What Makes a Good Oracle Deck

[Joan Marie]

Our first brainstorming thread on the creation of a CoT group Oracle deck has revealed the need for us to take a step back and first get for ourselves a more solid foundation on what an Oracle Deck even is and what makes a good one (and a not not-so-good-one).

As was pointed out, it takes more than just a theme and a group of keywords. There has to be some finer direction.

I think there is a misunderstanding out there that oracle decks are kind of "cartomancy lite." I suspect in many cases they are. But that isn't what we are after here. I think we all would like to engage on a project together that in the end would produce something not only beautiful but meaningful for a long time.

Even aside from the purpose here of working out how to create one of our own, I think this would be a really interesting discussion and as stronglove pointed out, this is an area of the forum that is highly underused and under-represented.

So before we return to our discussion of themes etc, let's start a discussion of what makes a good oracle deck.

[Pen]

It's just struck me that all the oracles I own have sizable books as part of the set - no LWBs. I did go through a longish phase of using them individually for a few weeks or longer, and always read each relevant page as I studied the cards, in spite of the fact that the reason I bought each set was usually (except in the case of finding the artwork irresistible) because I had/have a lifelong interest in the theme/concept of the oracle. In that way the oracle reinforced existing knowledge and opened doors to more subtle communication.

And - of course they're all here on my profile - I'd forgotten... Fortune cards may not count as they tend to be based on Lenormands, but I must revisit...

Animal Spirits Knowledge Cards (Pomegranate)
Celtic Book of the Dead
Celtic Shamans Oracle
Celtic Shamans Pack
Celtic Tree Oracle
Druid Plant Oracle
Druid Animal Oracle (2)
English Fortune Cards (English edition of the French
ones below)
Enlightenment Cards (Chuck Spezzano)
French Fortune Telling Cards (Poster Prints 1971)
Gypsy Bijou Fortune Telling Cards (Foulsham c.1910)
Little Czech Oracle
Loving Gate Cards (Diana Garni
Moon Oracle
Oracle of the Radiant Sun
Plant Spirit Oracle


I Ching Holitzer Deck (AG Muller)
Rune Cards (Tony Linsell &Brian Partridge)

[Nemia]

Oh, this is really exciting, I have long wanted to dive into the world of oracle decks and didn't know how! I always bee-line back to tarot.

The oracle decks I own:

Sulamith Wülfing (bought it for the art which I loved as a girl and still cherish)

Art Oracle (which is totally new and looks a bit ironical)

Jane Austen "Tarot" (I came to the conclusion that it's not really a tarot and intend to try it out as oracle deck)

Cosmos Tarot and Oracle (this is the only oracle deck I have used - the oracle part is as wonderful as the tarot part and since it's based on the cosmos and the art is fantastic, this is easily my favorite oracle deck)

Mystical Shaman Oracle (newish, and probably my best bet for learning what oracles are really about - love the art, didn't invest too much work with it until now - but NOW is the time!)

I also own a pendulum which I used a lot some years ago (with and without pendulum cards) and story cubes (which I used rarely).


And I made an oracle deck of my own. I took the Night Sky playing cards and wrote a booklet with my own divinatory meanings. Again, since I'm such an astrophile, that was based on a given structure. I confess that I didn't invest much more thought than just a bit of seasonal and mythological background. I'll go digging for that file now.

I have been fascinated with oracles since I was at Delphi with my parents at the age of five. My father, a gifted storyteller, told us about the Pythia.

I'll try to find out now what makes a good oracle deck - with the help of all of you but especially with the oracle decks I have!

[Rachelcat]

I haz an opinion!

It’s easier to tell you what I don’t like:

• A deck that’s just a random collection of keywords.
• A deck that is all pretty pictures of pretty girls or beautiful women, with random keywords. There are a lot of these for some reason I really don’t get.
• And while I’m on the subject, any artwork that sexualizes children. Ewww! (This thankfully seems to be tapering off, but there were more than one or two in the 2000s.)
• A deck that does have a theme, but is wholly obvious and doesn’t add anything to the theme or my understanding of it.

