(Sort of in shock, but that's just me.)
SO, let's talk about CUBING.
Cubing is derived from an ancient Suffi mind-game, and it relies of Jungian archetypes to describe or predict things about your character and Weltanschauung. We'll play the game. Don't be worried if the whole picture changes as you add images.
- Imagine a desert.
- In the desert, there's a cube.
- In the desert, there's also a ladder.
- In the desert, there's also a horse.
- In the desert, there is a storm.
- Finally, in the desert, there are some flowers.
Got the picture?
I'll tell you what mine looks like today, which is incidentally what it usually looks like, and how it's looked since I first started cubing, right after highschool. Then I'll explain what it means.
- My desert was cartoony, always reminding me of the desert in "Le Petit Prince" (as most deserts do), flat in the foreground but with hills or dunes in the distance. All with a very drawn, 2-d, cartoony look. Yellowy sand with black outlines.
- My cube sits in the middle of my picture. It's big, light-blue-transparent, like when they draw cartoons of glass or ice. It's as big as a house. It might be cold, but I'm not sure. I'm sure that the edges are very sharp, though. It's sitting on the sand, and gives the impression both of being very heavy, and not hollow. You can't actually see through it, because like I said, it's sort of cartoon-glass/ice. But I get the feeling that it's glass, not ice, although it could be either.
- The ladder is dark brown wood, not a very good or expensive ladder, the kind you prop up against something to climb. It's leaning against the cube at a steep angle, and it's very tall. It reaches from the ground, up to a foot or two above the cube. It doesn't look very heavy, like it might rock if you climbed it, but it wouldn't fall apart.
- My horse is dark brown, and also cartoony. (I'm not good at imagining REAL things.) His front two legs are hooked onto the ladder, about 5 rungs up, like he'd like to climb it. He's quite a friendly-looking horse, with a bridle on, but no saddle.
- My cloud is big, and advancing really really fast. Much faster than a real storm could. It's a cartoon thunder-cloud, solid grey inside, white outline. Very threatening, not just of rain, but of doom. No wind, it's like it's moving by its own willpower. It's homing in on my cube, moving very purposefully, and it's very close to the top of it; like, there isn't much space between the top of the cube and the solid-looking cloud, vertically. As if the cloud would bop you in the head if you were standing on the cube.
- My flowers are scattered around the base of the cube, cartoony white and pink flowers. A few grow out of the top of the cube, sitting on the glass top. They look like the kind of flowers kids draw, 5 or 6 round petals around a circle, with a stalk and leaves ("tige" sounds so much better.) They're sort of silly flowers, decoration flowers, the things kids use to fill up blank spaces in pictures. The storm doesn't bother them, the horse doesn't eat them.
Ok, got all that?
What it means (deep breath - have your own stuff prepared at this point.) Don't forget, what you see is going to be tempered by your own private associations, so no one can read you 100%:
- The Cubing book (written by Annie Gotlieb) says that the desert represents yourself, but I see it more as your worldview, how you look at your life, how you perceive your path. Mine is flat, suggesting that I don't see many immediate obstacles, and the hills are at the far back, suggesting that there may be obstacles in the far future, that I'm not discounting the possibility. Yellow desert, to me, would be fairly normal, and it's sand, not rocks - to me, that means that I see my life as fairly normal, ordinary, following usual patterns. The "Petit Prince" tint to it implies to me that a lot of my world-view has been coloured or highly influenced by the boyfriend who first introduced me to the book, and with whom it's inextricably linked- Laurent, my first REAL boyfriend.
- The cube is big, heavy, resting on the sand. Touching the sand means that you're a Rationalist, that you're practical, down-to-earth (apparently the mind uses puns a lot), you have a realistic view of sex (although not at the moment, obviously...). Only 10% of the population are Dreamers, whose cubes float in the air. If it's buried in the sand, that's a fair indication you have a secret, or you see yourself as different from what you broadcast to others, or you have "hidden depths."
The material of the cube is one of the most important things. Mine was glass, indicating a transparent, "what-you-see-is-what-you-get" personality. The catch here is that you COULDN'T see through mine, so I may be open-book, but that doesn't mean I'm not complex or I don't have secrets. Just that what you CAN see is what you get. The sharp edges is very much part of my character, because they look so sharp you'd cut yourself if you tried to touch them, much like me. I can be damaging if you rub me the wrong way, very prickly, but that's not hidden about me, as it is in, say, Michelle. The cube is heavy, indicating I'm, basically, not an airhead, that my personality is formed and set, that I have substance. It's also full, not hollow, indicating I'm not waiting to be filled up, I've already found my pattern, my personality. The size of the cube usually relates, not to ego exactly, more to your own perception of your ego, and the borders are a)smaller than a breadbox (about 2'cu. or less), breadbox sized to about 1-2m cu., and bigger than 2m cube. Mine was the size of a house, so you can guess my confidence/ego is pretty big, but I'd like to think I keep it under wraps.
