A single burning marmé མར་མེ or Tibetan butter lamp. Photo courtesy of Chris Fynn – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9427366.

I haven’t posted any translations or blah blahs on here for quite some time. The twenty-somethings in my life seem to view maintaining a blog with the same blend of emotions that I’d view someone who still owned and regularly fed a Tamagotchi. But since I’m not ready for shortform video formats and don’t see myself going for a Podcast-Patreon combo right now, here I am again, punching at my keyboard and making words on WordPress. Maybe some of you will read them. Maybe blogs will soon be cool again along with Tamagotchis and everything else from the late 90s and early 2000s. Who can say? At any rate, I have a bunch of half-finished posts to share, so I thought I’d try to build momentum again by ignoring all of those and sharing a translation I made of a Tibetan text on butter lamp divination I came across instead.

I’ve written about divination here before (see my post on Tibetan prayer-bead divination, knuckle bone divination, and this post on Somali geomancy, for example) and it’s honestly one of my favourite topics to talk and think about (I would say that divination is also one of my favourite things to do as well but that’s more complicated. I love the art of divination and I’ve been doing it for a long time, since before I hit puberty or started cooking my own meals. Divinatory procedures never cease to thrill and amaze me. Studying and practicing divination is a big passion. Even so, the divinatory process and encounter is still something I approach with trepidation, are things that remain strange and fraught to me. I try not to enter into divination lightly – as happy as I am when readings can help clients gain confidence, clarity, and navigate life better, I still approach them with a certain amount of trepidation. I am awed by how accurate and insightful divinatory processes can be but I am also troubled by the potential misuse of divination and am aware of the great responsibility involved in making use of it as a form of prediction and pastoral care. So, ‘enjoy’ is a bit misrepresentative. Maybe appreciate is better).

Anyway, with that preamble, let’s get into the butter lamp divination text which I’ve translated below. This text, which has no formal title, is one of several texts on interpreting signs and omens which appears in the sungbum གསུང་འབུམ or collected works of Ju Mipam Rinpoche, a.k.a. Jamyang Namgyel Gyatso (1846 – 1912).

A great Nyingma/non-sectarian monk-scholar and meditation master, Mipam composed texts on virtually every subject imaginable. His collected works include treatises on everything from Dzogchen, to grammar, politics, astrology, medicine, spirit conjuration, the formulating of aphrodisiacs, and of course, divination. Towards the latter part of his life, Mipam spent a considerable amount of his time gathering together various texts on mantra healing, astrology, magic, and divination. In doing so, he collated practices from different oral and textual sources so that they would be more accessible to practitioners and less vulnerable to loss in the future (click here to listen to a short video of Douglas Duckworth, a biographer of Mipam Rinpoche, speaking about Mipam’s legacy. You can also read Douglas’ synopsis of Mipam’s life for the ‘Treasury of Lives’ site here). Mipam’s roughly 9 folio-long text on butter lamp divination is one example of his anthologist-preservationist impulse. In the colophon to the text, he explains that he combined existing guidelines for lamp divination found in revealed visionary terma or ‘treasure’ texts with oral lineage instructions and information found in tantric scriptures to produce his guide. Mipam’s comparing and synthesizing of materials from different teachers, different lineages, and different centuries and genres is part of his archivist streak but it also suggests a certain pragmatism. It seems clear that Mipam imagined that readers would put the instructions he brought together into practice. He wasn’t just putting them together purely out of a sense of scholastic comprehensiveness.

As I discussed in my earlier post on prayer-bead divination, Tibetan divinatory methods are sometimes associated with specific tutelary Buddhas or meditational deities, whose invoked presence and blessings is what power the procedures and tools used to generate tra པྲ or the divinatory signs and manifestations, which are then interpreted. The term tra is especially used to refer to forms which are seen by diviners while gazing into mirrors or scrying with other reflective surfaces but can be used to refer to any visions or signs which arise within the ritually, meditatively circumscribed context of divination (tra is also used to describe psychic impressions which doctors who have received the requisite empowerments and who have performed the requisite retreats can receive when feeling patients’ pulse points, for example). The term tra mik པྲ་མིག or ‘tra eyes’ is also used to refer to individuals who possess an in-born capacity for scrying and divination. In Mipam’s digest, no specific tantric meditational Buddha (i.e. yidam) or worldly deity is associated with the butter lamp reading procedure he outlines. With other divinatory techniques, practitioners may be expected to have meditatively ‘accomplished’ the Buddha or deity associated with the system in question, in order to become reliably proficient in it. This involves extensive training in so-called ‘deity yoga’, a form of meditation in which practitioners cease identifying with their limited, conditional physical body and with their ordinary speech and mind and re-identify with the liberated light body, pure mantric speech-energy and limitless, un-reifiable enlightened awareness of the yidam. Practitioners will engage in retreats in which they visualize themselves as and recite the mantras of deities for extended periods of time, which allows them to get more and more intimate with these Buddhas and their nature.

In his text Mipam does not associate butter lamp divination with a specific Buddha or recommend that practitioners self-generate as a specific deity to do the practice. Rather, he suggests that one simply purify and consecrate the butter lamp materials with the use of typical mantras, mudras, and visualizations and so on, recite a specific mantra one hundred times over the stick used to light the lamp, and then invoke the blessings of Padmasambhava and all the lineage and root gurus, Dakinis, Protectors, and directional Guardian Kings, and so on to ensure a clear and accurate result (of course, just because Mipam Rinpoche does not mention deity yoga does not mean that one’s divinatory practice wouldn’t be enhanced through self-generation. They undoubtedly would be!).

