Episode 07 - Dance Divination

Episode Summary:

In episode seven of the Spiritual Dance Podcast, Carla explains the unique spiritual practice of dance divination. She shares her time-tested processes for learning how to receive and interpret supernatural messages expressed through channeled movement and divinely inspired dance.

Episode Transcript:

INTRO: Welcome to the Spiritual Dance Podcast. A virtual space for creative souls discovering how to move in sync with the rhythm of spirit. I’m your host Carla White Crowe, also known as The Dancing Oracle. In this podcast, I share openly about my journey of weaving together my two primary passions - spirituality and dance. My intention is to encourage and inspire spiritual seekers in pursuit of a more embodied form of spirituality as well as provide insight and tools for those seeking to expand their creative edges in service to the world of spirit. 

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Spiritual Dance Podcast. I know many of you have been eagerly awaiting this very episode. It felt important to lay quite a bit of groundwork about myself and my work before I could even begin to properly address this episode’s topic which is Dance Divination. 

Dance Divination is a unique practice that I co-created with spirit and have been continuously developing and refining over the last two decades. It can assist you in learning how to activate your spiritual perception through the lens of dance and movement so that you can see and understand the kinetic messages unfolding right in front of you. I shared the origin story of this practice as well as my path to becoming a spiritual dance guide in episode two, so be sure to check that out if you haven’t already. But for now, I will go ahead and give you just a quick recap for context.

In my early 20s, I attended a summer dance intensive with industry professionals who infused their technical dance skills with their Christian faith. One of the elective classes I took that summer was on learning how to dance your prayers. That class turned out to be a major turning point for me on so many levels. The primary one being that it opened my eyes to a new purpose for dance. Up until that point, dance had always been an activity where I focused on sending energy outward to entertain, or to tell a story, or express the fire inside of me. Prayer dance allowed me to strengthen my faith by directing my creative energy toward my spiritual connections. It also gave me a new way of encouraging and sharing healing energy with others. Dancing my prayers proved to have a profound impact and it also came much more naturally to me than spoken word prayers. 

After graduating from college with my degree in dance performance, I brought that practice home and shared it with the Christian dance company I had started. Over the next several years, my dancers and I began to play with the concept of prayer dance to see what else was possible. Every time I engaged in that practice, my experience of the unseen realm expanded and it felt like the light inside of me kept getting brighter and brighter. 

Towards the end of my 20s, my partner and I started attending a more charismatic church that was really into prophetic ministry. Prophetic ministry is the act of conveying spiritual insights, guidance, and messages received directly from a higher power or source for the purposes of healing and edification. As a church leader and as a member of the healing ministry and prayer teams, I received a thorough training in this area. Channeling spirit with voice was a normal part of my church culture because of their focus on the supernatural. But at some point, I began to notice that those messages were wanting to come through me in the form of movement, a practice which I now call channeled movement transmissions. 

When channeling, it was pretty easy for me to discern which movements were coming from something outside of me because decades of dance experience and training made me keenly aware of how my body liked to move and what she was capable of. But the way that my body moved when I was intentionally connecting to spirit was very different. She was creating shapes and patterns that I had never learned or experienced before and the energy of those moves seemed to flow inward from somewhere outside of me. 

I think one of the benefits of sharing a movement message is that the interpretation can be ambiguous. With spoken messages, people can sometimes stumble over word choices, but with movement, the person receiving the message has an opportunity to engage their own intuition and interpret the messages for themselves. However, I realize not every person is comfortable with that idea. And many times I would have people ask me directly what my movement meant, and I wanted to be able to give that information to them. Also, providing an interpretation was generally considered a best practice in the prophetic communities I was a part of. So I started to work with spirit on a method for interpreting the channeled movement that was happening in and through me.

Through my own experimentation and also through teaching this process to others, I discovered that interpretation came more easily when people knew how to engage their psychic senses and also had a basic understanding of kinetic energy. And a side note, prophetic ministry is where I learned to activate my psychic gifts - which is why it’s so strange to me that Christians have a negative connotation of that word. I am aware that not everybody had the same church experience as I did - but for clarity, engaging with the supernatural and using psychic abilities was 100% normal in my spiritual community, even if we didn’t call it that. 

