Refreshing the Perspective for Repeated Readings: An Opinion
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Pardon the unintended alliteration; it must be my “inner Poe” coming out.
I occasionally encounter questions regarding “how soon is too soon” to repeat a reading on a subject that received a disappointing answer the first time around. My usual response is “Not until the previous outcome has had a reasonable chance to resolve itself.” (Some people say “a month or two” but I think putting a finite duration on it is artificial since no two situations are alike.) If we don’t wait it out, we risk invoking the definition of insanity: “doing the same thing over-and-over again and expecting a different result.” On the other hand, we may receive a contrary prediction and won’t know which one to believe. Either way we will be “tying ourselves up in knots” over the uncertainty.
When I’m tempted to repeat a reading soon after performing one on the same topic, my rule-of-thumb is to use a different method of divination. For example, tarot or Lenormand reading and horary astrology have a natural affinity for one another, and I’ve used them together successfully in a number of lost-item and missing-person cases. At the very least, if I stick with cartomancy I will use a different deck and a different spread, anything to discourage redundancy or misdirection.
In my most recent online reply I noted that, if we want to avoid overtaxing our muse, we must strive to refresh the perspective on our outlook. If we don’t want to tweak the question to come at the matter from a slightly different angle, we should at least observe my caveat about using an alternate method, deck or spread. I’m not saying that we should be “different just for the sake of being different,” but that we must guard against letting unproductive habits creep into our practice. If that seems likely to happen, it may be time to take a break from divination, or perhaps to seek another diviner to aid us in our quest (although that too is subject to the hazard of going to the well too often with the same bucket).
It’s an all-too-human weakness to keep chasing answers until we get one we like. I see it as a parallel to “confirmation bias,” in which we take from a forecast only what we’re willing to accept. It’s also what drives the incessant use of “clarifying” cards in tarot reading, which in my estimation is an admission of failure. All of these expedients are symptoms of the existential malaise that seems to be endemic in modern culture; they remind me of the aphorism “I don’t know what it is but I’ll know it when I see it.” Hell of a way to run a life, in my not-so-humble opinion.
Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on July 5, 2024.
