Precognition means awareness of the future, through direct knowledge or some other kind of perception, like dreams. Most precognitive experiences occur in dreams, and most occur 24-48 hours before the occurrence. Premonition involves the feeling that something might happen, but not the knowledge of what it is exactly. Premonitions might include feelings of foreboding or “hunches” that something “feels right. " These can be just as significant as precognition, and much more reliable. Prophecy refers back to the ancient Greek sense of time, with the future being fixed and immutable. A prophecy is a knowledge of a future that will definitely happen, without question. For something to be prophecies means that it cannot be changed.
Start by making yourself comfortable, in a room with soft natural light. Sitting in a comfortable upright position, preferably on the floor, calm your mind and focus on your breathing. Feel the breath go into your body. Feel the breath go out of your body. Feel the oxygen nourishing your body, and going back out into the world. Just focus on your breath, nothing else. Gradually, start focusing on relaxing your body as you breathe. With every breath, focus on relaxing one arm, first. Feel the breath going into your arm and relax your arm. Then move to your other arm, then down your chest, and throughout the rest of your body. Calm your head and your mind, as well. Focus on relaxation.
As your trance deepens, you should gradually start losing your sense of time, quieting your thinking mind and allowing your subconscious to become more perceptive. Some diviners find it effective to visualize climbing or descending a ladder, or walking into a cave to symbolize diving deeper into your subconscious and deepening the trance state.
Use all your senses. It might sound silly, but you can think of your body as a “psychic eye,” or something that’s always gathering information. Temperatures, certain smells, even feelings can all be signs of the future. If you notice feelings of anxiety when you see owls, feelings you’ve never experienced before, take it as significant. If every time you hear Katy Perry sing, you feel coolness, take it as a significant premonition of something.
Pay attention to “hair on the back of the neck” moments. When something happens that pricks the little hairs on the back of your neck, making you feel just slightly “off,” stop what you’re doing and focus. What do you notice? What seems to have startled you? What seems significant? Pay attention to deja vu. Ever have the feeling something has happened before, and everything feels weird and reverberating? Start paying attention to what seems off about these moments. What do you notice? Where are you? What sense memories are being evoked? Pay attention to coincidences. Maybe you wake up some morning and see moths on your porch, then the cute barista will be wearing a t-shirt with a furry moth across the back. Mere coincidence? To some, there is no such thing–what matters is that it happened. Take coincidences as symbols, signs, and portents, rather than unexplainable randomness.
Think of it like dream interpretation or poetry analysis. These images should give you impressions, so start simple. Does it seem positive or negative? Powerful or weak? Daytime or nighttime? Research the individual symbols you find recurring in your life and in your meditations. Crabs, for example, are significant in all kinds of fortune telling, appear on the “Moon” Tarot card, and is part of the Zodiac. A significant vision. The Dream Bible, can be an excellent resource for quick reading about the symbols that appear in your dreams. It’s a good place to start.
The writings of Carl Jung are deeply influential in the way we understand our minds and the connection we have with our subconscious or “unthinking” mind. Joseph Campbell’s The Hero With a Thousand Faces is an excellent resource for finding patterns that recur across cultures and mythologies, suggesting that certain symbols, signs, and portents might be ingrained in us as humans, somehow.
What did you see? Who was there? What did you notice around you in terms of senses like smells, tastes, textures? How did you connect to it emotionally? Was it a scary dream? A sexy dream? A pleasant dream? Write down dialog first. This tends to be the first thing to go and it can be frustrating to think that something important might have been communicated and not be able to remember what it was.
Set an alarm on your phone to go off every three hours, which will allow you to complete two full REM cycles of 90 minutes each. You can write down your dreams in only a minute or two, meaning that you’ll still be able to get a full night of sleep and will be able to record your dreams.
Pick up on lots of different things in each dream. Go back to your image of crabs drinking gasoline on the beach. The crabs and the gasoline seem significant, but also consider what drinking might symbolize, what sand might symbolize, and other tactile or emotional elements to the images. How did it feel to watch? People are symbols as well. Dreaming that you kissed your best friend doesn’t necessarily “mean” that you’re in love with your best friend and you should start kissing. When we dream of specific people, it is because our subconscious has attached a symbolic meaning to those people. Dreaming of kissing your friend might mean that you’re attracted to a certain element of your friend as a person, something that you want to get closer to, or accomplish in your own life.
If you’re waiting to hear the news after a job interview and dream that you’re flying high and out of control, you might take it as a sign that you’re feeling anxiety about the idea of success, of the freedom a new job might bring you. Which might mean you’ve got the job. Temper your dream analysis with practicality. If you’ve dreamt that your friend is dead, laid out in a coffin, it doesn’t necessarily mean “my friend is going to die. " Rather, a chapter in your friend’s life might be closing, or your relationship might be changing in some way, in the future. Apply it to what’s going on in your life.
If you like unusual images and totemic symbols, the Tarot is the classic way to go. To get started, visit an experienced Tarot reader to see what a reading is like. Then you can start learning about the different cards and the history of the Tarot in divinatory culture. If you enjoy meditating on stories and coincidences, learn to consult the iChing and gaze into its mysterious world. If you enjoy deep meditation and open-ended symbols, consider scrying, palm-reading, or other more complex methods of divination that will allow you to put your own spin on the oracle.
Good questions to prompt the oracle usually start, “What should I notice…” or “How should I approach…” or “How do I think about…” Leave enough open that the oracle can give you something concrete to interpret. Asking “Will I get this job?” won’t work when you’re throwing bones or reading the iChing, because you won’t get a yes or no answer. Instead, focus on asking questions like, “What do I need to know to improve my chances of getting this job?”
Most Tarot readings tell stories, focusing on a specific question the querant is asking. If you want to learn more about Tarot, go in for a reading, get a guidebook, and get started familiarizing yourself with the deck.
Set yourself up in a darkened room with plain walls. You should be illuminated from behind yourself with a single candle. Meditate deeply for a while, opening your eyes to look into the corners of the room, watching the way the light plays with the shadows. Record the images that arise for you out of the shadows, writing them down for later. Imagine that the room is your mind and the shadows are ideas, images, and thoughts that float around in it. What seems significant? What might portend the future?
To get started, get yourself a crystal, most preferably made of clear quartz. Other acceptable crystals include amethyst, beryl, selenite, or obsidian. The crystal should be at least four or five inches in diameter. Charge your crystal in the light of the full moon, for the course of a night, and keep it clean and locked in a safe place where it will be free of psychic negativity. To stare into the crystal, hold it gently in your hands, or place it in front of you on a stand or a dark pillow. Enter your deep meditative state and stare gently into the crystal, looking deep, relaxing your eyes to allow images to reveal themselves.
Astrology is just as much of a philosophy, or a way of understanding behavior, as it is a mystic tool. There are 12 astrological signs that combine the four elements, earth, air, fire and water, with one of the three qualities–cardinal, fixed, and mutable. Learning about your symbols, depending on the seasons and the changes can clue you into how you should look into the future and what you can do to make your future yourself.