So once again I played with this process in my church and in my spiritual dance community. I utilized the skills I was taught in my prophetic ministry training, but I altered them in a way that could be applied to our whole bodies, specifically through the lens of dance and movement practices. I studied, documented, and eventually developed a curriculum for teaching others not only how to channel movement from spirit, but also how to interpret it for themselves and others. I dedicated myself to this path for more than a decade and was given opportunities to teach in churches and larger spiritual communities both locally and regionally.

Back then I also had dreams of someday sharing it all in a book. But those plans were interrupted when my life took a sudden and unexpected turn and I was forced to leave my spiritual community and walk away from my career and spiritual dance businesses. That led to the deconstruction and reconstruction of my spiritual beliefs and eventually the rebuilding and rebranding of my life’s work. I shared the details of that particular story in episode 3 titled “Losing my Religion.”

But here I am 6 years later, more passionate than ever about the practice of hearing and sharing spiritual messages through the body and teaching others how to interpret those messages through a practice I now call Dance Divination.

I will never forget the day that phrase dropped into my awareness and leaped out of my mouth. In the beginning of 2021, I started a year-long esoteric business apprenticeship and divination was a foundational piece of that program. I had this big realization that prophecy and divination were pretty much the same thing. If you look at the word divination in the dictionary it is described as the discovery of hidden knowledge by intuition or supernatural powers whereas prophecy is defined as divinely inspired speech. Both words describe a practice of making the unseen perceivable or making the unknown knowable. 

Even so, words like divination and psychic were not used in my prophetic training or the church communities I was a part of because in evangelical Christianity, those concepts were considered evil or sinful. So I had quite a lot of baggage around those words. 

But then one day, I was in one of my 1-1 mentorship meetings with that program director and I was trying to get her to understand the prophetic dance ministry process that I used to practice and teach up until I left the church. And in an effort to try and explain it to her without Christian language, I simply said “It’s like dance divination” and the very second I spoke those words I felt every cell inside of me come alive. It was like I had just found the key I’d been searching for for years. We were both in awe of the energy present in that moment and I felt a new doorway opening up for me, energetically speaking.

I quickly got to work retranslating my work using language that was inclusive to a wider audience and also generally accepted among most spiritual communities. This process turned out to be an 18-month journey that reignited my passion for this work and I’m so excited to be able to share it with you on this platform. 

So let’s first break down the definition of Dance Divination…

Dance Divination is the practice of receiving and interpreting supernatural messages, information, or insight while watching or engaging in channeled movement or divinely inspired dance. Its methodology is derived from the principles of dance composition, energetics, and other esoteric systems such as tarot and astrology. 

I define dance as movement that one initiates and executes in the body with conscious intention. But it’s important to note that in this particular practice, I’m referring to the OBSERVATION of a body in motion that is intentionally connecting with spirit. You actually don't need ANY dance experience to do dance divination, you don't even need to move a muscle!

Dance alone is such a powerful form of communication. When a dancer begins to move their body, there are so many layers and choices that go into their dance such as facial expressions, gestures, postures, shapes, sequences, styles, and the use of space, tempo, levels, and focus. In 30 seconds, a dancer could communicate a whole chapter of information to you without ever having to open their mouth. Also, this type of visual communication bypasses any language barriers and has a greater chance of activating your emotional body, allowing you to feel and experience what's being communicated on a deeper level.

Divination is a method for gaining insight or information about something through an energetic exchange. It has been practiced within many different cultures and religious communities throughout time utilizing a wide variety of tools and processes. To me, divination is a profound spiritual practice that facilitates a powerful connection with our intuition as well as the world of spirit. I’ve worked with several different forms of divination such as the pendulum, tarot and oracle cards, runes, oghams - I’ve even created my own divination set with seashells. But dance divination is definitely my sweet spot, it’s what my soul longs to share and teach in this lifetime.

