Resourcing the Self: Using Cards as Medicine

How creating your own oracle deck can bring you individualized medicine

Cards © Author, photo © Inspired Stock Shop

Have you ever been curious about making your own oracle deck? I certainly have. It’s been on my mind for the past few years, but it’s never felt like the “right” time to create one. I’d get theme ideas and then lose steam, or I’d come up with a great theme and realize that I didn’t have enough content or card topics within the theme to make a deck. Then again, I was looking at oracle deck creation through the lens of what I thought creators did before they created their popular decks. It wasn’t until I took an oracle card workshop from my mentor, Danielle Dulsky, that I realized I’d been looking at the creation process all wrong.

See, I’d been focused on gathering and curating wisdom from external sources to bring back to the deck when all the wisdom needed was already inherent within me. I didn’t realize how much we can resource ourselves for medicine or tap into a higher-level version of ourselves to gain clarity.

And the best part? There are so many entry points into the creation of an oracle deck using yourself as inspiration. You can source from memories, experiences, and events. You can resource your ancestors, elders, and loved ones. You can repurpose archetypal energies. You can use the medicine from your relationship with nature or animals. There are endless possibilities when it comes to creating a deck that is personal to you. You just have to be willing to do a bit of the leg work to uncover the gems.

In this article, I’ll talk about oracle decks I’ve created through the guidance of others, and then I’ll talk about the deck I made in preparation for my very own Oracle Deck Creation Workshop that launches in October.

Case Study:

So far, I’ve created three decks from various workshops that Danielle has hosted and run. Each is slightly different in theme/context, but each of them contains specific medicine for me. Meaning what might constitute as “medicine” to me may not matter one bit to you. That’s the power of personal decks — they will always resonate with you because they are sourced from your intuition and what you need from them.

Oracle of Ghosts Deck

The first deck I created was a 65-card “Oracle of Ghosts” themed deck that utilized past experiences, events, and memories for the messages within the cards. Of all the decks created, this one feels the most “personal” because every single card touches on something deeply intimate and familiar from my life. The downside to this deck is that because it is so intricately connected to past experiences, memories, and people — it loses some of that universal wisdom gained from other decks. Sometimes when a card is pulled for a question — it does not make sense! And yes, that happens with every deck (personal or not), but it is a bit annoying when it’s your own deck. That being said, I mostly find my pulls with this deck to be fairly accurate and medicinal.

Here’s an example of a past, present, and future spread using this deck and the takeaways I received from it:

I asked the question: What do I need to know about my spirituality or the highest version of myself?

Reading Takeaways

After pulling these cards, I immediately felt a sense of comfort and peace because these three cards definitely held appropriate medicine for me. For background, I asked this question because in the last few months, I’ve felt spiritually bankrupt. I wanted my higher power to give me some insight into this. And what I’ve taken away from this spread is that though I’ve felt like the warrior in the past, I’ve felt more like the mage in the present… this sense that something is off. Something is broken. That I’m broken. And the future card — whoa. I knew right away what this medicine means — that I’m to take what I’ve felt as spiritual bankruptcy and rewrite the narrative. The past and present do not have to stay in “what is.” I have the power to create a new story around my spirituality and where I’m at in my personal life. The “seed” in question for that last card is this idea of: What do I do now? And to me, it feels pretty obvious. I need to explore and excavate that further. I’m not sure that I can bear NOT finding the answer to that question. So again, these cards have shown me exactly what I’ve known to be true but have given me a bit more awareness of the issue.

Oracle of Bones Deck

The second deck I created was the 52-card “Oracle of Bones” themed deck which used mythic images and prompts to deliver the medicine of each card. This deck… wow. It’s the one I use most often for myself (and I’ve used it for others, too) because it’s that powerful. Even though it’s not as “personal” as the first deck I created, there’s still a throughline of my existence in every card. Plus, I decided to use AI art for the imagery and it was a magical experience all the way around. The deck ended up coming through to me effortlessly, and the medicinal properties are incredible. I was (and still am) surprised at how much more potent this deck is for me than the first one, but I’ve learned not to question the cosmic realities of things.

Here’s an example of a Lifescape spread using this deck and the takeaways I received from it:

This spread is from Danielle Dulsky, and rather than approaching it with a question in mind — it’s approached in the form of a mini-story — This is a story of (Card 1). When (Card 2) was met with the challenge of (Card 3) and learned (Card 4).

Reading Takeaways

So this is a story of The Cave’s Mouth. When Grief on repeat was met with the challenge of Wedded and learned Recovery.

