Why must you make your own pentagram instead of buying one?
I heard that you needed to (make) your own pentagram is this true?
I would like a pagan or Wiccan to answer this question. Also do you guy think the (pentagram that’s pointing down) stands for the same thing the pentagram that (points up)?
It’s always preferable to use tools that you crafted in some way. They have your energy, your signature on them and they are therefore going to respond to working more harmoniously. They may not always be as pretty or as perfectly designed, but if you are working the Craft for the pretty you are setting yourself up for a big disappointment.
That said, If you have zero skill at the craft needed for a particular tool, purchasing a tool and then personalizing it in some way achieves a similar effect. If you simply purchase a gewgaw in a store and toss it on the altar, it is merely a gewgaw from a store, albeit in the shape of a pentagram. Personalizing it with intent and ritual will create a tool from it. (Despite all my best intentions and attempts to craft my own athame, I have settled on using a purchased blade with my bindrune carved into the handle and cords from my initiates tied to the hilt.)
As for the directionality, it is fairly traditional that the upright pentagram deals with things as they are, known and in the open (in the light). The inverted pentagram deals with hidden information, challenges, and the side of life that is often in the darkness. This is NOT to say that one direction is “good” and one is “evil”. The two sides work together to create the reality we live. One without the other is out of balance and therefore unnatural. That said, it is generally recommended to work under the upright pentacle for a period of time (usually a full solar cycle or more) before embarking on work under the inverted pentacle.
What is the difference between fortune-telling and divination?
This question was asked on Yahoo Answers:
My Answer
Fortune-telling is to Divination as Reality Television is to Documentary.
Divination is a practice of using tools (tarot, runes, scrying, pig guts, whathaveyou) to allow the super-conscious mind discover information that may be hidden (occult) to the conscious mind of the querent. This information can be used to extrapolate the possible and/or likely course of future events. The accuracy of the information can only be tested by using the information, and in so doing one becomes as part of the experiment rather than an independent observer, therefore it is not a testable phenomenon by empirical standards and largely classified as bunko.
Fortune Telling is using the trappings of divination (tools, mysticism) combined with showmanship, pop psychology and cold reading to create an entertaining extrapolation of possible future events. Because many people confuse the two practices, self-fulfilling prophesies may arise from fortune tellers.
Some diviners (often called readers or psychics) cross the line between the two practices and further confuse the matter; others resort to cold reading without realizing it.