The invocation Mipam provides for this purpose is an example of prayer or speech genre known as ‘recitations of truth’  or denpa darwa, བདེན་པ་བརྡར་བ in Tibetan (denpa is a noun, meaning ‘truth’ while darwa is a verb which can mean to ‘sharpen’ but in more archaic usage means to ‘speak’ or ‘express verbally’. There are other synonymous Tibetan terms for the ‘Recitation of Truth’ genre as well, such as denpa jöpa, denpé ngak and so on). In his texts on both divination and magical rituals more broadly across his collected works, Mipam strongly emphasizes the importance of this type of ritual statement. In his butter lamp text, this recitation takes the form of an invocation of numinous exemplars of the Truth, of the Ultimate Reality of Buddhist teachings. These figures are urged in the name of the Truth they represent to cause true, unmistaken tra to come down into the lamp and its materials, so that authentic insight may be attained. ‘Recitation of Truth’, known as satyavacana or satyakriya in Sanskrit and saccavacana/saccakiriya in Pali is an important category in Buddhism, a concept which points to the idea that the mere expression of truth and sincerity is magical or transformative. In a nice summary of the concept, scholar of Tibetan Buddhism Donald S. Lopez Jr. points out how in Buddhist legend, merely asserting the truth is enough to regrow severed limbs or removed organs, to secure life, and perform miracles (the English-language Wikipedia page on the concept of satyavacana is pretty comprehensive too).  

Overall, Mipam’s lamp divination instructions are fairly easy to implement and to understand. As you will see, many of the signs involved are quite ‘intuitive’, for want of a better term. Flames which burn brightly and evenly are positive, foul-smelling, voluminous smoke is negative, bifurcating flames indicate duality, divergence, and separation, flames and soot build-up which resemble traditional auspicious forms are auspicious, flames which suddenly go out indicate life-force cut short (unsurprising perhaps, given the extent to which butter lamps flickering perilously in the wind are used as metaphors for the precarity and uncertainty of life buffeted by the winds of change and karma). Flame colors are read in line with traditional associations as well (for e.g. yellow-hued flames reflect increasing activity, whitish flames pacifying activity etc.; a bright red flame indicates tsen, fire and red-associated martial spirits or other aggressive entities, and so on). Not all the interpretive patterns Mipam mentions are immediately obvious but much like with instructions for other types of Tibetan divination, interpretive guidelines are consistent yet figurative and open-ended enough to permit seasoned practitioners to feel their way into the system and to adjust and expand on it as befits their specific needs or circumstances. Mipam also acknowledges conflicting traditions of interpretation – for example, when talking about approaches to analyzing or interpreting the ‘flower’ shapes (metok, མེ་ཏོག) which may form at the top of wicks, he notes that Gyanakpa – presumably the historical figure Jetön Gyanakpa 1094 – 1149) considers flower formations which are otherwise common-sensically negative or ill-formed to be positive signs.  

The main components of a Tibetan butter lamp are the wick, dongré or dongbu སྡོང་རས, སྡོང་བུ, the special cup or kongbu which has a small hole in the middle for insertion of the wick, སྐོང་བུ, and the butter, ghee, or oil, mar, markhu, num མར, མར་ཁུ, སྣུམ་ Many elements are considered in butter lamp divination as discussed by Mipam Rinpoche: the lamp flame – its colour, brightness, movement, shape, and smell; the lamp’s smoke; sparks and sounds; how the wick burns or looks; soot and residue on the wick and in the oil; how the oil burns and pours, how the lamp ignites etc. As we will see, barley grains may also be placed inside the kongbu and oil to provide further bases for interpretation.

Mipam also offers an interesting reminder about the power of mindful cultivation of ‘co-incidence’ in the context of divination. At both the start and close of his guide, Mipam mentions the importance of handling one’s working materials well according to basic common sense. If a wick is damaged, uneven, too thick or too thin, if it gets damp or dead insects get into the ghee or oil this will naturally affect the way that one’s lamp burns. Mipam thus reminds us to take care to handle materials according to everyday best practices, to get as clean a reading as possible. This is imminently sensible – just like any Tarot card reader will tell you that cards need to be turned around while shuffling if you’re going to interpret card reversals, to do a good butter lamp reading you need to know how to prepare and to light a butter lamp safely and efficiently in order to read what you need to read. Even so, at the end of his text Mipam elaborates on the question of best technical practices in an interesting way. He notes that while mundane oversights like uneven, damp wicks or tainted oil are in and of themselves only ‘minor faults’ or ‘problems’, in the heightened context of reading tra even these small, easy-to-explain mistakes become imbued with meaning. In light of the truth, the undeniable reality of “[primary/direct] causes, [secondary/indirect] conditions and tendrel (i.e. the reality of interdependent connection and arising)” all of these small errors, he tells us, are necessarily turned into “media” or “doorways for divinatory interpretation” as well (…སོགས་ལག་སྟབས་ཀྱིས་བྱུང་བ་རྣམས་ཉེས་པ་ཆུང་ཡང་། པྲ་བརྟག་སྐབས་ཡིན་ན་དེ་དག་ཀྱང་རྒྱུ་རྐྱེན་རྟེན་འབྲེལ་དབང་གིས་བརྟག་པའི་སྒོར་འགྱུར་རོ། “These issues and others like them which may occur due to how you handle the materials may be minor mistakes but in the context of interpreting tra or divinatory omens they too become criteria/media or ‘doorways’ for interpretation, due to the power of causes, conditions, and tendrel or་interdependent connection“).   

