Personal Oracles: Designing Your Own Oracle Deck with artist and tarotist Coleman Stevenson, starting April 27.

Three-Part Class Series (Each class can be taken separately)

Part 1: April 27 – May 25, 4pm ET

Part 2: June 8 – Jul 27, 4pm ET

Part 3: Aug 10 – 31, 4pm ET

Price: $600 | $549 for Members

• Taught on Zoom

Have you ever wanted to create your own oracle deck—not just reinterpret existing systems like Pamela Colman Smith’s Tarot, but develop a unique symbolic and reading structure of your own? This class will guide you through the creative and conceptual process of designing an original deck, helping you build a system that reflects your personal vision and intuitive approach and bring it to fruition.

In this course series, we will create truly personal oracles, decks that come directly from us – our experiences, cultures, thoughts, fears, hopes – to communicate back to us immediately relevant information for self-study, problem solving, and spellwork. This three part series is ideal for artists who want to explore the esoteric and magicians who want to broaden their creative practices in connection with their occult craft. No specific artistic or magical background is required for this class, but some prior experience reading cards will be helpful (beginner level is fine). Artist materials are the choice of each student; participants are welcome to design using any tangible medium they like (paint, collage, illustration, etc.) or digitally, however use of Ai generation alone is discouraged. Materials and scale will be discussed during the first session.

Interested students may take all three parts in the series or self-select one or more parts depending on individual goals. Pre-requisites are listed with the descriptions of each part of the series.

Part One: Concept Development (5 weeks) April 27 – May 25

$185

We’ll begin Part One by discussing what makes an oracle deck function and practicing our card reading skills. Each participant will design their own oracle system, including selecting a theme, concept development, and fleshing out their system. We will study visual symbolism and brainstorm possible visual approaches for at least ten cards.

Part One is open to any student. Prior experience reading tarot or oracle cards will be helpful. No visual art/design experience required. Throughout this course, I will be using examples from my deck The Personal Oracle to explore oracle symbolism and deck structure. I would like you to select a deck to study during this course as well, and have it available before the class begins. There will be a pre-class assignment with your chosen oracle deck.

Part 2: Visual Creation (8 weeks) June 8 – Jul 27

$300 per student

In Part Two participants will strengthen their oracle systems and study different art styles and techniques in order to communicate their concepts most effectively. The goal of Part Two is to determine imagery for at least ten cards, so weekly activities will include visualization exercises, design and production demos, and continued practice with card reading skills. As your imagery develops, the class will offer supportive feedback on designs as well as effectiveness of symbolic communication.

Part Two is open to any student with an oracle system fleshed out on paper and at least 10 concepts ready to be visualized. If you already have visual designs for an oracle underway and want to increase the number of cards completed, this would also be a great class for you.

Part 3: Completion (4 weeks) Aug 10 – 31

$150 per student

Part Three includes creation of a guide booklet with a description of your deck concept and assigned meanings for all cards. The form this takes will be determined individually. We will also explore creative uses for your oracle, special spread creation, and package design, as well as possibilities for publishing or production of your cards, depending on your goals for your project. We will test completed oracles and their accompanying content in readings with others.

This section is open to any student with an oracle deck completely or underway (at least 10 finished cards) who is ready to assign meaning to their cards and find creative ways to use them.

Artist and writer Coleman Stevenson is the author of three collections of poems (Light Sleeper, Breakfast, and The Accidental Rarefication of Pattern #5609), and several books about the Tarot including The Dark Exact Tarot Guide and a series of cartomantic spread collections. Her writing has appeared in a variety of literary journals, anthologies, and websites. In addition to her work as a designer of tarot and oracle decks through her company The Dark Exact, her fine art work, exhibited in galleries around the US, focuses on the intersections between image and text. She has been a guest curator for various gallery spaces and has taught poetry, tarot, design theory, and cultural studies for many educational and community organizations across the country, as well as online.