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Seeds
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Seed Card
painting © 2009
Linnea Vedder Shults.
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by Nancy Vedder-Shults, Ph.D.
In Greek mythology, Psyche must sort seeds to win back the love of Eros,
Aphrodite’s son. Aphrodite sets this almost impossible task as a
means of keeping Psyche and Eros apart. But Psyche succeeds, because an
army of ants comes to her rescue, dividing the seeds that Aphrodite had
mixed together: wheat, poppy, and millet, among other grains. In the process
of separating the seeds, Psyche sifts through her own reality and learns
what she needs to save and what she needs to let go.
As a symbol in the Pscyhe and Eros myth, seeds have a metaphorical significance
that resonates in the divination methods I’ve created as well. Seeds
represent life in its embryonic form — the potential for a new
crop — while at the same time embodying the fruit of the harvest.
It is said that this is why the priests of ancient Greece unveiled an
ear of corn at the climax of the Eleusinian Mysteries, a sight reported
to cause enlightenment in initiates.
Sorting Seeds
Sort through kernels of grain to gain access to your own inner wisdom.
Anywhere private • Anytime • Sitting • Sensation, Sight
& Movement
Tools and Ingredients
• 1½-2 cups of mixed seeds (7-10 different seed types, depending
on the size of the seeds)
• A flat countertop or table
Just as Psyche sorted seeds to harvest the insight she needed to gain
back her lover, so we can sort kernels of various grains to access our
own intuition. From my experience, the process of pushing seeds into orderly
piles induces a light trance state during which inner wisdom more easily
rises to the surface of the mind.
Steps
- Formulate your question.
- Clear a space for the divination. I
clear a fairly large space on a kitchen counter or dining room table.
- Locate the seeds you will use. Make
sure you have 7-10 distinct varieties: grains, legumes, dried beans,
lentils, rice kernels, split peas, grass seeds, even birdseed. One
warning: If you intend to give your seeds to the birds when you’re
done, avoid rice, since it expands in a bird’s stomach, often
with fatal consequences.
- Pour and mix the seeds on the table
or counter.
- Ground and center.
- Remind yourself of your question.
- Sort the seeds mindfully into their
different types for 10-15 minutes. This will not be enough
time to complete the sorting.
- After a few minutes of focused attention,
notice your mind wandering into a light trance. Let yourself become
mesmerized by the repetitive motions of your hands and eyes.
- Move deeper and deeper into the kind
of receptive trance state that allows your inner guidance to arise.
- After 10-15 minutes, interpret the
oracle, perhaps with the help of Free
Association.
My Experience
In my experience, once you have attained an altered state of mind, the
process itself becomes paramount, not the goal of separating the seeds.
When the process engages you fully, your trance state deepens and frees
your mind to function more creatively — usually on an unconscious
level — in looking at your query. This kind of divination offers
an especially useful practice for people whose oracular preferences tend
to be sensory and movement-based as well as those who enjoy open-ended
divinations.
Growing Seeds
Plant a seed that represents your question, and nurture it until it
sprouts.
Anywhere • Anytime • Sitting or Standing • Movement &
Sensation
Tools and Ingredients
• A small flowerpot or paper cup
• Potting soil
• Seed(s)
Gardening is a highly magical activity. Water, sunlight, and nutrients
from the soil transform tiny seeds into food or flowers — the
proverbial bread and roses that we all need for a good life. Gardening
also offers a truly grounding pastime, since it connects us directly with
the earth.
As an oracular method, sowing seeds allows us to literally plant a question.
I thought I had created this divination myself. But in my research I discovered
that the ancients recognized the resonance between planting and questioning.
They created an oracular technique called cromniomancy that used
onion sprouts.
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The
World is Your Oracle
by Nancy Vedder-Shults
Linnea Vedder Shults has collaborated with her mother Nancy in
crafting The World is Your Oracle. Linnea is painting a deck
of 48 cards to accompany the book, creating an oracle of oracles.
When you choose a card from this deck, you select an oracular technique,
not an answer to a divinatory question. You can view her other art
work at www.linneavs.com.
