Provoke your creative spark with divination, obliqueness and cards

A brief review of some creative tools that have come to my attention. Have used some of these myself, particularly for writing fiction. They're great for tapping into individual or group subconscious. Enjoy. ??????

1000-750 BC

The I Ching was widely used in divination, making use of yarrow sticks.

And here's a fun online version you can. try:

12th century

Hildegarde von Bingen makes a guest appearance in this blog. Not related to divination per se, though she did have visions and was consulted on these matters- hence Sibyl of the Rhine. She and has been recently diagnosed as suffering from migraine with aura.

1689

The I Ching was the inspiration for Leibniz when he formulated the rules of binary algebra, the basis for modern computers.

His proposed coin design:

1500 AD

The tarot originated in Italy and was used for telling fortunes.

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1951

Composer John Cage made use of the I Ching in his piece Music of Changes

1965

Yoko Ono stimulated our Dadaist streak with simple and surprising instructions, formulated in her book Grapefruit (and click here for pdf).

1970-74

Peter Schmidt and Brian Eno produced a set of cards called Oblique Strategies. These were used by Eno as well as David Bowie and others in composition.

2000-2003

Henri Lipmanowicz, founder of the Plexus institute, and Keith McCandless developed liberating structures to stimulate creative group dynamics in complex environments:

2018

Dov Tsal introduces the meeting spicer:

2020

Bernhardt Sterchi, founder of Palladio, introduces an Eno-inspired oblique strategies for leaders deck.

In summary

Randomness, fate, chance, divination and variety are all important tools in the problem solving process. Even Mother Nature uses this trick with the genome errors introduced in sexual reproduction. Great tools but over-use not recommended.