The Way of the Oracle Recovering the Practices of the Past

to Find Answers for Today

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she has used original sources, a deceptively simple method (trance and guided meditation), and her
own lyrical poetry to weave a portal to another world where both the seer and seeker can discover
knowledge to untangle the ordinary problems which confront us all. This is a wonderful introduction
for the beginner, and a wealth of information for the trained oracle or scholar.”
—DANA KRAMER-ROLLS, social historian and folklorist, author of The Way of the Cat

“A fascinating journey into the oracular tradition: personal, profound, and enlightening.”
—MICHELLE BELANGER, psychic/medium from A&E's Paranormal State and author of The
Psychic Energy Codex

“As ever, Diana Paxson continues to make strong contributions to the Neopagan enterprise,
grounding her suggestions and methods in a broad base of research in numerous Western traditions,
augmenting her approach to altered states and ancient oracular techniques with a healthy respect for
current trends in depth psychology and the neurosciences. Paxson's knowledge of myths, sagas, folk
magic, and history is impressive and well matched by her considerable skills as an entertaining
teacher and writer.”
—ERIK D. GOODWYN, MD, author of The Neurobiology of the Gods: How the Brain Shapes
the Recurrent Imagery of Myth and Dreams
 THE WAY OF THE
ORACLE
Recovering the Practices of
the Past to Find Answers for Today

DIANA L. PAXSON
First published in 2012 by Weiser Books
Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC
With offices at:
665 Third Street, Suite 400
San Francisco, CA 94107
www.redwheelweiser.com

Copyright © 2012 by Diana L. Paxson

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by
any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information
storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers
may quote brief passages.

ISBN: 978-1-57863-483-5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

Cover design by Suzanne Albertson

Interior by Maureen Forys, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Printed in the United States of America

TS
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National
Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-1992
(R1997).
 CONTENTS

Acknowledgments
Introduction

Part One: In Search of the Oracle

I. Seers and Speakers: The Selection, Training, and Role of an Oracle
II. Psyche and Setting: Oracular Sites and Spirits
III. The Prophetic Process: Techniques for Achieving Oracular Trance
IV. Questions and Answers: Past and Present
V. Sources and Spirits
VI. Mania and Mantike: Issues and Opportunities
VII. The Problem of Prophecy

Part Two: Invoking the Oracle

I. Preparation
II. Journeys
III. Working the Ritual
IV. Applications

An Appendix of Songs
Bibliography
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I have always found it easiest to learn in a group context, and I could not
have developed this material without the cooperation, suggestions, and
dedication of those who have worked with me in Seidhjallr, our working
group in the San Francisco area, and participated in our training workshops.
I would especially like to recognize the contributions of Laurel Mendes,
Lorrie Wood, Jordsvin, Winifred Hodge, Rod Landreth, Patricia Lafayllve,
and the many others with whom I have worked over the years. Thanks also
to Lorrie and Azi Vajravai for help with the music files. And finally, my
thanks go to all those who have asked questions at oracle sessions from
Berkeley to Britain. Without people who are looking for answers, there
would be no oracle work at all.
 INTRODUCTION

“A lot of help you are.”

“But we are,” said the calico koi. “We're just not supposed to do it
directly. That's not part of being oracular. Our job is to make you
think.”
DIANE DUANE, Wizards at War

PANTHEACON, FEBRUARY 13, 2010

I sit in the high seat, pulling the veil down to hide my face, clasping my
hands around the staff carved with the images of raven, cat, and bear. With
doubled vision, I see the hotel function room, where sixty people are
thinking about how to word their questions, and the mighty gate to Helheim,
its timbers banded with iron and graven with runes of power. Outside,
energy surges as the rest of the two thousand pagans who have come to
Pantheacon continue to celebrate. But here we have created a warded place
outside of time, and the way to wisdom is opening.
Passive, I wait as I have done so many times before, trusting my guide to
watch over me, trusting the warders to take care of the people. The scene
blurs, and I see a lantern-lit circle of redwood trees at an ‘Asatrú camp-out
in Big Sur, torches and tall images at an Ár nDraiocht Fein: A Druid
Fellowship (ADF) festival in Arizona, a green lawn beside a luminaria
maze at Trothmoot in Indiana, the banner-hung walls of a Unitarian church
in Berkeley, whispering trees in the Runestead at Brushwood in New York, a
log building at a Covenant of the Goddess (CoG) Merrymeet in
Washington, and a succession of workshop spaces and hotel function
rooms, all transformed, like this one, by candlelight and song.
How many times have I sat here? How many questions have I answered
since the night twenty years ago when I asked my circle of rune students if
they would join me in learning how to do the work of an oracle for the
pagan community. As always, I wonder if the magic will work, if I will be
able to pass through the gate, if the visions will come. And as always, I
remind myself that I am here to see for the people, and I make my will the
offering.
“Seeress, thy way through the worlds thou must win…,” my guide begins
to sing.
My eyes close. Responding to the music, awareness shifts, my breathing
slows, and the outer world whirls away.
We begin.

