The Tao Of Morton

Morton's List is ostensibly a simple game. Underneath the surface, however, lies a complex system of Eastern philosophy mixed with Kabbalah and numerology, featuring its own mythological symbols, sometimes referred to as Mortonology. The numerological basis for Morton's List revolves around the power numbers of 1, 3, 6, 9, 13, 30 and 360:

1 = The Singularity Table
3 = The Triumvirate Tables
6 = The six six-sided dice
9 = The Nine Prime Tables
13 = Crow, bad omen/luck, the 13 annual cycles of the moon; when rolled it moves the Inner Circle away from Morton and closer to the mundane world
30 = Morton, good omen/luck, the transcendent; when rolled it moves the Inner Circle closer to Morton and away from the mundane world
360 = The 360 Quests, the 360 degrees of a circle

The philosophy behind Morton's List revolves around understanding and transcending the ego/self through letting go of the illusion of control. By allowing chance/fate to determine your actions you experience freedom from the control of the ego and personality. We discover that our true "is-ness" is much more expansive than previously experienced. By doing something that we would not normally consider doing, but which would be a normal, fun activity for somebody else, we take a step closer to understanding, becoming, and expanding into that someone else. That someone, that other who is and always has been apart of us all along. Not apart of the limited ego, but part of the limitless, transcendent, all encompassing self beyond all self. This accounts for the spontaneous, explosive, positive energy oftentimes released through playing Morton's List.

The Mystery Of Morton

One of the most commonly asked questions about Morton's List is "Who or what is Morton?" This mystery may never be addressed. If the authors know, they have remained totally tight lipped, revealing no clues. All that is known is that the 360th Quest of Morton's List is "Find MORTON." This following the penultimate Quest, "Enlightenment," where Inner Circle members are tasked to become enlightened. Many ideas and much speculation surrounds the mystery of Morton. Some theories are:

• Something to do with the Morton Salt company.
• A tribute to a dead homie of one or more authors.
• Entirely made up and meaningless.
• A code or cipher having to do with the original Chinese manuscript.
• A purely symbolic meaning where Morton stands for "true self" or "being here now."
• The name of a/the (Chinese?) Twilight Lord consulted before/during/after the discovery of the manuscript.
• The name of the Twilight Lord who wrote the manuscript centuries/millennia ago.
• The name of an ancient (Middle Eastern?/Chinese?) god(dess).