In December 2014, we organized the first 3AM event — a regular gathering dedicated to art, performance, contemporary dance, and music. During this first event, myself and Colin Johnco presented a divination system that we developed as well as the theoretical foundations behind it.
During our research, we discovered that most divination narratives have a common structure. The elements of the narrative are usually related in such a way, that they form separate clusters, which are distinct from one another and yet are connected globally. This allows the reader to read through the whole structure very quickly and efficiently in only a few iterations. Moreover, no matter where one begins, the structure will be traversed in a very similar way. The final narrative comes across as coherent and relevant because it will always mention several important, but very different topics in a way that makes sense.
Based on this approach, we created our own divination system which used a similar structure to Tarot but abstracted the content and symbolism. For example, instead of the “magician” card we used “genesis”, while the card of the “emperor” was replaced by “stability”. We then designed a network of connections between 22 elements (reflecting the Major Arcana in Tarot), and, finally created the content that one could read in any direction.
The final result was a set of custom-made cards with a book on the methodology of reading, as well as an online resource, which could be used to read through this network.
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If you are interested in a more technical presentation of our findings, you can read our research on the Nodus Labs website on the network structure of divination narratives.
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