So how does it work? The next part of the definition mentions the RECEIVING and INTERPRETING of supernatural messages. Meaning that dance divination is a two-part process. Part one is where someone is receiving messages in the form of movement and part two is where we interpret them. Also, I included the word supernatural in the definition because I want to be clear that in this practice I’m focusing on messages coming from the spiritual realm.

The RECEIVING that happens in part one is where we practice a kind of focused meditation and mindful observation. And before you can do that you need to first determine who you’ll be observing - whether that’s yourself or someone else. If you’re going to observe yourself, do yourself a huge favor and set up a recording device so that you can watch the movement back multiple times. Every single time I re-watch my movement, I always get some new insight about it.

When it comes to the origination (or the source) of movement messages, I encourage my students to choose any spiritual connection that is meaningful to them. This could be spirit guides, angels, ancestors, deities, nature, source, or your higher self. I believe all of those things are capable of communicating to us in a way that, if we allow it, could be expressed through our physical bodies. In my practice, I focus primarily on channeling source. But I also love to channel nature spirits and the elements. 

Additionally, I believe that we can channel and divine messages from our physical bodies. However, I think that particular modality as more of a somatic healing practice - which I think is deserving of its own container. So I prefer to teach that process in a separate workshop or class. I also focus on divining the body when I’m teaching my JourneyDance classes.

The last part of my definition says “while watching or engaging in channeled movement or divinely inspired dance.” I define channeled movement as the practice of receiving and expressing supernatural messages kinetically in the physical body. When you step into this role you are pulling energy through from the spiritual realm and allowing it to manifest here in the physical realm by moving your body. Channeled movement is an essential part of dance divination. It’s part one of a two-step process. You can’t divine tarot cards, without the deck of cards - well I mean maybe you could but that’s a rabbit trail I’m not going down today! In the same way, in order to divine dance, someone needs to be dancing.

Notice the phrase “while watching OR engaging in” - this is why I stress that anyone can do this practice, you just need someone willing and able to channel before you. The other option is channeling the messages through your own body and then divining them for yourself. However, if you are new to this practice, I would STRONGLY urge you to spend a significant amount of time divining someone else’s movement first. Learning to channel movement takes just as much time and dedication as the process of learning to divine it. And I think that if you understand the divination piece first, the channeling will flow more easily for you. My hope is that all of my students can get to a point where they feel confident channeling movement for themselves, even if it’s just with their upper body, arms, or hand gestures.

I want to quickly distinguish between channeled movement and divinely inspired dance. You’ll notice that one phrase uses the word movement and the other dance. I went into great detail about the difference between movement and dance in episode four of my podcast. I also have a blog article on this specific distinction titled Dance vs. Movement (which I’ll link in the show notes). But essentially, movement is a receptive practice where energy is kept close to the body and the focus is mostly internal. Watching somebody move in this way is like watching an intimate exchange.

On the flip side, dance is an outward expression of creative energy. I fully believe that you can dance in a manner that allows the divine to communicate through you - I’ve experienced this many times in my life. Back in my church days, I used to call it prophetic dance. Prophetic dance can be choreographed or spontaneous. But the biggest distinction, subtle as it may be, is the flow of energy. My reason for making this distinction is that I’ve been in many situations where the act of performing a dance (vs. channeling one) is discredited as not being spiritual enough for the divine to be seen and heard. But some of the most powerful experiences I’ve had of spirit moving through me have been while performing on stage - and that is what I’m referring to when I say divinely inspired dance. 

One question I often get is “Can spirit speak to you through dance or movement from someone who isn’t actively and consciously connecting with spirit?” My answer is usually “maybe, probably, to some degree yes”. But that kind of question can put us on a philosophical and/or theological hamster wheel. I don’t really know the answer to that question. And I don’t know that we’re supposed to know the answer. What I do know is that intention creates intensity. And I think that if you are divining the movement of someone who is actively engaging their connection to spirit, that you’re likely to get more information from your observation of them vs. watching someone do the electric slide.

