Sidewalk Oracles: Week 3
Notes on Week 3 of Sidewalk Oracles by Robert Moss, Winter 2024
“To become a kairomancer, you need to learn to trust your feelings as you walk the roads of this world, to develop your personal science of shivers, to recognize in your gut and your skin and in free-floating impressions that you know far more than you hold on the surface of consciousness. You need to take care of your poetic health, reading what rhymes in a day or a season. You want to expect the unexpected, to make friends with surprises, and never miss that special moment.” Robert Moss, Sidewalk Oracles
A Willingness to Walk the Path
Each week, I will post some general discussion, reflection, and thoughts on the chapter or “games" from the week. You are invited to share your experience with this book in the comments section.
Basic Information
📌 We are reading Sidewalk Oracles: Playing with Signs, Symbols, and Synchronicity in Everyday Life by Robert Moss.
📅 The reading timeline outlines a slow reading (with weekly discussion posts) for anyone who wants to read along.
📌 Weekly reading notes and discussion (the timeline links to the weekly posts)
🍥 I encourage you to go into this reading with an open mind and a willingness to consider what is being described/discussed.
🧵 I use the comment area for discussions rather than a chat thread. Neither would be private because this read-along is free to everyone. You are invited to comment on comments and interact with those reading together.
Threading the Needle, Week 3
In Chapter 3 of Sidewalk Oracles, Moss outlines 12 “rules” for kairomancy, a process of living a life guided by synchronicity.
We only read through the first 6 “rules” this week. (I probably should have just had us do the whole chapter.)
I found myself really focused on one of these rules this week.
Last night, after a day with some big emotional moments, I re-read the chapter, and I, again, stumbled a bit over the first rule:
“Whatever you think or feel, the universe says yes.”
When you first read that, it might come across differently…. as in the universe is going to give to you (good things) regardless of your attitude (because the universe has your best interests in mind) — the answer is always yes. But it doesn’t say “no matter what you think or feel, the universe says yes.”
It suggests the universe goes along and mirrors back to us what we are projecting.
“Whatever you think or feel, the universe says yes.”
When you read again and then read the explanation, the role we play in this process becomes clear. This “rule” warns us that the universe is going to say yes (or agree) with whatever we are thinking or feeling. This may or may not be a “yes” we want. It may or may not be positive. This is very different than “the universe will provide (positively) regardless of our attitude.”
While I think there are plenty of examples of people who maintain a positive and optimistic outlook and have things go off the rails, the idea that the universe gives what you ask for and mirrors what you project…. really stopped me in my tracks.
I’ve poked a lot of holes in the balloon this week, but a little part of me worries about the extent to which this may be true. Negative energy may beget negative responses from the universe. Ultimately, I think Moss posits that we are masters of our own destiny, to some extent, because we can choose our attitude. If we present a more positive and open attitude, the universe may mirror it back to us.
This strikes me as particularly sunny, problematically sunny. Just being sunny doesn’t make everything turn out right, bring success, pay the bills, or keep us in good health. There are too many examples where we know this is not true, right? I have trouble with a view that suggests that all the things that are currently trending the wrong direction are simply my fault, the result of a bad attitude.
But I understand faith, belief without proof, belief even in the presence of things that make no sense.
This is similar.
While I don’t want to accept that I’m responsible for the mess I’m in and that a better attitude along the way might have changed things for the better, the niggle of that possibility, that cause and effect, that responsibility is there.
[This post is from a 2024 read-along. The remainder of the post has now been placed behind the paywall.]