Nature and divination

(Nimue)

Recently I had a fascinating exchange with Dave – who regularly comments on the blog – about divination and the natural world. Is divination something that only humans do? If this is an entirely human activity, how does that fit with being inspired by nature?

My first thought was of another recent exchange about the folklore that a lot of berries in autumn are a sign of a harsh winter to come. That’s a sign we take from the natural world and it only works if we think trees are better at predicting the future than we are. That’s not an unreasonable idea – other mammals are far better than we are at predicting tsunamis, for example. If you see other creatures fleeing a beach, it’s a good idea to run.

Some birds can detect electromagnetic fields and use that to navigate when migrating. Insects can see colours on flowers that aren’t visible to us. Many creatures have awareness that we don’t have. The idea of ancient Druids reading signs in the flight of birds taps into this – I think. We don’t have access to all the information but we can learn things by paying attention.

We have no way of knowing what the fish read in the ripples or what the heron makes of the clouds. For all we know, the entire natural world could be busily reading signs and omens in order to make decisions. We’re all operating on best guesses, and trying to survive. We all depend on being able to read and interpret our environments, and I think that is in essence where divination comes from. It’s a very natural process of trying to get access to more insight.

Everything is connected. That doesn’t mean everything is a personal message for us. The more alert we are to the flows and currents around us, the more we know. My experience of humans seeking answers from divination is that it tends to be about relationships and work, more than anything else. Possibly because we have other ways of knowing where the wolves might be, and if there’s a storm coming. But at the same time, perhaps the owl who frequents my nearby trees is watching the movement of the stars to try and work out where to go to find a mate. Work is survival, asking to find a job that will sustain you isn’t so very different from asking where to go hunting.

Thank you Dave, for the prompt. I’m always open to having a go at these.