On the other hand, say you’re in a theater watching a professional dance performance and you start receiving messages from spirit, don’t discredit those intuitive nudges just because the person on stage isn’t “channeling”.  If spirit is speaking to you then that is 100% valid - lean into it and see if there’s deeper information you can uncover. Nothing is black and white in my opinion and there’s no need to gate-keep this practice. The ways of spirit are infinite. I’m simply trying to put structure around a process that is sacred to me, one that I want everyone to learn and experience. Structure is proven to be helpful when learning new concepts. But structure can also function like training wheels, and you can take them off when you’re ready to ride solo.

Before we move on from part one of the dance divination practice, there are a few key points and best practices I want to highlight. When you are learning to channel, I believe it’s important to set an intention about who you’re connecting to and what you’re inquiring about prior to engaging with the world of spirit. Without an intention, we don’t have any frame of reference for interpreting the information being sent our way. Setting an intention is like typing an address into your GPS - it helps you get where you need to go using the most efficient route possible. I also think that declaring who or what you are connecting to is crucial for your own energetic health and protection. Another recommendation I would make is to research grounding techniques and spiritual cleansing - find methods for both of those things that feel good to you. Both are important practices for anyone doing this kind of work, especially if it’s being done as an act of service for or on behalf of another person. 

And lastly, I can’t stress enough the importance of ethics in this line of work - as I have seen and experienced channeling done in an unethical manner many, many times. All of these things are topics I will expand upon in my book and my online course on dance divination. 

So to summarize, so far we’ve learned that dance divination is an OBSERVATIONAL practice where you would (at least in the beginning) watch someone else RECEIVE movement messages from spirit and express them in their physical body. This process can fall under the category of either channeled movement transmissions or divinely inspired dance. With channeled movement, the person receiving the movement messages has set an intention and is consciously choosing who or what they are connecting to, whether it’s their higher self or something else within the world of spirit. We’ve established a point of connection and movement is flowing. 

Now let’s transition into the second part of dance divination which is INTERPRETATION…

Interpretation requires making space for contemplation so that you can see connections between all of the things you’ve observed. I like to use the analogy of divining tarot or oracle cards when discussing the interpretation of supernatural messages. Most tarot and oracle decks come with a guidebook. That guidebook will often give you the author or artist’s interpretation of each card. It can also contain a key of the various symbols found throughout their deck which can provide you with a reference point in understanding the energy behind the cards. When I teach dance divination - I’m essentially helping you create a guidebook for divining movement expressed through the physical body by sharing common themes, shapes, and dynamics you’re likely to encounter when engaging with this practice.

Interpretation also requires a level of openness to seeing with new eyes. If you’ve ever worked with tarot or especially oracle cards - then you may have experienced deeper meaning and insight about a particular card that wasn’t written in the guidebook. I can look at a tarot card and pick out colors and shapes and symbols - and then form opinions or make practical conclusions, but to divine that card I would use that information to form a spiritual inquiry, asking spirit to illuminate the hidden meanings and medicine that the imagery in that card has to offer me. That same process can be applied while observing dance. What I’m trying to stress is the importance of having an intentional connection to spirit.

When I work with tarot and oracle cards (or any form of divination), I prefer to take an intuitive approach, meaning that when I pull a card I don’t head straight to the guidebook. I try to sit with the imagery for a while first, meditating on what it might mean for me. I also ask the card what it’s trying to say to me in that moment. Then I will use the guidebook as a way to just check that I’m picking up on similar energy. And side note - this is a great practice for developing discernment, which is essential for growth in any divination practice. Can spirit speak something completely different to you than what’s written in the guidebook? Sure! But growth comes from learning to discern the voice of spirit vs. your own voice, and there’s no shortcut for that - it takes time, and it takes practice.

If you commit to this process for an extended amount of time, and especially once you start channeling your own movement, you’ll start to notice repeating patterns and recurring themes. You might find that there are certain movements where spirit shares the same meaning with you every time. Eventually, you’ll start to develop a more personalized guidebook based on the unique ways that you interact with and perceive the world of spirit.

