Water divination is, hands down, one of my most favorite methods of divination. It’s not the first one I learned (crystal scrying was) but it’s definitely one that I go back to again and again.

You can scry with any kind of reflective surface. Mirrors are the most common but historically crystal, glass, water, blood, and oil have all been used. I’ve personally used window pane, turned off monitor screens, cell phone screens, and once, an incredibly shiny notebook.

Scrying isn’t like tarot card reading or even tea leaf reading. There aren’t any meaning you can go to and rarely is there anything to actually look at. Instead, you stare at the reflective surface and pay attention to what you sense in your mind. The thoughts that come to your brain and the images that form there. I’ve rarely actually seen images in the water. The reflective surfaces are more about allowing you to see what’s in yourself. No two scryers will see the same thing, after all, so it’s a lot of independence practice and trusting your intuition in order to get a reading.

Because of it’s a very intuitive art, some people will be better at it than others. Practice can even things out but the most important thing is to trust yourself. When I do divinations for myself, I rarely assume that what I’m seeing will absolutely come true. Instead, I view divinations as the most likely outcome, at this specific point in time, until something changes. Having a divination allows me to hedge my bets and set up contingencies. Since that’s how I view divinations, it means that I don’t mind using my intuition to make a decision because I probably have a back up plan outlined in my head.

Anyway, water divination is definitely old and definitely worth pursuing, especially if you feel connected to water in any way. Here’s how to do it.

Find a suitable vessel for the water. You can use anything but a shallow bowl or plate works well for beginners. The preferred color would be black but white or clear works well. If you’re using a clear bowl, make sure that the table you’ll be working on is cleaned and maybe drop a plain black cloth on the table. It’s up to you and experimenting will reveal the best results here. But for beginners, stick with a plain black bowl or clear bowl with black cloth under it.

Fill it most of the way with water. The water you use will depend on you and even your questions. When in doubt, use purified, spring, or tap water. Since I keep pitchers of purified water around, I usually just pour from that but if I need to get my serious witch game on then I go for the bottles of collected water.

Put the bowl before you, and sit in a chair that’s not too comfortable but not too uncomfortable either. You can do whatever you like with your hands. I usually put them on either side of the bowl, to ensure I don’t faceplant into the water (a definite risk for me that I’ll explain in a bit) but you can put them in your lap or on the bowl if you like.

Now lean forward enough that you can see the reflection of the water but not your own reflection. This might be a bit tricky and you might need to play with any light sources nearby in order to get a good reflection without you. It won’t ruin your divination if you do find yourself in the reflection but I find staring at my own face distracting and end up embarrassed at whatever silly expression is on my face.

Think or say what you want to divine about. Describe it if you have to. Wait as long as you feel comfortable doing so. I find that after a few minutes I’ll drift closer to the water (hence the aforementioned faceplanting) and and my eyes will lose focus. That’s OK. Just let whatever come to mind happen.

Sometimes I’ll get particular sensations, like the color green or a snake. Other times I’ll see mini scenes in my brain like a movie reel but the people are faceless or stand-ins with people I know or even celebrities. Many times I’ll get a bunch of things all at once and I won’t be able to decipher it until later when writing it down. Don’t worry if it doesn’t make sense now or even after you’ve written it down. Scrying is one of those arts that is either incredibly, frustratingly vague or dead-on, scary accurate.

Talking aloud might help you find more and clarifying what you’re seeing but it also might disrupt your conversation. It’s a hit or miss thing for me. Sometimes I’ll talk and other times I won’t.

After a while, you’ll feel your concentration break. Maybe your mind slips into think what’s for dinner or you’ll feel the table edge pressing into your chest or your nose touches the water or something. It could be a phone ringing or the cat brushing against your leg. Whatever disrupts you concentration marks the end of that session.

Dump the water, clean the bowl and try again  at a later time. Don’t try to give it another go with the same question right away. It’s best to let what you’ve seen rest and sort itself out in your brain before trying again.

If you want to do more than one question at a time, you can use the same water or swap them out. It’s up to you. You can dump the water down the drain, drink it, or use it as an offering or water your plants. Whatever you want. I usually offer it to the garden as thanks but sometimes will pour it back to the source or down the drain.

And that’s it! It’s one of those easy to learn but difficult to master skills and one I think it’s super important to build up your belief in your own intuition. Give it a try and see how it works for you!