Sounds nonsensical, right? But actually… it’s not. Let’s start with Card One — The Cave’s Mouth. This card is all about stepping into the terrifying unknown but knowing that there is light in the shadow of uncertainty. For me, what stands out about this card in relation to my experiences is that I have stepped into the unknown recently, specifically as it relates to the loss of my two dogs. The death of my two pets is the first major immediate loss in my life and going on after they’ve died is a massive act of stepping into unknown territory. And that confirms the second card that was pulled about grief. I mean, Grief on repeat is exactly as it sounds. The compounded effect of grief on the mind, body, and soul. This card is also a nod to letting go of the guilt surrounding the grief one feels — and specifically for me, this means letting go of the “what-ifs” I’ve been harboring around the death of my pets. And that is challenged by the next card, Wedded. Though this card is talking about marriage — it’s not referring to traditional marriage. Rather, it’s talking about being in a sacred union with yourself. This card is all about the vows you make to yourself, and for this reading — what I really believe it’s referring to (the challenger per se) is about how I can remain wedded to myself, my vows, and my core values while dealing with the tragedy of loss. It’s a reminder that no matter how scary the unknown is or how painful the grief is — I must remain true to myself. This makes the last card, Recovery that much sweeter of a lesson learned. The Recovery card is all about the journey we take to heal ourselves. It’s a very internal nod to going through the depths of hell to find peace and serenity within our bones.

As I mentioned earlier, this deck, in particular, has given me so many gifts in the form of medicine and self-awareness. I’m amazed right now at the depths to which this reading has hit me. I feel a bit vulnerable and “called out” in some ways as I’m sharing this, but at the same time, I want you to see the deep and potent value in what creating your own decks can do for you.

Mythic Medicine Deck

The third deck I created is still a WIP (work-in-progress) because it’s combining several themes based on Danielle’s “Story Lantern” method. This method is essentially finding a guiding story (a myth, a fairytale, folktale, fable, etc) that you source for medicine. For example, in her recent “Witching the Word” workshop, we used the Voyage of Bran as our guiding story. Now, what’s beautiful about this method that Danielle has crafted is that you can use it for anything. You can use the medicine as is, in story format. You can use it as prompts to build a poem or story. And yes, you can use it to build oracle card decks.

So the first 13 cards in this deck (I’m unsure how many cards there will be) are called the “Bran Suite” since that’s the story I’m sourcing from. The second set of 13 cards are called the “Deer Woman Suite” because, you guessed it, the story of Deer Woman is where the cards’ medicine is sourced from. I think there will be at least one or two other stories I’ll use to source mythic medicine from to complete this deck, and I suspect it too will carry some potent introspection for me.

Here’s an example of a yesterday, today, tomorrow spread using this deck and the takeaways I received from it:

I asked the general question: What do I need to know about the coming weeks?

Reading Takeaways

Even though this deck only has 26 cards right now — I can already tell that this one is going to be a bit darker than the other ones. A bit more intense. For this reading, the “Castle Made of Bone” card in the yesterday position speaks pretty obviously to me. In fact, the ironic thing is that last week, a friend and I were chatting, and she said, “you know, you build these walls, but they’re so brittle and easy to break. Why put them up at all?” And that is what I heard when I saw this card. I’ve been putting my guard up lately, and even though I guess they’re pretty flimsy walls, they’re still there. And why? What am I so scared of?

For the today position, the “sunset voyage” holds some potent medicine as this card represents the changes that a voyage presents to us. Like light turning to dark and dark turning back into the light, we are never quite the same each time we wake up. We sail into the sunset believing we are one thing and wake up a slightly different person. It’s the natural cycle of life. So I feel like this card is reminding me that even when it doesn’t feel like it — changes are happening. I may not see what’s happening behind the scenes, but if I look close enough, I can see the subtle differences in that magical hour between light and dark.

The “Shapeshifter’s Forest” is an elusive one for tomorrow. I think what it’s trying to convey is that I need to be able to adapt. This forest belongs to the shapeshifter because it is able to blend, mold, and adapt to what the forest is feeling or giving out. The shapeshifter feels gratitude for the forest’s ability to hide it but also to draw it out when needed. I think, personally, this card is about recognizing my own ability to adapt and blend in. And to think about what or where is my forest? How is it helping me hide? How is it helping me adapt?

My Personal Archeo Deck

I’ve known for a while that I wanted to bring the revelations of personal oracle deck creation to my community for a while. But I wasn’t sure how I wanted to present it in a way that was unique but also universal. I want every participant, no matter where they’re at in their spiritual or personal journey, to get use of their deck. Through my research and experiments, I found the right way to frame the workshop and the deck creation process. The next step was to test it out by creating my own deck first. What I found in this testing process was a beautiful new layer of medicine and healing. Yes, I knew the power of creating decks, but I have to admit that I didn’t expect as much power from this deck as the others. But I was wrong. And I was also on to something. I knew after creating the deck that it was definitely something I wanted to share with others, which is why my Oracle Card Creation Workshop is launching in October (more on that below!)

To give you a taste of the cards that I created (and what will be included in the workshop), here’s an example of a simple spread using this deck and the takeaways I received from it:

My Question: What should I know about the energy of this coming week?

Reading Takeaways

Oooh this is a really fun card pull! So the energy of the week card pulled is Eccentric and the energy is really about individuality, following whims even when it’s not understood by others, and living life with a “YOLO” mindset. I pulled a “clarifier” card just to see what else I should know about this energy, and the Alchemist card came up, which is SO MUCH FUN! This reading tells me that the energy it wants me to work through is quirky transmutation. Although the cards don’t say it specifically, I’m getting an intuitive hit that this really revolves around alchemizing the quirky, whimsical, and playful parts of myself into something that sparks joy or creativity. I have been in a low vibration place lately, so this reading makes a ton of sense to me.