Divination in and of itself can be classed as a ritual on its own so we may not always see divination as a tool for doing, or even part of, a ritual. This is what I felt was the main point of this group ritual: to reconnect with divination in a way that allowed me (and the other Priestesses) to connect directly with Spirit, rather like the Oracle of Delphi.
The Oracle of Delphi was a single woman who was consulted by any person, from emperors to peasants, about any important event or choice within their lives. She literally sat at the centre of the city of Delphi as well as the great Greek empire. I find this role very interesting because at the time, it was a very male dominated world and they would seek counsel from a woman! Quite literally, she held the position of the greatest political and social influence, and at the same time, because she was a very visual and vocal link to the gods, she was treated with the utmost respect.
It was a very interesting ritual to be part of because we sort of dressed the part at one point - in the photo above, I'm sitting wearing a scarf as a veil that I could still see out of but which appeared to shield my physical self from view, allowing my Higher Self to connect and be heard instead. This is the same scarf that I wore during this ritual. (Yes, I'm a crazy cat lady but am I the one who's crazy or are my cats the crazy ones?)
As always, Emily always offers elements of the start of the ritual to us for us to do and sort of get familiar with, even if it's something that we've never done before. I volunteered to cast our protective circle and I chose to connect with the Divinatory energies held within the Third Eye chakra. By casting the circle, I wanted to connect our individual Third Eyes, or our Higher Selves, to each other but also to those who came before us by visualising the Third Eye area being full of its energy, holding it in our hands and expanding this energy until it became big enough to touch the energies of others and then became big enough to hold all of us within it and all those who came before strengthening it as well.
When it came time at the end to open the circle, I envisioned a reversal of casting the circle but because we called our own Third Eye energies back to ourselves, we still carry this protective energy in the rest of our lives. So it's not as if we've cast the energy off when the circle is opened, we're just connecting with it on a deeper level than usual.
This feeling was mirrored in the actual ritual because we started off by connecting with the "in-between space", the true spirit realm where, in my own experience, everything is heightened and more vivid, particularly colours and energies. When I shift my consciousness into this space, and I've done this a few times when channelling the spirits of people and meditating, I physically feel out of place; when my arms are resting comfortably on my table, they feel like they are further away from my head than they actually are; the edges of my body don't always feel like they exist, almost like they are a part of the Greater Consciousness found within this "in-between space". Until today, I felt like I was going a bit mad but as soon as Emily explained what my experience was, it all made sense and clicked into place. Finally, I knew what it was that was happening and what it really means for me as a witch.
We had to familiarise ourselves with this place so that we could return to this state in the second part of the ritual. It started with a visualisation of walking along a path that led up to a rock wall, made of red sandstone in my mind's eye, with an opening that had a guard on either side. These two guards presented themselves as a mix of Greek, Roman and Indian in their garb and carrying a spear each. The opening in the rock wall was just wide enough to walk through and this is what I did after pausing before the guards who uncrossed their spears to allow me entry.
Once I'd passed through the opening, I was faced with stone steps that led down to the energetic heart of the whole place. As I progressed down these steps, I could literally feel the stone humming and vibrating with the energy that was overflowing from deep within. The energy felt like it was the past, the present and the future all flowing, resonating and weaving through the whole place.
At the bottom of the steps, there was a room that had four shadow-shrouded figures kneeling on the floor with the entire space being lit by hidden torches. It felt like they had been waiting for me to arrive before anything could happen. There was a fifth spot on the floor that was mine and I made my way to it and knelt comfortably.
This was the point where we each drew our physical veils over our heads to be the tangible moment where we stepped into the role of seer as well as return to the in-between space/realm. During this part, Emily asked us questions that we had all individually brought to the ritual that we wanted answers to - we were literally consulting the Oracles, the five figures in the room, an important question. Mine was: Will creaating and having a witch's garden help me to focus and organise myself and my energy?
The answers I received were very positive, including that one of my fellow Priestesses felt that I would have a large amount of Lavender. What she didn't know is that Lavender is one of my favourite herbs - the scent helps to calm me and send me off to sleep (there's a reason it's in commercial sleep products) and this is the plant that I'd love to have a steady harvest of every year so that I can share with other British witches. I do have a variety of seeds that I'm hoping to grow this year and Lavender is one of them.
One of the other ideas that my fellow Priestesses mentioned was that I should maybe consider prioritising rather than organising myself which I think is interesting as some of the things that I do online can take over my life but because they keep me busy, I don't mind. I do feel that I need to prioritise certain aspects more and now I will use planting and growing my own garden to help me.
Another idea that came up regarding my question was that I need to focus. Whenever I have previously attempted to keep a plant alive, I think I lost focus and that's why their either died or just didn't grow to an adult plant. So I have been proactive and downloaded an app that should help me to keep my plants alive as long as possible. I do have some plant pots ready to use as I have a balcony area and not an actual garden so the pots can be hung on the top railing to make the most of my west-facing balcony.
Growth was another idea that came through and I absolutely love this because I can use growing the plants to further my own growth through learning how to take care of the plants as well as how I can use them in spellwork. Ideally, I want to grow closer to the earth and learn how to take care of it. I think growing my own plants will also help me to grow as a person so that I can blossom myself when the time is right, if ever that happens, as I feel we can always learn, grow and evolve more as we go through life.
As I participated in this as a third party observer of the question, I actually got the idea of roots, growing them and putting them down where I live. This is interesting because I have lived here since Summer 2017 and it's the first place that I've lived for more than 2 years while also being my own home that I don't share with anyone else (apart from my cats but I love them and wouldn't not have them).
Once everyone's questions had been asked of the Oracles, we departed as individuals from the sacred place, removing our physical veils to symbolise the reverse transition from divine Oracle seer-self back to our "mundane" selves. As I got up to leave, I heard and felt the message: "Don't go", which was interesting because the place felt like home to me.
This was a really intriguing and different experience for me and I loved being a part of this. I hope that this inspires you to explore this aspect that lives within you, because it does live within each of us and we can connect if that is our intention and wish.
Peace and love to all!
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