A black cube means you see yourself as mysterious, impenetrable. A chrome cube means you reflect your environment. An oak one means your strong, solid, dependable. There are to many materials and colours to list, but usually you can figure your own out- after all, it's a Jungian representation of yourself. - The ladder represents your friends. The most important thing about the ladder is its material composition: a wooden ladder means you choose friends for who they are, how you like them, how warm they are, flaws and all. A metallic ladder means you choose friends for how they can support you, what they can do for you, where they can get you- you're more practical about your associations, but at the expense of personal contacts. So an aspiring businessman might have a metal ladder at one point in his life, when he's trying to make a name for himself, and a wooden ladder later on, when he's established and more able to choose his own connections and discard unsavoury ones. It's position with respect to your cube indicates how far you like to keep your friends- leaning up against the cube, you like your friends to be able to depend on you, call you at 3am, be really close to you. If the ladder's self-supporting, or standing up i mid-air, you like your friends more independent, not draining you. If the ladder's on the ground or missing rungs, you're obviously not happy with the state of your friendships. The numbers of rungs tends to indicate the number of your friendships- when I cubed myself last year (a sort of inventory, really), I only had about 5 rungs in a tall ladder. Today I have a LOT (probably people from work.)
- The horse is the type of lover you prefer. I've found that, if you're dating someone, it's invariably the person you're dating, not your ideal. But if you're single, then it's usually your ideal. One guy I cubed told me his horse was being ridden away from his cube by someone else. I asked if his gf was cheating on him, and he was shocked that I could know that. A brown horse is the usual, an ordinary person, although it can represent a brunette. A black horse is someone mysterious, deep, secretive or thrilling, a tall dark stranger. A white horse can either be someone innocent and pure, or sort of Lady-Godiva-ish. Which way is the horse facing? Towards the cube, and you want your lover to be close to you, to notice you, pay attention to you. Far away, and you prefer your emotional independence. On the opposite side of your ladder, and you prefer to keep friends and lovers separate; on or near your ladder (like mine), and you prefer your lover to be a close friend. If the horse is ON your cube, then usually you prefer a dominant partner, someone who takes up your life, who's always on your mind. Skinny, sick or emaciated, and you're starving your lover. If the horse is wearing a saddle or bridle, it shows a strong ownership on your part (Gotlieb suggests the pun on "Bridle" and "Bridal".)
- The storm is, naturally, your troubles. Things that will or are bothering you. A sand-storm is something painful, that evokes tears; a thundercloud is something brooding, while rain and lightning suggest pain and anger. The first time I cubed myself, right after highschool, I had a small, cartoon cloud, way off in the distance, and I immediately knew it was Laurent: the small thought, in the back of my mind, that wasn't resolved, but not invading my life. Today, my cloud is bearing down on me with a vengence. Cartoony, not a real threat, but certainly indicative of trouble, and with a definite element of consciousness. Of course I know exactly what it is, and probably would not have had the same cloud this morning, but as I said, the cloud is more of a threat than a fear. There's evena slight "silly" element about it, as if no one could take such an obviously cartoony, sulky, sullen, punitive cloud seriously.
- Finally, flowers represent your hobbies, your kids, things that grow from you, derive their shape from you. No flowers indicates you think your life is pretty barren, meaningless, or you're at a low-spot, in a slump, lost a child or in between projects. Red roses means your passionate about your hobbies or kids. (Mothers INVARIABLY have flowers, and they apparently ALWAYS mean kids.) Different colours means a number of different things to occupy you, while one specific colour means you specialize in something. Cartoon flowers like mine indicate a couple of hobbies (since there were pink and white petals), none taken too seriously, some just surrounding me to occupy my time (the flowers around the cube), and some that come specifically from me and are connected to my personality (growing from the top of the cube.) The fact that they aren't disturbed by the horse or the storm mean my bf doesn't interfere or object to my pasttimes, or try to steal me away from them, and whatever problems are on my mind don't interfere with them either; they're independent and frankly, not terribly important to me.
Hope that helps. Frankly, I'm tired of typing. I haven't read the book in years, so I don't remember all the possible combinations, but if anyone has questions, ask away. I think I should buy it again, anyway.
(Calmer.)
(Baby, baby, baby, when all your love is gone, who will save me from all I'm up against out in this world?)
Readin' nothing really
Listenin' to "Don't Let Me Get Me", Pink. I'm feeling it, esp. "I'm my own worst enemy"...
Thinkin' about being confused. and Ryvita
Most recently I was 