I really like this observation. There is a certain caricature of traditional ‘superstition’ one hears from time to time, where people who still believe in mumbo-jumbo like divination and auguries are presented as being almost like slaves to magical thinking. The argument goes that in crediting the ridiculous notion that the sputtering of flames, the roll of a dice, the selecting of cards etc. is somehow mystically connected to real things or events, these ‘primitives’ in the midst of otherwise rational society, project patterns and connections where there simply aren’t any. This tendency to see what isn’t there is usually presented as a kind of cognitive error, as an inability to think properly or as a kind of wilful refusal to recognize material causes and that sometimes things just happen, that sometimes coincidences really are just coincidences without any inherent significance. With this take, the world only buzzes with meaning because some people are paranoid or overly-sensitive – hereditary or convert animists menaced by pareidolia who are determined to write meaning into essentially meaningless correspondences. French poet Baudelaire opens his poem ‘Correspondences’ with the following words:

“Nature is a temple in which living pillars
At times let out vague and shy words,
Man passes there, through forests of symbols
Which look upon him with knowing glances.

“La Nature est un temple où de vivants piliers
Laissent parfois sortir de confuses paroles;
L’homme y passe à travers des forêts de symboles
Qui l’observent avec des regards familiers.”

Baudelaire presents humans as entering into conversation with a Nature which is inherently communicative, which is capable of speaking, which has things to say, even if that communication can be fraught, disorienting, or confusing. In the caricature or stereotype I sketched above however, Nature is inherently silent, it is not really alive or at the very least not capable of genuine conversation with humans. Humans just project their own loquaciousness or stories onto the world and in the end are talking to themselves.

I would argue that in his manual Mipam presents a pragmatic, Buddhist answer to these kinds of popular caricatures of ‘superstitious’ omen seekers who can’t help but see signs in everything. Mipam tells us, yes, of course we can acknowledge that a lamp may have burned like it did because of any number of ordinary material, causative factors or due to our own carelessness in handling materials but the point is that we as diviners have set out to cultivate a divinatory context, a marked out space of heightened clarity, attention, and intention. Because we have done that, those everyday material factors are necessarily correspondent with, are entangled with the heightened context we have created, even or especially if we did our best to exclude them in advance. They too become ‘doorways’ or means of interpretation. A sensible Tarot card reader will advise you not to drop cards all over the floor while shuffling your deck if you can help it. But should cards fall out of the deck despite your efforts you will have no choice but to take notice.

Now, don’t get me wrong – all of this is not to say that Buddhists don’t themselves recognize the possibility of excessively projecting meaning and connections onto phenomena when these really aren’t there. On the contrary, various Buddhist traditions quite strenuously and regularly discourage this sort of thing. Since the ultimate nature of mind is ‘indivisible’, beyond conceptual elaboration and free from either hope or fear, and given that all phenomena are empty of self and neither ‘good’ nor ‘bad’ in any intrinsic way, it seems rather peculiar to worry about good and bad omens, to over-invest in signs, dreams, visions, and portents, or to speculate about the future. Buddhists are often admonished – especially in Sutric contexts – to pay no mind to ‘good’ or ‘bad’ dreams or omens and to remain steadfast in the cultivation of impartiality. In Dzogchen, we hear about how failure to recognize all phenomena as innate arisings or displays of mind is part of the basic ignorance that causes us to suffer, is part of a fundamental misapprehension of reality. In colloquial Tibetan, people who are especially superstitious, anxious, or fearful are said to be namtok tsapo, རྣམ་རྟོག་ཚ་པོ – i.e. to be people who think too much, who are hyper-conceptual, who take their own conceptually imputed realities and projections, their own mental constructs, too seriously. At first sight it might seem like this Buddhist view is aligned with the caricature I laid out above. Certainly, people who are constantly worried about bad spirits, black magic, and evil omens tend to be quite namtok tsapo. Even so, the truth of emptiness and interdependence, of ever-present pristine awareness beyond conceptual limitations of past, present, and future makes divinatory ‘correspondences’ possible, even inevitable and highly trained meditators still make use of divination.

In an earlier post on Tibetan mantra healing, I pointed out how in Tibetan contexts, the Buddhist notion of tendrel – interdependent arising – is often used as a synonym for ‘magic’ and ‘omens’, for signs pointing to the aligning of karmic connections and conditions. Tendrel has these connotations even as it also refers to a kind of fundamental principle, is a description of how everything, including the most tangible, mundane, material phenomena, works. For Mipam, interdependent arising is a fact of existence, something constantly true and operative on all levels of being. Even so, by ‘speaking truth’ to this fact, by invoking embodiments of enlightened nature  in a formal way through recitations of Truth, we can temporarily refocus our attention so as to tease out insights from the dense knots of coincidence operating all around us. In other words, while fixation on the future and divination can easily become its own obstacle and type of mental obscuration, with mental stability and clarity a deeper appreciation of causes and conditions and interconnections is also possible.

