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The Divination Handbook: The Modern Seer's Guide to Using Tarot, Crystals, Palmistry, and More
The Divination Handbook is a modern seer's guide to developing your intuitive abilities and mastering time-honored techniques used for fortune-telling and prediction.
With this guide, you'll learn how to use tarot , crystals , palmistry , and more to part the veils between the realms . Learn to understand the deeper meaning of ordinary events—and reveal what your future may hold.
Lavishly illustrated, The Divination Handbook presents to you over a dozen oracles of the ancients, from palm-reading and tea leaves , to fortune-telling with cards , runes , and crystals .
Step-by-step illustrations guide you through the methods, and helpful tables and reference charts show you how to understand and decipher common psychic symbols . Learn the stories and meanings in everyday objects—such as patterns of tea leaves and coffee grounds in a cup—or delve deeper into esoteric traditions like the tarot.
With The Divination Handbook , you'll never be at a loss for answers and guidance to your most pressing questions.
With this guide, you'll learn how to use tarot , crystals , palmistry , and more to part the veils between the realms . Learn to understand the deeper meaning of ordinary events—and reveal what your future may hold.
Lavishly illustrated, The Divination Handbook presents to you over a dozen oracles of the ancients, from palm-reading and tea leaves , to fortune-telling with cards , runes , and crystals .
Step-by-step illustrations guide you through the methods, and helpful tables and reference charts show you how to understand and decipher common psychic symbols . Learn the stories and meanings in everyday objects—such as patterns of tea leaves and coffee grounds in a cup—or delve deeper into esoteric traditions like the tarot.
With The Divination Handbook , you'll never be at a loss for answers and guidance to your most pressing questions.
176 pages, Hardcover
Published January 22, 2019
29 people are currently reading
375 people want to read
About the author
Liz Dean
60 books94 followersI'm an author and an intuitive, writing primarily about tarot, creativity and manifesting. My latest project, HBO's Game of Thrones Tarot, was published in March 2018, along with The Ultimate Guide to Divination in April. I practise and teach tarot at Psychic Sisters within Selfridges, London; Crystal Moon Emporium in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear; and privately, via Skype. This August, 3-5, I teach at The Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York.
My background is in illustrated book publishing, commissioning authors (so I know what it's iike to be on both sides of the industry); and I co-edited Kindred Spirit magazine for a year or two. I've also worked as a copy-writer for publishers and the BBC, and work as a ghostwriter.
I hope you enjoy my books and I look forward to hearing from you.
My background is in illustrated book publishing, commissioning authors (so I know what it's iike to be on both sides of the industry); and I co-edited Kindred Spirit magazine for a year or two. I've also worked as a copy-writer for publishers and the BBC, and work as a ghostwriter.
I hope you enjoy my books and I look forward to hearing from you.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
January 25, 2019
The Divination Handbook is an incredibly useful book if you are at all interested in any kind of divination. I enjoyed the chapter on palmistry the most. The was very thorough and descriptive. Also, I liked it very much that there were photographs and not only descriptions of crystals. I think this is a nice start if you are planning on getting into divination.
(But, I must disclose that I received this book through Netgalley and there was some kind of problem with my copy of the book - some letters seemed to be missing, so it made it a bit hard to read.)
March 15, 2019
I would give this 2 1/2 stars if I could. I really wavered between 2 and 3, and decided on 3 since it's a fun basic read if you don't want too much information.
This is an okay book if you want to dabble in fortune telling techniques for fun. It does not go into enough detail to really help take it seriously, but you'd probably buy or check out individual books on the specific techniques if you wanted to do that. It is fairly lacking in illustration and pretty generic. You don't get a sense of the author and her history with any of this at all, but more a "here's super basic information" on each section.
I do have some knowledge of most of the sections in this, even though I don't really follow them. Some examples of where I'm coming from as a reader: I have experience with tarot cards, have done numerology for fun in my younger years, had a child who had fun using runes for a while, and things like that. When I worked as a small town bartender and waitress in my 20's I had a set of Mexican bingo cards that I told fortunes with for fun and while I didn't take it seriously, I had people who brought friends from other towns to get readings. My family and I take part in a historic fortune telling event every year where a "fortune teller" (an ER nurse who's studied palm reading for fun for years) tells us all about what the lines in our palms mean. Things like that. So while I don't use divination as a serious part of my own spiritual path, I know a lot about most of the methods talked about in the book.
