Create Magic with Oracle Cards
One of my favorite ways to play with groups - to create magic - is with oracle decks.
An oracle deck is a set of cards and sometimes comes with a book. The cards have an illustration and an identifier (such as “The Mountain” or “Clever Crow”). The book provides inspiration, perspective, or guidance for each card. If they don’t come with a book, the inspirational message is directly on the card.
They're created by intuitive people, creative people, business people, etc. Most creators are artists or hire artists to help them create the cards.
I can tell you – 100% these have never let me down. It doesn't matter what deck I use. They're open-ended which leaves a lot of room for the unicorn to run around and create magic.
Obviously, I only buy decks that I really like but it is there's so much magic in playing this way.
When you give them out, one of three things will happen, but more than often, it's one of two things.
The person gets the perfect card and they're blown away. “How did you know that's the card I needed?!”
Occasionally, you'll get a naysayer. “I don't get it. This doesn't mean anything. Why am I doing this? This is too woo-woo.” - Almost never happens, but every time it does, those people get on board after they start hearing everybody share. (And more magic has been created this way than any other.)
Then, very rarely, someone will read their card and just flat-out disagree, “This does not resonate at all.” (Again, very rare, but it does happen.) But there are fun ways to play with that as well.
It's kind of my signature move. I'm not even sure why I'm sharing it with y'all, but it's so magical, I have to. You go make magic. That's the whole point, right? There's enough magic to go around.
I mean, it can be beautiful.
Depending on the size of the group, occasionally you can do two readings for each person in one deck.
If you're doing a retreat or even a one-hour session, everyone reads one reading before the session. Then, at the end of the session, or even the next day, you can give them a second envelope and they open it.
The readings kind of build on each other. It's a super fun way to play.
If you have a really big group, you just work with two decks. Of course, there are going to be repeats, but that’s okay. You just do it as big as you need.
I'm blown away by the magic that's created from these fun decks.
If you have a single client, you can certainly shuffle and pull cards for people virtually, that's a no-brainer.
You can do 1 card and say “What are we going to focus on in this session?”
You can do three cards: 1 for the body, 1 for the mind, and 1 for the spirit.
You can do 1 for where you were in the past, where you are now, and where you are going in the future.
Another way that you can play with them is to send a single reading to them (I recommend snail mail).
There are all kinds of ways to play with this.
Google “how to play with Oracle decks” And once you start, you'll find you create your own magic around it.
What I love is, if you are working with one client over time, just pull from the same deck, keep building on it, and then at the end, as a thank you/congrats/celebration, send them their own deck. A brand new one. You can do it simply and send it to them through Amazon, or you can buy it and wrap it up all cool and beautiful and mail it to them.
There are so many ways to play with this.
Max the Magic
I find a deck I like. I like to go to crystal shops, I always find plenty of oracle decks in them. I always buy two sets.
I take the cards and shuffle them randomly. Knowing exactly how many people I will be doing this for, I pull out that many cards. So, if I have 24 people, I'll pull 24 cards. I put them in an envelope with their reading and I randomly distribute one to each of the people.
And there's a big reveal.
I've done this in person where I just throw them under their chairs, and I've done it virtually. It works really well when I put them in a care package and then everybody goes and opens their envelopes and they get their card and they're reading.
I've done everything, even transcribing the reading and throwing it on a card. But what I typically do is buy 2 books. Then I actually pull the cover off and rip the whole book apart.
Pro Tip:
All decks are not created equal. So pay attention. The way the cards look – folk art designs, hand-drawn illustrations. How the cards feel – there's thick cards and there's thin cards. I like really colorful, thick cards with a really cool cover. That's important to me.
Find a deck that you like. Only use decks that speak to you. All the magic to come starts with selecting a deck that you resonate with.
Have a deck you love? Comment with your favorite Oracle deck. I would LOVE to know.