This seems like quite a relevant time to share information about lamp or candle interpretation, given how prevalent instructions on the topic seem to be on social media. The interpretation of candles is a significant feature of many non-Tibetan magical traditions – I suspect that every and any spiritual tradition which makes regular use of candle or lamp burning when making offerings or casting spells has developed more and less formal or standardized rules for interpreting how offerings were received or how successful a working was in light of the behaviour and residues of flames, wicks, and wax. Analyzing candles employed in rituals to glean something about the nature of those rituals, the ritual operant or target, and the spiritual forces that surround them is a major part of African, Afro-diasporic, and Latin American magical traditions, among others. At the moment, candle reading guidelines associated with Hoodoo-Conjure, Cuban Espiritismo, Mexican Brujeria, and Brazilian Umbanda traditions for example, are all over TikTok, in multiple languages. More and more, new generations of magical practitioners or would-be practitioners seem to be learning about these procedures from short form video content, a fact which deserves fuller analysis itself. WitchTok content creators are putting a great deal of time and effort into producing attention-grabbing, algorithm-charming, visually appealing edited videos depicting magical practices (they also seem to be buying a lot of badly-made candles and not following basic indoor fire safety protocols). It seems only natural given the current social media landscape that the visual and magical microcosm of burning candles would take centre stage.

There are videos on TikTok and Instagram being made by experienced ritualists who are sharing guidelines for interpreting candles and lamps linked with their respective traditions or which they’ve developed over several years of personal experience. Equally – like with just about any other topic – there are posts based on much more limited experience or which appear to be merely repeating or repurposing the arbitrary declarations and rules of other content creators. I’m pretty interested in the idea that algorithms may now be dictating, even in some small way, which approaches to magic or divination come to be seen as reliable or authentic, especially given the specific pressures that are shaping how records of alleged spells or tutorials about magic are being made (if I see another witch ring a tiny metal bell around a single candle on a tray with herbs scattered around it or amber bottle and dropper with oil…😑). Pressures to create visually titillating content or to show something impressive and allegedly happening in real-time also seems to have led to specific types of spells gaining traction over others. WitchTok is full of videos of ‘cord cutting’ spells, for example, in which a candle representing a client and a candle representing their ex-partner are tied together with twine, which is then shown bursting dramatically into flame as lion-chasing-gazelle nature documentary music plays in the background. Video captions then narrate the mini-conflagration, explaining how the quality or sound of the flames, the way the candles burn and the twine burns away and so on, reflect the live action of the spell – the breaking of attachments, transforming of circumstances, or at times even a kind of magical tug-of-war between the TikTok sorcerer and another sorcerer hired to do magic on the client. There is nothing especially unusual or unreasonable about this premise per se – magical duels acted out through physical media or materia (and narrated/interpreted) at a distance are hardly un-traditional. Researching ‘dewitchers’ in farming communities in Northwestern France in the 1970s, anthropologist Jeanne Favret-Saada described how these cunning folk engaged in magical combat with far off witches by frying kosher salt in skillets or sticking pins in cow hearts and boiling them. These visually striking rites were said to reflect in real-time what was happening to the witch at another location. In Favret-Saada’s context, accounts of such dewitching battles were pretty much always related after the fact at a remove – while Favret-Saada herself participated in some of these dewitching battles as they happened, she explains that narrations about what happened to the witch in the moment these ritual actions were performed were never widely public or freely shared with non-believers. The specific contexts for sharing these accounts are a key component in Favret-Saada’s  theories about how dewitching is a form of therapy and about the way that witchcraft enmeshes families and individuals in webs of ‘deadly words’ and silences (see Chapter Two of her ‘Désorceler’/’The Anti-Witch’ book linked above, for example).

‘Diagnostic’ candle interpretation practices for evaluating the efficacy of spells are somewhat different to Mipam’s lamp divination instructions. With the former, the candles or lamps used in a spell are themselves read as indicators for the ritual working itself, whereas with candle or lamp divination, a lamp is burned for the sole purpose of answering a question or providing information about a situation, which may have no connection to the act of lamp burning beyond the connection enabled by the divinatory context itself. Mipam’s sungbum includes another text where he explains how various aspects of tantric Buddhist ritual procedure and retreat – the setting up of altars, manipulation of ritual objects, tools, and substances, constructing of mandalas, offering of substances, the behaviour of ritual offering fires, and so on – can be read as signs of the success of these practices or as indications of complications and so on. In Tibetan, spiritual retreat is typically referred to as tsam མཚམས, literally a ‘boundary’ or ‘interval’. To enter into retreat to focus on meditation practices means to disengage with everyday activities and relationships, to draw a conscious boundary. Much like with divination, the retreat area becomes a set-apart space of heightened, cultivated intention and attention. Retreatants do not concern themselves with cleaning their bodies, with cutting or shaving their hair, or with cleaning their surroundings in the usual way when in retreat. Everything which arises outwardly and inwardly while in the retreat space becomes a potential tra within the scrying mirror of intensified practice. These signs can provide important insight and gauges for the practitioner but they are usually kept private or discussed only with the experienced guru who is guiding the practitioner in retreat. The proliferation of ‘diagnostic sign’ videos on social media presents an interesting new genre – posters who wish to advertise their magical practices or expertise are now enmeshed in unprecedentedly large networks of believers and non-believers, of potential allies, clients, and rivals. They must also navigate pressures to create content which demonstrates that their rituals are ‘working’ in particular ways. How are the digital architecture and user interface of TikTok, the opportunities and constraints of YouTube versus Instagram, shaping how magic and divination are performed and taught? If you know you’re going to film a spell and post it on TikTok and need impressive fireworks, how is this influencing how you ritually dress a candle with oil or ignite your materials or how you set up your spell more broadly? Practicality, ritual protocol, and public/private theatre all come into play. Both versions of Mipam’s lamp divination text available on BDRC include small hand drawings (see below) of a few of the lamp flame shapes Mipam describes in his text. While Mipam and his scribes may not have had ring lights or Patreon account links in their bios, we see an attempt, albeit in a 19^th, 20^th century context, to visually encode ritual lore and oral instruction scattered across disparate sources, to mediate for new audiences.

