Tag: writing prompts

Exploring Cartomancy, 13Mar23

©2023 michael raven

I want to reiterate, I am no expert in cartomancy and have no intention of turning these posts in to research-quality posts, so I’m afraid if you are looking for references, you might be disappointed. After all, I am just exploring and having fun, not trying to write an authorative everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-but-were-afraid-to-ask post on the matter. This is just a little chat over a glass of something (water, in my case) like you might have with a group of friends at the bar and deciding that, instead of arguing politics, you’re going to listen to the idiot in the corner chat about “fun facts” that may or may not be actual facts about a subject that interests him.

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Exploring Cartomancy, 12Mar23

©2023 michael raven

It has been a number of years that I have played around with various tools often regarded (but not always) as mantic devices, i.e., tarot, runes, “oracle decks”, ogham, etc. for the purposes of writing prompts. In fact, for one of my failed NaNoWriMo attempts, I built my cast of characters from a variant tarot spread to describe who they were and what their shadowed motives were. And some of the story arc as well. In retrospect, I should have put more thought into the matter than I did at the time, but I still think there is a ton of potential to use mantic tools in this way.

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Raven in the Sky

©2023 michael raven

Set a watch in the sky, to cry out when the hills begin to crawl and speak in unfamiliar tongues, when the bears wake.

Intro to “Raven in the Sky” (Oracle of the Morrigan), Morrígan Oran

“Hey Sam.”

Sam turned her gaze from the burning skies that turned the world a crimson color in the daylight and masked the stars come night for the past fortnight or so. No one could agree on the exact amount time that had passed, but agreed in principle the period could roughly be described as two weeks, give or take three days in either direction. Shit in the beginning had been chaotic by all accounts — there was no debate there. And, given the clocks had gone and done struck thirteen, then moments later given to the ghost just like anything with circuitry along with a blinding flash, well… the craziness and lack of proper tools to tell time made it awfully difficult to count the days, let alone the hours since.

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By the Setting Moon

©2023 michael raven

Gathering weeds, bramble and thorn, she moved like midnight by the setting moon. Ever the air grown silent in the last silver glow casting shadows upon shadows and within the shadow of night, but for the shush and tug of her hands a’reaping, fragments of memory slipping behind her like dream.

She knew it to be soft voice, for the rustle of leaves in the wind on a windless eve and so she tilted her head sidewise and anon the speaker raised the timbre and lowered the tone so Jess might know what was to be said.

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mushin || day 199: internalizing 内面化

©2022 Michael Raven

over fifty
still undecided
which values
to make my own

This series of writing explorations that I call mushin are an attempt to grasp the concept of mushin no shin (mind without mind, 無心の心, often shortened to mushin, or “no-mind”). I am using prompts from 365 Tao, largely because they are Zen and Tao themes for meditation (which suits this exploration), not as an endorsement for the book from which they are derived. The daily prompts can be found in this table. Anyone wishing to participate is welcome to do so, either post your own response to the prompt below or post a link to your response in the comments.

mushin || day 198: conservation 保全

©2022 Michael Raven

continued
consumerism
is ultimately
unsustainable
yet
i still desire

This series of writing explorations that I call mushin are an attempt to grasp the concept of mushin no shin (mind without mind, 無心の心, often shortened to mushin, or “no-mind”). I am using prompts from 365 Tao, largely because they are Zen and Tao themes for meditation (which suits this exploration), not as an endorsement for the book from which they are derived. The daily prompts can be found in this table. Anyone wishing to participate is welcome to do so, either post your own response to the prompt below or post a link to your response in the comments.

mushin || day 197: smothered 黙殺

©2022 Michael Raven

smothering the flames
old resentments
burning between
dusk & dawn

reality is:
the embers have
already gone cold

This series of writing explorations that I call mushin are an attempt to grasp the concept of mushin no shin (mind without mind, 無心の心, often shortened to mushin, or “no-mind”). I am using prompts from 365 Tao, largely because they are Zen and Tao themes for meditation (which suits this exploration), not as an endorsement for the book from which they are derived. The daily prompts can be found in this table. Anyone wishing to participate is welcome to do so, either post your own response to the prompt below or post a link to your response in the comments.

mushin || day 196: mandala マンダラ

©2022 Michael Raven

no map for
where i have been
or
where i will go

my recommendation?
get yourself a map

This series of writing explorations that I call mushin are an attempt to grasp the concept of mushin no shin (mind without mind, 無心の心, often shortened to mushin, or “no-mind”). I am using prompts from 365 Tao, largely because they are Zen and Tao themes for meditation (which suits this exploration), not as an endorsement for the book from which they are derived. The daily prompts can be found in this table. Anyone wishing to participate is welcome to do so, either post your own response to the prompt below or post a link to your response in the comments.

mushin || day 195: gratitude 感謝

©2022 Michael Raven

i am grateful
for the spirits
who still visit
every night

sometimes chatter
sometimes silence

This series of writing explorations that I call mushin are an attempt to grasp the concept of mushin no shin (mind without mind, 無心の心, often shortened to mushin, or “no-mind”). I am using prompts from 365 Tao, largely because they are Zen and Tao themes for meditation (which suits this exploration), not as an endorsement for the book from which they are derived. The daily prompts can be found in this table. Anyone wishing to participate is welcome to do so, either post your own response to the prompt below or post a link to your response in the comments.

mushin || day 194: searching 田畑

©2022 Michael Raven

my migration from
searching for answers
to exploring the answers
that were always
right there
in front of me

This series of writing explorations that I call mushin are an attempt to grasp the concept of mushin no shin (mind without mind, 無心の心, often shortened to mushin, or “no-mind”). I am using prompts from 365 Tao, largely because they are Zen and Tao themes for meditation (which suits this exploration), not as an endorsement for the book from which they are derived. The daily prompts can be found in this table. Anyone wishing to participate is welcome to do so, either post your own response to the prompt below or post a link to your response in the comments.