“Divining the Path”
Location – The Library of Legend – Halls of Divination
They walked down the halls of the library. As they did, the ceiling shifted, the underbelly of the upper floors dissolving to show a galactic sky. Soft light radiated from candles matching the celestial light.
“Divination is the first aspect of magic” said Peter. “It’s the act of interpreting or assigning meaning and the vibrational results of that action in one’s life.”
“We are always divining the path.” said Peter, as they walked through halls of the library. “Always. The act of life itself is one of divination, of receiving and interpreting information at the moments of Kairos along our Timeline.”
The words resonated through the space, their very essence a portal into knowing. Seeker leaned in, curious.
“It’s the mortal plane.” Peter said. “Everything there happens in Time. What we experience, whatever it is, happens at a certain moment. And when that happens, we have a perception of it. One through which we divine the very meanings of our life.”
Seeker took the map in her hands, and it changed, shifting to match her vibration.
She looked up. The symbols on the page mirroring themselves into a construct which hung in the air and glowed with eldritch light. The symbols moved and flowed, the languages and geometries changing before settling in what she knew to be a temporary shape. Like all the aspects of the library space, it was a thing of story, more distilled than the forms it wore on the surface of the worlds. Here, what it looked like on the surface was less important than what it meant.
“I don’t understand.” she said. “… it doesn’t matter what it looks like on the surface?”
Peter shrugged. “What it looks like is far less important than what it does.” he said. “Cultures change. Traditions change. The lens through which we see the world changes over time. What matters is our interpretation of it. What things mean for us in the moment-of-their-meaning.”
He raises his hands then, and the shape of the hologram changes, the symbols and patterns shifting and bending. “Symbols and portents are subtle things” he said, “bent to the gravity of the self and it’s endless carousel of faces. Such was what I learned during my time studying the “Arts of Magic” in the mortal plane.”
Seeker thought about this for a moment. “Well then, how do you know what is true and what is illusion? How do we see past the shadows and the gravities of trauma?”
He smiled. “That is the question itself. It is why divination must always be paired with discernment.”
“What do you mean?”
“As living beings, we see through prismatic landscapes.” says Peter.
“It’s actually something i’ve always wanted to bring coherence to.” says Peter. “To understand divination at it’s core. What it means, how it works. What it’s significance is along one’s timeline. Divination was the focus of my study in my apprenticeship. It’s the essence of guidance itself. Of the idea of guidance. Of divining one’s way.”
“Well then, what’s it made of?”
“A lot of things. Many of them which are completely outside mortal control. But … there are pockets.”
“Pockets of what?”
“Choice.”
She looked perplexed.
“I asked the question – what is the nature of interpretation? What is the process of how we make choices? At how we perceive and receive our environment?”
“When we’re on the quest, things happen, and we have a reaction or a response to them, which are basically the unconscious or conscious way of relating. Because our perception of the world and what we’re able to receive from the world are so intrinsically linked, as magicians we strive to be mindful of the difference. Of whether we are reacting to something or responding to it.”
“Okay …” she said. “And how does that relate to choice?”
“This goes deep.” Peter said. “Like all aspects of the subtle world, what we’re experiencing on the surface is just the shallows of what’s really going on. It means looking at why we think the things we do and what our world manifests as because of it.”