I haven’t tried lamp divination as outlined in Mipam’s manual yet but I look forward to doing so. Please let me know how these methods work for you should you choose to implement them for your own and others’ benefit, as Mipam intended. Perhaps with enough photos and videos from practitioners we can create a visual dictionary to go with Mipam’s descriptions of possible lamp signs. For readers of Tibetan you can find Mipam’s original text here. As always all errors or faults are my own.

The first folio of Mipam Rinpoche’s butter lamp divination text.


“To do butter lamp divination:

Procure an uncracked, unbroken vessel made from precious metals, bronze, bronze alloy, copper and so on. Take a dry plant wick which is free from impurities, equal in length to the lip of the vessel, and of whatever thickness is pleasing to the eye.  If the wick is of uneven thickness, roll it with clean, impurity-free cotton to even it out, and then plant it securely in the cup without the wick getting crooked. Pour filtered, unburnt ghee into the cup. Having followed proper handling procedures and avoided mistakes like letting water get into the oil or wick, letting them come into contact with wind, wet earth, moist surfaces, snow, rainfall, dead summer insects, and so on, place the butter lamp on top of a pile of barley grains.
 
Generate the Three Roots and assemblies of deities in the space in front of you. Recite the mantra OM Ā HŪNG BENDZA GURU DEWA DĀKINI HŪNG WÖ LI WÖ LI SARVA ĀLOKÉ PRABHADHANAYÉ SOHA one hundred times over a single jagma grass stalk and then place this over the top of the kongbu cup. Recite the following ‘Recitation of Truth’:

RIGDZIN PEMAJUNGNÉ LA SOKPA TSA GYÜ LAMA NAM KI MARMÉ TRA POP CHIK

“May Vidyadhara Padmasambhava and all the other Root and Lineage Gurus bring down tra into this butter lamp!

KHANDRO DUNGMIGMA RIK ZHI KHANDRO NÉ NYISHU TSA ZHI KHANDROMA NAM KI MARMÉ TRA POP CHIK

May The Conch-Eyed Dakini Khandro Dung Migma, the Dakinis of the Four Families, and all the Dakinis of the twenty-four sacred power-spots bring down tra into this butter lamp!

GYALPO CHENPO DÉ ZHI SOK CHÖKYONG DAMCHEN GYATSÖ MARMÉ TRA POP CHIK

May the Four Great Kings and other directional guardians and the Ocean of Oath-bound Dharma-protectors bring down tra into this butter lamp!

DAK KI JINTAR SÖLWA TABPA ZHINDU MARMÉ DI LA LANGDOR NGÖN SUM SELWÉ TRA LUWA MEPAR TÖN CHIK

In this way, as I have prayed, may the tra of what to do and what not to do be clearly and directly perceptible to me and revealed without error in this butter lamp!”

Having said this, light the butter lamp [with the previously blessed stalk].

For the special purpose of divination, place a random amount of barley grains in the east, south, west, and north part of the kongbu, without mixing up each portion of grains. Purify the butter lamp with sang offering smoke, consecrate it [with mantras etc.] and then offer it up with the following prayer:

“MARIG MÜNSEL DRÖNMÉ CHOK

I offer this Supreme Lamp that Dispels the Darkness of Non-Knowing

KYINKHOR LHATSOK NAM LA BUL

To the Mandala of all the Assembled Deities.

NGÖNSHÉ TAK DANG TSENMA NAM

Reveal all clairvoyant signs and omens

NANGSEL MARMÉ TEN DU SÖL

Through this illuminating butter lamp, I beseech you!”

Interpreting the Colour and Shape of the Butter Lamp Flame:

The first part of the actual divination process is to analyze the flame. This involves investigating both its shape and colour:

• If the flame is thin, white, and burns in a gently sinuous way, it indicates the ‘Victory Banner which Never Wanes’ and is a divinatory result (i.e. ngo, ངོ) portending the spread and increase of the teachings.
  
• If the flame is white in colour, its tip is spherical, it swirls, and the brightness or clarity of its light never wanes, it indicates eternal longevity or unchanging lifespan.
  
• If the flame resembles a victory-banner in shape and it burns brightly and evenly, it indicates auspiciousness.
  
• If the flame’s tip spirals like a conch, it is a divinatory result indicating fame and renown.
  
• If the flame is white and it resembles an open umbrella, it indicates that Dharmic and political power will increase.
  
• If the flame is yellow in colour like saffron or refined gold, it signifies attractiveness and freedom from obstacles.
  
• If the flame is shaped like a blooming lotus or utpala flower or like a jewel, it indicates growth of wealth and resources.
  
  
  Shapes and colours connected with the Four Tantric Activities or Rituals:
  
• Square and rectangular shaped flames and flames with vase and endless knot-like shapes, indicate that increasing activities or rituals will be accomplished.
• A flame that resembles an iron hook or lasso indicates that controlling or magnetizing activities will be accomplished.
• A flame that resembles the point of a spear indicates that ‘direct conduct’ destroying activities will be accomplished.
• A white, round, spiralling flame without any points or edges indicates that peaceful activities will be accomplished.
• A bluish-red flame that burns evenly with good light and which takes on many different shapes, indicates that activities or rituals of various types will be accomplished.

Divinatory results such as these, with auspicious shapes and good quality light, are seen as positive, virtuous signs.