IN SEARCH OF AN ORACLE
Everyone has questions, and in every human culture there have been those
who sought for answers. Soothsayers, prophets, spae-wives, seers, and
oracles are found throughout history. Today, psychics, intuitives, palm-
readers, astrologers, and Tarot readers advertise everywhere.
But what do these people actually do?
The term “divination” comes from the Latin divinare, meaning “to
foresee, to be inspired by a god,” especially through the interpretation of
omens. In earlier times, men sought omens in the flight of birds or the
shapes of clouds or fire or the livers and other organs of sacrificed animals.
Today, we use symbol systems, such as cards or lots or runes, or more direct
means such as palmistry. In both divination and oracle work, the seer enters
a trance state in which he or she receives information. The images that
stimulate the diviner's perception are external, whereas the oracle receives
information directly, derives it from images encountered internally, or
channels the information from a higher power. Both approaches can provide
useful counsel. Many books have been written on the art of reading cards,
stars, and runes (including my own Taking Up the Runes). Fewer address
the art of the oracle, and yet, throughout most of history, the oracles have
been the most renowned.
The shaman also answers questions and gathers information by
journeying in spirit to the Otherworld, using drumming and dancing to shift
consciousness, while maintaining just enough connection to this world to
control his body while participating in the vision. To get answers, shamans
may look for a scene or image that sheds light on the question, or ask for
information from his spirit allies or a being in the Otherworld. Shamans
may also embody spirit beings, who then answer questions directly. All of
this is very similar to the work of an oracle. Indeed, in Nine Worlds of Seid-
Magic, Jenny Blain discusses seidh practices, including our oracular ritual,
as examples of neo-shamanism. However, oracular practice has its own
history.
Orestes, hounded by the Furies, asks the Pythoness at Delphi how to
break their curse. Aeneas consults the Cumaean Sibyl regarding where he
should lead the survivors of Troy. Queen Maeve asks the ban-filidh Fedelm
what the result of the Cattle Raid of Cualigne will be. And in the Saga of
Erik the Red, Thorbjorg, the “Little Völva,” tells a gathering of anxious
Greenlanders when the famine will end. Such literary episodes reflect the
practices and beliefs of their times. But people have similar questions today.
They want to talk to their lost loved ones, heal old family traumas, and find
out about work, projects, and prospects. Now, as then, the uncertainties of
life drive people to seek information on everything from love to livelihood.
But what can oracles actually predict? To accurately foretell the future
assumes a deterministic universe in which fate or some higher power has
already decided what will be. If knowing what is going to happen does not
allow you to change it, why bother to ask? I prefer to believe in probability
rather than predestination, and I choose to act as though my decisions can
make a difference. I believe that the role of the oracle is not to declare what
must be, but to identify probabilities and clarify the questioner's choices in a
way he or she can understand.
Just as some people are born with perfect pitch or the hand-eye
coordination of the artist, for some, seeing possible outcomes may be only
too easy. The agonies of the unwilling prophet are a staple of literature. And
yet, like manual dexterity and singing, perceiving probabilities is a basic
human ability. In this book, we will see how this ability can be trained and
used.
The methods presented in Part Two build on the basic trance skills laid
out in my earlier book, Trance-Portation. Improving communication
between your unconscious and conscious minds brings self-knowledge and
helps you make decisions. Oracle work is a unique and rewarding
experience, in which exploring the potential of other minds expands our
own. It brings us into contact with spirits, human and other. Seeking
answers, we range through the inner worlds.

