Cold Mountain – An Adventure in Scrying

Cold Mountain – An Adventure in Scrying

Have you seen the movie Cold Mountain, starring Nicole Kidman and Renee Zelwegger?

I love that movie, especially when Renee comes on the scene as the character Ruby just as Nicole is freaking out over the aggressive rooster and she picks up the rooster, calmly rings his neck, and says “Let’s put ‘im in a pot”.  I love that scene.

Anyway, for those of you who were entranced or confused by the scene at the well, when Nicole bent over backwards and gazed in a mirror to view the reflection of the water to see her future, this practice of gazing into a reflective surface to divine your fate is known as “scrying”.

There are many differing forms of scrying, you can use a candle flame, a mirror, automatic writing, dowsing, the pendulum, a ouija board or your dreams.  Scrying is as ancient as any of the other metaphysical arts.  Nostradamus utilized scrying to foretell the future.

Anyway, back to our movie.

Nicole looks into the mirror as she is bent over backwards over the well and sees a man walking down a road with crows flying all around him.  She takes that man to be Jude Law, the actor playing the role of her estranged love, away fighting the civil war.  She feels intuitively that it is an image of Jude falling to his fate and is very shaken by the scrying session.

The movie goes on and we approach the climax.  Nicole is up on Cold Mountain and a man comes toward her against a backdrop of snow, she pulls her shotgun on him, crows take off from the trees around him and the image that she scried in the well comes to her and she realizes it is her love returning to her.

At that time, as they reunite, she believes that she misinterpreted her vision, and that the message was not that Jude would fall, but that he would return.

The movie continues, and, as any have seen the movie well know, Nicole’s initial “gut reaction” to the vision was correct. 

This was a great movie, but also a lesson for any who take part in any of the metaphysical sciences involving divination.  Your first impression when doing a reading is the message that the Higher Power is sending, do not try to twist it or bend it or shape it into what you want, listen to the message and prepare yourself for the challenge.