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Underground > Temple >

So, how does one interpret messages from the City?

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17:19 / 26.08.03

I always find interesting words and graffitti but I can never figure out why I think they're special. "Tonel" is one of my favorites, and there's a great one I saw once in a restroom, "Downorad" (the second "o" in the word looked like the Mercury symbol and the "a" was the anarchy logo). I think words like these are cool but I'm not sure what the city is saying or if they're magic words or the names of totem spirits or what....

06:23 / 27.08.03

Er...I'd say just advertising. A cheap way of getting something into the collective unconscious. What, exactly, is being injected depends on the situation. In order to figure it out, you'd probably need to combine sigil analysis with some kind of hip-hop gematria. I leave that part to you.

Hip-hop gematria is going into a story. That's awesome.

07:57 / 27.08.03

Have you tried just asking? Go on a drift through the City with the intention of discovering what these words mean. Walk the streets till you know the answer.

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17:57 / 27.08.03

The streets never really say anything to me.

We're The Great Old Ones Now

18:14 / 27.08.03

Then why did you ask the damn question?

19:32 / 27.08.03

I've seen DOG TOWN in 3 places round southampton. in the shape of calvery cross with DOG on the bar and TOWN on the column, with the O used in both.

Any thoughts?

08:42 / 28.08.03

The streets never really say anything to me.

At the risk of echoing Sam Vega in Person's comments - why exactly did you start a thread about communicating with City entities if you have already decided that they won't talk to you? I'm assuming from your comments that you've spent at least a year doing regular psychogeographical drifts, have learned the history of all the major power spots in your town, clocked up countless hours walking the streets looking for signs, etc... and have still got nothing. If this is the case, then I'd suggest you move onto something else more constructive.

There have been quite a few threads over the last year or so asking for information on city magic / urban magic, etc.. but really, everything you need on the subject can be put over in 4 words - walk the fucking streets. If you're not prepared to make the investment of getting to know the City at a magical level, why should it be interested in you. As with anything, you have to meet the City halfway.

I dunno, do you expect someone on here to have some deep metaphysical insight into the hidden occult meaning of the grafitti tags in your local area? Learning how to instinctively understand the sometimes cryptic language of the City and developing an effective method of communication with that entity and its various totem spirits is the key to City magic. Nobody can do this for you, as to a large degree, engaging with this process is City magic. There's no short cuts. Think of these mysterious recurring graf tags as a thread through the labyrinth of the City - you can either follow it and see where it leads or stay at home with the central heating on and a cup of tea.

18:37 / 28.08.03

Pay attention to whatever is subjected to seeming randomness.

That is, if you always see the same damn picture/advertisement placed in the spot chosen by the publicity company of the day, forget it. If a flyer pulled by the wind falls gently on your lap, or if someone passing by mutters a clicking word for you, thats it.

19:56 / 02.09.03

a good way of 'listening to the city' is to get smashed on absynthe and chinese tea (that realy strong stuff yer only supposed to drink in small cups). When mixing the two together not only do you get 'absynthe drunk' (which i always hold to be different to any other drunk), and you have this huge caffine high.

it just turnes everything different, and cities (or towns, or walls/ carpets, mirrors...) just look hugely more real, in a way.

but then i could just be completely smashed out of my head and talking bollox.

08:52 / 03.09.03

KnofC- that's a bad green cocktail of doom, green tea and absinthe

Elseware- Dogtown was one of the original skating groups in '60s California I think (the film/documentary Dogtown & Z-Boys will be in your local blockbuster) so it's probably a skater tag.

09:27 / 03.09.03

Wondering the streets with absinth. Yeah, it sets a different vibe to nice comfy familier beer.

gypsy lantern: I know what the graffitti meant to me, but I wanted other peoples perspectives too. I agree that the key to the exercise is getting out and doing it. When I visit a new city I always try and find time to walk it for a few hours to get a feel for the place.

A good tip actually... If you want to stand and just watch a city then a pack of cigarettes makes a practically invisible. It relaxes you and gives people a reason for you standing there, so you fit right into the background.

power spots; It never occured to me to look into the history. So there are useful things to be learned about city magick from other people.

12:00 / 03.09.03

Quantum: heh, yer damn straight there! Seriously though, you should try it, it gets even better if you can convinse a mate to try it, then the both of you (or group or whatever) go awalkin through the city, let the great magnet guid your path, and just see what conversations occure and where you end up.

all good, clean fun!!!

personaly i take a dictaphone with me, so i can put spurious comments on before i forget them (sometimes your mind runs so fast you can't remember what you were saying brief moments ago). I tell ye, some of the stuff we've come out with is pretty insightful.

12:39 / 03.09.03

Oh, and i don't mean that geen tea you get in super markets, i mean the stuff you buy in chinese supermarkets that come in boxes of loose leaves. This stuff is far more deadly! i fing the green tea to be rather soothing, myself. but then i find most things that are green to be good..

16:01 / 09.09.03

Dammit. Somebody publish this book so I can read it...

http://www.jameslgrant.com/about.html

It sounds very close to some of the stuff discussed on this thread.

07:18 / 10.09.03

Dunno if anybody here has heard the song "Respiration" by Mos Def - I've only heard the album cut, I think the single cut is quite different but it's an amazing evocation of late night sitting, smoking, listening to the city.

09:36 / 10.09.03

Don't forget that the majority of graphitti is just a name someone chose for "writing", and means nothing more than "_name_ was here". I live with a bunch of writers, and it's a true subculture. So you probably won't get the whole meaning of the graphitti like, say, DOSE OSM. But that's irrelevant.

If a certain tag you see gives you an idea, or makes you think of something, or seems to take on some meaning, or any number of things, then the city just spoke to you. Same with advertising, numbers on buses, street names, overheard conversations, traffic noise, vegetation, etc. Just keep your mind open, and you'll find the city overflowing with meaning.

BTW, my favorite tag locally is definitely "1+1=3". I see that everywhere, and it puts a smile on my face.