Course Three: Practice 127
Lesson 5: Wizard Games
These magickal games are designed to develop and
hone your magickal skills and powers. They will chal-
lenge and stimulate your imagination, your quick
thinking, your vocabulary, and your powers of obser-
vation. They’re also fun and can be played anywhere.
And the best thing is, you don’t need to buy any spe-
cial equipment, shoes, uniforms, books, playing
pieces, trading cards, or CDs!Elven Chess: A Game for All Seasons
(by Diane Darling [as taught by Eldri Littlewolf])
Elven Chess is a game of cooperative pattern-
making, and a favorite in our community. Like many
wonderful things, it has its roots in the beginningless
past. I was taught it by my friend Eldri Littlewolf, but
this game is not only for were-coyotes and naked apes.
It is played by several kinds of birds as well as octo-
puses, at least one cat, sea worms, some kinds of crabs,
and, of course, Elves. Elven Chess may even be the
game we can play with extraterrestrials!
Elven Chess can be played by any number of
people, but it becomes too slow with more than four
or five. Children and adults can play together. Elven
Chess answers the question, “What am I going to do
with all my neat little stuff?” Elven Chess can be
played anywhere, with or without special pieces. It
requires cooperation and sharing. Everyone wins. It
has only three rules, any of which may be broken if
everyone agrees:- In each turn you may move three pieces.
- Turns go clockwise.
- The game is over when everyone is done.
That’s all. Now let’s see how to get set up.
First, you and the other players will each want to
have your own Elven Chess sets. Take a basket around
your room (or your house) and fill it with small spe-
cial things—like shells, beach wrack, beads, buttons,
crystals, little animal bones, polished rocks, jewelry,
small odd-shaped pieces of driftwood or twigs, tiny
gaming figurines—even glow-in-the-dark rubber
cockroaches if you like! It is useful to have more than
one of some things—such as four arrowheads, nine
tiny shells, two chicken wishbones, a dozen small
polished stones—though most pieces will be one-of-a-kind. Any amount of stuff from a handful to a small
basketful will be enough, and your set will grow as
time goes by. Now find a beautiful scarf or other piece
of cloth. Round or square are best, and of a mostly
solid color (though tie-dies can be pretty cool!). This
is your Elven Chess board; keep it in the basket with
the other stuff.
Now to play. In an out-of-the-way place, sit in a
circle on the floor or around a table with the other
players. Spread the cloth out smoothly in the center.
Everyone dumps their Elven Chess pieces at the edge
of the board in front of them. Arrange your set for
easy sharing, and admire each other’s little treasures.
Decide in your own way who will move first. (Roll-
ing dice works well.) This person may now place three
pieces from his or anyone else’s set upon the board.
Then the next person may place three pieces. Moving
a piece already on the board counts as a move, but
wait one turn before changing someone else’s move,
or ask his permission.
There are no accidents in Elven Chess. A cater-
pillar crossing the board, a ferret stealing the rubber
cockroach, all count as moves. Very beautiful moves
may be appreciated softly (“Oooh...”). And so on,
until no one wants to make another move, and every-
one is satisfied with the design. Every game is differ-
ent, but patterns such as circles, spirals, linked chains,
snowflakes, and smiling faces will appear again and
again. This is wonderful. Certain pieces will also be
used for favorite moves in many games. After all play-
ers are finished, admire and talk about the pattern.
Elven Chess games look very different from each
player’s place, so go around and look to see what each
other player sees. At the end, take back your pieces.
You may want to gift or trade with others at this time.
Elven Chess may be played every day if we are
open to the idea of cooperative pattern-making. One
game was played using only M&Ms as pieces. Al-
tars, salads, shelves, your entire room, or your back
yard may be used to play this ancient game. It can
also be played at the beach with driftwood and sea
wrack. The great stone circles of our ancestors, Zen
gardens, your garden, Bowerbird nests, and octopuses’
gardens in the shade are all examples of Elven Chess.
The game can be as small as the reach of your hand,
or as large as your whole life.Observation
This can be played with 2–6 people. Each player
needs a sketch pad and a good pencil with an eraser.
Also needed are a bell, a watch or clock with a sec-
ond hand, a serving tray, and a large enough opaque
cloth to cover it. Each player takes a turn at being
“Setter,” until everyone has had the same number of
turns. Here’s how it’s played:
The Setter takes the tray and cloth into a differ-
ent room, away from the other players—preferably a- Practice.p65 127 1/14/2004, 4:21 PM