– White-coloured flames indicate pacifying activity.
– Yellow flames indicate increasing activity – Reddish flames indicate magnetizing or controlling activity
– Bluish or greenish flames indicate wrathful activity 

If the overall quality of light and shape of the flame is positive and attractive in relation to pacifying activities, then it indicates that pacifying activities will be accomplished, if it’s positive and attractive for increasing activities, increasing activities will be accomplished, and so forth.

If the light of the flame is attractive and shows the five elemental colours, this is good and indicates that things will be perfect, abundant, and of good quality. 

If a single flame burns in a single butter lamp like this, this is very positive.

Negative color and shape indications are as follows:

A flame that looks black, gives off bad quality light, and takes on negative shapes, is a divinatory result that indicates the obscuration of afflictive emotions and impurity.

A flame which has a bad color and flickers very rapidly indicates enemies or the arrival of guests from very far away.

If the flame looks like it has a rounded tip that’s been cut, it indicates being falsely accused, being blamed when innocent.

If the tip of the flame looks like it’s been sliced with a razor, there is the fear/chance of being robbed or killed.

If the flame has two tips, it indicates going to another place, region, or country.

If the flame divides and branches out into two separate tongues of flame, it is a divinatory result which indicates splitting up or parting.

If three-prongs arise from behind the flame like this, it’s a positive indication.

If the flame spirals like this, it’s positive.

If a blue swirl of light arises from behind the flame like this, it’s a positive sign.

If the flame is white and round like a rolled up ball of trawa (dried fluffy plant kindling, usually from Anaphalis spp., everlasting species), it’s positive.

If the flame looks like the eye of a dri or female yak, it’s positive.

If the flame has three or four points and burns with low illumination, it indicates that loppön (spiritual masters), parents, siblings, spouses, and so on will come.

If the flame has five points and no more, it’s positive.

If the flame burns predominantly red in colour and twists three times, it indicates that violent conflict or murder within a family will occur over women.

If the heart or core of the flame has no blue in it at all and it is red and waves and shakes intensely, it is a divinatory result indicating gek or obstructing forces. One should offer gektor (i.e. torma or ritual offering cakes for pacifying gek).

A red and black flame that moves around roughly and intensely indicates that a heavily pregnant woman will die.
  
 When the flame is very big, very wild or agitated, and black, it is a bad sign.

When the flame is red, short, and rough, it indicates harmful influence from yullha (regional deities), sabdak (land-lord spirits), and lü (naga and nagini chthonic, water spirits).

When a lot of smoke and soot arises, it indicates podön or provocation of and harm from male spirits.

When the tongue of the flame is yellow and the bottom of the flame is blue, it indicates harmful influence from sabdak or land-lord spirits.

When the flame burns no more than a finger’s breadth in length and emits only feeble light, it indicates harmful influence from polha or paternal deities. One should do lhasöl or deity propitiation rituals.

When forms resembling four-legged domesticated animals (things like cows, goats, sheep etc.) appear within the light, it indicates harmful influence from rindré (mountain demons).

If the flame flickers wildly and its tip is broken into points or pieces, it’s a divinatory result that indicates enemies.

If the flame flickers a lot, is very big, and it seems like the remnant of the wick hasn’t been completely burned up and a small part of its base is left behind, it’s a divinatory result indicating that things will happen very suddenly and fast. If there is an ill person or patient involved in the divination, they will die.

If the flame isn’t very bright and its tip bends downwards, it’s a divinatory result indicating sorcerers, curses, and so on (especially non-Buddhist sorcerers).

 If the light from the flame isn’t bright, there are sharp popping ‘tsak’ sounds and sparks when the flame burns, and it has no white radiance and is unpleasant to look at, it indicates lhadön or provocation of and harm from deities.

– A yellowish flame is a divinatory result indicating sabdak land-lord spirits or gyalpo spirits (fierce, arrogant spirits thought to be the rebirth of monks and lamas with a lot of tantric power who died with a lot of pride, anger, and resentment or having broken their vows). Red portends tsenpo (warlike spirits associated with red-colored landscapes, heat and fire, and wind-swept mountains), sinmo (ferocious flesh-eating, blood-drinking demonesses, rakshasi), or drewo (a type of violent male demon). Blue indicates lü (nagas) or mamo (‘mother’ spirits, matrika) and black portents dü or mara-demons, and so on.    

The very dark almost black colour or radiance in the middle of the flame is it’s heart, so if this is very dark or black, it’s a positive sign. If not, it’s a divinatory result indicating nying tong, an ‘empty heart or core’ (i.e. depression, resentment, jealousy).

Interpreting Signs connected with the Lamp’s Wick:

If the middle of the flame is red and smoke billows out of the wick, it’s a divinatory result showing that wealth, resources, and people will slip from your grasp. It means one needs to do tsenkar rituals for appeasing tsen spirits and yanglen rituals for taking back wealth and fortune energy.

If the root and tip of the wick stay clearly black while they burn, if the light of the flame is bright and the dark colour in the center of the flame comes strongly and naturally, there is no nying tong,  ‘empty heart’, and it is thus positive.

If the tip of the wick is red or turns to ash, it indicates the opposite of the foregoing and is not a good sign. It is especially bad for wealth.    

If the wick is black and stands straight up above the flame, it is a divinatory result indicating impurity and incest (or immoral sex, illegitimate children etc.). One should make purifying sang offerings, perform ritual ablutions with blessed water, and do mondré kar or rituals for dealing with harmful female spirits.

If the wick splits or forks, it indicates one should do namgo ché or ‘sky-door sealing’ cross-thread rituals.

