The Art of Divination (Aid to Practice)

Set of 31x Mantic Oracle Cards with 'Aid to Practice' Cassette

The Art of magic presents a deck of 31 Oracle mantic cards adapted from the original Cecil Williamson divination index archive found within the library at the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic, Boscastle.

The accompanying cassette is intended to aid practice and was recorded on location at the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic using ritual instruments and objects from the storeroom archive collection.

This collection of cards has been created with the purpose of providing instruction, insight and inspiration for anyone interested in exploring the natural phenomena of ‘the mantic arts’. They are intended to be used however one wishes to aid practice and gain further insight.

It is all a question of moving the self into a deeper consciousness, a totality of awareness....’

The history of divination can be traced back at least as far as the classical period (though no doubt reaches further) in which ‘Augury’ (a sign of what will happen in the future) was employed to discern the will of the odd; this usually took the form of the observation and subsequent interpretation of natural phenomena. One could say this is cognate with the modern Jungian concept of Synchronicity. Various re nements and elaborations to this principle have developed through the ages, though generally speaking they all employ the same principle, that is to say, the observation of some kind of random form which may be contemplated in such a way as to bypass the conscious mind, and thus access our inner world which in turn has access to the information required. The method by which this is achieved is entirely determined by the culture, the environment, the resources available and the nature of the prevailing belief system in which the system of divination operates.

Steve Patterson, Cecil Williamson’s Book of Witchcraft, Troy Books, 2014