Create a Personal Oracle

and it's not just about cards

For several years I had a New Year’s Eve day ritual

of going to the ocean and releasing healing stones into the sea. The image above was taken on one of those days.

I’d love to tell you the backstory.

Many years ago I began using small polished stones as a focus point for sending absent healing. When I had finished visualizing, I’d put the stone in a colorful bowl, thanking Spirit for helping with the healing. Over the course of a year, the bowl was overflowing with stones and I wasn’t sure what to do with them. I didn’t want to just toss them, and that’s when I realized they needed to return to nature.

So on a New Year’s Eve day, my friend Patti and I went to the ocean and I waded out knee-deep and gave the stones back to earth and sea, thanking them for helping heal so many people.

I shared that photo because it’s one of the cards that make up my own Sidewalk Oracle. Each card is a photo taken by me, with a story known only to me. That makes it an incredibly accurate oracle as I’m the one who knows all the stories. I use it as a standalone deck or as a clarifier when doing tarot.

Each time I share a card from the Sidewalk Oracle, it’s my hope you’ll create your own oracle or divination system. Once you create and use a personal oracle, you’ll be amazed at the level of accuracy. That’s because only you know the whens and wheres and whys of each card. You really can’t go wrong.

Below, you’ll find my resource for having an oracle deck printed.

If you’d like to make a deck of your own, I used MakePlayingCards.com as my card printer. Sizes of cards range from poker to bridge to tarot and more. You can choose a blank back or a pretty one. I googled copyright-free images to find something I liked for the card backs. You also have the choice of how many cards will be in your deck.

If you want to get fancier than I did, you can create a tuck box (too technical for me!) or have the deck packed in a tin. I choose the simple shrink wrap option. Once you choose a template, all you have to do is upload your pictures or art. Then, wait for delivery.

To give you an idea of cost, a bridge size deck with black borders is $14.90 for up to 60 cards, full color. The number of cards in your deck is up to you; choose from 18 cards to more than 600. The upload process is simple, and you can even save your work if you need a break. Log back in and your project will be waiting. Delivery time was about three weeks.

But, decks aren’t the only oracles you can create.

Reading found objects, especially those from nature is another way of making a personal oracle. There are many techniques to do this, so let me tell you about my favorites.

My guidance on how to use objects from nature as an oracle is below.

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Pick up a dozen or so polished stones. Either get them at Amazon or your local New Age shop. You can give each stone any meaning you want, making it highly accurate for divination. During a divination session, you can either toss the stone on any surface, or onto a horoscope, playing cards, tarot, or Lenormand. The options are many.

Practical Use

Years ago, I picked up stones that (to me) represented the inner planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. As I know enough about astrology to understand the meaning of the planets, I could toss the stones and read based on

• where they landed

• their proximity to one another

• the distance one stone fell from the others

In addition, if I tossed them onto a natal chart, where the stones fell within astrological houses gave me information about the here-and-now. Of course you don’t have to assign planetary descriptions to any of the stones. In the image above, I’m sure you could give any of those stones a meaning. For example, two of the stones are dark red, but the one towards the top is flat and heart-shape. What meaning would you assign?

In addition, it’s interesting to me that the blue stone on the right fell such a distance from any other stone, and it fell alone. How would you interpret that if the blue stone’s meaning was about abundance? And did you notice that all of the stones fell in a triangle shape?

Do you see where I’m going with this? Once each stone (and you can use as many as you like) has a meaning, ask a question and then toss them. Using proximity to others, where they landed (on your foot!), and if they’re alone, do a reading. You have now created a personal oracle.

Get out your paints

Whether you gather or purchase them, shells can be painted with any symbol you choose. If the shell is big enough, I think you could create a different sigil on each of them if you were so inclined. Then, assign meanings to each. To divine, draw four or five for a reading. Of course, you could also toss them randomly as you did with the stones.

I’m sure you already know this, but you could do the same thing with small stones, like the rocks you see alongside the road. If you are skilled in the magickal art of drawing (!) you could find flat stones and paint animals on them - or at least a symbolized version of animals.

If you know animal meanings, you can easily answer questions using your stone oracles. If you don’t know the symbolism of animals, check out Jamie Sams’ Medicine Cards, or Animal Speak by Ted Andrews.

Of course for any of these ‘oracles’, you could drop them on a hand-drawn pendulum board or one like this, from my Ancestral Magick Kit.

Here’s how this works: I asked a specific question, then dropped five stones onto the board, asking for right action for my question. Two of the stones went off the board, one landed in Spells and two in Moon.

Now there are several ways to interpret this, but I kept it simple. The answer for me was to write a spell under one of the lunar phases. But which one? Because two stones fell here, I chose the second of the eight phases: waxing crescent.

Don’t know the phases? Here:

• New

• Waxing crescent****

• First quarter

• Waxing gibbous

• Full

• Waning gibbous

• Third quarter

• Waning crescent

There’s so much more, but I’ll save some for

another time. As you read this, I’m getting ready to catch my flight to Toronto. From there, I’ll go to Elora and celebrate a two-day event by speaking about Ancestral Signs on May 11, then do readings on Sunday, May 12. If you want to know more about either, email magicksalon.elora@gmail.com

I hope when you read this you’ll have commented or emailed me so by the time I’m back in San Diego I can do a follow-up post showcasing what kind of oracle you’ve created!

xo

Nancy