Ars Memoria

So last night an anonymouse (who I suspect of being an anonykitten, actually) asked me "Hmmm maybe a beginner's guide to Ars Memoria?

I understand the principle well enough - constructing the memory palace and populating it with symbolic objects, but never quite figured out how to conduct the journey itself..."

A lot of people talk about visualising yourself walking around your 'memory palace' (incidentally, I prefer to just call them 'journeys', and also tend to shun unnecessary Latin like 'ars memoria'), but that's not really how it works for me. It's another one of those things that differ from person to person, I think, but for me it's more like watching a cartoon. Sort of visualise your point of view gradually moving from place to place, with your objects all interacting with each other.

I don't tend to put as much focus on the journeys themselves as some people do - as I always say, they're more like backdrops to the main action, as conveyed by the objects and people. Sort of a backup thing so if I get lost somewhere in the recall, I can pick a place to start and try to picture it more clearly in my head.

I'm very bad at explaining these things...