The tea leaf reading bit struck me as particularly silly, to be honest. You're supposed to look for images in the spent tea leaves at the bottom, but there aren't pictures of examples other than a few blobs to give you an idea. And the list was a little ridiculous. How do you know if a shape is a ring or a circle or a bracelet, for example? It's a circle shape made of leaves. And some of the shapes were even sillier. What does a cell phone shape in tea leaves look like?
Also, it's really lacking information on how to do the stuff. For instance, it talks about how to basically toss crystals onto a mat to see what falls close to you or near or off the mat, and then tells what each crystal means. There are a LOT of crystals and some of them are rare or expensive like emeralds. Are we supposed to buy all those crystals? Where? What size? Does it matter if they're polished or raw? How big is the cloth? What kind of cloth? There's just so little information. Stock photos show what each crystal looks like from shutterstock but some are round and polished and some are more like science kit crystals.
In the palmistry section, there are line drawings but there's just not much to go on. I would have really appreciated photos of hands for examples. Also, I seem to have no fate and supposedly will have no children (I have 5). My local ER nurse/fake palm reader does a much better job reading my palm. :)
The types covered included: tarot cards, using a pendulum, numerology, palmistry, runes, crystals and crystal balls.
NOTE: I would recommend reading a physical copy of this book and not a digital one, as the illustrations don't tend to be on the same page as the text about them. The Kindle version is likely to be frustrating, though this is just a guess since my version is in ADE format and not Kindle.
I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.
This is an okay book if you want to dabble in fortune telling techniques for fun. It does not go into enough detail to really help take it seriously, but you'd probably buy or check out individual books on the specific techniques if you wanted to do that. It is fairly lacking in illustration and pretty generic. You don't get a sense of the author and her history with any of this at all, but more a "here's super basic information" on each section.
I do have some knowledge of most of the sections in this, even though I don't really follow them. Some examples of where I'm coming from as a reader: I have experience with tarot cards, have done numerology for fun in my younger years, had a child who had fun using runes for a while, and things like that. When I worked as a small town bartender and waitress in my 20's I had a set of Mexican bingo cards that I told fortunes with for fun and while I didn't take it seriously, I had people who brought friends from other towns to get readings. My family and I take part in a historic fortune telling event every year where a "fortune teller" (an ER nurse who's studied palm reading for fun for years) tells us all about what the lines in our palms mean. Things like that. So while I don't use divination as a serious part of my own spiritual path, I know a lot about most of the methods talked about in the book.
The tea leaf reading bit struck me as particularly silly, to be honest. You're supposed to look for images in the spent tea leaves at the bottom, but there aren't pictures of examples other than a few blobs to give you an idea. And the list was a little ridiculous. How do you know if a shape is a ring or a circle or a bracelet, for example? It's a circle shape made of leaves. And some of the shapes were even sillier. What does a cell phone shape in tea leaves look like?
Also, it's really lacking information on how to do the stuff. For instance, it talks about how to basically toss crystals onto a mat to see what falls close to you or near or off the mat, and then tells what each crystal means. There are a LOT of crystals and some of them are rare or expensive like emeralds. Are we supposed to buy all those crystals? Where? What size? Does it matter if they're polished or raw? How big is the cloth? What kind of cloth? There's just so little information. Stock photos show what each crystal looks like from shutterstock but some are round and polished and some are more like science kit crystals.
In the palmistry section, there are line drawings but there's just not much to go on. I would have really appreciated photos of hands for examples. Also, I seem to have no fate and supposedly will have no children (I have 5). My local ER nurse/fake palm reader does a much better job reading my palm. :)
The types covered included: tarot cards, using a pendulum, numerology, palmistry, runes, crystals and crystal balls.