(I admit that I’m a theme deck lover. The only new tarot decks I buy are because of the theme, and I have myriads of cat tarots, robot tarots, animal tarots, erotic tarots, etc. I like to see how the creator fits the theme into the tarot structure.)

My favorite oracles are ones based on non-card divination: astrology, I Ching, runes, tea leaves, ogham, names of God angels (shemhamephorash). But they have to add something to the mix, even if it’s just nice graphic design (like for runes).

Other oracles I like are themed, too, like flowers, animals, crystals, goddesses. I have two sacred sites oracles plus one sacred sites tarot! The good ones of these combine good artwork with good information.

On the other hand, oracles with very complex organization leave me cold. I hate to admit it because I appreciate the work and thought the creator has put into suits, numbering, etc. But if it’s too complicated, I feel like I don’t want to spend the time learning the system, so I pass it on. I guess I feel guilty using a deck that I haven’t tried to understand! (This is based mostly on my experience with the Graven Images Oracle.) I mean simple grouping, like suits of colors or directions, are easy to understand and often add to the meaning, but others can be too complicated.

Well, that’s it for me, I think. I hope my brain dump has added to the discussion in some way. Keep the opinions coming!

[Papageno]

The posts in the General Oracle Decks thread underscores how personal and subjective any given “theme” can be.

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=198

However, we’re moving beyond that thread.

My oracles:

I-Ching / Yarrow stalks / Book: The I-Ching, Princeton Univ. Press

The Illuminated Earth Oracle / Claire Mack

I like Nemia’s recognition that some Tarot decks are perhaps better suited as Oracles.
Further to this, it occurred to me that Brian William’s “POMO Tarot” might fit into this category, at least for me.
…………………..

I was thinking about Yves Reynaud’s “Millennium Edition” TdM.

The description, “Millennium” sums it up for me as a theme for an oracle deck.

…………………..

What qualities define a good oracle deck:

Art that inspires and can delve beyond the given card title.

Images that are visceral, open gateways and bridge gaps.

Iconography that is tangible, recognizable and also provocative.

…………………..

What are detrimental qualities:

Tiresome Trends and hideous cliches.

I also agree with Rachelcat's sentiments: "oracles with very complex organization leave me cold. I hate to admit it because I appreciate the work and thought the creator has put into suits, numbering, etc. But if it’s too complicated, I feel like I don’t want to spend the time learning the system"

Indeed, this shouldn't involve a deep and steep learning curve like learning the Thoth Tarot system/structure.
IMHO, the more visceral and intuitive the oracle is, the better.

[Joan Marie]

The posts in the General Oracle Decks thread underscores how personal and subjective any given “theme” can be.

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=198

Thanks for digging up this link - it's very relevant to this discussion.

[Abigail]

What I like in an oracle deck :
- a predictive oracle,
- structured,
- symbols,
- character cards (in addition to the consultant's card), (maybe the 4 seasons)
- a number of cards between 50 and 70.

The Mildred Payne Secret Oracle, is a predictive oracle with symbols. I can find them in a dictionary of symbols, which gives an almost "universal" side.
I don't have The Oracle of the Radiant Sun", but it is structured around 7 planets, astrological signs and the houses.

(But for your project, you are perhaps more in a perspective of a guidance oracle.)

[Papageno]

(But for your project, you are perhaps more in a perspective of a guidance oracle.)

you are making a very important and overlooked distinction between predictive and guidance.

I don't know about anybody else, but leaning too far over to the side of "guidance" is within uncomfortable proximity of "affirmation" for my tastes.

Bearing that in mind, I suggest that the art and structure of this proposed oracle be flexible enough to be used in both ways, according to the desired intent of the reader.

There are readers who use both Tarot and Oracle decks in combination with each other, hence I'm reiterating my first idea to make an oracle deck with identical dimensions to that of the Button Soup.

