"Mandatory" Cards In An Oracle Deck?

Master_Margarita

This is a question to all of you who have ever created your own oracle deck, whether for personal use only or for wider distribution.

Are there any cards that you think you absolutely have to have in any deck? Not "mandatory" in the sense that there's an Oracle Author Police, but mandatory in the sense that no oracle would work without them?

I ask this because my primary working oracle deck was created using a process that didn't dictate any cards at all, but strongly recommended that all deck creators make a Fool card, a Death card, and a Divine Healer card that is obviously parallel to the Temperance card in the tarot deck.

I'm working my way through the Psycards deck now, which is really a simplified tarot in many ways, and yup, it's got a Fool and a Death card (and also a Tower and a separate Destruction card, but that's probably another thread for another day).

I also found that I could draw a lot of parallels between my deck and a tarot deck (although my Oskar Schindler card may be unique in the history of oracle deck-making), but I'm not sure those parallels are either obvious or even necessary.

So what do you think? Do all oracle decks need a Fool and Death? Temperance? Anything else?

:heart: M_M~
 

Kahlie

I think it all depends on what you will be using your Oracle for, what the theme of the Oracle is and how you created it.

Some people create Oracle Decks free flow or channeled, mostly these are decks that even if they are split in negative/positive don't have a completely 50% balance. Sometimes they have one type of card but not their opposite, so they do not have any symmetry. Aka cards that denote loving feelings, but no cards denoting hateful/upset feelings etc. etc.
This can work. However, whenever I see those type of Oracles I usually am not attracted to them. It feels to me like they had no clue what they were creating... although some channeled Oracles are beautiful and give off a lovely Vibe.

So I do have Oracles that fall in this category, and then usually they end up being used for meditation purposes, healing purposes and not for decision making or Shadow Work.

I feel that especially Oracle Decks that are themed around Angels, Love, Healing, Faeries etc. have a lack of negatives (Excluding Froud's Faeries). That's ok for me, because the Theme itself lends towards a positive approach that one sometimes needs.

Other people create their oracles with a lot of thought, seeing which forces they really want to represent. They look for Symmetry or use reversals in their work to denote all forces they deem important. Of course, no deck can represent "Everything", but a decent spread of forces plus your own intuition can certainly make it easier...

So, these were my jumbled thoughts about it,

Kahlie
 

Bernice

I know it was last posted to more than a year ago, but this caught my eye:

Kahlie: Sometimes they have one type of card but not their opposite, so they do not have any symmetry. Aka cards that denote loving feelings, but no cards denoting hateful/upset feelings etc. etc.

I think that such decks are best used reading the card combinations.
e.g: If a 'negative' card is followed by a 'positive' card, then the negativity is lessened or even overturned. (or whatever layout best suits you.)

All images can be percieved as either postive or negative - even an apparently 'joyful' picture of brilliant sunshine could be seen as unbearable heat & dryness.... if you see what I mean. So adjoining cards would modify a cards' message.

Bee :)
 

DragonFae

I agree with the idea that decks need to have both positives and negatives although I guess using reversals could sort of denote that. But all the totally good feelings etc ones...at least so far for me...do not read as well as the ones with more varied cards.

I am working on an oracle deck for personal use only...and did it through free thought as cards that represent aspects of my life, life experiences, and important events came to mind...then I developed words to describe those and last am writing more detailed descriptions as they come to me. This may not work for everyone...but I.... well...grew up on a haunted farm so many of the cards for the deck come from those experiences and I believe have specific messages.

After reading that all decks need a Death and a Fool/Trickster card I added those...honestly I am not sure it really enhanced the deck. I also added a Warrior and a Creator card...simply because I am attracted to archetypes and these spoke to me...lastly I added The Soul card which simply represents what it says, the soul, spirit, inner child or what ever term one wants to use.

If you work intuitively creating a personal deck...I almost believe that you will get the varied deck you are wanting...and while they may not be named such....you might very well find that one of your selected cards.. quite nicely fills the role of Death, Fool, etc...IDK...just my thoughts.