Research: Why do you make your own oracle deck?

Master_Margarita

Research: Why do you make your own oracle deck/sortilege set?

Floracove asked the following question over in the tarot section.

floracove said:
Hi, I'm doing some research on making your own tarot deck, and I'm wondering if you can tell me why you personally feel that you want to make your own tarot deck?

This is for my own research, no comments here will be copied into my material, I just thought, that maybe since I am here and your here, that it would be interesting to get it first hand as the the reasons or what lead you to make your own tarot deck.

I am really (and I mean really) curious what reasons people have for making their own oracle decks, and oracle systems that do not involve the use of cards (a/k/a "sortilege").

I am particularly interested in reasons that people make oracles that are completely original (e.g. not their own runes with the standard inscriptions).

This is completely for my own interest and not for publication.

:heart: M_M~
 

Bernice

Why?

Because publicly available ones come with their own meanings & methods of usage. Devising a unique/personal symbolic structure and then creating the physical objects to go with it is not only satisfying, it proves that - as always - 'magic' is in the person. So why not create your own tools with your own symbolisms?

Bee
 

Faolainn Storm

I was showing a friend the tarot cards I'm making, and she was saying how much she would love to do such a thing, except that she is not comfortable with the tarot (her preference is for the Doreen Virtue cards).
So I suggested that she create her own oracle deck. She thought this was great, then decided she couldn't draw well enough. I pointed out than an oracle deck does not have to have pictures for interpreting the way a tarot does, that she could write keywords on each card and the simply draw an abstract coloured design that she felt represented that concept. She was thrilled by these ideas, especially as she is particularly drawn to colour. She hasn't started yet, but I think it seriously tempted her.
I also pointed out the fact that someone else's deck has cards for the ideas they consider important. Her deck will have cards for the ideas SHE considers important. In her case I suggested she took out all of her Doreen Virtue decks and pick the cards from each deck she wants in hers, and then add to the list anything she felt was left out.
In fact, as I am writing this, I am getting tempted to design my own oracle! Except, I better finish my tarot deck first. :D One thing at a time.

I hope I've answered your question, somewhere amongst all this rambling...
Faolainn Storm
 

.traveller.

Creativity. I made an oracle out of rocks I found. Different sizes and colours to correspond to the planets. I never wrote anything down about or made marks on the stones, I chose ones that were obvious enough that I wouldn't have to guess which one was what. Depending on the question I was asking, I would draw a different shaped 'field' in the earth to cast upon.
Spirituality. It took me a long time to find just the right rocks to use and it was a meditative experience to go out into nature and just be.
 

LisaW

Why?

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Because publicly available ones come with their own meanings & methods of usage. Devising a unique/personal symbolic structure and then creating the physical objects to go with it is not only satisfying, it proves that - as always - 'magic' is in the person. So why not create your own tools with your own symbolisms?

Bee

Way to go Bee !!!!! that's exactly what I would have said!
and I'm thinking constantly about a Lenormand! Well put!

LisaW
 

Master_Margarita

I am intrigued by the answers so far. Thanks to all!

Have any of you oracle authors found, when looking at your oracles after creation, that some of the cards/symbolic items resemble closely a Tarot archetype of some sort?

In contrast, are there items in your oracles that you can consider to be unique as far as you know (someone here has a Playmobil oracle that used a little lantern IIRC)?

ETA: I suppose I should have changed the heading to indicate that I am interested in hearing from those who practice sortilege.

:heart: M_M~
 

Bernice

...some of the cards/symbolic items resemble closely a Tarot archetype of some sort?
No, nothing I do resembles tarot card archetypes.

...are there items in your oracles that you can consider to be unique as far as you know?

Think so.... However I've carved things, people have been carving things for centuries.

...sortilege

Like the runes, Iching sticks? Very similar. Also done some card decks.

Bee
 

Master_Margarita

Thanks, Bee! Very interesting.

:heart: M_M~
 

Bernice

Cheers Lisa!
LisaW said: ....and I'm thinking constantly about a Lenormand!

Stop thinking Lisa, DO IT! Even if it's only a virtual one (pc pics).
I'd love to see it. My 'personal' one has 40 cards, I got fed up with having to double the meanings of certain cards. i.e Fox or Anchor to represent Work/Job.

Bee
 

Chronata

I have made a few sortilege sets, as well as other sets of stone, object, and lithomancy.
The reasons...well, I love "stuff" I love to collect bits of odds and ends, and crystals, and feathers.
I love to feel the weight of a stone in my hand, and the energy that come sfrom it. And yes, i do even feel energy from man made objects, like the clay dreamstones, or glass crowstones.

My sortilege sets are really just charms and objects that I have lovingly gathered over many years. Each has a story, or memory, and a symbolic meaning on top of that. I realized early on that I could "read" with them, when I had no other tools at the time.
My set of bones came out of neccessity as well...where I was asked to read fortunes at a wedding, and had nothing but the leftover chicken bones on the dinner plates to use!

Lithomancy, and "drop stone" sets like the ones I have created, go back to my teens, when I was interested in all methods and interesting forms of divination. I had a unique opportunity to be apprenticed to a woman who read stones, and she taught me one of her methods. I was so entranced by it. Here was an ancient, very Romany sort of method for fortune telling, that no one else was using at the time.
I also saw how accurate she was, and how long her client list was, and I thought it was something I wanted to do as well.

I made my lithomancy set based mostly on my teacher's but I added other things, and changed around the method slightly to make it easier for me to learn.
And later, I developed other sets that became the oracle drop stone sets that I now sell. The dreamstones went through 5 different incarnations before it became what it is now.
Part of that came out of the little charms I used to make to give away at events.
These were usually little stones, or clay discs with hand painted symbols (a moon, a heart...etc.) that have a meaning. I still make hundreds of them to give away. They are in a way, their own form of oracle.
What I love about them is that people can go away from a reading with something tangible...a keepsake they can hold. Sometimes people come back to the same events years later, and show me the good luck stone or disc they have been keeping in their wallet all this time!

anyway, the sets I use were developed from the symbols from those "giveaway" charms.

Why I like creating these kinds of oracles? It's something different.
It's not just a pack of cards, it's a charm or talisman...or good luck amulet.
and a whole bunch of amulets together makes for a great reading.

Also...it's unusual enough to be a lithomancer, or sortilege reader in a room full of tarot readers, that I made the sets originally to stand out from the crowd at psychic fairs and such.