Playing Card Oracle Deck -- Week 1

My Wife had a dream a couple of weeks ago where she and I were drawing pictures on regular playing cards so we could use them for divination. (Well, that's the short version, anyway.) We both thought it was a really cool idea (although, we've done similar projects before, we hadn't done it with playing cards specifically) and decided to give it a go. I bought a couple of decks, downloaded a correspondences cheat sheet, and, for myself, decided to do one card a day, then post the cards with descriptions. I was thinking of posting like I've done for things like the Inkvent Calendar, but since it's 54 cards (52 cards and 2 jokers), I figured I'd post about them once a week so as not to clog my member's inboxes!

I'm not completely following traditional correspondences, since I want to kind of break out of old habits and thought processes with this, so the color scheme is as follows:

Hearts (water, emotions, Cups): Blues
Spades (air, thinking, logic, Swords): Reds/Purples
Diamonds (earth, material, wealth, Pentacles): Greens
Clubs (fire, actions, Wands): Browns/Oranges

For details, accents, and figures, I'll be using grays and black. Since they actually work on coated cards, and I like how they blend, I'm using alcohol markers. When I'm done, I'll use a fixative to ensure the ink won't rub off.

The cheat sheet I'm using is just a jumping off point, but ultimately, each card will be my own interpretation from my own Tarot knowledge or sometimes just what the Spirits move me to create.

I hope you'll find this interesting, and maybe be inspired to do your own!

4 of Clubs

Generalized meaning: Karmic Balance, Rest, Pause

I started doing the bottom right brown lines first, and I was thinking that I'd probably just go from corner to corner in a flowing gradient, but when I got to the middle, I decided to put a reclining figure in. Now, looking at it, it reminds me of how I sleep in bed: all stretched out, with the covers over me. So for me, this is comfort, flow, rest, dreaming.

3 of Clubs

Generalized meaning: Impulsive, new action

When I pulled the 3 of Clubs and read the generalized meaning, I suddenly saw a yellow line going around the clubs on the card. So I drew that first, then added the light and dark brown and thought, "Oh! Yellow brick road!" New actions are basically just new journeys, and so I show my little person on the road going away from the city. Although, I suppose you could also see that as going to the city as well to start a new life. The dark and light land on either side is about choices: as you travel the road, you have the choice to go to either side as well, and with the curving road, you can experience all sets of choices as you move forward.

Queen of Hearts

Generalized meaning: intuition, mystery, emotional, sensitive (also, in some readings an actual woman/femme person with these traits)

There's always a light and shadow with emotions, and since this is the Queen, and there's two faces of the Queen on the card, I decided to play with the ideas of lightness and darkness. One is the shadow of the other, and yet, the colors around them meld into each other. The eye represents being able to see what emotions are there, and the key is about unlocking the depths of the mystery or emotions, mind, and heart. But this is contained, as denoted by the dark blue border. Everything is within.

5 of Spades

Generalized meaning: open minded, agree to disagree, hollow victory (5's in general: disturbance, transition, expansion)

The aspect that stood out for me, which, I'll say, is more pronounced in regular Tarot imagery, is the idea of conflict. There's the red side and the purple side, clashing in the middle. However, there's a lot of grey area that comes in from opposite sides of the two that are clashing. The grey areas are many shades of cool and warm grey, showing that there's aspects of each argument in the spaces in-between. Either the two arguing are standing their ground, or breaking through their barriers.

9 of Clubs

Generalized meaning: win at all costs, strength, endurance

This was a hard one to figure out at first, but after a few minutes of looking at the meanings and the card itself, tree trunks came to mind. They are strong and enduring, especially so in the Autumn. I also added day, night, and cloudy/twilight skies behind the falling leaves to show the passage of time. And there are two trees together because they are stronger together, than alone.

10 of Clubs

Generalized meaning: romantic serenity, completion of a project, accomplishment

What stood out for me with the 10 of Clubs is that the way the clubs are arranged. To me, they make a circle in the center and, with the meanings of completion and accomplishment, I saw the center as a bright light. Then it morphed in my head into the "light at the end of the tunnel." It took a bit to figure out the right gradient of oranges and yellows for this, but I think this works.

Ace of Diamonds

Generalized meaning: material item, ready to enrich

Aces are usually the card of pure power for the suit. In this case, as Diamonds are akin to pentacles and the element of earth, and with the "ready to enrich" meaning, what popped into my head was a seedling. Seedlings have a pure power to them, especially if you don't know exactly what type of seed you've planted. This seedling I drew glows with power, full of potential, despite it's size.