Boating In The

Territory

  by Bonzai Yak

  112 pages

Chapter 6: Territory Stories (part d)

 

Territory maps can be useful to you for getting around to places that people have already been before. But when you explore there is no map, you need a story to help find a path that will take you to where you go. One good story I like myself can be told with a dowsing pendulum. They're easy to make and quite pleasing to use. Just tie something onto the end of a string, hold the other end in your hand and just let it swing. The way it works it goes one way for yes and another for no, back and forth yesways and side to side noways; for some guys it swings in a circular way going clockwise for yes, anti-clockwise for no, or vice-versa wise if you're one of those guys that does things that way instead of the other. So if you want to know which way to go just point with one hand while you dowse with the other. And if you want a particular path, hold up some thing that you think is a clue and dowse over top of it. If you're trying to find a Pirate for instance, use some rum or a black eye patch underneath the dowser you swing.

Dowsing is good for other things too. One time I was in the Hungry Ghost Gallery, helping them tangle up string. We were making some art or at least so they said, but me, I was bored right out of my head so I finally decided to leave. That's when I noticed I'd lost my ring, it had slipped off my finger while I was working and I had no idea where it was. Well it didn't look good I can tell you that, when you're hanging out with the Hungry Ghosts, whatever you lose you might as well forget, once out of sight it's gone. And the ring was a very particular one that I got from The Great Pirate Chief. I scoured the place for an hour at least, but the floor was mostly wooden skids, the kind that are used to move barrels and boxes. The ring must've fallen between the cracks and it looked like I never would get it back.

I got so desperate I took out my dowser. I knew it was only a story of course but I used it all the same. I sectioned the space till I had just a slice, then I wandered around in an aimless way, aiming my finger and dowsing like crazy until all at once my dowser stopped dead. So I stopped too and just stood there a bit, staring off without a thought, there was nothing there to think about. But as it turned out there was something there, just a few feet away right in front of my nose. My ring was sparkling in the meagre light that shone from the single naked lightbulb the Hungry Ghosts turned on from time to time to help me in my search. And the strangest thing was, the ring was under the front of a skid, hidden from view for the whole gallery space except for the place where I stood with my dowser. Gave me a laugh cause I suddenly knew that we'd never been separate at all the whole time.

So that's how it goes when you have a story and act as if you believe that it's true. If I'd looked for my ring in an everyday way I'd have never found it in a hundred days or even a hundred years. But the Territory is all one thing, I am too and so is my ring. I used the dowser to slip through a hole, and as soon as I fully realized I was there in the Territory my ring was there too and we saw each other. It probably wanted to get back to me just as much as I wanted to re-be with it, I mean I had some help, right? But still even so it was quite a feat, I don't think I could ever repeat it unless I had to. So if you don't have a clue where you're going to or you need a sign to help find your way, just empty your mind and try using a dowser. This might be a very good story for you if you think you need to have a plan when you try to do something entirely new or return to a thing that is tiresomely old. A dowser helps you forgo the plan you think you need, you just float free with the Territory and go wherever your path will lead.

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