[Pen]

I took a look through the Little Czech Oracle yesterday, as it seemed one of the simplest of the oracles I have. This one does have a tiny booklet (with a coloured cover) rather than a hefty tome, but unfortunately it's not in English, although the keywords on the cards are in Czech, English and German. There is a link to a pdf file with English instructions for reading a Czech oracle over at A.T., although not specifically this one, as the number of cards is 36 rather than 32 (like mine), but it gives an idea of the system used.

I did pull a single card - it was Wealth, depicting a whimsical redhead in an open fur coat with nothing underneath standing on a pile of gold and letting coins and paper money fall from her fingers.

The pdf guide says: A win, big money; An advantageous change of job; Warning against vanity, encouragement to thriftiness, (depending on position in the spread).

Well, she's definitely not me, not even if I won the lottery (which I don't do anyway), and I'm already pretty thrifty (and not at all vain - at least I don't think I am). As for a change of job...

Perhaps I should have followed the instructions and done a proper reading with the given spread, but pulling a single card is something many do on a daily basis. Or perhaps she's telling me to loosen up a bit...

[Nemia]

If you want me to translate the booklet from German to English, I can do that, dear Pen, just send me a pm.

[Pen]

That's very sweet of you, Nemia, thank you, but the booklet is entirely in Czechoslovakian. The oracle itself has rather nice little retro Edwardian figures, and seems to invite (or at least be compatible with) fairly simple spreads or draws, but I've been surprised to find that of the oracles I have, Oracle of the Radiant Sun is not the only one that seems pretty complex in structure. As I think Joan Marie said earlier, one tends to think of oracles as 'tarot light', but some are anything but.

I've been reading the book that comes with The Celtic Oracle cards this afternoon (the set seems to be a slightly lighter version of The Celtic Shamans Pack, with illustrations based on the originals, which were by Chesca Potter). It's not something to be entered into superficially though, but (almost?) an initiation or learning tool into shamanic journeying.

I do like the way that the different artists have each taken a separate section of the sub-structure of the theme to illustrate though - e.g., The Movers (three of these); The Empowerers (nine); The Worlds (three); The Elements (four); The Totem Beasts (eleven); The Shapers (nine); and The Card of Vision (one). The different styles of art grouped like this gives coherence to a deck with more than one artist (there were three, so some have created images for more than one set or group). I wonder if we could do this for our oracle? I guess it depends how many contributors and sections are decided upon, but I do like the idea. The different sections have different coloured edges and backs too.

[Merrick]

I don’t know what makes a good oracle deck because I’ve never used any. My question is, are oracle decks meant to actually be predictive? A lot of what I’ve seen and hear people talk about makes oracle decks seem more like they are affirmations, which is fine, but is not an oracle.

[Nemia]

I have spent the afternoon with the Mystical Shaman Oracle, reading the book and looking at the cards. I'm trying to find the structure behind it. The inspiration is clear: Shamanism from different paths.

the cards are sorted and numbered according to the alphabet. I have tried to sort them into groups.

Let's look at the groups from the abstract to the concrete. the titles are mine.

The Worlds:
Upper, Middle and Lower World.

The Sky:
Sun, Moon, Heart of Sky

The Weather:
Thunder, Lightning, Wind, Rainbow

The Elements:
Earth, Fire, Water (Wind can represent Air)

Nature:
Spiral, Flow, Corn

Places:
Tree of Life, Holy Mountain

Shamanism:
Medicine Wheel, Sweat Lodge, Smoky Mirror, Andean Cross, Curse

Artefacts:
Rattle, Staff, Drum, Blade, Arrow

Rituals and actions:
Circle, Magic, Sacrifice, Taming the Wind

Journeys and movement:
Journey, Many Paths, Vision Quest, Ghost Dance, Beauty Way

States:
Completion, Giveaway, Soul Retrieval, Standstill

Animals:
Owl, serpent, Coyote, Crow, Eagle, Hummigbird, Jaguar

Archetypes and divine beings:
Witness, Earthkeeper, Luminous Warrior, Hunter, Time Master, Scorcerer, Child, Mystical Shaman, Pachamama, Beloved, Wild Woman, Rainmaker, Seer, Council, Ancient Ones, Gatherer

Obviously, an afternoon of study is NOT enough to even scratch the surface.

