The cube test: what the cube, ladder, horse, flowers and storm mean

The cube test is an imagination game. You picture a desert, then a cube in it, then a ladder, a horse, some flowers and a storm, describing each one as you go. In the usual reading, the cube is how you see yourself, the ladder is your friends, the horse is your idea of a partner, the flowers are what you are nurturing, and the storm is your troubles.

That is the whole key. The interest is in the details you add without thinking: how big the cube is, whether the ladder leans on it, whether the horse is tied. If you have not played yet, do that first, because knowing the meanings changes the picture. The interactive cube test walks you through it one symbol at a time.

How to play the cube test

Close your eyes if it helps. Take each step in order and do not read ahead. Give yourself a few seconds per symbol and say or write down the first thing you see, not the most interesting thing you could invent.

1. You are standing in a desert. Somewhere in it there is a cube. Describe it: how large it is, what it is made of, and where exactly it is.
2. There is a ladder too. Where is it in relation to the cube, and what is it like?
3. Now there is a horse. What colour is it, what is it doing, and where is it?
4. You notice flowers. How many are there, where are they growing, and what state are they in?
5. Finally, a storm. Where is it, which way is it moving, and how strong is it?

If you are playing with other people, ask the questions aloud and let each person answer before anyone explains anything. Half the pleasure is hearing how differently five people furnish the same empty desert.

What the cube means

The cube is how you see yourself. It is the first thing you place and the thing everything else is arranged around, which is part of why it carries that meaning.

• Size is read as how much room you take up, and how much regard you hold yourself in. A cube the size of a building and a cube you could pick up are two quite different self-portraits.
• Material and transparency are read as how open or guarded you are. Glass lets people see in. Stone, metal or something heavy and opaque keeps them out. Wood tends to be read as somewhere in between: solid, but warm.
• Where it sits is read as how grounded you feel. Resting squarely on the sand suggests steadiness. Half-buried can suggest feeling weighed down or settled in too deep. Floating can mean light and free, or not quite touching the ground.

None of these is a better answer. A guarded cube is not a worse person; it may simply be someone who has learned where to put walls.

What the ladder means

The ladder is your friends and the support around you.

• Distance to the cube is read as how close you keep people. A ladder right beside the cube suggests friends near at hand. One far off across the sand suggests a wider gap, chosen or not.
• Whether it leans on the cube is read as how much you lean on them, or let them lean on you. A ladder propped against the cube is a picture of reliance in at least one direction.
• Sturdy or rickety is read as how dependable that support feels to you at the moment. Notice that it says feels: the ladder describes your sense of your friends, not a verdict on them.

What the horse means

The horse is your idea of a partner, or what you want in love. It need not be a person you know; more often it is the shape of what you look for.

• Colour is read as the quality you are drawn to. People tend to explain their own colour choices quite fluently once asked, and that explanation is usually more revealing than any fixed table.
• Calm or restless is read as the temperament you want, or expect, in someone close.
• Tied or free is read as how much freedom you give a partner, or need from one. A tethered horse and a horse wandering loose describe different arrangements.
• Near the cube or far from it is read as how close you want that person, and how close they currently are.

What the flowers mean

The flowers are the people and projects you are nurturing, or, in many versions, children. Both readings work; choose the one that fits your life.

How many there are is read as how much you are tending at once. Where they grow matters: flowers clustered against the cube are close to you, flowers scattered far away are things you are tending from a distance. Wilting or thriving is read as how those people or projects seem to be doing, or how well you feel you are looking after them. A single flower in perfect health and a whole field half dried out are both honest pictures of a particular season.

What the storm means

The storm is your troubles, or more exactly how you are currently experiencing pressure.

• Near or far is read as how close the difficulty feels.
• Heading toward the cube or passing by is read as whether you expect it to reach you or to move on.
• How violent it is is read as how heavy that pressure feels right now.

A distant storm drifting sideways is a pleasant thing to see in your own picture. A close one bearing down is worth noticing, but gently: it describes a mood on the day you played, not a forecast.

Is the cube test accurate? What it cannot tell you

It is worth saying plainly once: the cube test is a folk game, passed around at parties and online. It is not a validated psychometric instrument, it has no published scoring standard, and the meanings above are convention rather than measurement. Different versions assign slightly different symbols and nobody can say which is the correct one.

That does not make it worthless. What it does well is give you a picture you made yourself and a vocabulary to talk about it. When someone says their ladder was leaning on the cube and then explains why, the explanation is the real content. The symbol only opened the door.

It cannot tell you who you are in any stable sense. Play it next month in a different mood and the storm may have moved. It cannot diagnose anything, it cannot predict anything, and it has nothing to say about compatibility with a specific person, whatever your horse looked like.

It also rests on very little evidence. Five images, one answer each. A reading from five answers is mostly the reading you bring to it, which is why it is fun and why it should be held loosely. This is not astrology either; there is no date, card or chance involved, only what you imagined. If that distinction interests you, Is kokology astrology? sets out how to tell the two apart.

Where the cube test comes from, and where to go next

The cube test belongs to the same family as kokology: games that ask what you would do or see in an imagined situation, rather than what you believe about yourself. What is kokology? explains that method, and the forest test is the cube test's longer cousin, with seven stops instead of five. If you want more short scenes to try, there is a collection in kokology questions with answers.

Single games like this one hit their limit quickly, because five answers cannot carry much weight. Our own reading takes the same idea further: twenty-one scenes, each answer leaning on several axes at once, so that no single image tips the result. If the cube test left you curious about what a fuller picture looks like, you can try the longer reading. You see the result before you are asked to pay.