Very simple ideas for those who can’t use tarot, runes, or other methods whether it’s because they just suck at reading, can’t afford tools, live with oppressive persons, or any other reason.
I have a similar post for spirit communication.
I like to use anything I can get my hands on as a divination method. I’ve done pretty much all of these myself, some often when I feel the need to divine but don’t have my regular tools on hand.
Quick tip: you can cast or draw anything. A handful of plain rocks thrown on the ground, pull a bottle cap from a bag, etc.
Playing cards
Paint samples from the hardware store (they’re free)
Fortune Cookie Fortunes in a box (mine are in my wallet)
A collection of quotes from books, films, etc
Stickers
A box of jewelry charms
Pins
Geomancy (cast rocks or stones)
Cast minerals/tumbled crystals
Nail polish bottles
Grab a random makeup object from a bag (they have very interesting names)
A bunch of tokens (rocks, buttons, etc)
Strips of colored paper
Colored pencils or crayons
A deck of TCG cards such as Magic: the Gathering or Pokemon
Scryfall MtG Randomizer
Random Pokemon Generator
Any dice or dice app
Color and type of die can have meaning as well
Any Random Generators
Random Word
Many more random generators, you can google them easily, even apps on your phone.
Cloud shapes
Raw rice
Raw beans
Herbs
— Before cooking, add seasoning or oil to water and scry the shapes
InspiroBot
Auto Drawing/Writing
Ouija board
Bibliomancy/Stichomancy (open a book and choose a passage)
Shufflemancy (shuffle your music library and play a song)
Art scrying (look at abstract art and scry the images)
Scry the shapes of leftover food like tea leaves
Stir food youre making and scry the herbs/bubbles
There’s infinite ways to divine.
As long as you give something meaning, anything can be used for divination purposes.
“Can I use —” yes.
“Even — ” yes.
You could open a can of soup and splatter it in the parking lot behind a Taco Bell at 3 in the morning and read the shapes all you like — I’m only slightly joking, but my point is you can make anything divination if you so desire.
“How do I read these?”
Easy! What does it remind you of? That’s it.
Let’s say a cloud shape looks like a dog. What qualities does a dog remind you of? Loyalty? Filth? Whatever it is, that’s what it means for you, then. You could also look at if the dog is barking, or sitting, or whining, or looks demonic, etc. You can have multiple meanings to something, as well, you’ll just have to intuit or go by gut instinct which interpretation of your personal meaning is forefront in the reading. Confidence is also key. It will cement meaning not only you, but signs will tailor to your preferred meanings.
For books or quotes, you can look at it in our out of context. What were the characters going through? Or perhaps, it’s better not to think of the characters and simply read the passage as if it’s someone speaking to you.
Also think about what feelings does it give you. Happy, sad, angry, contempt? Your emotions and instinctual reaction can help shape a reading. A song that reminds you of your high school days could be telling you about the past. A song you listened to that reminded you of an old crush could be a reading about love regardless if the song itself is about love.
“I can’t get tarot bc my family thinks it’s evil” or the “I don’t have time to study runes” don’t have to limit you when you have everything else around you at your disposal. These methods can be discreet, it’ll just look like you’re playing with hobbies or researching or memeing. It’s also a lot less “evil” to outsiders when you pull a nice quote from a box than reading tarot, and you can make it sound light-hearted and not serious at all as if it’s a silly quirk you have.
It’s important to emphasize that magic isn’t about accumulating expensive tools, most magic is intended to use what you already have available to you. This includes when I say “rocks” and other trinkets I mean literal gravel from the ground or random things in your home. Bottle caps, can tabs, coins, bread ties, toothpicks, etc.
You don’t need to know numerology or research everyone else’s playing card meanings or aura color interpretations and such, either. If the number 2 reminds you of a couple in love, then make it mean that when you divine. If it reminds you of being poor because it’s a small number, make it mean that. Your divination method is yours.
I hope this gives you ideas for both outside the box thinking as well as relieves the pressures and of divination reading.