Scrying means to gaze into something and receive messages. It comes from the old English word, descry, (to catch sight of), and involves staring at a slick surface, such as a lake, a mirror, a combination of oil and water, or even a crystal ball.
Nostradamus was said to have glimpsed future predictions while peering into a mixture of ink and water. Folklore says Joseph Smith scryed with polished obsidian for directions on founding the Mormon faith.
And the goddess Hathor? Her shield was famed for reflecting back life in its true light, and thus became the first mirror for seeing.
Years ago I’d tried gazing into a colleague’s crystal ball, hoping I could see some revelation in it.
The crystal ball, which she’d nicknamed Louie, was the piece de resistance of her readings; readings that were more like theatrical events, with Louie drawn in for the kill.
Images of the Future
My colleague, we’ll call her S, claimed that Louie illuminated images of the future. As an example, she saw me eating at an Italian restaurant with a friend.
Though she could be quite prescient, her clients were generally delighted with the more mundane prophesies, such as the one given to me.
One of my clients was most impressed with my prediction that a man she had a crush on would show up at her job on Thursday wearing a white shirt. She swore that accurate white shirt prediction (made without a drop of help from Louie) turned her into a true believer.
Perhaps I expected too much because stare as I might, Louie never divulged his secrets to me. Yet, over a decade later, when I saw that the International Association for Near Death Studies (IANDS) was sponsoring a scrying workshop, I was intrigued enough to register.
I’ll write a funny, fish-out-of-water story, I thought; a piece about my misadventures, and how you can be really good at certain tools of divination but not so great at others.
File this in Boy Was I Wrong…
How to Contact Spirits of Loved Ones (using a scrying mirror)
Our workshop was held at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel after a full day of IANDS’ talks.
Twenty or more of us now sat at rectangular tables and eagerly faced our instructor, Nancy Clark. Nancy has survived three near death experiences herself. I’m adding her website so you see her many skills.
(http://energyhealing.com/about-nancy-clark/)
Nancy Clark
I didn’t use anyone’s crystal ball this time. I’d prepaid for a scrying mirror which was delivered at the start of class.
Here is a picture of my mirror.
Notice that it bears more of a resemblance to Nostradamus’s inky water than to a looking glass. The reflective surface is centered within a yantra design.
Yantras are ancient images, used often by Buddhists, as tools to contemplate and meditate, communicating with the Creator as if by entering a doorway into the pattern’s center.
I did have to move to a place in the room where my mirror wouldn’t catch the images of dimmed lamps or other students.
I Was On Fire
Somehow I was on fire in that class. Was it the atmosphere, i.e., being surrounded by other students who’d had near death experiences and might therefore be considered more open, creative, functioning at a higher level of spiritual vibration?
You could draw an analogy to Edgar Cayce’s requirement that his readings be given in a prayerful atmosphere, sometimes even refusing or unable to give a reading in a situation that was not. (Cayce is the most documented psychic in history.)
There’s something about humility, openness, and creativity that instills a magical and transformative essence into an atmosphere.
Picture An Orange Square
Nancy began a series of exercises. For example, telling us to picture an orange square, then suggesting another shape or color. Sort of like priming the pump to get people seeing.
I faded out of the exercises immediately because I was already seeing shapes, hues and movement in my mirror: A red inverted triangle, a vibrating cloud surrounded by a dark blue sky, something fuzzy, like a dandelion; then a swirling night sky in which I saw a 5-pointed start.
My notes record: “It’s like a vibration of something moving under a microscope. Now it shifts to a white bird, then an elephant flying through a night sky.”
I took these images to mean that I was already communicating with forces beyond myself. In the past, when I’d tried using my colleague’s crystal ball, I didn’t have this sort of floating sense of imagistic movement.
Today, I was split about whether to follow our instructor’s directions or simply go with what I was being shown. She advised me to release the exercises and simply follow my own path.
Parallel Worlds
I joined the group in accessing parallel worlds. Parallel worlds could be termed alternate dimensions existing simultaneously with the one we’re aware we’re in. They used this idea in the Gwyneth Paltrow movie “Sliding Doors,” when the same cast of characters experiences two different realities.
There I saw myself in an exquisite yellow silk dress, very detailed and feminine. Swans floated on an Irish lake, such calm in such a beautiful place.
I shifted realms for a moment and checked on my cat in this life. I saw she was sleeping safely in my home.
Edgar Cayce Appears
When our instructor said to connect with the deceased, I saw famed psychic, Edgar Cayce. Here he was part of a wise Council, moving in and out of their bodies.
My notes record: “I got to say no to him, which was important.” I didn’t record to whom I said no or why it was important. I wish I’d written more about my notes afterward.
“Everybody is a healer,” I wrote. (Good to know) Then I saw my mother and my aunt, and my grandmother whom I’d barely known in this life. Then two very happy white Bischons, whom I’d known quite well.
Though I was staring into the mirror and using it as a tool, the images appeared more in my mind’s eye than outside of myself. Yet they felt especially vivid, coming through rapidly and clear.
“When you call your deceased loved ones in,” Nancy reminded us, “they’re there whether you realize it or not.”
Generally, it’s easier for people to connect with the dead during sleep when the lines between worlds are thin and one’s defenses are down. “I dreamed I saw my father,” you might say. Edgar Cayce would tell you to trust that you did see him.
I entered this workshop with the mindset of a fish out of water. What I felt was like a fish in my element, though I had some concerns that people struggling to see might resent me for having a moreaccelerated experience.
It may not sound profound but there’s something about seeing and connecting with the unknown, even if it only looks like cells under a microscope, that makes life more dimensional and interesting. It says there’s more than meets the normal eye…and we don’t know how much more.
What does it all mean? Flying elephants, crosses and 5-pointed stars? Maybe it’s a beginning of melding with the universe in its fluid structure. Certainly a 2-hour class at the end of an information-filled day would likely only be a doorway. But for those hungry for the mystical experience, each small doorway is a lifeline.
6 Guidelines for Scrying:
- Scrying is best done in a dimly lit room. Our meeting room had some reflective light, as well as people talking on the other side of the wall, but I was soon able to shut it out.
- State Your Intention. What are you seeking from this scrying session? Connections with other realms, such as the deceased, or to see predictive images of the future?
- Close Your Eyes. Go within, i.e., center yourself, pray, affirm something positive, such as I easily see what Source would have me know. I am guided.
- Open Your Eyes.
- Look at the polished center of your mirror until it becomes soft and misty.
- Be patient. People have sat for weeks, even years before seeing anything. Patience and persistence are essential. Persistence means showing up with openness and without applying force.
