Oracle Creation Question

Obsydian

I tried to find an answer but I couldn't, so forgive me if there has been a similar thread in the past.

I'd like to start work upon a furry themed oracle with all sorts of anthropomorphism creatures. But, I don't quite know where to start. I'm thinking I can use them as power animals with messages, but are there any how-to's on oracle decks? I know they are pretty free-form, but I'm afraid I'm going to miss a card theme or something silly.

Any guidance is most welcome! I can't wait to start, it will be an artistic learning opportunity for me.

Edit: Right now I've got it in my head that I want to do 40 cards in 4 suits of Fire, Earth, Air, and Water. So you'd have the earth creatures, the flying creatures, aquatic creatures, and fire would be reptiles/bugs. I'm looking through animal spirit sites to see what messages they bring so that I may choose what animals I'd like to use. I suppose I'm off to a good start?
 

HudsonGray

Well, oracles tend to be closed systems (each one is specific only to that particular oracle), unlike say the Rider Waite style tarot decks all using the same meanings, the Thoth style, the Marseille style, etc.

So your system will be just that - your system. It's up to you to make one that fits together. You can look at how others have done it, but remember that they're all individuals. With an oracle the reader needs to learn each separate system.
 

reall

imo first thing you need to do is to decide on theme/topic/purpose of your deck? and then art style!^^ by your description I would say it would be animal spirit shamanic deck?^^ :))
so thats a good start!^^ and you'll need a guidebook!^^
 

danielnogo

Best way to start IMO?

Decide on your theme and what you want the purpose of the deck to be, is the deck meant to predict the future, give insight on romance problems, help you heal, give guidance?

Then decide on how that will fit into the theme youve chosen.

Then make a list of all the cards and brief descriptions of the cards and their meanings.

Then heres the fun part:
Get a couple of cheap playing card decks, get a glue stick stick, then print out sheets that have your card titles and descriptions laid out so that you can cut each one out and paste it onto the playing cards. If you wanna get fancy you can use copyrighted images and make quick mockups with actual images and then paste them onto the cards. You want to get a working demo that will allow you to see how the deck will work.

Then use your deck for a week or so, get a notebook, and write down what you like about it, and what you dont like, is it accurate? Is each card too specific and not letting intuition come into play? Make changes based on your findings, then reprint and paste, try again for a week. Then leave the cards for about a week or two, dont use them or think about them. Come back to them and try them again with a fresh perspective and record your findings. After doing several drafts like this, then make professional looking cards and have a deck printed up with say, the gamecrafters, its cheap to do so, I can print up a 36 card deck with no book and no box for about 5.00 plus shipping, it will be a bit more if you want oracle sized cards.

Hope this helps :)

PS: I know it's cliche, but alot of decks use card quantities that have some kind of numerological siginificace, such as 44, 36, 33, etc. Kind of gives your decks a magical vibration :)
 

danieljuk

ooh how exciting Obsydian!

Theming is so important and the best oracles match and keep up the theme beautifully! Work out the theme and the structure carefully! Then work out what cards do you need to make the 40 card system. Some oracles are better for love or spirituality, but I notice most are as general as possible, to be used in any spread.

Some oracles have a reversed element in the book that goes with it and some don't. Some have keywords, where as others offer nothing on the card apart from a number which you can look up in the book. I think getting the structure and the different cards to cover any question is the tricky bit and takes all the planning time! :thumbsup:

I like your animal oracle idea, I have been disappointed by some of the animal oracles so far, they are so one dimensional.
 

Obsydian

Thank you for your suggestions everyone!
I have a lot of planning to do before I can even think about artwork, ha!