I have always, ALWAYS wanted to put together a set of charms for divination purposes. I’ve seen endless YouTube videos and they were all really inspiring. But I could never figure out how to get the exact charms that I wanted for my set without buying each charm individually at great expense.

But recently, it hit me. I needed to give up the idea of having my set that I wanted, and just start collecting what was available to me. I could assign meanings to the charms that I ended up with, and add to the collection as time goes on. I can buy individual charms when I find that my collection is missing something (I still need an acorn, for example), but for the most part, I have been buying charm ‘scoops’ from sellers on Etsy and Temu. And some of the charms I’ve gotten have been WAY better than my original charms I wanted to use. I’ve also been looking around the house for small things that work as charms, and it’s amazing what I’ve found.

I’ve given myself 2 readings so far, and they’ve been accurate and helpful! I can’t wait to play with them more and more. I may even bring them to DragonCon to use in the divination sessions. What I really love about using charms for divination is that it allows you to go straight to the intuitive story-telling part of divination without having to shuffle through everything you know about the tarot cards, for example. You can pick up a charm and just start free-associating. The story comes to you based purely on intuition and your own assigned meanings for the symbols. I’ll always love tarot, but this just feels like a new divination tool in my toolbelt.

Tips for creating a charm casting set:

• Look for charm assortments on Etsy, Temu, or in craft stores near you. There will definitely be some repeats of charms, but you can choose to have multiples of a symbol (4 different hearts, for example), or just choose your one favorite. Set the extra charms aside to create sets for your friends or family! Also, the more you pay for an assortment, the more curated those sets are likely to be. I’ve spent $5 on assortments that were good, and $19 for an assortment that was fantastic.
• Decide whether you want your set to be all silver, all gold, a mix of both, colorful, or plain. Personally, my set is mostly silver, but I like a little bit of everything, so I have some colored charms coming in the mail. Also, try to make sure your charms are all similar in size. If you have really large charms mixed in with really small charms, you’re more likely to pick up the large charms when doing a reading. So your readings will be skewed towards those larger charms.
• Add other small forms of divination. There’s no reason in the world that you couldn’t add small runes, dice (for astragalomancy), or even small tiles with planetary or astrological symbols drawn or etched into the surfaces. I’ve seen people use Scrabble or Bananagrams tiles for letters!
• Find or create a great surface to read on. I’m using a portable dice-rolling bowl for mine. But I’ve seen people coat the inside of small trays with velvet, or use mats with printing on them. I like having a relatively deep lip so my charms don’t accidentally end up across the table or on the floor, but you might like the unpredictability of that!

Have fun with it! And please, if you create a set, let me know how it goes for you. Blessed be!