Every oracle has these 5 fears… And struggles to admit them.

Do you practise any kind of divination? This article is for you.

Photo by Samuel Austin on Unsplash

Boy… I’m delivering this spooky season, lol. Here’s another spooky article for you.

Click here for my article on what is divination and what kinds of divination exist.

I’ll go straight to the list today, as it’s merely listing common fears and not meant to shame anyone. I include myself in all of them, and hey, look at me, I’m still here calling myself an oracle. You’ll be fine.

1. Fear of memory problems. This can take many different shapes. “Oh, crap, what was the meaning of that symbol again? I’ll have to go check, and embarrass myself while I’m at it”; Or maybe “whoa, that’s a brilliant answer, and so is the background info I’m getting here. Wait… What was the answer again? Oh no”. Etc. Any kind of oracle (you name it!) comes with the unsaid warning that things can happen FAST. Faster than you can keep up with. Alternatively, even if we’re dealing with normal speed, we’re only human. We’re fallible. We have “brain farts” and “blanks” at the most inconvenient times. It happens in the best houses. So… how do you cope with this fear of memory failure? Well, in my experience, it’s a bit like consecutive translation. In fact, this fear relates to the translation phase of oracle, because when you say you fear memory problems, what you’re really saying is “I’m afraid of not delivering the entirety of the message / not delivering accurately the message to the client because my brain (fog) got in the way”. So, essentially, translators will relate to you. What they teach in translation school (like I learned when I studied Linguistics) is that you should avoid hesitation as much as possible because communication is dynamic and it’s easy to get lost. So, essentially, take good care of your ability to “think on your feet” and kiss your perfectionism bye bye. It’s not needed here. It’s A LOT better to let your spontaneous intuition fill in the gaps, than delegating that task to your overthinking, perfectionist, rational mind. Trust me.
2. Fear of saying the wrong thing. This is not fear of being wrong, it’s different. It happens when the answer you receive happens to be difficult, unpopular, or not politically correct… But a client is waiting and you need to say something. Again, translation phase. Some oracles admit to having this fear, but most don’t, and instead they sublimate it to themselves via a holier-than-thou attitude, ie. “Oh, I can’t say what came to me originally because it’s not beautiful/nice/love-and-light enough”. Sounds familiar? If so, come here, dear. Let’s unpack this reaction. Your oracle is not good enough, you say? What does that imply? It implies you’re giving your ego too much importance, isn’t it? Because surely if the input from a deity or higher spirit is “not good enough” and your attempt to change it or beat around the bush is “more moral than that”, you’re thinking you know more than Them. And I’m sorry to inform you, but no, you don’t. Maybe you’re horrified now. If so, don’t despair. I KNOW it’s just your denial mechanism — the ego is in charge of denial. What you’re really feeling isn’t pretense or superiority. You’re just afraid of shocking a client. That’s understandable. But consider that it wasn’t you. Depending on the person’s reaction, TELL THEM that. Some answers are beyond you, they don’t have to make sense to you. Your job is to deliver.
3. Fear of getting “addicted” to your own intuition. I thought for the longest time it was just me; As it turns out, though, this fear is common. Intuition is a wonderful source of guidance, but it’s limited to what your own spirit has already learned in this one life. It can’t go beyond that, and sometimes we need answers that look into the beyond — which is why we consult higher powers and not just our own “higher selves”. With oracle as a profession (ie, not just to help yourself), this becomes even more important, because you’re dealing with other people’s woes, and there’s a limit to what your own intuition can know regarding THEIR fate and THEIR journey. Other people are not you, after all. So, unless you’re too new to the oracle path, you know what I’m alluding to here. You need to stay out of the way of your source when advising someone, as much as possible. The problem is, over time, this creates a fear of even engaging much with your intuition “just in case” it might compromise your work. But that’s just a fear. You’re a human being like anyone else, you need introspection like anyone else. At work, push it aside and leave your “own opinions” out of the oracle — it’s a matter of boundaries, it has nothing to do with how well you’re getting to know yourself in the off time.
4. Fear of losing control. This manifests different depending on what kind of oracle you have, but in the end it’s pretty common. Traditional oracles like myself might fear losing control of the process or losing control of “when and where” things happen, because let’s be honest, problems can happen to the most experienced and they’re not exactly a sign of inexperiene or something to be shamed. Tarot readers, on the other hand, might fear losing control of how many insights they get at once (fuelling even more the memory problem we saw above) — because their advantage over me is the “multiple perspectives at once” thing; Etc. Insert iteration here. What if I tell you, though, that this very fear can also reveal you an asset if you reframe it? I mean, sure, losing control doesn’t feel good… But neither does being in control all the time. The very definition of divination is you’re working with the divine (if I were to put it in extremely simple terms). You’re not all by yourself. Otherwise it’s intuition, and not an oracle. Rejoice! Enjoy the co-pilot life.
5. Fear of “karens”. Who doesn’t? Lol. This one is in every profession I’m sure. It’s not exactly people-pleasing (so much so that if you’re THE LEAST people-pleasing person on the planet, you might still have this fear), it comes from self-preservation because in the end of the day no-one enjoys dealing with difficult clients. This fear also increases in direct proportion to your rates. According to the fear (not truth! It’s not true. But your fear “thinks” this is true), if you’re charging a lot, you’re giving potential karens “an excuse” to act entitled because “look at these prices!”. But let me tell you a secret: more often than not, charging less will attract you more karens. Why is that? Well… Because you’re devaluing yourself and therefore you’re unconsciously telling people “I’m your bitch. There are no rules here, I don’t respect myself either”. But do you NEED to up your rates even if you’re like me and intend on having a secular job for your bills so you won’t need the money from divination? Well… No. The answer is no. I don’t wanna charge much either. Here’s the catch: I know PRETTY DAMN WELL my reason why, and I’m not shy to mention it. “I’ll charge a symbolic rate and will refuse donations because I learned my lesson from History and I’m not interested in offering preferential treatment to rich people”. That’s it. This clarifies I’m not devaluing my service or myself. But if you don’t justify it, guess what… So, keep that in mind.