Nancy's forthcoming book, The World is Your Oracle, compiles
hundreds of divination methods, from ancient oracles to modern-day
techniques. The excerpts published here will describe a few of the
ways to access the deeper layers of our minds and broaden our sense
of perception.
A good oracle puts us in touch with ourselves. It lets us discover
our motivations, feelings and thoughts about the question we're
exploring. And it connects us with the atmosphere or environment
surrounding that question — making us aware of the water
we swim in, but usually don't notice.
To receive inner guidance, all we need is to open ourselves to what
our body/mind tells us, what our emotions display, and what our
unconscious knows. In this way, we can begin to hear with our inner
ears and see with our inner eyes. Using these mystical senses —
what we might call the sense organs of the unconscious —
we perceive holistically, noticing relationships and patterns rather
than isolating, classifying and judging what we observe. Once we
have gathered this wisdom, we can then use the rational mind to
interpret what we have learned.
We live in an interconnected world, a web of life. Each segment
of that web reflects the whole just like fractal designs or holography.
That's why the patterns we discover through divination give us information.
They mimic the relationships of the whole at a particular moment
in time. |
Steps
- Formulate your question.
- Choose your seed variety.
- Collect your tools and ingredients.
- Ground and center.
- Fill your small flowerpot or paper
cup with potting soil.
- Plant your seed(s) mindfully. Open
yourself as you do so to any feelings, thoughts, or sounds that you
notice, especially while your hands are in the dirt.
- Once you’ve finished planting
your seed(s), meditate for 10 minutes with the flowerpot or paper
cup in your lap.
- Interpret your oracle, perhaps with
the help of Free
Association.
- If you receive no immediate answer,
tend your seed’s growth until it sprouts. Be mindful each time
you water the soil and notice if any insight comes to you.
My Experience
When planning a Growing Seeds divination, I often consider what kind of
flower, herb, or vegetable would best represent my oracular issue. This
choice frames my question in a specific way, helping me understand what
my question actually involves. Watering the soil and tending the seed’s
growth every day allows me to connect repeatedly with the source of my
intuition, until my seed finally sprouts along with my oracular answer.
If the seed doesn’t come up, I begin the process all over again with
a different type of seed, and as a result, with a different approach concerning
my question.
Sprouting and Eating Seeds
Germinate a seed that represents your question, and take the answer
into your body.
Anywhere • Anytime • Sitting or Standing • Movement &
Sensation
Tools and Ingredients
• A jar with a perforated lid.
• Seeds that produce edible sprouts.
When you intend to digest your oracle literally, a convenient and fairly
fast way is to germinate seeds that produce edible sprouts —
such as commercially available alfalfa seeds and mung beans.
Steps
- Formulate your question.
- Choose the seed variety for your preferred
edible sprout.
- Collect your tools and ingredients.
- Ground and center.
- Put the seeds in the jar.
- Pour water over the seeds. Open yourself
as you do so to any feelings, thoughts, or sounds that you notice.
- Meditate for 10 minutes with the jar
in your lap.
- Rinse the seeds once a day, pouring
water into the open jar and back out through the lid.
- Be mindful each time you rinse the
seeds and notice if any insight comes to you.
- When the sprouts are ready, eat some
of them slowly, opening to further insight, and literally taking the
answer into your body.
- Interpret your oracle, perhaps with
the help of Free
Association.
My Experience
Checking the seeds every day allows me to connect repeatedly with the
source of my intuition, until my seeds finally sprout along with my oracular
answer. If the seeds don’t germinate, I begin the process all over
again with a different type of seed, and as a result, with a different
approach concerning my question.
Eating your oracle can become the first step toward the change you want
to create in your life or alternately, a commitment to yourself to take
action concerning your issue. Eating your sprouted seeds, like any other
ritual with food, results in a form of communion. It will affect you,
even change you. So be aware of the subtle clues to your transformation
in the days following your divination.
Graphics Credits
- Seed Card, © 2009, Linnea
Vedder Shults. All rights reserved.
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