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The Palindrome

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Interpretation & Meaning

the palindrome

You ask for directions and hear of marble corridors, beaten paths, beautiful front doors. They trace out the way like it’s the only feasible one. Like life is an orderly drive down the main road rather than a scrappy expedition through the jungle.

When this card shows up, it’s a reminder that you can get to your destination through the most impervious, unlikely path.

If the front door is locked you can and should rappel down the chimney, look for secret passages and even tear down walls in order to get where you want.

The conventional way may not be right for you. It’s time to think outside the box and adopt a creative, alternative approach to the problem you are facing. You need to find the way that works for you even if that means starting from scratch or completely rethinking your strategy.

This card ensures happiness can be reached, but you need to pave your own way to it. 

Keywords: lateral thinking • unconventional solution • paving your way • creative solution • flexibility • escaping tradition • innovation • originality • scrappy • unceremonious • adaptability • resourcefulness •ingenuity • compromise • reworking existing systems

Homework & Practice

Places Maze, Unbeaten Path, all places perceived as outlandish or alternative
Work Conlanger, Pet Agent, Pizza Consultant and all professions that sound out of the ordinary
Activities Riddles, Puzzles, Escape Rooms and all activities having to do with thinking outside the box
Archetypes The Inventor, The Lateral Thinker

Interpretation within the Game of Cracks

The Soil
In the Soil position, this card suggests a situation that may seem weird or unconventional to the average person. In a career reading, the consultant might have a peculiar job or a career path full of twists and turns. In a romantic context, it could stand for a relationship that took shape in mysterious ways or that is not considered canonical (polyamore, open relationship etc.)
The Knot
As the Knot, this card symbolizes the tension between having a clear goal and multiple, nebulous ways to achieve it. The consultant has to throw out of the window whatever instruction manual life gave them and learn to think outside the box
The Eye
When this card shows up as the Eye, it can represent a lateral thinker, someone who knows how to zig when everybody else is zagging
The Fall
As the Fall, this card warns you against trying to reinvent the wheel at all costs. There's no need to go against the grain right now, sometimes the flock knows exactly where it's going
The Hook
When this card appears as the Hook, it's an invitation to access your creative arsenal and invent your way out of the problem at hand in a non-canonical fashion
The Fruit
In the Fruit position, this card suggests an outcome that manifests itself through a predicament, role or result that may seem unorthodox but works extremely well for the consultant

Homework & Practice

In order to embody the teachings of this card, you can:

  • Play the “what if” game. How would your life be if you were born a different gender/race/sexual orientation etc?
  • Take a story you’re familiar with and try to shift it in genre. Could you make it into a comedy? A thriller? A documentary?
  • Pick a recipe and make it after changing some of the ingredients
  • Imagine an alternate ending to one of your favorite books
  • Take something from your daily routine and change it up: drive home through a different way, shop at a different supermarket, wear different clothes.

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