{"id":57,"date":"2005-06-03T12:14:00","date_gmt":"2005-06-03T19:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/iching\/"},"modified":"2005-06-03T12:14:00","modified_gmt":"2005-06-03T19:14:00","slug":"iching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/2005\/06\/03\/iching\/","title":{"rendered":"iChing"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Friday Random Ten idea needs some spicing up. Since nobody else runs with my ideas, let’s follow up on the suggestion<\/a> that we can use the iPod as a divination device. Simple enough — just use the first ten songs that show up randomly exactly as you would use Tarot cards, and peek fearlessly into the future.<\/p>\n

Here is the most common Tarot Spread, the Celtic Cross, as explained by Byzant Mystical<\/a>. Each position plays a role in elucidating the larger story.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The Covering:<\/b> The important events, issues, attitudes or influences around the question or current situation\n
  2. The Crossing:<\/b> Current obstacles, problems, conflicts and opposition that the questioner must deal with\n
  3. The Crown:<\/b> The best that can be achieved or attained from current circumstances\n
  4. The Root:<\/b> Past events or influences that have played an important part in bringing about the current situation\n
  5. The Past:<\/b> Events or influences from the more recent past that have influenced the present but are now passing away\n
  6. The Future:<\/b> Future events and fresh influences about to come into play that will operate in the near future\n
  7. The Questioner:<\/b> The questioner’s attitude and how they relate to the current situation\n
  8. The House:<\/b> How other people around the questioner affect and view matters in hand\n
  9. The Inside:<\/b> The questioner’s hopes, fears and expectations with regard to the question or the current situation\n
  10. The Outcome:<\/b> The eventual outcome of events shown by the other cards <\/ol>\n

    Okay, so let’s consult the iPod oracle and see what we get. (Really it’s better to ask a specific question, but this is just a proof-of-concept.) <\/p>\n

      \n
    1. The Covering:<\/b> Pretenders, Back on the Chain Gang<\/i>\n
    2. The Crossing:<\/b> Isaac Hayes, Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic<\/i>\n
    3. The Crown:<\/b> Cream, Toad<\/i>\n
    4. The Root:<\/b> Von Freeman, Blues for Sunnyland<\/i>\n
    5. The Past:<\/b> Either\/Orchestra, Born in a Suitcase<\/i>\n
    6. The Future:<\/b> Howlin’ Wolf, Built for Comfort<\/i>\n
    7. The Questioner:<\/b> Led Zeppelin, The Wanton Song<\/i>\n
    8. The House:<\/b> Dexter Gordon, Our Love is Here to Stay<\/i>\n
    9. The Inside:<\/b> Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington, Cottontail<\/i>\n
    10. The Outcome:<\/b> Living Colour, Elvis is Dead<\/i><\/ol>\n

      Well. Of course we skip right to the Outcome, which is kind of ambiguous. Although Elvis is Dead<\/i> doesn’t seem like a cheery title, the point of the song is to get over it and move on, which doesn’t sound like such a bad point of view. The Future, Built for Comfort<\/i>, can’t argue with that. I will choose to overlook the implications of The Wanton Song<\/i> popping up in the Questioner slot. Overall, I think the oracle paints an interesting if somewhat tentative picture of a hedonistic individual, facing some constraints from events of both the recent and distant past, but striving gamely to overcome them, even if the energetic-but-nonsensical scat of Cottontail<\/i> indicates a certain confusion about current priorities.<\/p>\n

      What really worries me is The Crown. If the best I can hope for is the allegorical equivalent of a minutes-long Ginger Baker drum solo, I’m in trouble.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      The Friday Random Ten idea needs some spicing up. Since nobody else runs with my ideas, let’s follow up on the suggestion that we can use the iPod as a divination device. Simple enough — just use the first ten songs that show up randomly exactly as you would use Tarot cards, and peek fearlessly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellany"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}