The Golden Compass

I’m always on the hunt for tools to help jolt the creative muscle.

I’ve been fascinated by Oblique Strategies for years, starting when I got into Eno in college (coincidentally when I became a VERY INTERESTING PERSON AT PARTIES). For my own uses, though, I’ve always felt like some of the cards are a little too, well, oblique. This means if I start using them for, say, fleshing out a room in a dungeon, I end up flipping past cards in what feels like cherry-picking¹. I tried putting my own list of strategies together, but it was a disjointed mess and way too long. I was trying for free association, and since I’m an amateur biology nerd, I used mostly animals, which led to a lot of “what does a lobster have to do with this situation?”. What I found myself wanting was prebuilt depth, and establishing that depth on my own felt too daunting. Sure a lobster is claws, and armor, and redness, and boiling/screaming, and butter, and not kosher, but all this waxing poetic isn’t going to get the dungeon made.

Then, I remembered Lyra and her Golden Compass!

I went snooping around the HDM wiki and found this image. The three meanings laid out here give you plenty of depth, and the sample deep dive on the Sun gives you a sense of what this could look like for other symbols. This was exactly what I was looking for – more explicit wiggle room lowering the temptation for simply re-rolling. I would rather be creative on the first order (actual writing) than creative on the second order (tinkering with my creativity tools²), even if I fully expect to get more comfortable and effective with it over time. I might reread the book to get more ideas about depth, but I’m fine working with it as-is.

Conveniently there are 36 symbols on the Alethiometer, so here is a d66 table of symbols with their primary, secondary, and tertiary meanings taken from the image linked above. (Or you can download a PDF version with a little more information added from the image). Please use it to your heart’s content.

d66	Symbol	Primary Meaning	Secondary and Tertiary Meanings
11	Hourglass	Time	Death, Change
12	Sun	Day	Authority, Truth
13	Alpha and Omega	Finality	Process, Inevitability
14	Marionette	Obedience	Submission, Grace
15	Serpent	Evil	Guile, Natural wisdom
16	Cauldron (Crucible)	Alchemy	Craft, Achieved wisdom
21	Anchor	Hope	Steadfastness, Prevention
22	Angel	Messenger	Hierarchy, Disobedience
23	Helmet	War	Protection, Narrow vision
24	Beehive	Productive work	Sweetness, Light
25	Moon	Chastity	Mystery, The uncanny
26	Madonna	Motherhood	The feminine, Worship
31	Apple	Sin	Knowledge, Vanity
32	Bird	The soul (dæmon)	Spring, Marriage
33	Bread	Nourishment	Christ, Sacrifice
34	Ant	Mechanical work	Diligence, Tedium
35	Bull	Earth	Power, Honesty
36	Candle	Fire	Faith, Learning
41	Cornucopia	Wealth	Autumn, Hospitality
42	Chameleon	Air	Greed, Patience
43	Thunderbolt	Inspiration	Fate, Chance
44	Dolphin	Water	Resurrection, Succour
45	Walled Garden	Nature	Innocence, Order
46	Globe	Politics	Sovereignty, Fame
51	Sword	Justice	Fortitude, The Church
52	Griffin	Treasure	Watchfulness, Courage
53	Horse	Europe	Journeys, Fidelity
54	Camel	Asia	Summer, Perseverance
55	Elephant	Africa	Charity, Continence
56	Crocodile (Caiman)	America	Rapacity, Enterprise
61	Baby	The future	Malleability, Helplessness
62	Compass	Measurement	Mathematics, Science
63	Lute	Poetry	Rhetoric, Philosophy
64	Tree	Firmness	Shelter, Fertility
65	Wild Man	Wild man	The masculine, Lust
66	Owl	Wisdom	Night, Death