What Is An Oracle?

What is an oracle? That’s an interesting question… the answer is anything and everything can be an oracle, including you. Yep… that’s right, even YOU!

Astrology, books, crystals, dreams, numbers, ouija boards, pendulums, runes, spirit or totem animals, tarot and oracle cards, and tea leaves are just some of the myriad forms of divination; in fact, Lillian Verner-Bonds’ Divination Dictionary (2020) identifies more than 40 sources.

Image credit: "But in her web she still delights/To weave the mirror's magic sights," The Lady of Shalott by A. Tennyson, Dodd Mead & Company Publishers, 1881. Original lithograph by Brett Lithographing Co, NY.

Since my pseudonym is the Lady of Shalott, of course, one of my favorite oracles from Victorian art and poetry is Alfred Tennyson’s The Lady of Shalott. Tennyson’s famous poem by the same name (1832) tells the tragic story of Elaine of Astolat, a young noblewoman stranded in a tower up the river from Camelot. Like other women of the Arthurian legend, The Lady of Shalott was thought to have the gift of sight, alas she suffers from a mysterious curse which forbids her from looking at the world directly. Bound to a loom, instead she must continually weave images she receives from a mirror, which reflects back the daily hustle and bustle of village and court life including all the various farmers, merchants, abbots, lords and ladies, knights and lovers that come and go from Camelot. When she fatefully meets with Sir Lancelot's image, however, love at first sight compels her to surrender the safety of her tower for the risk of the 'real' world, thereby activating the curse.

The Lady of Shalott was popularized in Lucy Maud Montgomery’s classic girlhood series of novels Anne of Green Gables (1908). Although recently remade by the CBC and Netflix as Anne with an E (2017), the original film adaptation starred Megan Follows (1985) as Anne Shirley, a plucky orphan girl with a vivid imagination whose literary (mis)adventures included reenactment of the Lady of Shalott’s demise, which involved laying down in a leaky rowboat and dropping the oars, “the broad stream b[earing] her far away.” Similarly, in the poem, "outside the isle a shallow boat/Beneath a willow lay afloat,/Below the carven stern she wrote, The Lady of Shalott." And "[at] the closing of the day/loos’ed the chain, and down she lay," "singing in her song she died,/The Lady of Shalott." In Montgomery’s story, thankfully young Anne meets a pleasanter fate, however, when she is rescued by schoolyard nemesis Gilbert Blythe who would later become her beau!

One of the most famous oracles was Sophocles' great Oracle of Delphi which in the Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex (429 BC) prophesied that if the King and Queen of Thebes were to bear a son that he would go on to kill his father and marry his mother, the perverse fallacy that would later become the basis of Sigmund Freud's theories on psychosexual development. Dating back to 1400 BC, the Oracle of Delphi was the most important shrine in all of Greece. Built around a sacred spring, Delphi was considered to be the omphalos, the 'navel' of the world. People came from near and far to have their questions about the future answered by the Pythia, the priestess of Apollo. While her answers were usually cryptic, they were believed to determine the course of everything from when a farmer planted his seedlings to when an empire declared war.

Other more obscure forms of divination include astrocartography, or locational astrology, which projects the querent's natal chart onto planetary longitudes and latitudes to gauge their experiences at corresponding grid points. Bibliomancy is a method which seeks to foretell the future by interpreting a randomly chosen passage from a book, especially the Bible. Theriomancy, or zoomancy, meanwhile, involves observation of the appearance and behavior of wild animals, including ailuromancy, the study of cat movements, and augury, the study of bird formations. Lithomancy is another form of divination by which the future is told using stones or the reflected light from the stones. While augury appears to be more fixed than other systems, with some sources going as far as to interpret the number and the direction of the birds’ flight, calls, and times of day, individual animal and crystal spirit oracles also have rich symbolism, which some animists believe may be accessed by tuning into the oversoul of the animal or crystal. Hay House authors Colette Baron-Reid and Heather Askinosie have popularized this practice with their recent decks, The Spirit Animal Oracle (2018), Crystal Spirits Oracle (2019), and Daily Crystal Inspiration (2020).

While virtually any reflective surface used for scrying, or for capturing and focusing a channel of energy, such as crystal balls, mood rings, mirrors, pools, puddles, and windows can serve as an oracle...

While virtually any reflective surface used for scrying, or for capturing and focusing a channel of energy, such as crystal balls, mood rings, mirrors, pools, puddles, and windows can serve as an oracle, the contemporary cult of the oracle could also be thought to extend to the use of auxiliary spellcasting, ritual, spa, and aromatherapy tools, such as sage and other herbs, essential oils, incense, candles, and crystals to prepare or amplify a sacred space for meditation, spiritual readings, and healing sessions. In my experience as an intuitive empath and multidimensional healer, however, the clearer the channel the less necessary external forms, altars, and props become. When I started my ascension journey I relied heavily on astrology, oracle, tarot cards, and dream interpretation; while I still continue to use them as indicators or for confirmation, I have since honed my clairaudient channel to receive guidance directly from my guides, angels, and ancestors. While there are a myriad of ways that guidance can show up, according to the Universal Law of Polarity, we must remember to ask. ‘Ask and it is given!’

In my experience as an intuitive empath and multidimensional healer, however, the clearer the channel the less necessary external forms, altars, and props become.

Once you have asked, your work is to surrender or allow by disengaging the thinking mind. Dr. Joe Dispenza goes a step further in Becoming Supernatural (2019) by breaking our electromagnetic field down into the electrical, which he correlates with our intention, i.e., the thing that is wanted or asked for, and the magnetic, which he correlates with an elevated emotion, i.e, love, gratitude, appreciation, enthusiasm, joy, etc.; therefore, in order to manifest our deepest desires, we must also raise our vibration in the process. As we are practicing the ‘art of allowing’ which Abraham-Hicks has also referred to as the process of “getting ready to get ready to get ready…” to help us keep the faith along the way, you may start to receive universal pre-manifestational signs, such as angel or repeating numbers, feathers, coins, or rainbows. As you cultivate more trust with your angels and guide team, however, the oracles, omens, signs, and synchronistic messages you receive may become more personal. For example, one of my deceased father’s favorite bands was Dire Straits. When I hear the band come on the radio, I receive it as a medium message from him. Other times I see or hear either the name of my twin flame or my own name, and either of our birthdates on clocks and receipts.

As you cultivate more trust with your angels and guide team, however, the oracles, omens, signs, and synchronistic messages you receive may become more personal.

Of course, disengaging the thinking mind so that we can make space for guidance to show up is easier said than done, especially if you have unresolved karma, unprocessed trauma, high IQ, or identify as a masculine dominant (yang) energy. Meditation and breathwork are reliable ways of cultivating mindfulness. Other ways include yoga, diet, and exercise; prayer or affirmation-based mantras; space clearing, entity releasing, and energy healing. To help make the 'science of deliberate creation' a little easier, Dr. Dispenza and other neuroscientists at the HeartMath Institute have even come up with a device to help us measure whether we are in a state of vibrational alignment with our desire. By monitoring our levels of mind and heart coherence, the HeartMath Inner Balance sensor and app teach us how to shift from stress and frustration to balance and resilience. Here’s something to meditate on... Did you know that the heart's electromagnetic field is 5,000 times stronger than the brain?!

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Want to learn more about how to work with oracles to manifest your desires? Want help interpreting dream symbolism, sign, or sync patterns you’re encountering? Perhaps you’re experiencing some energetic resistance or blocks which you need help resolving? Book Now and receive 25% off your first Spiritual Reading with me. Simply enter the coupon code NEWCLIENT at checkout!