A Recipe for Timing (or “Why Did My Cake Fall?”)
AUTHOR’S NOTE: This essay is not about a Betty Crocker bake-off; it discusses certain event-timing techniques used in divination. But I couldn’t resist the analogy!
Modern bakers who use “fail-safe” pre-mixed aggregates (you know the hype: “just add water”) won’t have a clue what my subtitle is about and will only shoot me a blank stare that says: “Why on Earth would a cake fall? This isn’t the 1950s!” But I’m old enough to know from first-hand experience that an assortment of dry ingredients (flour, sugar, spices, etc.) and wet ingredients (oil, water, eggs and so forth) along with an “activating agent” (usually baking powder) must be present in the correct proportions to guarantee success. The final necessity is an appropriate baking method (get the temperature right, set the oven timer and don’t open the door or abruptly jostle the stove until the batter has “set”). Get anything wrong and you’ll wind up with an inedible, rubbery brick or a deflated, soggy sponge. However, bringing the analogy up-to-date, bakers who try to make chocolate-chip cookies with butter instead of solid shortening soon “wise-up” to the fact that this yields wafer-thin, tan-colored puddles with brown lumps sticking out of them, more “chocolate-chip bark” than anything remotely resembling a cookie.
Similarly, in the realm of timing with any form of divination there is a “recipe” involving crucial ingredients that don’t respond well to substitution: in order of appearance, these are “intention;” “willingness;” and “dedication” on the part of aspirants to pursue an agenda that aligns with the end-date suggested by the reading. First, they must exhibit the conscious intention to aid in the unfolding of events (or in dodging them if deemed unfavorable) within the identified time-frame; next, they must embrace a willingness to put in the effort to achieve the desired effect according to the schedule proposed; and finally, they must exercise dedicated follow-through to see the matter all the way to its anticipated conclusion. Circumstances may still ripen without the querent’s active involvement but they won’t necessarily deliver on time or entirely as envisioned without such an investment.
In the world of cartomancy (tarot, Lenormand, playing-cards), the intention must first be injected into the process of shuffling the deck, and then into acceptance of the responsibility to make the most of the guidance offered by the reading. In predictive astrology it would be a matter of looking at the transits and progressions to the natal planets that have the most to say about responsibility and obligation (Mars, Jupiter and Saturn for starters), and then resolving to “ride them out” to the end of their span. There is a current tendency to look only at transiting “sky patterns” (“Oh no, Mercury is retrograde! Yikes, it’s a Grand Cross!”) but that impersonal approach only tells part of the story.
The willingness to take on an active role in the developing scenario boils down to character. First, is the seeker predisposed to sincerely buy into the results of the reading and act accordingly, or are they just looking for a convenient excuse or “cosmic scapegoat” and an opportunity to fudge the outcome in their favor? Second, do they possess a spirit of honest inquiry that is sufficiently robust for them to make a legitimate attempt on their own behalf in realizing the potential of the forecast? Lukewarm sentiments aren’t going to move mountains if that’s what it takes, so they might as well not show up for the reading if that’s their only motivation. There are no shortcuts in any of this, although there are incentives for vigorous engagement.
Dedication translates into the “stick-tuitiveness” to grab the projected future with both hands and run with it regardless of any qualms about missing the mark. I love to see clients who are eager to make the most of what I’m telling them, and I will give them all the professional encouragement I can muster so they get a good grip on their prospects as revealed in the cards. Usually, this kind of person only needs to be given the roadmap and shown the signposts and they will take it from there. It’s my expectation that they will bring the same level of commitment to pursuing the auguries I provide as I do to formulating and presenting them; otherwise we are both wasting our time.
If, as a result of positive reinforcement from the querent, everything falls into place upon the receipt of encouraging cards or supportive aspects, the likelihood of making a correct timing call increases considerably regardless of whether we use the various correspondences associated with numbers, elements, suits, calendars, seasons, etc (which my experience has shown to be mostly unreliable: when was the last time the 10 of Pentacles actually meant “10 years?”). All it takes is clearly identifying the proposed term of completion when formulating the question and then zeroing in on it through subsequent action, asking not “When will this happen?” but “What will happen in this area within the next week, month or year?” (The obvious addendum is “. . . and what should I do about it?”)
Finely-honed rhetoric aside, if I am pressed for an approximate date with no opportunity to explain the ins-and-outs of sound timing technique, I will default to a generalization based on the “outcome” card, using the “sooner-rather-than-later” premise or vice-versa within a standard “ballpark” projection (weeks, months etc). Ideally, though, I will be able to set the range as part of the reading scenario and then look for confirmation from the cards rather than trying to gin up a date on-the-fly based solely on an educated guess. For example, I will tell a client that the outlook provided by the Celtic Cross spread is typically reliable for a duration of three-to-six months, and the cards that show up in the “near future” and “end of the matter” positions will dictate whether the circumstances they portend will occur early or late within their respective envelopes. There is normally a way to finesse this approach with a good deal of conviction without coming across as clueless.
As I’ve said before, the reading merely describes the quest; sitting back and holding out one’s hand for the treasure chest usually produces nothing more than dashed hopes, after which the dispirited querent accuses the reader of incompetence rather than acknowledging culpability. The diviner may be able to spot a potential occurrence but it’s up to the seeker to make its timing anything more than a “SWAG” (scientific wild-ass guess). We can point them at the quarry but they must still hunt it down under their own power; put another way, we can identify when the fruit will be ripe but they must bring their own ladder.
Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on September 16, 2023.
