10 Forms of New Age Divination: An Introduction

Almost 30,000 years ago, the prehistoric forms of divination emerged with the presence of Paleolithic people. As inferred from the remains of this ancient civilization, Paleontologists concluded that their practices included some sort of reverence to the divine. Apparently, these practices were present as they buried the dead, symbolizing their belief in something.

Fast forward centuries after, we have a lot of various forms of divination around us. From the practices during the Ancient Greek period, to the heavily Christian Medival period, and now present the New Age Modern period, divination was never out of sight. Instead, it only changed its approach and how it manifests in us.

In today’s world, divination

As such, it gives us a powerful insight that divination and spirituality is an essential part of being human. Seen as a dimension of our existence, spirituality is a core aspect of life’s meaning, allowing us to see more than what meets the eye.
With that, we will be missing out a lot on our lives if all we focus on are the latest trends and gadgets advertised through our smartphones. In the light of this context, we will be focusing on some of the popular forms of new age divination that are present today, giving us a quick insight into what we have.

10 Forms of New Age Divination

1. Feng Shui (Geomancy)

To start off this list, Feng Shui is a popular forms of new age divination practice in the east. Following Chinese culture and philosophy, Feng means wind while Shui refers to water. In their belief, both elements lead to good health, which means that Feng Shui can be connected to good fortune as well.

Using geomancy, Feng Shui is founded on the idea that certain placements of things will impact one’s fortune. As one thing’s placement within the house can impact the energy that flows, we should be conscious of what to place and where to put them.

For instance, Feng Shui suggests that we should decorate in pairs (say two mandarin ducks) if we want to attract good love and relationships in our life. Similarly, the colors that we pick will also attract the energy that we want. Depending on the side of the room, Feng Shui has a suggested color type, creating balance to what we want.

With that, divination comes into play as our paths will be influenced by the environment around us. Psychologically, geomancy, and Feng Shui seek to shape our perspective on a subconscious level. By seeing colors and placements that attract good luck, we are inculcating a positive mindset.

2. Tarot Cards

As one of the more popular forms of new age divination, tarot cards are often seen as both mystical and occultist. With illustrations which seem to manifest both celestial and ominous qualities, they are often subject of folklore and myths. Nowadays, tourists in places all over the world do tarot readings (the simplest form of this is the Yes or No Tarot reading), hoping to get a good insight into what’s to come.

But apart from this, what are these cards really about? Comprised of 78 cards, this deck contains cards that seek to interpret one’s karma and fate. By assembling concepts that represent various symbols in life, one can gain an intuitive insight into what the universe holds for them.

As such, one can avoid unnecessary conflict or pursue good fortune, depending on how these cards pan out. For instance, drawing the Judgment card for your career path suggests a change that is gradual and reasonable. Thus, being able to see this allows you to decide whether to shift to a new company or not.

With that, these cards are merely tools themselves. While some would say that these are mere illustrations on paper, keeping an open mind about it will allow you to gain a different perspective on your approach in life.

3. Astrology

Perhaps the leading and most popular forms of new age divination, astrology has become one of the key movers for the New Age spirituality. With its universal illustrations, zodiac signs are seen to be part of popular culture, making it a mainstream form of spirituality.

By using the prediction of the stars and how the planets have aligned, zodiac signs and daily horoscopes seek to give us an idea of how things will pan out. As we heed their advice, we become better at approaching the unknown, given that we have a guide in doing so.

In this case, these stars serve as our lamp in a dark tunnel, leading our way out. For instance, a solar eclipse in one of your planets this month can easily mean avoiding trouble or finally inviting out that new co-worker in your place.

With that, people are taking into consideration when to pursue or avoid something (especially when there is a Mercury retrograde). By studying how the distance and movements of planets and stars relate to human life, we seek to gain an understanding that transcends common sense reason.

4. Numerology

Similar to Astrology, Numerology seeks to gain insight on the path of one’s existence. By following an ancient system that relies on a symmetrical approach to understanding numbers, this forms of new age divination seeks to understand more about the world. Historically, this practice was part of Egyptian and Babylonian traditions, signifying that was once important to the most advanced civilizations during their time.

Nowadays, the popularity of numerology is largely because of life path numbers. By adding the numerical value of each letter in your name, you can arrive at numbers which can be added to reach a final number. Similar to numbers themselves, numerology relies on a universal approach that disregards one’s culture or race.

As such, numerology heavily relies on unique data that is part of who you are. For instance, your birthdate is something that cannot be changed, and yet you didn’t choose it. By computing your life path number, you will gain an insight into what the universe tells about you.
With that, numerology serves as one of the ways to understand our future. By giving us good insight into who we are as individuals, numerology can influence the kind of persons we will become.

5. Palm Reading

Popularly seen on fortune-telling concepts of movies and art, palm reading is seen as one of the ways to gain valuable insight into one’s future. As a forms of new age divination, palm reading both had western and eastern contexts, suggesting that it is a universal practice, albeit an ancient one.

Contextually, palm reading showcases its value by representing the hands which are seen as enablers for us humans. Understood as a way to the world, our hands represent our creative capabilities, allowing us to translate what’s in our mind into actual thoughts.

By reading the creases on our hands and the lines drawn from it, palmistry associates them with certain meanings that we can make use of. For starters, these lines are labeled as the heart line, head line, life line, and fortune line. Following a strict method of interpreting how they are placed, palm reading gives us an ominous insight about our personality and future in general.