There are cards for surroundings, for inner states, for influences (divine, human, animal), for artefacts (shamanic and universal). It seems a very free oracle, with sensitivity for the natural surroundings and the spirits alive in nature - and the human quest to come into contact with them.

[Papageno]

I don’t know what makes a good oracle deck because I’ve never used any. My question is, are oracle decks meant to actually be predictive? A lot of what I’ve seen and hear people talk about makes oracle decks seem more like they are affirmations, which is fine, but is not an oracle.

I have read posts wherein readers use Oracle decks to help clarify and reveal the finer points of a predictive Tarot card reading.

[Joan Marie]

I don’t know what makes a good oracle deck because I’ve never used any. My question is, are oracle decks meant to actually be predictive? A lot of what I’ve seen and hear people talk about makes oracle decks seem more like they are affirmations, which is fine, but is not an oracle.

I think it depends on the deck.

Strictly speaking, the word Oracle involves communication with a deity. (please anyone feel free to correct me)
The Oracle is the "go-between" of sorts.

So I guess an Oracle deck would stand in the place of a person Oracle and could give predictive or general guidance. Personally I don't see affirmations as being part of that. I think the message from an oracle would need to be more specific to the questioner than what most affirmations might offer.

However, in regards to you actual question, I think just about any deck of cards that isn't Tarot or Lenormand gets called an Oracle.

[Nemia]

And here I have an example for What Makes a Useless Oracle Deck.

When I was c. 11 years old, the gentle watercolours of Sulamith Wülfing were absolutely everywhere. I had at least three posters in my room, and lots of postcards. When some years ago I saw the oracle with her art, many of the images so well-known to me, I had to buy it. I knew the texts are beneath cheesy. But looking at them now with a sharp eye, they're embarrassingly shallow.

Just look at this piece of stupidity: The only thing a computer can't do, as opposed to humans, is look at the evening sky.

What nonsense is this? Computers also can't eat, drink and go to the bathroom. And the picture is in no way connected to the text.

There are some of the most well-known quotations from the New Testament (Fear not, Seek and you will find) and a number of examples of what I call only-the-heart-propaganda: "Truth comes to us in the innocent smile of a child", "Love will save us, not thinking", "Moral separates people, only love connects".

You really can't go any lower than these bloodless affirmations. One of the reasons why I didn't get along in German tarot forums was the too many people there looking for "messages" like that. Sorry for the generalization!

The only way to work with this oracle is to disregard the words completely. The art is still gentle, child-like, naive and beautiful. Even calling it an Angel Oracle seems too narrow-minded. The art is dream-like and appeals to the Inner Child, at least mine, the Inner Child of the early 1970s

I'm sorry if I'm too tought but this deck is for me the perfect example of cashing in on popular art by just slapping text on the cardback, and then market it as oracle. "It will fit anyway".

[Joan Marie]

Just look at this piece of stupidity: The only thing a computer can't do, as opposed to humans, is look at the evening sky.

It's almost like I can figure out what they were trying to say, but they were too lazy to even work on the one sentence to make it make sense.

Maybe they just figured this sentence isn't worth saving. They would be right.

Yes, these are especially egregious examples of bad affirmations that make your average fortune cookie look like the Dead Sea Scrolls.

But you know, I think we are getting closer and besides every day is a new day, in fact this is the first day of the rest of your life, so keep your chins up, it's always darkest before the dawn because everything happens for a reason and when god closes a door he opens a window which you can jump out of.

[stronglove]

But you know, I think we are getting closer and besides every day is a new day, in fact this is the first day of the rest of your life, so keep your chins up, it's always darkest before the dawn because everything happens for a reason and when god closes a door he opens a window which you can jump out of.

at least do it screaming!

