Recently I was interviewed for the Twisting the Plot Podcast. You can listen to that interview here. Twisting the Plot: New Possibilities for Women over 50. is the brainchild of Dr.Cecilia Dintino and Hannah Murray, both psychotherapists with years of experience in many modalities including Drama Therapy, who noticed when they reached a certain age that there was no roadmap for women over 50. Or … the ones that existed were less than exciting.
Strega Tree is proud and pleased to highlight a new diviner in our community: Amy Tanzman Palmer. Amy is a powerful medicine woman, a delightful human and a gift to our circle.
Amy was first introduced to the Dagara through a Kontomble voice divination in 2013. That profound experience changed the trajectory of her life and she eventually found herself walking the path to becoming a diviner herself.
It’s great to have a place to interact directly with the elemental beings and bring them gifts and food. They are frisky. Be warned: Things can begin to move around in your home. Conversely you may suddenly find things you thought you lost. But ultimately this is a heart connection. Under these tricky deeds is a being wanting to know your heart. Wanting to trust you. A shy being that wishes to befriend you.
It is true, not all elemental beings like us or want to play with us but those kind won’t come to the call. Some indeed want to be left alone, have nothing to do with humans. Then there is no need to interact with them, unless you are bothering them and they let you know. Of course you should listen to that but with this particular shrine and the following ritual, don’t be afraid to call the wrong kind because they simply won’t come to an invitation to friendship.
Ritual is a time out of ordinary time. There are varying types of rituals, large group rituals, long intense rituals and then there are the small, everyday offerings that are also rituals, and these are the most common in this work. When I offer milk on my shrine for the grandmothers, I consider that a ritual. When I walk to the water and make an offering for a person in need, that is a ritual. When I pour water to the Earth, asking for conflict to be cleared and communication to be eased, that is a ritual. Ritual is so common to human experience that most of us don’t even notice how many we participate in within the span of one day. Do you call your children or your parents often and regularly? This too could be seen as a ritual: special time set aside just for them. Do you pray or say affirmations, engage in gratitude thinking? These too are rituals. Do you visit a place regularly to commune with nature? This too could be seen as a ritual.
Divination is essential for any medicine worker. We need to have a way to ask in to situations that need addressing and understand what to do to facilitate healing, clearing or effect change. Following is a simplified list of how to go about divination in general.The essential questions for divining are who, what, where, why, and when?These are the questions to direct any inquiry we enter into. It is also helpful to return to them when we feel overwhelmed by information that is coming in during a divination and are getting a bit lost in the deluge. Each medicine person is schooled in their own particular way to ask questions and receive answers. This is what I mean when I speak of divination and divining. If you have absolutely no training, begin to listen in your own way and take the the following as a broad guide.