story sticks

HOW IT BEGAN:

It must have been in 2003 that I had a dream of my divining someone's fortune. It involved throwing down sticks with heiroglypic makings on them. Other tools were a bar of soap, a dime, and a tea saucer.

The next evening, I was with friends at the local teahouse, where they have a large selection of tarot cards for public use. I told the women of my dream--I'd just remembered it.

"Ooh! Let's see!" they cried. "I want you to read my fortune!" "Now!"

So pressured by their enthusiasm, I grabbed a handful of tea stirrers and a black sharpie and created them on the spot, approximating the essence of the markings I'd dreamt. I gave seven readings that night. EVERYONE said they were pretty accurate/insightful. Who knew? Even a woman I'd never before met asked for one and said it spoke truthfully about her life. Hunh?

HOW IT WORKS:

Grab a handful of the sticks and shake them around in your hand as you mull over your question or topic. When you're ready, toss them onto the table. I try to decipher the message(s) based on the way the sticks fell.

I heard this is akin to the I-Ching. I don't know anything about it. It felt very primal to me in the dream. And all I can really say is that I intuit by feeling--a sense of "rightness". I imagine this is how all intuitives work anyway.

DIVINING:

It all depends on how the sticks spread themselves out. Whether they land on their blank or marked sides. How they fall in relation to each other: where they cross, if they land astride or askew. And of course, what markings appear.

Usually there is a prominent stick that represents the questioner and/or the issue at hand. I go from there. I call them "Story Sticks" because what I end up telling is a story about the person or topic.

AND SO:

I've read for many people this way. Sometimes combining them with a reading of my Dream Cards (which I created from with motifs from my own dreams--a post on that later) for more insight. Just one way in which the magic of dreams carries over into the "waking life".