If the wick breaks in the middle for no clear reason and crumbles into the ghee, it’s a divinatory result indicating happiness breaking in the middle.

If the wick falls over or droops for no clear reason, it’s a bad sign.

If there are fine notches or dents in the wick, it indicates obstacles will occur.

If the base of the wick has no white to blue colour at all, it’s a bad sign, indicating za or negative astrological influences, that leaders will die, and so on.

The tip of the wick bending is a divinatory result indicating curses, disease, and so on. Rituals to repel or avert these should be done.

If the head of the wick forms into a black flower that looks like a domzha or ritual bear-skin hat, if the flame pushes downwards and the light is not bright, it is a bad sign. It is a divinatory result indicating a lot of bad karma and obscurations, dreep (ritual pollution), impurity, and so on.

If the base of the wick is thick and the tip is thin and it forms an attractive spherical shape, the ngakpa or tantric yogi will not stray from their seat of practice.

If the wick is straight and black and its tip is very sharp, great spiritual qualities will arise.

If the ghee runs out and the wick also diminishes and burns completely black and at the end there is no large remnant of the wick left behind but only the inner pith of the wick which has turned completely white, this indicates that wishes will be fully accomplished.

A large wick remnant left behind, is a divinatory result indicating delays and postponements.

If there is no wick remnant at all, it shows that dön provocations and obscurations are minimal.

Interpreting how the Lamp Burns in General:

If the flame burns evenly, neither too slowly nor too fast, it’s positive.

If the flame burns upwards, without any noise, is bright, doesn’t waver, and burns stably, it’s positive.

If the flame is very bright, the burnt wick still increases the flame, the tip of the flame looks like a sharp needle, and the flame maintains itself for a long time, intelligence, spiritual qualities, renown, and so on will increase.

If the flame is bright but flickers a lot and moves around very busily, it is a divinatory result indicating great busyness and turbulence.

If you can’t light the lamp and it seems like the flame keeps ‘going to sleep’, it portends nyam dreep, ritual pollution connected with deteriorations or lapses in tantric commitments.

If the flame burns constantly, it indicates great sönam, luck or merit.

If the flame burns weakly and without brightness or illumination, it indicates deterioration of sönam and ngatang, power and authority.

If the flame makes little curls and doesn’t burn brightly, whatever is done won’t be accomplished.

The extent of the brightness and illumination of the flame indicates the degree of positivity and the extent to which one’s affairs will be accomplished. If the lamp is not bright and produces no illumination, it is bad and portends impurity, dreep, and nyamdreep.

If the flame flares up and then suddenly weakens and flashes brightly red, if there is a sick person associated with the divination they will die, so to avert this one should do durkha chidok cross-thread procedures, perform long-life empowerments, and make regular torma offerings.

If the butter lamp goes out of its own accord without any other cause, the ill person in question will die. Even if the person or people in question are healthy, it is a divinatory result indicating ‘signs of approaching death’ and is therefore very bad.

Interpreting the Smell of the Lamp:

If a good smell wafts from the butter lamp, it’s positive.

A sur or burnt food offering smell and other similar smells are negative.

If a lamp has no smell either good or bad, it’s neutral.

Interpreting Sounds and Sparks:

If a lamp makes pleasant ‘dap dap’ noises, burns slowly and well, and casts bright light, it indicates loving, harmonious, and kind relations with everyone.

If a flame makes very loud ‘dap dap’ sounds, moves around busily, and makes sharp, cracking ‘tsek’ noises, it is a divinatory result indicating gek or obstructing forces and is a bad sign for religious officiants (i.e. chönepa, respected religious figures to whom offerings are made).

Many sparks being thrown off is a divinatory result indicating arguments and fights.

If sparks are thrown off  along with sharp ‘tsak’ sounds, it’s a divinatory result indicating that dön (i.e. the harmful influence of provoked spirits) has entered the home.

If a few, scattered sparks come from the middle of a flame, it indicates chepur, aggressive curses (i.e. sent using a phurba).

If very bright red sparks come from an only slightly reddish flame, it is very bad.

If sparks are accompanied by a sharp, popping ‘tsak’ sound and disappear far away from the actual flame itself, it indicates that one will go or travel far away. Alternatively, it is a divinatory result indicating hearing news about things, events, or people far away.

Interpreting Smoke:

If a lot of smoke comes from the butter lamp, it indicates obscurations, disease, illness lasting a long time, and laziness or distraction in cultivating siddhis. Accordingly, one should perform tsok (tantric ganachakra rituals), recite dharanis, and do ritual cleansings with water.Rapidly billowing black smoke is a divinatory result indicating loss and deterioration of resources, property, and so on. One should do mikha kar, rites to avert malicious gossip.     

If there’s no smoke or dirt produced, sick people will recover and healthy people will stay disease-free.

Interpreting Soot sticking to the Wick:

If the ‘flower’ of smoke which forms and sticks to the top of the wick has petal-like shapes and a stamen-like form in the middle which is greenish-yellow and dark blackish-coloured and if it doesn’t negatively affect the lamp’s light, it is very positive. One will rise in rank or station and accomplish one’s wishes.

If the ‘flower’ and the butter lamp burn themselves out and disappear naturally at the same time, it’s positive.

If the flower seems to mostly form on or attach to one side of the wick, and the wick bends down and falls into the ghee, or after all the oil is burned away it remains inside the kongbu cup, or in this way negatively affects the light, even though these are not good, well-formed flowers these type of flower formations are considered positive indications by Gyanakpa (presumably Jetön Gyanakpa?). 

