The cubes roll like dice.  Their ivory proficiency in predicting the outcome of gambling endeavors and financial strategies make them the most sought after.

The shell heishi are favored for their likeness to original wampum, shell beads of the ancients.  The shell heishi forecast signs of sincerity, and spell out messages to be memorized in the pieces of the dark beige and natural color shell-beads.

The nuggets are the wild bead mascots of the Southwest, their suit I most admire for the spiritual turquoise potency they give to tokens when added to a charm bracelet.

There is no tiger tail wire needed for the melters.  Their stringing holes melt when these wild metallic drippers are intentionally heated in a melting spoon held above a tealight candle.  This gilded suit is interpreted by the melted shapes they assume.

I am a serious bead player.  I have many wild bead marathons.  I play the beads in a test of endurance, sometimes not stopping for days until I get from the beads what I want.

My favorite bit of bead wisdom is that the wild beads are a condition of the mind and the heart, and have some permanent influence on ways of thinking.

I load the beads into a Morton Salt cylinder, the one with the girl holding the umbrella.  I shake it, then open the silver spout and deal a hand of beads out on blue cornmeal.

For the melters, I have a spoon laid out in front of me and a tealight candle.

I made this bead game up.  I have incorporated the wild beads into my novel BLUE CORN WOMAN. You can purchase all of these beads, so why not play them. There are endless ways to deal the wild beads, but whatever method is used, the real art of wild beads is having a spiritual advisor who uses her intuition to read what the beads forecast.

Sacajawea coins spilling from a canoe, stranded cats, jeweled ladies, no one will admit it, but gay infidelity, very old toothless woman dressed in rags, a web of triangles, a rambling game of sexual tag, strong scents of incense, pillows on a cot, oranges falling from a ceiling sack, kissing a tight-lipped lover, a wind-up bear, a kite losing its wind, a mailbox with its flag up, bronze knockers on double door, ceramic and metal turtles in a bathtub, southpaw tendencies, a purple thumbprint, sun-bleached bones, eggshells in the sand, and pumpkin lids. The wild beads reveal these things.

Just a few days after a game of the wild bead foretellings, it was sadly announced about the stranded cats.  After 7,485 performances that spanned nearly two decades, "Cats," the longest-running show on Broadway closed.  The woman who drew this wild bead at one of my games had a blood sister who starred in the musical.  The wild beads are magical!

 

Copyright 2005 Sage Sweetwater,firebrand lesbian novelist