NOTE: I would recommend reading a physical copy of this book and not a digital one, as the illustrations don't tend to be on the same page as the text about them. The Kindle version is likely to be frustrating, though this is just a guess since my version is in ADE format and not Kindle.
I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.
April 3, 2019
I absolutely loved this book on divination!😍 It has all that a beginner needs to start down the path of divination. This handbook is also perfect for those whom already dabble in the practice as well. Highly recommended!😍
Read
March 15, 2025Excellent resource on reading runes.
December 8, 2019
Liz Dean's The Divination Handbook is a beautifully designed guide for beginner seers to use crystal, pendulums, runes, tea leaves, tarot, palms, numbers and crystal balls to connect with their intuitive wisdom and gain insight into answers to questions or events in the future. The art of divination believes the future is not fixed and we all have free will. What clues or signs we interpret
from our reading, we have the choice to change.
As a practical guide on common divination tools, The Divination Handbook is a great introduction for those interested in strengthening their intuition. I particularly enjoyed the chapters on Crystals, Palmistry and Tarot for they were the most in-depth, and what I mean by that is that there were foundational meanings ascribed to the tools such as the symbolism behind different crystals types and interpretations for the major and minor arcana of cards. I quite liked learning the process of how to scry with a crystal ball simply because I never thought of the practice behind it. It's a bit like combining crystals and tea reading together.
Although some readers may itch for further reading, whether this is a hunger for more historical context or desire for further depth into more sophisticated readings, this is a simple guide for developing your personal practice for doing readings for yourself or for others. For this reason, I quite like this edition. While it may steer into the reductive realm, the Divination Handbook makes this sacrifice in order to provide the reader with a clear roadmap to do their own readings. It pays off and for that, I am very appreciative.
Some of the other chapters were slim such as dowsing the pendulum or reading the runes and tea leaves, and it had the effect of making these divination tools very fluffy and obviously made up. Yes, an odd complaint to lodge against divination but it does break the suspension of disbelief the reader is willing to entertain. Throughout the handbook, I noticed that the meanings and interpretations of certain tools were geared to a certain demographic and this became quite clear in the pendulum chapter where the author provided a set of options for creating a pendulum chart.
Divination as a personal practice is something that I am highly intrigued for its healing and entertainment value, and I am interested in particular, in crystals and tarot readings.
All things considered, The Divination Handbook is an accessible primer.
from our reading, we have the choice to change.
As a practical guide on common divination tools, The Divination Handbook is a great introduction for those interested in strengthening their intuition. I particularly enjoyed the chapters on Crystals, Palmistry and Tarot for they were the most in-depth, and what I mean by that is that there were foundational meanings ascribed to the tools such as the symbolism behind different crystals types and interpretations for the major and minor arcana of cards. I quite liked learning the process of how to scry with a crystal ball simply because I never thought of the practice behind it. It's a bit like combining crystals and tea reading together.
Although some readers may itch for further reading, whether this is a hunger for more historical context or desire for further depth into more sophisticated readings, this is a simple guide for developing your personal practice for doing readings for yourself or for others. For this reason, I quite like this edition. While it may steer into the reductive realm, the Divination Handbook makes this sacrifice in order to provide the reader with a clear roadmap to do their own readings. It pays off and for that, I am very appreciative.
Some of the other chapters were slim such as dowsing the pendulum or reading the runes and tea leaves, and it had the effect of making these divination tools very fluffy and obviously made up. Yes, an odd complaint to lodge against divination but it does break the suspension of disbelief the reader is willing to entertain. Throughout the handbook, I noticed that the meanings and interpretations of certain tools were geared to a certain demographic and this became quite clear in the pendulum chapter where the author provided a set of options for creating a pendulum chart.
Divination as a personal practice is something that I am highly intrigued for its healing and entertainment value, and I am interested in particular, in crystals and tarot readings.
All things considered, The Divination Handbook is an accessible primer.
July 19, 2021
A lot of the book was spent just listing off random meanings with no source, or trying to seem aesthetically pleasing.
I just couldn’t care much for it. Whether the meanings were right or wrong, a lot of it felt poorly researched. Even the little knowledge I did gain, or managed to remember from it, I’ll have to make sure to cross reference because I have the sneaking suspicion that a lot of it is wrong.