Fears I didn’t include and why:

You might have noticed the fears above don’t really go away when you apply my coping suggestions. That’s because they’re COPING suggestions. They’re not made for completely overcoming anything. As far as I’m aware, those 5 fears don’t ever go away. They’re always somewhere in the background, and occasionally rear their ugly heads. They’re unpleasant, but they come with the package of being an oracle and you should expect to live with them. If you disagree, and have suggestions for getting rid of them once and for all, let me know!

Now… There are fears people assume every oracle has, but actually, they need resolving. These (below) can be temporary (like a beginner fear), or borne out of a psychological need (like ego problems or emotional dependency, lack of self-awareness, etc), and overall you can overcome them. In fact, you should. Take a look at some of them:

1. Fear of being wrong. This is a fear some absolute beginners might have, “what if my prophecy doesn’t come true / my insight isn’t helpful / my revelation does more harm than good” (Yes, oracles for the past and the present exist. It’s not all future). I’m not including it here, because if you develop correctly, you’ll eventually let go of this fear. It’s not a fear you’ll need to manage, it’s a fear you can and should overcome. I’m not telling you to be overly confident or narcissistic; I’m telling you to accept and be okay with the fact you will get it wrong. It’s a certainty. Everyone gets it wrong once in a while. Work on your perfectionism. Besides, getting it wrong can be good. Maybe it means the client worked on themselves or things they can control, and changed the outcome. That’s what oracles are for! Advising people. It’s not about telling a story with no variables. Life isn’t deterministic.
2. Fear of disbelief. Some people have it, some don’t, so it’s not as common as you think. Of course if you have it, you’ll project that on the world and think everyone else who works with divination also has it (that’s called disavowal of responsibility. “Oh, it’s not me, it’s the world”. Nope. It’s you. In the end, it doesn’t matter if the world also has it. It’s you first and foremost. Work on you). If you have fear of disbelief, you’re a people-pleaser and haven’t yet become an oracle. So, work on that. The moment you stop caring how many naysayers exist around you, congratulations.
3. Fear of ostracism. I had this one until a short while ago. I’m still working on it but there was progress and I’m here to share it. So, here’s the thing: every legit oracle has enough patience to work for the benefit of their community. This comes first. Identifying yourself with the profession comes second. People don’t ostracise helpful individuals; they ostracise individuals who look like they’re out for their own gain. Just look at “cancel culture” today and you’ll see this phenomenon playing out, it’s not about who TRULY deserves to be cancelled, it’s always about who looks like they’re only out for themselves. The perceived wrongdoing is only fuel to the bonfire, it’s not the bonfire itself. So, I know it hurts to acknowledge this shadow, but you must: are you a little conceited? Maybe it’s because your ego needs some deflating (and this is not an insult, it’s common as muck and luckily easy to resolve in therapy!), OR maybe it’s because (as was my case) you feel a need to be truthful no matter what and dislike keeping too many “little secrets” from your inner circle. This takes longer to resolve in therapy but it’s still doable. Pro tip: go for the Atheist therapists/counsellors/coaches/whatever. The spiritualist are impressionable and already like mysticism, so they might envy your “gift” and sabotage the whole healing process. (Trust me, it’s better to be invalidated by an immature Atheist — because that’s easy to spot and say goodbye — than to be, uh, “overly validated” by some starry-eyed manchild. Just because someone has a religion, that doesn’t make them mature). But ANYWAY… Even this second option is fuelled by the ego in the end, because the ego only sees things on a surface level. Even when it’s not inflated, the ego is still superficial and not a good guide. It’s not seeing, for example, that people care WAAAAY WAY LESS than you think about when and how you tell them this or that harmless thing (even if a bit wacky or weird). Trust me, “the normies” are less closed-off to the new than you think. And those who show close-mindedness against all odds are probably narcissists anyway (low tolerance to surprises, low tolerance for losing control of you, etc), narcissists are people you don’t want around you and need to cut contact with.

I won’t dwell on every possible fear people have which they don’t need to have in the context of working with oracles. If you have a question, shoot! :) I’m active in the comment section. The above should already give you an idea anyway.

This topic can get bittersweet, but it is what it is. Nobody said it was easy to live life in human form… Let alone bridging the communication between humans and higher powers. :)