thinbuddha said:
I really do wonder if there is much that a book (or other forum member) can teach us.... It seems to me, from the little information that I've been able to find, that scrying is really something personal that you have to learn from personal experience.
-tb
Well, that's why I haven't popped on. How do you teach someone to laugh... you don't. They just laugh, or they don't. Scrying is so intimate that way.
I just got my very first crystall ball, it's just like yours tb, a 4" clear crystal sphere. My best friend Autumn has been crystal reading for years and years, she's a natural, and she bought me mine for my birthday. I've only started using it, but thus far, I totally agree with what you said. The symbols are personal. The things you see and what intuitive jumps you make? That's so personal.
If I had to equate it with anything, it's like when I read Tarot and I let my eye gaze over the card without focusing. I just stop looking in order to really See. A flower might "pop" at me, or maybe something funny about the man's shoe... and then those symbols mean something else ("Have you just come back from a trip or vacation? Travel of some sort?")
In general, I've noticed that the candle suggestion given above is great - the hard thing is getting over the glare and the reflections on the surface of the ball. I hunch over the ball and put it on a solid (dark) background - I used my sweatshirt jacket one day, doesn't have to be fancy schmancy. But that helped me to see into the ball, instead of looking at all the crazy stuff on top (if that makes sense).
Lastly, Autumn and I did an "exercise" together, in case you have someone you want to try this with. She put an image in the ball, and I'd see if I could get it. It was so cool! As I looked into the ball, I could see a white flower, with black spaces between the petals, and there was this large middle part to the flower, like a huge black-eyed susan, it stood way way up from the petals.
I described what I saw to her, and Autumn laughed. She had put the image of a whirling dervish in the ball, wearing white with the black panels.... So cool! Now, did I get dervish? No. Did I get something? Oh yea!
When we tried the reverse, me putting an image in... Autumn defaulted into reading mode and gave me a reading when she looked in (grins).
Enjoy it and remember to play! Have fun!