I just didn’t gain muchc divination knowledge from the book, but I guess that’s what comes from pages upon pages of unreferenced random facts and meanings.
And even within the meanings sections, there’s very few illustrations or not much to go off of what so ever. Which is particularly unuseful for things such as palmistry or tea leaf reading
I just couldn’t care much for it. Whether the meanings were right or wrong, a lot of it felt poorly researched. Even the little knowledge I did gain, or managed to remember from it, I’ll have to make sure to cross reference because I have the sneaking suspicion that a lot of it is wrong.
I just didn’t gain muchc divination knowledge from the book, but I guess that’s what comes from pages upon pages of unreferenced random facts and meanings.
And even within the meanings sections, there’s very few illustrations or not much to go off of what so ever. Which is particularly unuseful for things such as palmistry or tea leaf reading
September 26, 2021
Very cute little book with clear explanations for beginners in esotericism. Definitely wouldn't recommend for people who are already advanced since it doesn't dive too much into topics and teaches you only the surface of the divinations.
December 22, 2018
Today I'm reviewing The Divination Handbook - The Modern Seer's Guide to Using Tarot, Crystals, Palmistry, and More.
Generally I like to start out with a disclaimer. I am an atheist witch. I look for the connection between magic and science without the need for a deity. I receive no compensation for these reviews and all my links are standard Amazon links and not affiliate links. I am a practicing photo reader and have spent the last 15 years honing my craft. I offer personal readings by request and have a strong online history that boasts nearly 400,000 views.
As with my other reviews, I'll be starting with a review of the physical book. This book is a great size. I love that I can toss this is a purse or a backpack to read on the go. The introduction and index in this book are pretty much very little to nothing. While I understand it is a high level overview of the various divination methods, the key to any good resource book is being able to find information quickly. I would love to see a bit larger index in this type of book. The pages are smooth and aligned properly. The cover is a hard cover book that is soft to the touch without branching over into that suede feeling. The images and illustrations in the book are very deliberate and appear only when to give a specific visual reference to a particular divination method. An example would be in the section on crystals and the tarot.
I would have liked to see a more balanced representation on each divination method. For example crystals (the first chapter) has a good twelve pages dedicated to defining crystals and their uses, yet the section on working with a pendulum is only five pages. I would have liked to see a bit more on the history of the technique and maybe a bit more on the images. Pendulums vary greatly and I their use is more common than one might think.
While not my method of choice, the section on the Tarot is extensive. The author gives us a brief overview of the tarot, an explanation of the structure of the desk and then breaks down each card in both the major and minor arcana. The images are small and I would have liked to seem them a bit larger but they are completely adequate for learning the techniques provided in the text. The author includes several basic spreads to get the learner ready for their journey into the tarot.
Overall this is a great introductory book on various divination methods. If you're unsure of where to start, this book gives a great deal of information on a wide variety of techniques allow the reader to make an informed decision on which path to walk. While not for the learned student, I could see this book being a great introduction or new witch's guide to divination.
Generally I like to start out with a disclaimer. I am an atheist witch. I look for the connection between magic and science without the need for a deity. I receive no compensation for these reviews and all my links are standard Amazon links and not affiliate links. I am a practicing photo reader and have spent the last 15 years honing my craft. I offer personal readings by request and have a strong online history that boasts nearly 400,000 views.
As with my other reviews, I'll be starting with a review of the physical book. This book is a great size. I love that I can toss this is a purse or a backpack to read on the go. The introduction and index in this book are pretty much very little to nothing. While I understand it is a high level overview of the various divination methods, the key to any good resource book is being able to find information quickly. I would love to see a bit larger index in this type of book. The pages are smooth and aligned properly. The cover is a hard cover book that is soft to the touch without branching over into that suede feeling. The images and illustrations in the book are very deliberate and appear only when to give a specific visual reference to a particular divination method. An example would be in the section on crystals and the tarot.