On that note, I believe divination of any kind requires FAITH. If you don’t believe that spirit can speak to you through movement, you’re probably less likely to be aware of any messages coming through. Just like with the practice of prayer, if you don’t believe someone or something will respond to your petition, then you’re less likely to notice a response. The spiritual realm operates differently than the human or the natural realm - we have to be open to perceiving things through different lenses. Our idea of an answered prayer might be different from what spirit views as the answer to our prayer.

Let’s go back to the idea of creating a guidebook for dance divination. In my classes and workshops, I focus on three main areas or modalities that people can use to interpret movement messages:

The first area is the language of dance. This is where we break down all of the layers that go into movement in the physical body. We look at things like specific shapes, direction, focus, levels, body parts being used, speed, and the use of space. This particular area of focus comes from the study of dance composition. I believe that when we learn to detect these different layers in our observation of spiritually-inspired dance, it increases our capacity for understanding what is being communicated. It can also assist us in detecting information in our second area of focus which is the language of energy.

Dance is energy in motion, also known as kinetic energy. We can train our eyes to perceive certain energetic signatures found in the different shapes, dynamics, or motions we see and then speculate about what those things might mean, spiritually speaking. I teach this process by sharing the correlations I’ve made between movement and things like the four elements as well as tarot and astrological archetypes - both planetary and zodiacal. This gives us yet another lens to look through when divining movement messages. 

The third and final area we look at is how to activate and work with psychic senses in conjunction with dance and movement practices. I teach on things like clairvoyance, clairaudience, claircognizance, clairempathy, etc. - but focus specifically on how we perceive movement through those forms of extrasensory perception. So for example, while watching channeled movement I might ask spirit to help me feel what is being expressed through the dancer’s body. Then I take note of any feelings or emotions that arise within me. I am intentionally engaging the gift of clairempathy to help discern what is being communicated. 

So if we can gain a basic understanding of all the layers that go into a movement or a sequence of dance moves and then learn to draw correlations between those layers and the energetic signatures found in the elements, astrology, and other esoteric archetypes - we can begin to build a framework that helps us to interpret that movement. And when we learn to engage our psychic senses during that process we can then expand our perception and activate our intuition, which in turn paves the way for a more personalized interpretation of our observations. And even though that feels like 3 separate processes - it truly is all connected. Once you understand each of those areas and commit to working with them, you’ll eventually get to a point where it all happens simultaneously - even if you’re divining your own movement in real-time. That’s how it works for me and I have trained many other people and watched them progress to that same level of mastery. But again, it is a practice - meaning the more you give to it, the more you’ll get out of it.

What I just described to you is the foundation of my dance divination process. There are so many other layers you could add to this practice. For example - you could add additional forms of divination during your observation such as the use of a pendulum, tarot or oracle cards, runes, oghams, bones, etc.. You may also want to look at the phase of the moon, or the time of day, or the current season in the wheel of the year. In my book and my online course, I also discuss other lenses we can look through when divining movement such as the chakra system, numerology, and color theory - whether represented via props or the observation of aura. 

There are so many benefits to learning the dance divination process such as deepening your spiritual connections, strengthening your intuition and spiritual discernment, and bolstering your faith in the universe. But this practice can also open a doorway to helping you develop your own embodied spiritual practice. I have a whole other episode in the works where I will talk about the reverse engineering of dance divination in order to create customized movement sequences that can facilitate healing, enhance your rituals, and support your manifestation practices. I call that process COSMIC CHOREOGRAPHY. So stay tuned for that one!

If you want to learn more about Dance Divination please check out my upcoming book and online course - I’ll have links to those as well as a few other blog articles I referenced in the show notes. If you live near Dayton, Ohio, or you’re willing to travel I do have a workshop coming up on September 27th. But I am also willing to travel to your spiritual and/or dance community to teach on this topic. Please send me a DM on Instagram or contact me through the form on my website to get the ball rolling. 

That my friends is all I have for you today. I hope you found this information helpful and inspiring and I will catch you all next month!

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Blog Article: Dance vs. Movement
• Blog Article: Channeled Movement
• Purchase my book on Amazon
• Dance Divination Online Course

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