Bring the deck of your dreams into reality with this modern tome of knowledge!
by Rebecca Bell
The Oracle Creator is an interactive guidebook on how to take your own tarot or oracle deck from concept to publication. If you want to publish your deck and create the next Modern Witch Tarot, or if you want to make a small run for friends and family, or even just for your own personal use, The Oracle Creator has got you covered!
What is The Oracle Creator?
Well its a book… and it’s a chunky book at that! For £12.99 you get a whole lot of book, jam-packed with expert knowledge from the well-respected Steven Bright, who has been creating tarot and oracle decks (not to mention books on the subject) for many years, and is well known in the tarot community. The book is designed to offer you all the wisdom and knowledge you should need to create your own oracle or tarot deck, with exercises, tips, and examples of existing decks, plus how to get published.
Symbol Directory
Symbols are the backbone of your oracle creation. Symbols and signs are what triggers our intuitive mind: it is the pictorial language universal to many, yet it is individual to our unique frame of reference.
“The symbol of a key, whether written as a word or depicted as an image, is relatable to most people and will effortlessly conjure up the idea of unlocking boxes or opening secret rooms. Similarly, most people will see a fox as being cunning and therefore indicating craftiness.”
Steven Bright – The Oracle Creator
Colour Directory
Not only does this book give you insight into symbols, it of course covers traditional color meaning and spiritual symbolism to ensure you have all the tools to put your deck together in the most authentic way possible.
“People react to color in different ways: your chosen palette can sooth one viewer while invoking a passionate response in others.”
Steven Bright – The Oracle Creator
How Oracles Work and How To Create A Structure
This is possibly the hardest part of your oracle or tarot creation, the moment you wonder: “how can I put my ideas together in a way that is readable and structured?” Thankfully, Steven Bright did lots of research on this topic so you don’t have to, and has many structure options provided with examples and in-depth tips.
“One of the differences between most oracles and system-based cad deck such as the tarot is that an oracle deck can have as many or as few cards as one wishes. There really is no set formula, though it has become popular in recent times for Angel decks to consist of 44 cards (which relates to the triplicate 444, the ‘angel number’ thought to signify celestial love and support.)”
Steven Bright – The Oracle Creator
Can You Read Your Deck?
To coin a phrase from RuPaul and give it a little twist: “if you can’t read your own deck, then how in the hell is someone else going to?” Scary right? Well it’s very true — putting all that love and care into creating your oracle, only to realise that people can’t read it, is devastating. So Steven offers some encouraging words of wisdom on how to avoid this before you have even drawn your full card. The answer is… well, read the book to find out!
Exercises To Get You Creating
As any creator will know (especially those who write books), it is very easy to get swept up in researching and reading about creating. You go down every little rabbit hole of interest… and yet have made no progress on actually creating the piece. Hands up if you get a little too engrossed in the joy of research! The good news is that The Oracle Creator also contains exercises to pull you away from the text, inviting you to put pen to paper in your sketchbook, planning and designing elements and putting the theory to practice. It’s starting to sound like the study class of dreams!
How To Get Published and How The Industry Works
We would highly recommend any budding tarot or oracle creator read the section on getting published before approaching publishers, including ourselves at Liminal 11. One of the biggest mistakes creators make when pitching to us is not providing enough thought-out content: there is more to pitching than just providing your illustrations, and ideas often feel half baked. So please do have a good read of this section, and it’s well worth practicing your pitch on a friend that doesn’t know much about your idea to see if you can convince them!
Well, if that hasn’t convinced you to bring this enjoyable and essential guidebook into your life, then we don’t know what else will!
