The Fore-Cast: April 2023

The Fore-Cast is a monthly divination offering a guiding message for the month upon which those who read the column may meditate or reflect.

If you are interested in the philosophy and step-by-step breakdown of how this divination is done, one is provided in the inaugural Fore-Cast posted in March 2023.

The Fore-Cast: April 2023

Greetings, readers, and welcome to our monthly communal peering through the gossamer veil of causality.

For this month’s hand, I was guided to draw and place three runes. The stage that is set is one of diverging paths and chosen paradigms.

The querent, in this case our community of readership, stands as a wanderer upon a winding game trail, barely discernible through the tangled undergrowth. The trail diverges into two blazeless paths. To the left, the forest clears, the path becomes paved, and a city rises on the horizon. To the right, the path becomes lost in a primeval wood heavy with the scent of foxglove and loam.

On the left path we see the influence of the Seventh Eidolon actively diminishing, and that of the Third Eidolon passively rising. Here we interpret the Seventh Eidolon in its association with confidence and self-assertion, while we interpret the Third Eidolon in its association with collective will and hive-mindedness.

This left path is reaching toward Fehu, which we interpret here as wealth of the pecuniary variety. This path is the path of investing in what society tells us is important, choosing to engage in the priorities of the physical world and its treasures.

On the right path we see the influence of the Fourteenth Eidolon actively diminishing. Here we interpret the Fourteenth Eidolon in its association with rationality, certainty, measurability, and predictability of outcome.

This right path is reaching toward Eihwaz, the Yew tree, which we interpret here as symbolic of the natural world, resurrection, and baneful plant medicine. This path is the path of the rejection of social expectations, pursuit of unquantifiable mystery, and turning from what we are told to value in favor of valuing that which is hidden, sacred, and oftentimes difficult. This is the path of introspection, of magic, and of the deep inner work of confronting our suppositions about reality and dismantling those which no longer serve us or those around us.

This reading shares many threads with the inaugural reading, which make sense given their close temporal proximity to one another. The same themes are in play, with subtle differences.

Here we are presented with a choice between that which is expected, condoned, and relatively easy, and that which is difficult, mysterious, and ultimately transformative. There is a well-trodden path toward living the life expected of us, and a thorny thicket through which we must blaze a path toward a life of our own creation. Though the thorns of the untrodden path may wound us, they will draw the stale blood of old selves.

This reading is asking us to evaluate our lives and beliefs, and move toward that which most fulfills us.

J.R. is the author of Seal, Sigil & Call: A New Approach to Ritual Magic. You can follow him on jrmascaro.com or his Instagram.