Saturday 10 September 2011

when do you know you're addicted?

Divination is a highly intoxicating thing. It's intriguing, it's exciting and it's self-indulgent. If you know enough about how helpful it can be, you can reason that it's just a map to help you on your path rather than the path itself, but sometimes that's not enough to stop you from overusing it. Whether you read your own fortune or you employ the services of a fellow fortune teller, here are a few ways you can identify an addiction to divination.

- You don't enjoy it
If you glean absolutely nothing positive from the art of fortune telling it's time to give it a rest for a while. Divinatory methods are supposed to reveal helpful signposts and aid you in determining your next move. If you regularly walk away from a reading with no sense of focus, relief or clarity, it's possible that you're experiencing a burn out and that over-saturation has led to muddied waters. Whether you're paying someone else to read for you or you're sitting down to do a focused reading or daily draw, part of the benefit of divination is the excitement it offers. It's also a great chance to take a step back from the obligations life binds you to and take some time for yourself. If you don't get a sense of relaxation or satisfaction from the process, there's very little point.

- You use it for every decision you make
This is obviously not a good sign. Not only does it betray an unhealthy lack of self-confidence, it also allows you to fall into the classic blame game, telling yourself that you didn't deal well with a situation because the cards/runes/method of choice didn't warn you about it or that you followed the advice your fortune teller gave and it didn't work. Using divination for every little thing you need to work through demonstrates a lack of understanding of how powerful it can be when it's used properly. It is supposed to punctuate your life events with wisdom and guidance, it is not supposed to be a life event in itself.

- You're never happy with the result
Many Tarot readers do a Daily Draw. It's a way of providing focus for the day and zooming in on any significant issues. When you draw a card from the deck, a rune from the bag and so on, you're supposed to absorb its message in the context of your current situation and then move on with your day, putting the message into action if you can. You are not supposed to decide that you've drawn the wrong one and continue drawing until you get one you're happy with or that tells you what you want to hear. If you're doing that, you've probably got a problem. If you feel that every reading you have is closed and doesn't tell you anything, it's likely that you're looking for a specific answer that will make you feel at ease rather than accepting what the divinatory method is offering you.

- You're going for broke
If your fortune teller is getting more money each month than your landlord, that's just not cool. Being unable to keep control of your purse strings is indicative of a deeper issue and some addicted querents do generate huge bills because they feel a deep-seated need for their favourite premium telephone psychic during a moment of doubt at some crazy hour of the morning. When used in a positive, proactive way, divination can have a potently empowering result, filling the querent with the confidence they need to take the next step. If you're finding that the clearest message of the reading is that you need another reading, go cold turkey immediately!

- You're scared of the answers
If you keep having readings even though they're filling you with dread and putting countless doubts in your mind, you're probably addicted to the sensationalism of highs and lows. It can put you into a depressive cycle whereby you know you won't get the answer you crave but you keep trying anyway. This form of emotional Russian Roulette is counter-productive and needs to be challenged. If you sit down to shuffle the cards and you get that sick feeling of equal parts hope and dread in your stomach, it's probably time to put the Tarot cards down and do something else.

- The answers lead to more questions
'But then what's going to happen?' 'And then will we get married?' 'Will he end up betraying me?' 'Ok, so how will I cope with that?' 'What will his opinion of me be in ten years time?'
There is a time to stop when it comes to divining the future. If you find you're never satisfied with the end point outlined in a reading, you're only going to end up frustrated and bored if you continue your line of questioning until kingdom come! On a long enough time line everything becomes spaghetti. For example, the weather forecast over a two day period will be highly accurate but a forecast over a six week period just looks like lots of messy lines all over the graph because the possibilities are so much wider that they're almost impossible to take into account without an unreadable result.

- You use multiple readers or methods for the same question
This is an easy trap to fall into and most people fall into it for an understandable reason: it's interesting. If you've just received quite a decisive, strong reading regarding a matter of importance to you it can be tempting to simply go to another reader and see if they tell you the same thing. Likewise, if you've just consulted your Tarot deck you might want to see if your Runes throw up a similar result. To an extent this kind of experiment can be educational. I, for one, would recommend it if you're having trouble deciding whether or not you actually believe in clairvoyant ability. It will help you to see that intuition is fluid and human, not paranormal and exclusive to a rare few.. But it will not help you with emotional issues. It will leave you frustrated and it's really an abuse of what is a legitimately good self-help method when used correctly.

If divination is taking over your life, stepping back slowly is the way to go. You can always approach the method again when you've come to a healthier conclusion regarding how and why it should be used.