Main Level

Back for the second year. This form of scrying has been used for thousands of years. For best results enter into the session with positive thoughts of loved ones.

A very special place for contacting the dead is known as a psychomanteum, or an “apparition booth”, which is a darkened chamber with reflective surfaces such as water or mirrors, first originating in temples throughout ancient Greece. By gazing into a still pool of water the person would attempt to receive visions, apparitions, and otherwise prophetic messages from the afterlife. These stone edifices were erected on “sacred spots” and used as conduits by which to endeavor communication with the spirit world or relay the will and testimony of the gods. In the modern era we might consider such devices as the Catholic confessional booth to be an offshoot of these pagan tactics of divination, though this particular religious practice, too, has its heritage in the elder Egyptian pyramid age.

In 1958, the Greek archaeologist, Sotiris Dakaris discovered the Dodona oracle spoken of by the historical authors Homer and Herodotus from the classical period. Here the “initiates” would wait in complete darkness for their turn to employ the sacred oracle before entering an extensive maze eventually leading to the “apparitional hallway” where mystical experiences were believed to take place. Certainly, with long lines of paying customers, a certain amount of trickery was at work in order to grant such phantasmagorical visions. A large cauldron was subsequently unearthed at this location, further implying the use of this tool as a method of divination throughout ancient Grecian and Celtic periods of rule. It should be noted that as far as the cauldron is concerned the substitution of water for sacrificial blood was not entirely uncommon.

His term for this pseudo-scientific method was dubbed the ‘Theater of the Mind’, and only when you let yourself go,  didn’t try too hard to make contact, would the unknown, unseen, and hidden make itself visible. While such tools and practices might bring out a certain notion of esoteric romanticism to some advocates, it should be made clear that it’s not entirely healthy for individuals with paranoid-delusional disorders and chemical imbalances to seek communication with the spirit realm through devices like the psychomanteum, at least not on a regular basis.

Various religious and spiritual traditions state that your body is the temple and vessel by which communication with the divine might be attained: all else is artificial. These days the use of mirrors as portals to the unknown  are more prevalent in horror films than in practice, yet, there is something universally intriguing about what  awaits just beyond the vista of our own egocentric reflections. Two mirrors immediately facing each other will open our perception to an infinite corridor of imaginary worlds and possibilities begging to be explored. While the spirit of adventure is always a worthy voice to heed, we must be careful lest the call beacon us to disaster.