Sweet talker

Rory's Story Cubes

When I look at this draw, I instantly think of the aphorism, 'You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar.' Healthy speech is magnetic. Firmly grounded speech is attractive.

On the other hand, it could be a warning. Remain firm in resisting the magnetic pull of your speech into a certain direction. In other words, stand firm and don't be drawn in to conversations you don't want to have.

I'm pretty sure I know what this is referring to in my own life. There's a little storm in a teapot being brewed by someone who seems to go through life looking for reasons to be pissed off, and her attention has turned toward me recently. I've received two angry messages from her; she's looking to pick a fight...but I am too old and too life-experienced to play in these sorts of petty mud holes, so she can just get mad by herself, stay mad by herself, and argue with herself, because I am not participating!

For me, when someone is working themselves into a tizzy about something, it's almost like I visualize them with a ring of energy about themselves, that shuts their mess in and forms a barrier that contains them. Let them whirl around in their little tempest to their heart's content. I'm staying out here where it's calm and dry.

Lightbulb moment

Rory's Story Cubes

What do you associate with an image of a lightbulb?

A bright idea. Energy. Needing to turn the lights on because it's getting darker each day. Thinking things over. A young person (aka 'bright spark') plays a role in my day. Learning something new. Creating something. Inventing something. Discovering something. Making a mental connection.

I wonder what connection I will make today.

Over the rainbow

Okay, wow. The central upward-pointing arrow reminds me of my aspirations. Achieving (or at least moving toward) my aspirations requires compassionate speech and taking a close, careful look in the 'dark corners' of things. Again I am seeing the message to look deeply and speak softly. The Magnifying glass, flashlight, and arrow are all at the same angle -- it seems to reinforce the message. And if we read left to right, it says that looking closely at the dark, hidden side of things leads upward toward either a reconciliation of sorts, or achievement of a goal. The speech bubble is actually empty. So maybe words won't need to be spoken, or maybe the 'enlightenment' provided by the torch will render me speechless.

What the heck is going to happen today!!

Mouth wide shut

The eye in the middle with the smiley face on the end make me think of watching and not talking. Vigilance without words is the way to achieve fairness, or find balance, in the current situation. Again Mr Turtle has turned up, reminding me that patience is required. And to keep smiling. (Or at least grinning.)

This draw makes a lot of sense for me personally today, even though I don't want to go into any details.

There are no rules with Story Cubes. This is a fun thing about using unusual items as divination tools. The symbols take on personal meaning to you, and you don't have to answer to any Belgian school, French school, or whatever school, or explain who you started in the middle or on the right or wherever. You just roll the dice and read them any way you like.

In this roll, I held all the dice in one hand and dropped three, lined them up and then dropped two more onto the spread cloth and lined them up with the first three. Then I just looked at it and the first items that caught my attention as being linked to one another, I linked. And read from there.

Turn back or turtle on

This morning I decided to try throwing all the Rory's Story Cubes out at once, and use a kind of near/far technique with a significator to stand for myself. I didn't have a topic in mind as a question, but I have been thinking about a particular thing a lot in the last 24 hours. My jewelry box was handy so I used a pendant of the Sun card for the significator. I threw the cubes across the spread cloth, then just turned the images in their place so they'd be right side up to make it easier to look at them. The cubes nearest me are Turtle, Bridge, Tower, Comedy/Tragedy Masks. Then continuing on that line but further away, Shooting Star. Far below me, Alien Face and Padlock. Very far above me, House and Happy Face with Eyebrows.

Throw of Rory's Story Cubes with Significator

The first thing that comes to mind with this throw is my recent experience with NaNoWriMo, because that is what I've been thinking about a lot for the last day or so. I often find myself setting a goal without really examining my motives for setting it--which I suppose makes it little more than an idle whim, really. NaNoWriMo was a whim, one I took up because a friend of mine does it every year and I admire that. Reading the line that runs closest to me, I see 'Steady patience is the bridge to overcome blockages to creative expression.'  Underneath, perhaps the underlying cause of my anxiety is that fiction writing is alien to me, and thus locked from me. And above me, though far away, happiness in the familiar and comfortable (which for me is reading other people's fiction and writing a blog). The message of the reading tells me that I could write fiction, with steady determination and endurance. It also reminds me of why I find it difficult and would so quickly give up.

Throwing bones

Rory's Story Cubes

This week I'm going to be looking at Rory's Story Cubes. It isn't a divination tool at all, but a children's game meant to inspire kids to engage in storytelling. I saw someone online somewhere talk about picking up a set in an airport and thinking it would make a good divination tool. I agreed on first sight! Curious, I straightaway ordered two sets from Amazon. I can see there are many ways to use these, but today I tried this method. I put all the story cubes in both hands and shook them up. Then without looking, I dropped one cube out onto the spread and made a sentence or part of a sentence about each cube as it turn up. I had no question in mind, so I guess that is why I got a snapshot of my thoughts at that moment.

This is my reading for today (read left to right):

Top row: I am unsure about what direction using these cubes will take (dice and arrow), but I feel there is magic in them (magic wand) and the world (earth) seems already to have discovered this.
Bottom row: I will use them in online communications (star and letter), and my comfort level (house) with them will flower (flower) as I learn with them (L plate).

One sentence reading:
The world knows there is magic in these cubes, as I've read online, and I will learn to feel right at home with them through trial and error.

This could be fun. :) It's also a nice time to be using Story Cubes, because this year I've decided for the first time to try NaNoWriMo, even though I have no idea for characters, plot, or style. I'm just going to sit down and whatever comes out, comes out. I am not going to pressurize myself about the 1667 words per day goal, as my mind balks at this, and when I sat down to the blank sheet today, my first impulse was to say, oh forget it, I can't do it. Instead, I have modified the goal to something that feels more achievable for me: Just write something every day for 30 days.

Day 1 NaNoWriMo - 542 words. 35 min.