Similarly, finger/fingernail reading follows the same suit. But instead of reading creases in our palms, this method seeks to examine the thickness and form of our fingers. Like palm reading, meanings are assigned depending on the form of each.

6. Angel Reading

Stemming from Oracle Cards as their ancestors, angel reading is a reinvention of the classic forms of new age divination. As a part of the New Age movement, these oracle cards were redesigned to accommodate the western taste. Nowadays, these angel readings are all over the internet, proving how such trend remains continually relevant after the initial push.

For starters, angel reading, based on Meredith Young-Sowers Angelic Messenger Cards tells us that there are six aspects of spiritual energies that these angels are concerned about, namely: reflection, partnership, integration, alignment, rejuvenation, and nourishment. Revolving around these powers, the readers will draw the cards for you depending on the question that you have.

As they draw these cards, there will be single interpretations of them, giving you an idea of what the angels have to say about your case. Furthermore, these cards can also be interpreted as a combo, seeing how compatible these cards are with each other.

With that, angel reading has become one of the sources of divination for the modern man. Using the foreboding images of angels, people who receive this reading tend to accept it with reverence, especially when coming from a western tradition.

7. Spirit Animals

Coming from the shamanic tradition, spirit animals are often viewed as guides which aid us in life’s journey for us. Just as when we go trekking or diving, seasoned hikers and dive masters guide us on our way through. Similarly, these spirit animals also serve the same purpose; it is just that not all of us notice them. The problem is that even when they are all around us, most of us fail to see them because we don’t know how to look.

For instance, generally, people can notice the butterfly as a symbol of transformation. Knowing its whole journey to become a butterfly, this has become a symbol of change. But while most of us know this, not all of us are aware of the eagle who signifies our task to reconnect with ourselves. As such, we fail to notice its value, having no impact on us at all.

With that, the key is in being knowledgeable about the various spirit guides and how they can possibly impact us. By reading more, we learn more about them, allowing its meaning and power to reach our subconsciousness.

8. Spirit Guides

Similar to the previous point, spirit guides serve as an umbrella term for various forms of resonance that we can establish with tangible and non-tangible things around us. Much like in Avatar Aang’s journey to become the Avatar, various beings like animals and dead avatar souls have served as his pathfinder.

With that, the concept of spirit guides is truly a universal one, signifying that spirituality and spiritual awakening is shared by all cultures. Such mystical, terrifying, yet fascinating phenomenological experience suggests that we share the same concept but have different guides along the way.

As such, the key is in noticing correctly which things, animals, or entities serve as a guide for us. Typically, there can be guides such as animals, totems, light beings, ancestors, plants, gods/goddesses, mystical items, etc., Moving forward on our spiritual journey, noticing these guides along the way as we increase our spiritual aptitude. Even when we don’t see them, sharpening our sixth sense will allow us to include this in our arsenal of divinations.

9. Spiritual Vision Board

For the ninth forms of new age divination in this series, spiritual vision boards have stemmed from the traditional ones. Following the same pattern, its strength lies in being able to draw-out and map your ideas, allowing you to physically envision what you want for your life.

But unlike traditional vision boards, this one focuses on the spiritual aspect of our being. Meaning, it seeks to pinpoint the subconscious and the beyond, allowing us to have a good grasp of how we see ourselves metaphysically.

With that, spiritual vision boards have become a good tool to outline our spiritual journey. Despite being underrated, properly mapping out this journey will give us an idea to our destination. Whereas the traditional vision board can contain clear cut destinations, the spiritual one often requires much reflection and meditation to ascertain where one is going.

More importantly, having this spiritual vision board is essential for us to make sure that we’re on the right path. After all, we are dealing with non-tangible entities of which can easily sway us to the dark side. By mapping out, we prevent unnecessary detours, which save us time and effort. With that, it has become a reliable way of divination, giving us a good grasp of our spiritual journey.

10. Jungian Archetypes

Finally, perhaps the most popular personality test, the Jungian Archetypes is one of the ways to accurately predict one’s future. By having a good grasp of one’s inner workings, you will be able to identify supernaturally how thing will pan out in your life.

Built upon the great works of C.G. Jung, the 12 archetypes represent one’s dominant psychological make-up. As Jung identified common ways of understanding people, he theorized that there rests a collective unconscious wherein these archaic images of the self are formed.

As we grow older, these roles are turned into responses as they are passed on from one ancestor to the other. Further developed by Pearson’s Awakening the Heroes Within, we get a more detailed understanding of one’s journey through the twelve archetypes namely: caregiver, creator, explorer, hero, innocent, jester, lover, magician, member, outlaw, ruler, sage.

With these twelve archetypes, we will have a good idea of who we are to the extent that we are able to predict our path. Considered as a form of divination within the New Age spirituality, the Jungian archetypes have provided a fundamental basis for a semi-reasonable approach to divinity.

*BONUS: if you want to find out your archetype, you can take our free archetype quiz here.

Given these ten forms of new age divination, we hope that we have imparted you a good introduction on the endless possibilities of understanding yourself. By heeding the advice of powers that transcend us, you are opening yourself to the entirety of cosmic powers, guiding you in ways beyond that which you can imagine.

In using divination, you can be who you want and more!

The Individualogist Team

The Individualogist Team is made up of archetype fanatics, individuation practitioners, and spirituality fans. Our humble group has banded together to deliver thought-provoking, life-changing, and growth-probing wisdom.