How can I keep my daughter safe?

QUESTION - I don't know if I'd call myself a 'witch' or not. I have only been walking this Pagan path for a couple years and I am still very much exploring and learning and suspect I always will. I like my crystals, I have a fascination and knack for sigils, and I quietly observe the Sabbats without openly celebrating them. My altar tends to be spread out in my head. I've been drawn to Cernunnos, and the Archangel Michael. All that being said, I don't know where else to post this query and I am wondering if anybody has faced a similar situation and what they've done about it.

When my daughter was born nearly twenty three years ago, something told me back then that I needed to protect her a bit more than my first three offspring. I got a strong and early sense of foreboding upon her reaching adulthood that I didn't get with my others. I've also had a few dreams where she vanishes and is just GONE, and instinctively in the dream, I'll know she is really gone from this plane, and I am just utterly devastated.

I had one of these dreams recently which had me quite shaken. She found me all upset in the morning and I finally told her my concerns after hugging on her for a solid five minutes. Turns out during a family budget meeting---of all things, my husband and her older sister have also had similar dreams where she is concerned, but they didn't want to tell me for fear of worrying me. So now, we're all wondering: what the heck is up with all this? I'm highly concerned, because it would be one thing if it were just neurotic me having these---even though the dreams are rare, they're quite potent; but to now know my husband and her sister are also having these is a whole other ballgame. Where do I go from here? What do I do with this? I feel like we've been charged with protecting her somehow and I have the sense it's from a very dark person(s) in the future.

We have not exactly been 'encouraging' her to get 'out there' and she is quite content here at home for the moment. In her dealings with other people, I have seen there is almost always an odd urge in people to protect/shield or outright possess her somehow, but they don't know what to do with that energy (or what it is) and it can turn some people away, or it leads to these odd obsessive behaviours in others with her. We don't know what that's about either, her included. She's not a 'needy' personality and is quite comfortable in her own skin.

I should also add that I've had a few precog dreams about others in my life, and 'visitation' from deceased relatives whom I didn't know in life, but again, these are rare.

What do you think? Has anybody else ever dealt with this kind of thing? I want to protect her! I apologize for the length of this, but thank you for listening to me.

ANSWER - I think it is important in the context of this question to have a strong understanding of the difference between seeing THE future and seeing A future. As witches I believe we always work with the possibilities of the future world. We can use methods of divination which take us on the spectrum from likely to near certainty but the one thing we cannot do is predict the future as an absolute. This is because the future has many variables which affect the path any of us take and make it which impossible to say any one path has a inevitable outcome.

Before I get into your specifics I'm going to point out that it is the fortune telling "This will happen" attitude that annoys me about the Tarot. I (and most other witches) use the Tarot as a guide to the future, an indication of what current path may bring and a heads up to understand what changes need to be made to alter that path if it is going away from my direction of choice. What the Tarot does not do is predict events that cannot be affected or changed. And frankly if it  did it wouldn't be worth the cards it is printed on.

The Tarot is used as a guide, a warning if you like. As a simple analogy it works in the same way as pain. If you touch a hot plate and it burns you the pain is a warning not to grab it and hold onto it because it will burn you. You change your behaviour due to the warning to change the outcome. That is exactly how divination should be used. You see the likely outcome of the current path and look for the ways to change that path to alter the outcome.

I think this view of the future is very relevant to your question. You are getting a lot of suggestion that your daughter may possibly have something negative and dangerous in her future. The fact that your husband and other daughter are experiencing something similar adds even more credibility to the threat. But what it doesn't prove is that this negative outcome will ever necessarily come to fruition. What you have here is a warning, an intuition that there may be danger ahead for your daughter. But the very fact that you are aware of this will  change your behaviour. You will be more  aware of protecting her, quicker  to suggest she avoids the very things that may hurt her. What you are experiencing is not a glimpse into an inevitable future but an opportunity to keep your daughter safe throughout her life.

My advice is to keep on listening to that inner voice. You've done well so far by working with your intuition and there is no reason to suppose you will not continue to protect your daughter until she no longer needs it. I think the fact that you are willing to listen to these dreams, that you understand the significance of them and that you are able to reach out and ask for help are all good indicators that you will recognise any dangers you encounter. Keep up the good spiritual practises, keep the bonds between you and your daughter strong and keep the focus on your intuition. And always remember that the future is not written in stone. It is yours and your daughter's to change every step of the way. 

Image ​http://www.deviantart.com/art/DSC06247-Crystal-Ball-3-397475752

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