Creative Divination: Defining The Playing Field

To understand how Creative Divination works, it's important to realize first what exactly divination is. People often think of divination as a supernatural phenomenon that can only be practiced by especially gifted psychics and soothsayers. It is my belief, however, that if we take a close, objective look at the act of divination, we will discover something very interesting.

Before we go any further, I want to be sure we're on the same wavelength, so to speak, with regard to the terms we'll be using in the following discussion. In my own research, I often find it helpful to start with standard definitions that can be found in a dictionary.

Let's start with the words "creative" and "divination":

cre·a·tive (adj.) 1. Having the ability or power to cause to exist or bring into being 2. To produce through artistic or imaginative effort

divination (noun) 1. The act of trying to foretell the future. 2. A forecast; augury. 3. A successful or clever guess.

The word "divination" comes from the word "divine", which is defined as follows:

divine (from the Latin, "divinus"): (adj) 1. Pertaining to, proceeding from, or of the nature of God or a god; sacred. 2. Addressed or offered up to God. 3 - Altogether excellent or admirable. (verb) 1. To foretell or prophesy. 2. To surmise; guess. 3. To practice divination.

The word "divine" itself represents that which is sacred and springs from God. For the more secular-minded, I would offer the alternative definition of God as "the creative intelligence that stands behind everything we experience as the Universe."

universe (noun) 1. Everything that exists anywhere. 2. All matter and energy, including the earth, the galaxies, and the contents of intergalactic space, regarded as a whole.

For the purposes of this discussion, remember that "anywhere" includes not just the outer edges of the Universe located millions of light-years away, but also that which is contained within your own material body and mind.

Although it is possible to divine past events, you can see by the definition of divination above that we usually think of divination as the act of foretelling the future. Since the very nature of language changes over time and as such is vague enough as it is, let's be very clear on what are generally understood to be the meanings of "foretell" and "the future":

Foretell (verb) 1. To foreshadow or presage [synonyms: announce, annunciate, harbinger, herald] 2: make a prediction about; to tell in advance; [synonyms: predict, prognosticate, call, forebode, anticipate, promise]

Future (noun) 1. The time yet to come. 2. That which will be or happen in time to come. 3. The condition, rank, status, etc. of a person or thing in time to come, especially a condition of success or achievement.

Armed with the clarity that comes from the foregoing definitions, we can now define divination as "the act of telling in advance that which will happen in time to come." We all do this on a daily basis. Consider the following example:

"Tomorrow, I will wake up, eat breakfast, and go to work."

As unremarkable as this particular act of divination may strike you, it is nonetheless an "act of telling in advance that which will happen in time to come."

Here's another example of foretelling the future. I am addressing a roomful of people, and I write something down on a piece of paper before asking, "How many of you woke up this morning? Please raise your hand if you woke up this morning before coming here." As you might expect, everyone in the room raises their hand. I open the piece of paper, upon which I have written the prediction, "Everyone in this room will raise their hand."

Another unremarkable act of divination, you might say, and one that I manufactured by asking a question that I knew everyone would answer in the affirmative. You would be right, but that is exactly my point - I asked the right question in order to produce the result I was looking for.

Divination itself doesn't necessarily have to be supernatural in nature, although even if we choose to think of divination as supernatural, a closer look at the words "nature" and "supernatural" can be revealing:

na·ture (noun) 1. The material world and its phenomena. 2. The forces and processes that produce and control all the phenomena of the material world. 3. The world of living things and the outdoors. 4. A primitive state of existence, untouched and uninfluenced by civilization or artificiality.

su·per·nat·u·ral (adj.) 1. Of or relating to existence outside the natural world. 2. Attributed to a power that seems to violate or go beyond natural forces. 3. Of or relating to a deity. 4. Of or relating to the immediate exercise of divine power; miraculous. 5. Of or relating to the miraculous.

While people often think of the Universe as being part of Nature, it is obvious from the definitions above that the relationship of the two is quite the opposite: Nature, which is understood to be "the material world and its phenomena", is a subset of the Universe, not the other way around.

Remember that earlier we defined the Universe as being "everything that exists anywhere." This would have to include not just the material world, but the nonmaterial world as well.

met·a·phys·ics (noun) 1. The branch of philosophy that examines the nature of reality, including the relationship between mind and matter, substance and attribute, fact and value.

spir·i·tu·al (adj.) 1. Of, relating to, consisting of, or having the nature of spirit; not tangible or material. 2. Of, concerned with, or affecting the soul. 3. Of, from, or relating to God; deific. 4. Of or belonging to a church or religion; sacred. 5. Relating to or having the nature of spirits or a spirit; supernatural.

We exist in Nature, and like every other animate and inanimate thing in nature, we are full citizens.

As citizens of Nature, we have access to all that comes with it, including all material things and the laws of nature. And, because Nature is a subset of the universe, we are also citizens of the Universe, which means that in addition to our access to Nature, we also have access to everything that is anywhere, including the intangible inventory of the spiritual and the metaphysical.

There is no doubt that we are in direct contact with the Universe and everything in it - there are no walls or barriers separating the material and the nonmaterial, other than the walls and barriers that we might imagine. As such, we have direct access to soul, God, the sacred, the spiritual and the supernatural.

If You Don't Believe Me, Look It Up In The Dictionary

By examining the definitions of commonly-used words like "creative", "divination", "nature", "metaphysical" and "universe", it can be seen that we aren't as finite or restricted as we might ordinarily believe. We actually have a great deal of creative power residing within us, and a deep and intimate connection with the universe around us. This understanding itself can result in a feeling of supreme liberation, and it's important to remind ourselves of this on a regular basis.

CLICK HERE to return to the Mind's Eye View Book & CD Shop.