Sidewalk Oracles: Weeks 9 and 10

Notes on Weeks 9 and 10 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, Weeks 9 and 10

In weeks 9 and 10 of our Sidewalk Oracles read-along, we read about Games 13-17, the final games in Chapter 4.

I apologize for not posting last week. For the one or two people (maybe three) still reading and commenting, I appreciate that you tucked comments into earlier weeks.

I did snap a library photo for you last week (above). I don’t know that it’s a stunner, but I think we are to be taking from all of this that, sometimes, the clue is in the unexpected, not necessarily the exceptional. (Well, maybe that’s what I’m taking from all of this. I do think Moss looks for the exceptional. He’s not really all about the everyday.)

I think license plates are proving to be an odd form of symbol for me. I noticed a vanity plate in front of me last week, and while I don’t know how the owner “intends” it to be read, I read it as a specific word. It struck me enough that I snapped a photo so I wouldn’t forget. But then, a few days later, I was deleting photos from my phone, and I saw that I’d taken a screenshot of the same word several weeks ago when it was the Dictionary.com “Word of the Day.” It isn’t a new-to-me word, but for some reason, it struck me that day, and I took a screenshot, thinking I might letter it in my journal. I had forgotten that.

Seeing the screenshot again and thinking of the license plate made me stop and wonder…. what is this word for me right now?

Continuing with the “Games” for Kairomancy

Chapter 4 contains 17 games, different ways of inviting or paying attention to symbols and oracles. These are the games Moss puts forth as tools for being better attuned to symbol and synchronicity. In these two weeks, we read about games 13-17.

I don’t know that I was “enamored” with any of these games.

#13: Recognize personal omens: This didn’t seem new. I feel like this is what most of us have been doing all along. In our comments and observations, we’ve been talking about the things that are personally relevant to us or personally symbolic. This game seemed mostly like confirmation, once again, that you should pay attention to the things that you pay attention to and to the things that reappear and recur for you.

Part of this game involves thinking about traditional superstitions to see if any have  meaning or significance in your life. This seems a bit simplistic. I doubt that any of us walk around really worrying about black cats crossing our paths or afraid to walk under ladders. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe there are superstitions we each carry and really pay attention to …. even though they’ve never proven to be true. That is what I think Moss suggests we stop and check. There may be superstitions and folklore you carry. Do you carry these deeply enough that you need to do work to let them go? Only you know. Ultimately, the guidance is to let go of superstitions that have no meaning to you and, instead, recognize and embrace your own set of symbols. (That’s basically what the whole book is about, of course.)

#14: Try the white queen gambit: This game is about paying attention to moments of prescience, moments where your body seems to know in advance that something is going to happen. If you learn to read these signs, you may be able to act on or respond to something differently as it happens. This one was disappointing to me and not something I can relate to. (I expected something different from the Queen’s gambit because I read that phrase with chess in mind.)

#15: Play the lightening game: This game involves a group scenario in which people share stories or dreams and others guide and nudge each other into fleshing out the vision or dream. (I’ll be honest. This game made no sense to me and is not something I think “most” people would do.)

#16: Consult the index card oracle: This game involves using a group of people to make a deck which can then be used, right then, for a reading. Everyone contributes by writing a bit of something on a card. These cards become the deck. Each person then determines a question or something they are seeking guidance about and pulls a card to see what insight it might bring. This game is specifically cast as a social and temporal game. I don’t have any interest in this as a group activity, but I like the idea of this as a way of thinking about constructing a personal deck, and Moss does outline a solitaire version, one that you might build over time.

#17: Write a message without sending it: This, the final game, is about putting ourselves out there to someone else without letting them know on the premise that our intentions will still reach the person. This is an interesting one. In this game you might write a letter to someone or construct a text or an email asking for something or expressing something or wishing for something and yet not sending the letter, text, or email. Instead, you tuck it away and wait. You wait to see if you hear from that person or if what you were talking about may come about in some way. I think I do this to some extent — but not as literally as Moss suggests. I might try this one. I’ve been trying to reach someone for a while, and maybe if I write a letter and sort out what I’m hoping to say, things will become clear.

We are finally through the games, and they may have started to feel long. They were not as “actionable” as I had hoped they might be when I first set the reading schedule. (Sorry.)

Your Thoughts?

Thank you for sharing your comments and experiences as you have been reading through this book.

• Did you have a favorite game from this mix?

• Have you found yourself more open to symbols in these weeks?

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