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Chaos, Fire, Air[/caption]
A few weeks ago, I came across a blog post from Twelve of Hearts that really caught my attention. I'm a real sucker for divination systems - I've done tarot, runes and I Ching for myself, not to mention developing a few systems of my own.
Everyone who practices divination does it for their own reasons. For me, my interest in it grew out of the same place as my struggles with certain kinds of magical thinking. It's a matter of wanting desperately to control the uncontrolable and know the unknowable.
"Let go and let God" is just not a thing I'm good at. To be honest, if I was good at it, I wouldn't be a magician. I do this - the candles, the offerings, the sigils, the jars - because I do think I can control it. I think I can get my hat in the race there, even if it's just in a small way.
On the other hand, I do spend a lot of time and effort trying not to be a complete control freak. I have gotten much better at maintaining perspective when rules change at work with no warning. I took the news of a family member's illness without the fear that I had somehow caused it. It's not healthy to hold on so tightly. Even in magic, the best results tend to come in unexpected ways to those open to receiving them.
And yet I still have four or five tarot decks, a specific playing card deck I use, three sets of runes (two of which I made myself), my divination dice, my divination coins (which I haven't written about), and now I have something else to play with...
I visited PrinterStudio and wound up putting together a deck for myself. Instead of a tarot deck, mine's comprised of pictures I took or chose and represent concepts that are personally meaningful. It's definitely not a deck meant to be used for other people, and I doubt anyone else would get much out of it. The cards themselves seem to be of an excellent quality. The art runs all the way to the edge, the images are crisp, and they shuffle well.
For anyone else who's always thought about putting together your own divination deck, I highly recommend it. Based on my experiences with using personally developed systems, you can learn a lot more when you're the one making the rules.