Shell Scrying and Other things...

[Silver Venus]

to do with these pretty things!

After a discussion in one of our other threads here in divination I just had to start a thread so we could all discuss Shells for divination and other purposes!

http://www.paralumun.com/shell.htm
"This is a modern method of scrying and is becoming more popular. Most people are familiar with the sound of when a shell is placed over the ear.

It sort of sounds like the ocean. But in fact it is the sounds of blood flowing through the vessels in your ear.

If however you listen to this sound you will eventually by able to pick up fragments of conversation. At first you may be able to only make out a few words, but in time you will come to understand whole segments of conversations.

The subject of this talk will be usually meaningless, but if you can mentally break into this communication you may find the voices may choose to respond."

Although I dont have a big enough shell to do this on I would still like to hear from others that have ~ try putting your shell up to your ear and communicating with the voices of the shell :)

I have always been drawn to shells, there beauty and the sound they make and can remember my mum telling me just a short while back how ~ as a child sitting for hours at a time with my mum's shell up to my ear, but cant remember if there were any voices!
Ill have to try her shell again next time I visit and I will certainly be telling her to listen to see if she can hear any :)

[Flar's Freyja]

Hmmm, I have a big shell that someone gave me last year - it graces my faerie garden. Not sure if it would work for holding it up to my ear. I'll try it and let you know!

If I do hear voices, probably not a good idea to advertise it......;)

[Silver Venus]

lol yeah they'll think your even madder ;)

Cool about your shell, Im sure the fae wont mind you borrowing it, maybe you'll hear there voices :)

& can you tell us about your smudging shell? Sounds interesting ;)

[Flar's Freyja]

:T Actually, I want one but don't have one yet....lots of my friends have them, and I actually had a nice large one a long time ago in my hippie days! I hope I've got the name right, it's called an abalone shell and lots of people use them for ashtrays. They're an open shell and have beautiful rainbow colors. They seem to be heat-resistant and don't seem to shatter or otherwise break when you put hot charcoal in them. Sage or whatever you're using for smudging seems to burn for a really long time in one of these shells.

I've seen them in craft shops. The last one I saw was $5 but I'm a bit of a miser and I thought it was too small of a shell for that price. So I'm still looking!

Shells are also a symbol of the goddess. When I lived on the east and west coasts, I took all of the seashells there for granted. Now I live in Oklahoma and there aren't any! So whenever my friends travel to places with beaches I always ask them to bring some back for me.

[Silver Venus]

Oh yeah i know the type of shell your talking about, they are very beautiful and would be great for smudging! Sure you'll find 'the one' for you when the time is right :)

One of the things that put me off buying the big conch shells in cancun was that i saw them banging the little creatures out of there homes :( I looked away while walking past them on the beach but still heard the big bangs and made up little shrieks in my head...

Venus is sometimes depicted sitting on shell :)

[Flar's Freyja]

:( Poor little creatures!

8O I do a lot of ritual in the bathtub due to a shortage of time. It also works very well for me, the water really helps me meditate. I frequently add the shells that friends have brought me to the bathwater to connect me to the Goddess ~ I feel that they add good energy.....

[Silver Venus]

Me too but I never thought of shell's before ~ ((Thank you)) that would be perfect as offering and i can see that they will add allot of energy, the energy of the sea, the great ocean of life where they came from :)

[Flar's Freyja]

:huh:

Kind of a funny idea - what about painting runes on seashells? Would that float?

[Silver Venus]

Yeah :) & you could even do a reading ~ say the ones that float read from and the ones that dont just leave to sink :)
Runes dont really fit with my greek gods and goddesses though so I think ill just leave my shells plain :)

[Flar's Freyja]

That's a very creative idea! :thumbsup:

At one of our public full moon rituals, the acting hp had everyone draw a shell from a basket to take home to continue the energy of the ritual.

No, they don't really fit with greek gods and goddesses, do they? :T However, my Freyja's element is the west - water - so I think this could actually work for me!

[Silver Venus]

Thats a really nice idea your hp came up with, very uniting :)

Ive been thinking (whilst on my swim) that I could still paint symbols on a few shells and try to make up my own oracle/way of reading from them ;) Say a heart, a moon, a sun, a star, a cup, a flower, a coin, a knife, etc.. Oo ill have to get thinking about this more now :boing:

[Flar's Freyja]

Here's a site with a little information on utilizing sea shells and other beautiful treasures from the beach in Water Magick:

http://www.enchantedencounters.com/elements.htm

Looks like the rest of the site is good, too! I do so miss the beach. I grew up in New Jersey and spent summers with relatives at the seashore. Oklahoma has lots of lakes but it's just not the same. The beach is so healing, I always felt it never failed to cure what ailed me...............

[Silver Venus]

Nice site!! Thanks :smooch:

It also says about Water ~ Ah Water, the symbol of our emotions.
Water imbibes all life forms and in
us we flow with the "tide" of our
feelings. It involves intuition, insight,
conception and pregnancy, fertility,
the womb, health, beauty and divination.

Figures why Im so drawn to all symbols of this element at the moment! ;)

I agree with you about the beach, I love it and always choose it over the pool when Im away. Maybe you can still utilise the healing propetries of the beach by dipping your feet in some sand and scattering your shells around you, then scrubbing your skin with a rock salk mixture with water :)

[Flar's Freyja]

:) I have a flower bed that just about nothing will grow in. Yesterday I saw some big bags of sand at the store and I was thinking about making a little beach-type area in there instead!
You read my mind!