BIOGRAPHY
My own oracular journey started in the eighties, when I was simultaneously
beginning a career as a writer of fiction and becoming a priestess. While
researching Brisingamen, a novel based on Norse mythology, I encountered
descriptions of the Viking Age magic called seidh, which included an
oracular ritual, and wondered if this skill could be practiced in the modern
world.
The core shamanic techniques described in Michael Harner's The Way of
the Shaman fit well into the array of skills I was developing, but I felt the
need for a more culturally embedded tradition. On the other hand, I was not
willing to immerse myself in the culture of any of the indigenous peoples
who were then being proclaimed as the only authentic sources for shamanic
practice.
In 1987, I was able to take Harner's “Basic Workshop.” I came to the
workshop hoping for help in recovering the shamanistic skills of my own
Northern European ancestors. When, on the second day, Harner announced
that we would be journeying to the Upper World to find a teacher in human
form, the figure I encountered was the Norse god Odin. That was the
beginning of a continuing relationship. The rune study with which I began
my exploration of Germanic culture is presented in Taking Up the Runes,
but that was only the prequel to an effort to reconstruct northern oracular
practice—an effort that continues to this day.
To fill in the gaps in the Norse seidh lore, I have explored oracular
practices wherever I could find them. Thus, although a great deal of the
material in this book will be drawn from the Germanic tradition, what I am
presenting in Part Two might be termed a “Core Oracular Practice” drawn
from the prophetic literature of many lands, whose principles can be used to
retro-engineer oracle work within a variety of traditions. The pythias at
Delphi and the völvas of early Scandinavia had the support of a trained
team, but many seers in the past worked alone, giving responses
spontaneously rather than in the context of ritual. By analyzing both
communal and solo oracular practices, we can identify the basic skills and
process and explore ways to incorporate them into individual and
community practice today.
Since the beginning, my purpose has been not only to serve my local
community, but also to introduce oracular practice to a wider audience. In
the mid-nineties, I began to conduct workshops, and a number of
individuals and groups using or influenced by these techniques are working
in the United States and Europe today.
I and my group are not the only ones who do this work, and our approach
is not the only one that can succeed; otherwise, although the historical
information on the work of an oracle might be of interest, there would be no
point in sharing what we have learned. My hope is that this book will
encourage readers who feel the call to improve their own oracular intuition
and to serve their communities to develop their own variations on a practice
that can be immensely rewarding both to those who ask questions and those
who answer.
 Part One
IN SEARCH OF THE ORACLE
 I
SEERS AND SPEAKERS:
THE SELECTION, TRAINING, AND
ROLE OF AN ORACLE

Then I take, as prophetess, my place and seat.

And this time may (the gods) bless the going-in much more than ever
before,
Both to me and to all from Hellas who are admitted,
As the custom is, by fall of the lot;
For I give response according as the god may lead.
Eumenides, Act I

King Aegeus consults the oracle at Delphi, Attic red-figured Kylix by the Kodros painter,
Antikensammlung Museum, Berlin

“What is your name?” Medb said to the girl.

“I am Fedelm, and I am a womanpoet [banfáid] of Connacht.”
 “Where have you come from?” Medb said.
“From learning verse and vision [filidecht] in Alba,” the girl said.
“Have you the imbas forosnai, the Light of Foresight?” Medb said.
“Yes I have,” the girl said.
“Then look for me and see what will become of my army.”
So the girl looked.
Tain Bo Cuailnge II

And now many things are revealed to me which were before hidden
from me and others. I can now say that the famine will not last much
longer, and that conditions will improve with the spring; and the
epidemic which has persisted for so long will abate sooner than
expected. And as for you, Gudrid, I shall reward you at once for the
help you have given us, for I can see your whole fate [forlog] with
great clarity now….
Saga of Erik the Red 4

I see two things. They are related. I see a small creek high in the
mountain, fresh melting snow. The first crocus raises her head,
stretches open to the sun. The rune with this is Jera. We are coming out
of the dark side of the year. Like the crocus you are sprouting but have
not yet budded open. Give it time, trust in the sun, and let yourself be
tickled, or healed.
Answer 13 from Seidh session,
January 11, 2005, Berkeley, California

Since humans first became self-aware, we've sought to understand the

forces that shape our lives. The scientist collects data to predict the
probability of events; the farmer uses experience to decide when to harvest.
But when ordinary sources of information fail, men seek guidance by other
means. Throughout history, some people have had a talent for giving advice
and making predictions. The pythia at Delphi, the Irish druidess, the
Greenland völva, and the modern seer are all called to serve as oracles. But
who are they? How did they come to their calling, and how do they answer
questions?

WHAT'S IN A NAME?