I would have liked to see a more balanced representation on each divination method. For example crystals (the first chapter) has a good twelve pages dedicated to defining crystals and their uses, yet the section on working with a pendulum is only five pages. I would have liked to see a bit more on the history of the technique and maybe a bit more on the images. Pendulums vary greatly and I their use is more common than one might think.
While not my method of choice, the section on the Tarot is extensive. The author gives us a brief overview of the tarot, an explanation of the structure of the desk and then breaks down each card in both the major and minor arcana. The images are small and I would have liked to seem them a bit larger but they are completely adequate for learning the techniques provided in the text. The author includes several basic spreads to get the learner ready for their journey into the tarot.
Overall this is a great introductory book on various divination methods. If you're unsure of where to start, this book gives a great deal of information on a wide variety of techniques allow the reader to make an informed decision on which path to walk. While not for the learned student, I could see this book being a great introduction or new witch's guide to divination.
March 19, 2019
A great basic to all divination. The author has included information on tea reading, palm reading, pendulum, tarot, and more. This is a great book for beginners and those who are seeking further teachings. I enjoyed reading it and found a lot to learn from this book.
It is a helpful guide for everyone that is choosing a path to study and become proficient on.
Thank you for the advance reading copy. My opinion is my own .
It is a helpful guide for everyone that is choosing a path to study and become proficient on.
Thank you for the advance reading copy. My opinion is my own .
February 12, 2019
This book had an overview of many of the main divination techniques including tarot, palmistry & crystals. I thought it great for a beginner and some sections were very detailed.
I thought some aspects such as the tarot could possibly have been a mini book of its own so that it could be more detailed.
I thought some aspects such as the tarot could possibly have been a mini book of its own so that it could be more detailed.
April 19, 2019
This is a great book for beginners!
I love all things witchcraft and occult and while I’ve read books about moon magic and Wicca and witchcraft in general, I’ve never actually picked up a book about divination.
It definitely doesn’t go in depth at all or have resources for further research, but it is a good jumping point for research to do yourself.
I love all things witchcraft and occult and while I’ve read books about moon magic and Wicca and witchcraft in general, I’ve never actually picked up a book about divination.
It definitely doesn’t go in depth at all or have resources for further research, but it is a good jumping point for research to do yourself.
March 6, 2019
Very very helpful and thorough. Would recommend to others if they were looking to learn about this subject. I like how the chapters are broken up. This is definitely a book I can keep referring to over and over.
March 25, 2020
Has everything you need to know about each divination type! From tarot, crystals to tea leaves and pendulums and everything in between! Easy to understand, LOADED with information! I love the way Liz dean writes.
January 1, 2023
This book came highly recommended from witchtok. At first glance, I was skeptical. This was a beautifully illustrated book that I thought was foing to be filled with fluff, but I was pleasanty surprised. It was filled with good basic information. It was a good starting point.
February 4, 2024
I enjoyed this book, particularly because it’s sole purpose is to talk about divination. It touches on several methods that aren’t frequently talked about in other witchy books, and dove into just enough detail to learn about each method without it being overwhelming.
May 12, 2020
useful
May 15, 2021
2.5 stars.
I liked the overview. Some topics such as chapters on palmistry and numerology were interesting, others not so much.
I liked the overview. Some topics such as chapters on palmistry and numerology were interesting, others not so much.
November 16, 2021
such a great book! A total encyclopedia!
December 5, 2021
A very essential tool, glad to have this on hand within my first year with divination as a work source.
May 25, 2022
uma boa introdução.
September 18, 2022
simple, illustrative, and easily understandable. a perfect brief overview of the multiple branches of divinatiom available.
June 20, 2021
Nice overview of a lot of techniques.
May 4, 2023
A bit too objective about palmistry for me, but still fun and informative.
April 15, 2019
Such a wonderful introduction to the major forms of divination. This is a great launchpad to help you discover what area you are most drawn to, or if you are already familiar with one i.e. tarot and are looking to add a second form of divination to your arsenal. Liz Dean covers the basics and gives you enough to start practicing and experimenting with tarot, runes, scrying, numerology, tea leaves, palmistry and crystals. Overall, I enjoyed this very much.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews