It might surprise some people to learn that the Jedi Sextant predates the document called “The Jedi Compass” by about a year. Back then I called them “Jedi Cards” though. The name for the deck came after the book “The Jedi Compass” was published, and given to me by a friend.
The idea for this deck surfaced when I started delving deeper into Force Academy’s Dark Aspect’s library. There I discovered “The Glass Bead Game”. Based on the book, Dark Lord Irvine had come up with a way to bring this fictional game into the Sith world, where it is now played by Sith at Order of the Sith. The idea of a meditation game appealed to me, and I thought it would be nice to develop something for the Light Aspect. So I took on the task of looking for ideas. I found my inspiration in Wookiepedia with the “Jedi Behaviors”.
The Jedi Behaviors has a total of 21 guidances. As I looked over these, I considered the different tenets and saw an opportunity to include their opposites for a card deck. Originally I got rid of “Honor Your Order” making the deck consistent of 40 cards. I worked with these cards and even shared some of my meditations on Force Academy to try and help our students better understand how the deck was meant to be used, for 5 years before doing an overhaul on the system. Today, the deck has been completely settled and is consistent of 34 cards.
Here’s how you play:
1) You’ll need to get some note cards so you can write down a concept on individual cards. Although the deck photoed is what I use, the reality is I cannot sell those cards due to copyright laws. I am still hopeful that I will be able to find a talented artist willing to craft an original deck so we can sell them, but for now I can recommend the cheap option of note-cards and a pen. Here are the different concepts that you’ll need to write on each card:
The idea of “Positive” and “Negative” are subjective really. They are not perfect analogies, as it is entirely possible for a card generally considered “Positive” to become a “Negative” and vice-versa. But we will get into that towards the end of this entry.
2) Shuffle your deck and draw 2-5 cards. There is not layout, and it does not matter whether or not they are right-side-up or upside down. The cards you draw are exactly what they say they are.
3) Now that you have the cards, you will need to link them together in some way that they all fit into a story or real life example. Either a true story, or one that is creatively crafted by yourself. I’ve used these cards to draw up a basic concept of a story I want to find a real-life example, myth or legend to demonstrate the idea is not just something I’ve come up with.
On the surface, this might seem fairly simple to accomplish. But I have found that a lot of people like to take the cards individually on their own. For example, if I drew “Keep Your Promises”, “Embrace Defeat”, and “Assault” students have formed ideas around each card individually and forget to put them into a story. They might say "Keeping your promises is good because it means you are trustworthy. If you embrace defeat, you never know if you could have overcome the problem. And assaulting people will get you sent to jail." These musings do not break the surface of what the cards can teach you, when strung together. Here’s a simple example of what these three cards might form if you looked at them from the angle of a story:
“A man with a strong moral code to not hit a woman is assaulted by his wife over a number of years. Wanting to keep his personal promise to never hit a woman (as well as his vows), and embracing his fate (defeat) that he will never be able to overcome her, he continues to let his wife abuse him without consequence, until one day she kills him.”
In the story, it takes a “Positive” (Keep Your Promises) attribute and turns it into a “Negative”. From this story, you can begin to think of the ways that this man could have gotten out of the situation. The student should be led to consider what might happen if the man decided to break his moral promise and strike the wife back. If it would have been beneficial to the wife if he broke his vows and divorced her. How things would have been different if the police had gotten involved. If they had attended counseling or entered a period of separation. If the student really thought about the whole situation, they might include what might happen to children if any are involved.
Hopefully, you have a better idea of how to use this deck. Of course, you may also be wondering why the Jedi Sextant puts a huge emphasis on following the cards in moral thought-experiments that you may never end up dealing with. To understand that, you need only look to the name of the deck. It is named after a device used by navigators to determine their location using the stars, from there they could adjust their course with a compass. Following this analogy, the deck is meant to help you explore who you are morally and in terms of your values when you engage in the meditation. From there, the Jedi Compass is meant to help give you directions on how to align yourself to the Jedi Path, using where you are now.