Creating own animal deck...help please!

Wee Beastie

Hey
I'm in the process of making my own animal deck and wanted to stick in the creatures that I find around me as well as the ones that pop up in the existing decks, and I was wondering if anyone has worked with the energies and knows any lore on some of them. The ones I am interested in are pigeon, magpie, pheasant and robin at the moment, although if anyone has anything interesting to note about other animals that are or have been present in Britain I would be very greatful for the input. Existing decks I have look at for info are the druid animal oracle and the medicine cards as well as an animal magick book.
Cheers,
Wee Beastie
 

dvorah ophir

dont forget to put in porkupine and snail-also both have good interpertation conotation, i love the druid animals cards but find that they have some animals and not others-the draewing are the best for an animal deck and i love spirit of the wheel meditation deck too.do you draw your own cards or take on an illustarator?
there is a new deck coming up that is also looking beutiful- sacred world oracle.
if i want to buy an oracle deck it is first important to me that the drawing are beutiful for me, and then that it works as a system interpertation wise-like the sacred world for instance that is divided for the four element or something like that-that is my idea about that. will you share more with us you idea-what direction will your card oracle go?
very interested
 

Wee Beastie

Thanks for replying, dvorah. I love the Druid Animal Oracle too, but like you, I feel that there are alot of animals missing which I would have chosen to include, and they're a massive pain to shuffle! I wanted to create a deck that was based on the animals that exist and have existed in Britain/Europe as I'm most interested in celtic spirituality and finding a link to my own heritage. I was thinking of basing the images on the zoomorphic drawings of the Picts, although I'm going to have to take alot of artist licience with most of the animals I want to include! I'll be doing the cards myself (I'm an artist). I want to read them in a similar way to the druid oracle cards and want to find a balance between the creatures from the three realms of water, air and earth (I still find a difficulty in sticking fire into the celtic way of thinking...?). Do you think a hedgehog could replace the porcupine? And thank you for suggesting a snail! That had never occured to me! I think I will also be sticking in ant, spider, butterfly, badger, elk, rabbit, auroch, stoat, grouse, whale, dolphin...(I have a list somewhere!). :) Oof, I think that is all for the moment! I will have to check out the decks you suggested! ^_^
 

dvorah ophir

Wee Beastie said:
Thanks for replying, dvorah. I love the Druid Animal Oracle too, but like you, I feel that there are alot of animals missing which I would have chosen to include, and they're a massive pain to shuffle! I wanted to create a deck that was based on the animals that exist and have existed in Britain/Europe as I'm most interested in celtic spirituality and finding a link to my own heritage. I was thinking of basing the images on the zoomorphic drawings of the Picts, although I'm going to have to take alot of artist licience with most of the animals I want to include! I'll be doing the cards myself (I'm an artist). I want to read them in a similar way to the druid oracle cards and want to find a balance between the creatures from the three realms of water, air and earth (I still find a difficulty in sticking fire into the celtic way of thinking...?). Do you think a hedgehog could replace the porcupine? And thank you for suggesting a snail! That had never occured to me! I think I will also be sticking in ant, spider, butterfly, badger, elk, rabbit, auroch, stoat, grouse, whale, dolphin...(I have a list somewhere!). :) Oof, I think that is all for the moment! I will have to check out the decks you suggested! ^_^
to Wee Beastie hello
very intresting what you wrote.i dont know anything about zoomorphic drawings of the Picts-where can i see it so i have a clue , or read about celtic spirituality regarding animals?
its good that you are thinking the deck throghly so it will be deep and that is better then just a colection of drawing numberd that have some interpertation-make it long lasting so it is like a work of art incorporating the three forms of art-drawing, writing and divination- that way when it takes longer to make but is more thorogh it can be like the big divination decks that all buys-rider tarot or thoth, and fairies oracle-they had some serios work into them and that is why the resolt is so good.also find a concept that is all your own and that apart from your persoanal drawings will set your oracle apart from others. i am sure you know what i mean.good luck and enjoy this project.from dvorah
 

Wee Beastie

Thanks dvorah :), here's a link to some picti pictures I was talking about.
http://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/archaeology/sites/pictish/
I was also wondering about including images which are generally considered symbols representing a doorway, cauldron, warrior etc, which could be read as more down-to-earth, physical, everyday, rather than more symbolic or spiritual.