Interpreting the Quality or Behaviour of the Ghee:

If the ghee you pour as oil for the lamp overflows or spills, it indicates that your work/ritual workings will be delayed and will thus be difficult to accomplish.

If a lotus-like pattern forms in the ghee, it’s positive.

If the oil dries out quickly and diminishes in quantity, it means that one’s zatang (i.e. the energy which enables one to have enough food to eat, enough resources etc., can also be a general term for luck, longevity, charisma, authority etc.) will be minimal or will diminish.

If the ghee doesn’t seem to have diminished in quantity on the first pour after it has defrosted after having been frozen, it’s a positive sign.

If the base of the wick has a hole, it’s bad.

If the ghee doesn’t burn but nonetheless has reddish cloudy impurities suspended in it, or things that resemble drops of blood or black cloudy sediment, it is a divinatory result indicating disease and suffering.

If the oil goes a long way and the butter lamp burns for a long time, it’s positive. Conversely, if the oil dries up quickly, zatang will be minimal or will diminish.

Time Indicators in relation to the Lamp:

*The upper parts of the butter lamp signify the present and the lower parts the future.


Interpreting the Specially Scattered Grains:

If you’ve specially cast barley grains in the cup:

*The grains to the east of the cup are the khyimcha or ‘family/household omen’, relating to the mother, spiritual master, grandparents and ancestors.

* The grains to the south are the sokcha or ‘life-force omen’ and are connected with children and descendants.

*The grains in the west are for enemies and dön provocation.

*The north is the location of bearing children and of wealth and resources.

If when you first scatter the grains, three fall accidentally to the ground, it is a divinatory result indicating that men and livestock’s la energy wanders elsewhere.

If the grains are blackened, it’s a divinatory result indicating sickness.

If the grains move and become scattered, it means the paternal ancestors and paternal ‘bone’ lineage is or will be scattered and break apart.

If the grains look like they have been raised back up, it shows the deterioration of yang wealth and fortune energy.

If they’re cracked and have holes in them, it means the gods are displeased and kangshak ‘amendment-confession’ propitiation rites should therefore be done. If there’s a dead person involved it’s a sign one should do rechak rituals (? གཤིན་པོ་ཡིན་ན་རེ་ཆགས་ངོ་།).

If fine hairs, chaff-like material or detritus manifest on the base of the barley grains, it indicates lü and nyen provocation.

If the base of the grains are black, it indicates dön – spirit-harm and provocation – caused by a demon connected with black or blackened substances becoming attached to someone.

If little black circle or dot patterns appear on the grains, it’s a divinatory result indicating arguments and disputes and is a bad sign for young children. It is a result indicating violent feuds within the family and impurity and impure conduct.  

If the grains are entirely untouched by defects, it’s a good sign, indicating that over the course of a year whatever one wishes will be accomplished.

If the grains roast and pop or puff, it’s a neutral sign.  

If they look like charcoal or coal, it’s very bad.

If the back sides of the grains burn, it’s a divinatory result indicating sickness. If the front sides of the grains burn, it indicates loss and destruction of wealth and resources.

If the upper part burns, it means affairs won’t be accomplished, things won’t be realized.

If the lower part burns, it indicates malicious gossip.

If the sides burn, it indicates contradiction and opposition.

If the grains in the western direction and the place of enemies burn, it’s positive.

General Guidelines for Interpretation:

You must distribute the piles of barley grains into the oil-filled cup and then light the butter lamp without moving them, and then interpret them. In the morning following your divination, you should give offerings of thanks to the deities and recite ‘words of auspiciousness’ prayers.

The following sort of things can occur as a result of how one handles the materials:

 – The ghee can get burnt and result in a flame without any bright colour, which is only a little reddish
– If a wick is moist it can end up bending or the moisture may prevent any very definite cracking sounds from arising. Alternatively, if the wick gets further exposed to water that can cause cracking and spitting sounds and cause the flame to die.
– If the wick is too thick, it can cause the flame to flicker, if it’s too thin it can result in a small flame

These issues and others like them may be minor mistakes but in the context of interpreting tra or divinatory omens they too become media or doorways for interpretation, due to the power of causes, conditions, and tendrel or་interdependent connection.

This then is how you analyze good and bad tra in order to divine on whatever matter you wish, not only with the mantra recitation and ‘Words of Truth’ prayer explained above, but with the butter lamp offered in front of representations of the deities, and so on.

Mipam composed this using tertön་emanation Sanggyé Lingpa’s revealed text on the interpretation of butter lamp tra as a primary source, which he then embellished with a few divinatory instructions found in tantric scriptures and oral instruction materials, in the short butter lamp divination text translated by Bari Lotsawa, and so on. May it be meritorious!



P.s. In his wonderful 1981 summary of Tibetan divination procedures which I’ve mentioned before on this blog, Lama Chime Radha Rinpoche offers a partial translation of Sanggyé Lingpa’s butter lamp divination terma text. I’ve included the relevant sections for you as screenshots below. See here for the full edited volume, ‘Divination and Oracles’, edited by Michael Loewe and Carmen Blacker.

There hasn’t been much written about lamp divination at all in Tibetan Studies from what I can tell. I was able to find one Russian language article by Bembya L. Mitruev, however, comparing three butter lamp instructional texts, one in Tibetan, one in Mongolian, and one in Chinese. Take a look. I believe the Tibetan text Mitruev examines might be the same one I have translated by Mipam, but I have not confirmed yet!