[stronglove]

for a couple of years i have been ‘collecting’ keywords i would like to use if i would ever decide to create an oracle deck
i found some keywords that are so common in many oracles, that they have become a cliché, and have almost lost their meaning for me.
some examples are: abundance, release, healing, balance, transformation, gratitude
they would definitely be on my ‘never’ list
whenever i get these type of keywords i think yeah, yeah, allright, and draw another card. sometimes the guidebook offers a new and interesting spin on one of those keywords but that doesn’t happen often
but sometimes a keyword with a similar meaning can suddenly ‘grab’ me. so ‘overflowing’, ‘recuperation‘, ‘equilibrium’‘change’ or ‘appreciation’ will arouse my curiosity and get me involved
what are the keywords that irritate you most?
and which keywords do you find most intriguing, challenging, thought provoking?
some that will keep buzzing around my brain for days are: sovereign, dedication, betrayal, equanimity, sacrifice

[Joan Marie]

I'm gonna jump on this what makes a bad Oracle train.

I learned a long time ago that it's just as important to really understand what you don't like and why as much as what you do like and why.

I'm going to share a post I just made in My Deck of the Week. This week I'm using the Osho Zen Tarot but right from the beginning this deck strikes me as more of an oracle than a Tarot for a lot of reasons. Today I pulled the card that loosely corresponds to the 10 of Swords and here is what I wrote:

Oh my.
Weren't we just having a discussion elsewhere on this forum about Oracle banalities?

Sorry but this one just leaves me cold, not only the "keywords" but the image as well.

I'm sure if I tried I could come up with some kind of affirmation type message for myself for the day about how we are all in in this COVID lockdown situation together blah blah blah.

But I just can't. Sorry. This card is just a little too "on the nose" as they say and doesn't really leave any room for anything like divine messaging.

And now I have that earworm and images in my head of 80s pop stars singing earnestly into shared microphones clutching their 80s headsets to one ear.

Huey Lewis, Cindy Lauper and Kim Carnes belting one out for the people.

Sorry if I have sparked that earworm for you. Quick, replace it with something now. Alice Cooper, David Bowie, anything. ANYTHING!!!

Okay.

This term I used, on the nose, is something I don't like about a lot of Oracles I see. It's like in a movie when the couple has a teary break-up scene and the song "Love Hurts" by Nazareth starts to play.

Dammit! I just triggered another earworm!!

It's just so...flat. Or like the term Nemia used, "bloodless." (from the german saying, blutleer, right? )

I'm not trying to slam the Osho, but every deck has a dud card or two just like every album, no matter how good, had that one song you just couldn't stomach. Like Patty Smith's "People Have the Power" or the Doors, "Wishful Sinful."
Like "We Are the World" (the song and the tarot card above) those songs are just overwrought versions of an unpoetic expression made by someone who ran out of ideas and had a deadline to meet. But every artist has a day like that.

But you don't want a whole deck of cards like this.

[LStevens]

I am new to oracle!

However, someone suggested that if I were to create one, it might be easier to find a mass publisher for my deck, the Chalice Tarot Deck, if I were to produce an oracle as well.

There was a series of A4 abstract marbled collage pieces on paper I once completed during a time if feeling unusually inspired and because I hope the language of colour and pattern speak, thought it might be worth using these for it. And now I have forty draft images with captions for forty pieces.

[Nemia]

Collage of all kinds is a medium I love - I hope you'll be lucky and publish your decks!

Consindering keywords - I find that they too often overpower the art. One thing I like about the tarot is that it needs no keywords. The Thoth card titles are not actually keywords but I found them so limiting that all my Thoths are trimmed by now.

Could an oracle deck work without keywords? Probably not. But the art should imho be stronger than the keywords, and leave room for more than one interpretation.

I have somewhere a list of words that I find intriguing - most of them weird words like Kammerwasser (aqueous humour or fluid - the liquid that fills our eyeballs - but Kammerwasser is literally chamber water and I see a little chamber filled with water - wonderful word). Words that conjure up strwange associations, words like metaphors. I guess it's nearly impossible to make such a personal list of words that trigger my own imagination in any way accessible to others.

