Sidewalk Oracles: Week 8

Notes on Week 8 of Sidewalk Oracles by Robert Moss, Winter 2024

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.

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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.

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From Within the Fog, Week 8

In week 8 of our Sidewalk Oracles read-along, we read about Games 10-12 in Chapter 4.

If I had made a prediction at the start of the book about which direction my awareness might go, I might logically have said “up.” As someone already fairly attuned to looking, I expected I might really tap into something “extra” during this reading. In truth, I’m not being knocked over by symbols simply. I can’t say that I think I’ve experienced synchronicity so far while reading this book. But I do find the reading mostly interesting, and I appreciate the reminder to look and to notice. (It fits into things I already do and talk about.) I also appreciate the invitation to interpret symbols I encounter as having personal relevance in the moment.

I feel more mindful even if I’m not reaping the reward. That’s still a successful outcome.

It wasn’t a week pulsing with discovery, but a few things jumped out at me. (None of these were related to this week’s games, which didn’t really have much for me.)

1. The song from last week disappeared at some point. Another song replaced it, and I noticed at one point, but I forgot to write it down. But then last week’s song popped back up. Out of the blue again. I still don’t know what that song is trying to tell me right now, but I really noticed when I caught myself whistling it again.

2. A license plate caught my attention. (This is the third week for this to be the case.) I was driving behind a car, and the plate in front of me “looked” like it said LESSSS. I was on the highway, so I first noticed it from a bit of a distance, and as I got closer, I saw it was actually LEK5555. But “seeing” something my brain read as “less” really struck me.

3. I am not one to remember dreams, which I’ve mentioned (and I know some of you have this same issue), but this morning, I woke from a particularly involved and multi-staged dream. When my alarm went off, I grabbed my phone to make a note of the zany Alexa affirmation, and then I thought about the dream. I opened a blank note, turned on the microphone, and dictated the contours, as best I could remember. I was still half asleep, and already I had lost some of the thread. But it felt really empowering to record any of the dream. I didn’t worry about whether the dictation was right. I didn’t read it back through. But I know I got some of it recorded, and by doing that, I remember even a bit of it now. I hope to do this more. Later, while driving to a meeting, I thought about the final part of the dream and realized that something I watched on TV last night may have contributed to it. It’s not a direct connection, but I think it’s possible. Even so, I couldn’t sort out the overall meaning at all. I’m going to work at doing this (making wakeup notes) more often.

4. I took a book photo for you today. I stopped in at the library to pick up books on my way home. I didn’t have time to sit and work, but I decided to take a random shelf photo. (I do know where “some” of the sections are, including, now, the birds. So I deliberately walked to a shelf that I didn’t know offhand. Without looking at the titles, I held my phone up to take a photo of a specific section. That’s the photo above. I know several of you scanned the previous shelf photo. I wonder if this one offers anything for you. The first book my eye hit upon when I looked…. I ended up checking out. I wasn’t looking for it. I wouldn’t have known I wanted to look at it. But, ironically, I had been thinking about this author earlier in the week. I won’t tell you which title it is yet. I’ll let you note what you spotted first, or what you felt pulled to. (This isn’t simply which looks “most interesting.”) Once again, the “shelf” game seems like one that offers unexpected moments.

Continuing with the “Games” for Kairomancy

Chapter 4 contains 17 games, different ways of inviting or paying attention to oracles. These are the games Moss puts forth as tools for being better attuned to symbol and synchronicity. This week, we read about games 10-12.

These short statements are summaries. They don’t indicate what I think, necessarily, about these games.

#10: Deja vu all over again: a discussion of deja vu as, literally, something that has happened before and might help you as the moment replays again. (This may or may not be how you think of deja vu or experience it.)

#11: Expect the unexpected guest: imagine yourself standing at the door and name who it is you see and then determine how to deal with the visitor.

#12: Look for the spiral question mark: this discussion shares some ground with the deja vu game in asking you to notice situations or encounters you find similar to ones that have happened before and then use what you learned then to help you decide on how to respond now.

Your Thoughts?

Thank you to those who have shared their experiences with the previous games and with the book overall. I know others are reading, too, and I hope the book is providing some food for thought.

• How did you respond to the games this week?

• Did any of these have particular personal relevance?

• Did you experience any of these firsthand this week?

• Did anything from a prior week come to the surface again?

I do realize that not everyone enjoys the games or finds them “different” from one another or useful. I didn’t write the book. I’m simply reading along with you.

Thank you for reading Illustrated Life and this “read-along” post for our Winter 2024 reading of Sidewalk Oracles. I will not be sending these weekly read-along posts as individual newsletters. They will be posted and then appear linked in my Sunday mailing.

(Links to books or tools referenced in posts are Amazon affiliate links. Always check your library.)