This site is called Open Sorcery, and I’ve somehow never written about my own oracle deck. Truly a bold branding choice for someone who’s been hiding the sorcery.
I Made a 43 Card Oracle Deck in One Haunted Night
I designed my own oracle deck of 56 cards. They spilled out of me during a very odd, very spooky Alaskan winter, the first 43 in one sleep-deprived night where I kind of blanked out. I think they were half channeled. They’re made from symbols that have haunted me my whole life and keep showing up. Many of these symbols also recur in my poetry and fiction.
How I Lost It (The Lore 
)
And then Eight fled Texas like a bat outta hell with two backpacks and a standby ticket to Philly at ass o’clock in the morning, and the deck got lost in the shuffle (ha) and did not make the cut. (Read that whole saga here.) So now I read with a random number generator. Sue me. It’s effective.
How I Read Oracle Cards With Random Numbers
Every card lives in a living document, and every number from 1 to 56 points to an entry. But I don’t just hit a button. First: coffee. A smoke. Deep breaths until I drop into the empty gut decision space in my body. Then I put on the first song or playlist that speaks to me, and only then do I summon a string of randomly generated numbers, usually from random.com. Modern problems require modern solutions.
My Cards Are Rude (and Other Reading Rules)
How many numbers? However many my gut says. I keep readings short, usually, and I don’t like to read for the same person more than twice in one day. My cards are rude and have a lot to say (after all, I made them). Also, if we go too deep, we start sharing visions of the future. It’s happened before.
Oracle Card Combinations, Also Known As Spiritual Diphthongs
Here’s the weird part. Over time I noticed certain cards pulled together mean something neither means alone. Spiritual diphthongs, basically. Like how “o” and “i” slide into “oi” and suddenly you’ve got a new sound.
Example: The Blackness + The Lantern
Take #17, The Blackness: the duality of all things. Light without darkness is no light at all. Dark things are coming your way.
And #18, The Lantern: be prepared. It can light the way. Seeing clearly.
Pull them together and you get extreme strife, internal conflict.
I’m very familiar with the duality of things. I’ve been holding contradictions in my head since I was 14. Joy without despair is nothing, and vice versa. You wouldn’t know either one exists without the tension and contrast. So I never wanted them to stand apart. They’re two sides of the same coin. They are neighbors on purpose. Every time I feel a pattern like this, it goes in the document. So it isn’t 56 entries anymore. It’s fifty-six (56) cards and the fascinating conversations they have with each other.
What Comes Next
Physical cards will come back eventually, with real art this time. I’ve had an artist in mind for them for years. Money remains a barrier. I also like the bridge between the technological and the metaphysical that reading with random numbers and the document has given me. Until I have a large enough disposable income to pay the artist I have in mind a king’s ransom and I can get my head out of my techno-spiritual ass, it’s me, dangerously overcaffeinated, hungry for answers from beyond, strings upon strings of randomly generated numbers, and a document that never ceases to grow and breathe.
Want to know when the deck gets its art? Join our swanky new mailing list and you’ll know the second I get my shit together. It comes with a free track I don’t remember making…
-Allēna
