While at work today during a slow period, I was thinking about random things to pass the time and started thinking about the Rosary (I am Protestant, so I’ve never actually used it, but I’m familiar with the general idea), and it occurred to me that it might be able to serve as a memory palace. Does anyone know if it ever was (or still is) used in such a way?
I would imagine that reciting the prayers while meditating on a different Mystery for each decade would differentiate the decades enough that one could use each bead as a locus. The part with the cross would also give a clearly defined start/end point to the circle, which would aid in keeping the palace concrete.
All in all, though I have not tried it, it seems like the Rosary may be able to function as a memory palace, so does anyone know if it was originally used that way? Or has anyone tried anything similar? Any success?
If it proves robust enough, this could be a relatively easy way to create artificial palaces out of beads and rope which have the exact number of loci needed for the task. For example, here is an idea of one for storing the COLL (Corners of Last Layer) algs I thought of on the way home:
EDIT: the pendant part at the bottom would be better suited for PLL, but I just noticed it and I’m not going to bother changing it in Krita and reuploading.
Have you read The Memory Code? It contains information about interesting mnemonic systems from various cultures. I bought some props after reading that, including a pack of colored string.
Thanks for the links. I have not read that book, but it looks like it might be interesting.
EDIT: Quipu appears to be a different thing as it encodes information directly. Now, if one used a Quipu as a memory palace, then that would be exactly what I’m talking about, just approached from a different angle.
I didn’t realize it was that recently that I’d read “The Memory Code”. I’m pretty sure either it or “Memory Craft” explicitly address this, so yeah, there would appear to be a lot of parallel between rosary-like objects used as small palaces and Quipu
Have you ever heard of an ititamat? It’s also known as a counting the days ball. For each day and any events in a woman’s life in the culture this is from, she will tie knots and beads and shells on a length of twine which is stored wound up into a ball, so she may unwind it when she wants to go back through her memories. I use this technique too
I have never heard of that. The first thing it reminds me of is the Winter Count (I think that was the name?) mentioned in Lynne Kelly’s books (I can never remember which piece of information was in The Memory Code and which piece of information was in Memory Craft)
I did a quick Google search, and now I definitely see the similarity to rosary-like devices
