoming ages. In the realm of the tarot, such custodians include the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and Arthur E Waite – who created the famous Rider Waite tarot deck, with artwork by Pamela Colman Smith – and of course Aleister Crowley who created the Thoth tarot deck, with artwork by Lady Frieda Harris.

There are many factors in what constitutes a correct and standardised divinatory tool. Way more than can be covered within the scope of this series. Nonetheless, I have touched on some of them – the 3×4 structure of the psyche, mapped to the 12 signs of the zodiac as the four modalities of consciousness each divided into three distinct states. This was discussed in Part 2. Also, for example: psychological time and the unfolding of all creation into distinct, logically progressing phases, as mapped by numerology; The ‘Path of the Fool,’ as symbolised by the 22 major arcana of the tarot; the division of the minor arcana of the four modalities into the numerical sequence of 1-10, which map onto the Kabbalistic Tree of Life; and the 16 court cards, symbolic of the multitude of traits that exist in every individual, and the fact that every modality contains at least a little bit of every other modality. It is no coincidence that the sum of all numbers up to 12 (the four modalities into three states), equals 78 – the total number of cards in the tarot.

To attempt to wrangle with any of these fundamental cornerstones would be to detract from the art’s real purpose and integrity as understood in the Western Tradition. It would be to no longer map the psyche as it is, but rather to attempt to bend the psyche to the ego. It would be, knowingly or not, to misrepresent the underlying structure of the mind. It would be consistent with a materialist attitude towards the mind, and not a direct or esoteric understanding of it.

Given all these factors, there is bound to be variation in standards across practice of the divination arts. Many of these are indeed born out of incorrect understanding of the arts, their workings and the structure of mind. However, even among dedicated students of the arts there are naturally differences of interpretation – as exemplified by the visual and structural differences between the Rider Waite and Thoth tarot decks, for instance. This is, ultimately, the nature of dealing with subjective matters.

Conclusion

Overall, this article has aimed to show how and why the divination arts aren’t necessarily going to produce linear, direct, unambiguous answers in the manner of a scientific experiment, or in the way the analytical part of the mind wants, and they are not intended to. Divination is a tool for self-knowledge. The idea is to provide a template to explore and realise yourself through them, not to prescribe ‘who you are.’ Ultimately, “you” is not a set of cards or an astrological chart. These are merely representations that point to an underlying reality. Even the symbols can never quite get at it, let alone the language we today use to write about it. That reality is what is ultimately realised.

Like a good counsellor, the real gift of the divination arts does not lie in their ability to tell you everything you already know or that you want to hear, but in their ability to help you access the answers inside of you, take responsibility for your mind and challenges, make your own decisions, resolve what needs to be resolved and offer guidance into the psychological climate. To do otherwise would be to deprive you of the journey and benefits of individuation.

When faced with a chart or reading, it is common to ask ‘what does it mean?’ But a better question might be: ‘what does it represent?’ Or even ‘what does it reflect about my mind?’ This applies not just to practice of divination, where such meaningful contact is deliberately induced, but any meaningful encounter or synchronicity we experience.

Much of what we deem to be an understanding of the world in modern science is not really best described as ‘understanding’ at all, but modelling. That is not to downplay the vast utility of modelling reality – only to make the point that problems arise when we falsely regard a model as an explanation or truth. In doing so we over-identify with the model and fail to synthesise its exceptions in key moments.

Whilst exploring in this Sagittarian manner and testing the extremes of our mental models are vital for individuation, much of the desire to grasp at new and ever-more intricate models of reality, under the guise of explaining it, are really suggestive of an aversion to the real work that is to make the unconscious conscious, and of coming to truly understand ourselves and existence through this process. Correct practice of divination does not necessarily give us explicit answers, but helps move our minds towards wholeness.

In this article I discussed some of the common objections to the validity of the divination arts when viewed through a materialist lens, including those relating to the Forer effect, ambiguity and a lack of standardisation. I have explained how many of the objections to the validity of the divination arts are to be expected as bi-products of how they really work, as a set of systems for facilitating self-knowledge, and the misunderstandings around that. What would be truly unworkable would be to expect that you could reduce the entire essence of a person, a situation or any element of reality, into a mere label or collection of labels – that a ‘whole’ could ever be entirely captured, as opposed to represented, by a symbol. And yet this does not negate the indispensable value of symbols in personal transformation and growth.

As with all discussions, there is truth on both sides of the ‘is divination real?’ dialectic. There are legitimate concerns into the workings of divination and the ways it is practiced from materialist camps. There are also profoundly useful applications of divination when approach correctly and with an appreciation of psychological realities and the individuation process. There is so much more that could be said on this topic, but this article has addressed some of the core issues, and offered a perspective on why many of the objections to the arts are misplaced.

If after reading this there are still some key objections you feel were not covered, and you would like to contribute to the dialectic, feel free to enter a comment or share your thoughts on social media.

With that all said, I hope you have enjoyed reading Part 4 of this series of Why Divination is Real. If you like what you read and are interested to know more, you can