I'm also a bit tired of the New Age lingo (that I use myself), the jargon of "change is imminent, embrace it, it's all good". The Star Tarot is wonderful and the book is very thorough but every single card is lifted onto a level of universal, cosmic processes of healing and renewal. It's all so very relevant and important that no card will comfort me when I keep banging my toe into the same corner. Okay, cards probably shouldn't be expected to heal such minor troubles of existence

I find words and texts inspiring that are open to interpretation but not vague. Like the Pythia's oracular words. Now that's really difficult to do. The tarot did it wonderfully but it took many brains to bring it to a point where we can meet it on many levels. From "why do I keep running into that corner, and how can I change that?" to "why do I keep falling in love with unavailable people, and how can I change that?" to "why do I see no sense at all in my life, and how can I change that?" - every level of question is possible and will get an answer.

Wow, what makes a good oracle deck? it's a question for an oracle.

[Rachelcat]

A deck that is all pretty pictures of pretty girls or beautiful women, with random keywords. There are a lot of these for some reason I really don’t get.

I just got the Llewellyn catalog in the mail, and there are no fewer than THREE NEW ones like this featured! They're all from Blue Angel (Llewellyn is a distributor for them): Cosmic Dancer Oracle, Star Temple Oracle, and Transcendent Journeys Oracle.

Still don't get. Just thought I'd share my chagrin . . .

[Papageno]

I just got the Llewellyn catalog in the mail, and there are no fewer than THREE NEW ones like this featured! They're all from Blue Angel (Llewellyn is a distributor for them): Cosmic Dancer Oracle, Star Temple Oracle, and Transcendent Journeys Oracle.

Still don't get. Just thought I'd share my chagrin . . .

Llewellyn isn't so bad, partnering with Lo Scarabeo has proven to be an interesting symbiotic relationship and together they do score some impressive home runs occasionally.

Hay House Publishing on the other hand..........

Getting back to what specifically makes a good oracle deck, the lack of keywords IMHO.
As Nemeia pointed out, Tarot has no keywords, thus far fewer if any limitations.

But I also refer to my post (in response to Abigail) about cultural differences affecting perspectives regarding imagery and keywords:

viewtopic.php?f=279&t=2713

[Nemia]

What do you clever people here think about Caroline Smith's oracle decks?

The Oracle of the Radiant Sun

The Moon Oracle

And about cosmic-oriented oracles in general?

I have the lovely Moonology deck which I don't use as oracle but as time keeper on my tarot calendar board. It goes against the grain to draw a card from such a time-bound oracle. If let's say the Moon is in Scorpio, what meaning can a card have that tells me the Moon is in Gemini? For me, the actual Moon position will always override a card. But for studying the Moonology system of attuning to the Moon phases, it's great.

I must say the Caroline Smith decks look lovely to me and more substantial than the Moonology cards.

I mentioned the Cosmos Oracle before - I love it. It's identical in quality, style and format to the Cosmos tarot, they come in a big box together, but they have different backs. Actually, since the Cosmos Tarot plays quite freely with the traditional tarot structure, I don't read it as tarot but as unique tarot-oracle-amphibian creature.

Looking only at the Cosmos Oracle, it's simply wonderful. Like the Quantum Tarot, it bridges the unimagineably huge distance between distant cosmic bodies and processes, and our own small, short-lived existence full of petty frets.

Somehow, all these cosmos-, astrology- or astronomy-based oracles impress me as valid. After all, what did the first humans do when they wanted to understand the world? They looked up at the skies and identified the Pleiads and said: ah, when did we see these sisters last, and what happened then?, and that's how everything began: agriculture, navigation, counting time, mathematics, mythology, literature, cosmology... in short, human culture.

These oracles have their structure built-in and are based on serious studies. Although tradition may influence what a Moon in Aries tells us, or what we associate with wormholes or black matter or comets, I guess that most people interpret them pretty similarly.