The Art of Black Mirror Scrying

by Rosemary Ellen Guiley

The black mirror is a powerful divination and visioning tool, revered for centuries for its ability to penetrate the veil between worlds. Mirror gazing, or scrying, is an ancient art for making contact with the dead, opening the gates to the angelic realm, seeing into the future and past, and seeing distant locations. All kinds of shiny surfaces have been used as tools, but the black mirror stands above them all. This complete and concise guide covers the history of black mirrors and scrying, and famous people who have relied on mirrors to reveal secrets and truth. It explains how black mirrors work in psychic seeing, and gives detailed advice on how to use a black mirror for talking to the dead, exploring the astral plane, discovering past lives, expanding your spiritual knowledge, and much more. Follow in the footsteps of history’s great alchemists, mediums, and sages, such as John Dee, Queen Elizabeth I’s royal astronomer, who used scrying to contact angels, and Nostradamus, the famous French seer whose prophecies reached far into the future. I have been an avid reader of Rosemary Ellen Guiley’s work for over 25 years and this book is one of her best yet! She takes you on a journey through the dark mirror to make contact with the spirit world, develop psychic skills, explore your past lives, and uncover hidden truths. With her direct, no-nonsense style, Rosemary packs this book full of the information you need to master the use of this ancient visionary tool! -- Christian Day, author, The Witches’ Book of the Dead

Genres: Witchcraft, Spirituality, Magic, Divination

172 pages, Paperback

First published May 16, 2014

About the author

Rosemary Ellen Guiley is a leading expert on the paranormal, and is the author of 45+ books, including ten single-volume encyclopedias. Since 1983, she has worked full-time in the paranormal, researching, investigating and writing. She has done extensive field work investigating haunted, mysterious and sacred places, and has had numerous strange and unexplained experiences. When she is not on the paranormal road, she is working on new books and writing for TAPS Paramagazine, FATE magazine, and the Journal of Abduction-Encounter Research. Rosemary lives in New Jersey, and spend much of her time traveling the spooky byways of one of the most haunted states in America, Pennsylvania."

Reviews

[Matal “The Mischling Princess” Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Someone gifted me a black obsidian scrying mirror for the holidays, so I decided to read Rosemary Ellen Guiley’s, “The Art of Black Mirror Scrying” to learn more about the history of scrying.

This concise book packs in a lot of information. The use of what has been termed as “astral light,” “animal magnetism,” and “od” as described by the author has been used by psychics for eons. In this book, the author focuses on black scrying mirrors and bowls/vases filled with water, but psychics have been “zoning out” (or rather zoning in), using a lot of tools, including but not limited to candle meditations and even just closing one’s eyes and creating a blank image. Although the author primarily focuses primarily on European scrying, it’s found throughout the world in various forms. For example, when indigenous tribal members go on vision quests. And scrying is also found among various mainstream religious groups as well.

While the author does discuss how anyone can scry—and they can—and while many people will engage in practices to “encourage” a psychic gift, I have to state that one is either psychic or not; one either habitually sees/hears the dead and the past/future or does not.

That said, I thought that this was an excellent introduction to scrying. Like all tools (e.g., scrying, card reading, tarot reading, and etc.), psychics can use scrying to help them to focus more or, if they’ve experienced trauma, will help them learn to refocus.

[Yvonne Haas · Rating 4 out of 5]

More History Than Method

I would have liked more methodology than history on black mirror scrying. Definitely worth reading if you’re interested in scrying.

[Amanda Schell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really goes into it a lot and teaches you so many different ways of using black mirrors

[Cornerofmadness · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was interesting. I will say it's much more about the history of scrying and the people who used it from the earliest days up through the spiritualist movement and to today. The how-to scry is much less of the point which surprised me. In fact the how to build a mirror is actually an appendix.

That said, it's well written, well researched and easy to read. I got this one from Rosemary after a nice long talk at the Mothman festival. It's worth the read if you have an interest in scrying.

[Cheryl Alsippi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book on the history of scrying. Rosemary has written a comprehensive book on buying and/or creating your own black mirror for scrying, instructions on dedication, use and protection options. I would recommend to anyone interested in creating a mirror or attempting to use one.

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so well researched. The author mentions famous scryers like Eliphas Levi. It’s good to understand how the mirrors works before you just get a mirror amd start to practice. I strongly recommend this book.

[Jorge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good

A practical guide to work with the black mirror. Probably too much history before the practical part for me but don't bother too much

[Baroness · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting…

[Ivy · Rating 4 out of 5]

More history than a how to guide to using black mirrors for scrying. Still has decent info and it’s a short enough read to justify picking it up if you’re interested in scrying, just don’t expect to come out of it feeling prepared to try it yourself. Will probably reread at some point, but I would consider this more introductory than anything. But what can you do with a book under 100 pages?

Also, she’s a compelling writer, I really was interested in her personal anecdotes throughout the book, but needs a better editor. Typos, gramatical issues, and structuring problems galore, especially when she’s quoting someone else or, god forbid, using semi colons incorrectly.

[Taylor Ellwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book presents a fascinating history of scrying, which is a must read if you want to learn more about the background of scrying. The author also provides some explanations for how scrying works and includes exercises you can do to sharpen your skills. She also explains how to create a black mirror for scrying. The book is well written and provided some useful information on scrying.

[Linnea · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed the historical part explaining different important esoteric trends, but was disappointed in the very short and not researched part about practice. As many books on Amazon Kindle sadly are, this seemed like a rushed book pieced together

[Matt Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

very interesting

Love the history in the book, regarding scrying and the pioneers that did it. A fascinating topic for sure. I recommend for anyone wanting to attempt this.

[Danielle Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, kind of repetitious on tips

[Vespasian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read a number of books on Scrying, and this was by far the best. It has a good amount of history regarding scrying and goes on to give great tips and exercises. I bought it as a kindle download but will try to get a printed version soon, just so I have one in my book collection. For the price I paid, this book is excellent. Well done Ms. Guiley.

[G]