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Articles from July 2018
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A Dreadful Night
It’s been so hot today! The air can’t keep up. Had to tuck the laptop away for a little bit. It has cooled down to get back to blog work. Feels like a marathon re-watching of Penny Dreadful kind of night. If for no other reason than to watch and learn that wicked elegant card spreading of Vanessa’s. 🖤🕷🕸🦇
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The Scarlet Girl
Yesterday I made my first dedicated card post for my Oracles & Flutter-Byes deck. This was for the Scarlet Girl card pictured here in its finished state. I completed the outline for the card’s information page then and better organized the info to explain how this card might be used in guided meditation. My take on an oracle deck is something that offers insightful counsel or just helps you process your thoughts. Pick a card, focus on its message and let your thoughts go. This is pretty much how I approach most of my decks when I read for myself.
Yesterday’s post featured the creative writing part of the card. Today I wanted to post the final card artwork in full and detail, with a little of the card meaning. From the companion book:
“The Scarlet Girl represents two sides of a coin: On one side is how wonderful it is to feel loved, to have someone’s adoration or devotion, to feel beautiful, and finding yourself respected. The other side of that coin is the pain that can be so deeply felt when losing any of those things, especially someone’s love. And even though it represents these feelings that are most often associated with relationships, it is not a card that asks you to think about that relationship directly or in technical terms. This card, when used for meditation, asks you to simply take a breath, close your eyes, and think honestly about how that relationship feels. Do you feel the love? Do you feel respected? Do you feel the devotion to you that you have been offering in return? And this isn’t always a question asked for a romantic relationship. Life is filled with so many different types of relationships but there will always be certain things we need for them to consist of. If not love than respect.”
There is of course more to the card notes, but that’s to be offered with the complete deck and book. I just wanted to start offering a better idea of what I’m working with and the direction I’m taking this project. More to come.
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The Scarlet Girl – The Oracles & Flutter-Bye Oracle
I’ve worked on quite a few things today. That is just the nature of my day. What has given me the most pleasure is adding to the mythology of my Orange Moon Oracle. You see, it’s a combination of the story I’ve written for it (which is simply my inspiration) and how that writing translates into how to look at the card. This is all very important to me. I’m diligently working on how to organize and streamline this whole process so it doesn’t seem wonky. My oracle deck was born in my fiction, but is rooted in my life and how that relates to simply living. So below is the introduction to my Scarlet Girl card. What comes after, which you’ll have to see with the deck itself, is how the reading of it plays out. 😉
Azure held the vibrantly colored card in her hand and found a smile playing on her lips as the Scarlet Girl winked at her. She looked up and found the face from the card standing in front of her. She was still slightly hazy and undefined, but with each moment that passed she came into sharper focus and better detail. Still, there was a subtle dreaminess to her form that refused to pass. She was neither a ghost or an illusion; she was simply a vision.
“I gave you a name when I sat down and put fresh paint to an old canvas. Something told me to use hues that can only be seen and truly experienced by taking the reddest of roses and holding them underneath the brilliant afternoon sun. There, in that moment, there are so many shades of red, scarlet, and a litany of amber and oranges. These are the rarest shades and I wanted them to be yours. Though other than seeing a name on your shoulder and a profound twinkle in your eye, I don’t think I quite know you yet. Who are you my scarlet girl? What type of oracle do you present yourself to be?
The oracle graced Azure with a very warm smile. That smile radiated towards her and wrapped itself around her like a warm embrace. She felt loved, she felt good.
“I am painted in all the shades of a fine and brilliant heart and it is the heart I represent. I am the embodiment of absolute love, devotion, and respect. I am not the action of it, but the simple and genuine feeling of it. My offering and my wisdom is to help you set aside that which gets in the way of feeling these things in their purest form. I have no prophecy. I am no such type of oracle. The absolute only thing that I can predict is that in life there is always a moment where these things, these feelings, can be taken away for one reason or another. When this is the case, I implore to embrace the feeling, weather the hurt, and know that the pain comes from having felt something so wonderful to begin with. And know there is a place beyond that hurt where the memory is what is to cherish and the pain to be let go of…”
Follow the deck creation here. Or you can better embrace the story aspect of it here. More to come.
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Madam Lydia Wilhelmina’s Tarot of Monsters, the Macabre, and Autumn Scenes Updates
As I organize my next new deck launch, I’ve gotten a few emails asking me about the status of my (such a long name darn me!) Madam Lydia Wilhelmina’s Tarot of Monsters, the Macabre, and Autumn Scenes, which has been patiently awaiting the completion of its minor arcana. Well I am slowly working away at the other suits. The cups suit is complete so I’ve started adding a few samples to the deck’s page and will do so here and there as I finish up the next suit.
One thing I’m doing with the minors is avoiding just making cards with pips on them. I’m using the Rider Waite Smith deck as a frame of reference to create my dark scenes. It’s been challenging but rather fun honestly. Like with these two first examples below: I had my reference cards but wanted to keep with the autumn and spooky themes of the deck. So with the ace of cups the theme was Thing elopes and has some lil things. I’m a huge Addams Family fan (shocker I know) and thought who would make a better floating hand? 🙂 The two of cups I titled The Newly Dead with the Long Living. The couple on the card represent two lovers separated only by the thin veil of death. The man has lived a long time and now alone misses his love, but she is always right there beside him with a caring smile on her lips, just waiting for him to join her again. They hold the cups they once exchanged with one another in life.
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So the deck is moving right along as I find a moment to add a new card. And yes, I still plan to offer it for Halloween. It’ll be a soft launch most likely, given how much time I will be needing for my new oracle deck. But I do have some rather wicked planning for the packaging. I’ve already ordered samples for it. Much better than the original this time around. I’m excited about it. 🙂
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Tea and Tarot Tuesday Preview
I’m in Michigan presently taking advantage of my aunt’s excellent tea cup collection. I love tea. I love tarot. Bringing them together gives me another reason to take photos of my decks in pretty places with pretty things. 😉 And now I’m back to the process of getting marrieds tomorrow.