Every time I participate in a public ritual, my group manages to stick me in the West! This has been happening for the past six months! Been going through lots of emotional stuff and trying to swim my way out of there........

[Silver Venus]

Cool about your little beach! Thats a great idea for your to play in! I cant wait to make a little one for my little one. Building suncastle's is so theraputic and fun :)
Im sure Ive heard somewhere about sand divination too ~ but I cant remember how it goes.. Have you heard of this too?

[Flar's Freyja]

No, but I'll fumble about......saw quite a few good sites when I was looking for the other one.

[Flar's Freyja]

Here's an interesting site on working with water:

http://www.wellnessgoods.com/art_wat_messages.html

[Silver Venus]

Thas an amazing article! I can totally belive it too as its so nice to see and be beside 'happy' water :)
In my yoga class this morning we did a water mediation and I found myself to be going into beautiful rain drops, like crystals and been taken away with all the colours and light.. Very like these pictures!

Thanks for sharing Freyja I am deffinatley going to think about this further :)

[Flar's Freyja]

:boing: BUMP

[Silver Venus]

Freyja, hows your sand garden coming on? Have you painted any of your shells yet or tried any of the ideas we were talking about?
I painted a shell for my sweetheart with hearts and a love poem for the full moon last Friday and its now proudly sitting on my altar. He loved it :)
Im now planning to paint another for the new moon and them hopefully carry this idea on to make a whole lot for reading with!

[Flar's Freyja]

Awww, that's sweet! My back's still bothering me so I haven't been able to get the sand.....my faerie garden looks kind of beachy, I'm getting quite a collection of rocks and have a few shells in there. I've got a small faerie bird feeder that I keep filled with water instead. The cactus that I planted last year in the area I want to use for the sand garden didn't make it through the winter, and I'm not sure if I'll plant more. Can't seem to find out which is the correct variety to survive.

I saw painted shells in a pet store this weekend being sold for $5 each! And they were the small ones!

Hmm, this talk about shells and water is inspiring me to do another one of my water witch rituals, in the tub....

Earlier we mentioned sand divination - :eek: oops! That's geomancy, something I don't know much about and need to study up on. Here's a site with some info:

http://www.britannia.com/wonder/geomancy.html

And of course, there are threads in this forum.........

[Silver Venus]

Sea salts will really help your back, they have wondeful healing propeties, you can either use rock salt or buy some special ones from the chemist.. Hope your back gets better soon hun ((hugs))

How about planting cactus's in pots, that way you can keep them indoors in the winter and have them by your sand garden this summer.

OO Geomancy! ;) Thanks for looking into it and finding the link, I totally didnt put one and one together there! lol.. I'll get reading up when Ive got some time later on today.

[Silver Venus]

Didnt get to read up on Geomancy yesterday, I will later today after Ive been all over this fab site..
Where I just found this Freyja ;)
http://www.angelfire.com/on/wicca/Sand.html

Sand Divination

Obtain a quantity of fine sand. (Color doesn't matter.) Pour it into a square or rectangular tray to the depth of three inches. Place this on a table before you. Hold a pencil or similar object loosley in your hand and place its point on the center of the sand. Close your eyes and state your question. Breath deeply and relax.

You'll have a strong urge to move the pencil. Let it move of its own accord across and through the sand. Continue this until the pencil stops moving, or in about three minutes.

Remove the pencil and look down at the symbols on the sand. There may be legible words or symbols in the sand. There may also be Y for yes, an N for no, or a P for perhaps. Some of the most commonly seen symbols in the sand include:

Large circle: Misfortune.

Small circle: News, especially pertaining to work.

Triangle: Success.

Square: Obstacles.

A Long Line: A Journey.

A Short Line: A Visitor.

A Heart: Love, relationships, and frienships.

Broken or uneven heart: Partings.

A Flower: Beginnings.

An X: Love.

If other symbols appear, interpret them with your question in mind.

[Flar's Freyja]

I found the greatest little seashell at my friend's shop when I visited! It's a conch shell that has little points, almost look like horns, and a great sound for such a small one! As soon as I get a chance, I'm going to sit outside and give it a listen!

I may not have even bought it if you hadn't started this thread, SV! Thanks for all your great ideas!

[Silver Venus]

:D That sounds so pretty! I love small shells, they make there mystery even more special!

I too should thank you hun, if it wasnt for your suggestion about casting shells as runes I wouldnt of found my new project ~ to paint on shells for the new and full moon. Im planning to paint a tree to symbolise the path of life, past and future this weekend for the new moon :)

[Flar's Freyja]

What a great idea! Last year, I spent a lot of time doing magick in my flowerbeds! But that would go in M&R.....hmmm, an idea for a thread over there.......

[Silver Venus]

O Ill be over there to learn when I have some time later on ;) I love planting seeds with the new moon

[Flar's Freyja]

Bump

[Flar's Freyja]

I ran across this article on water and mirror scrying when I was looking for something else:

http://www.norwichmoot.paganearth.com/darkpools.htm

[Silver Venus]

Never thought of using coca cola to gaze with but it would work!
Thats was a lovely read :D thanks!

[Flar's Freyja]

Bump

[Flar's Freyja]

Someone recently asked about painting runes on shells, so I'm bumping this one up again.

[Flar's Freyja]

bump