Happy New Years!

Hi all, I mentioned posting up more images of this deck and so here they are. :)

I also have good news. I was able to successfully submit the deck on Thursday night to the publisher. So I am crossing my fingers for a good print of my own personal copy.

During the month of January, I would like to spend more time testing out the new deck and working on the manual. I feel like I need to flesh this project out a bit more but hopefully in a reasonable amount of time to make it available to the public. In any case, please enjoy the pictures (you can also click on them to enlarge them a bit). Again, all questions and comments welcomed. :)

Please have a wonderful New Year and thanks again for staying updated.

Path (left) and Communication (right) cards.

 Fate & Free Will (left) and Color Suit #3 cards.

Reunion (left) and Health (right) cards.

Update

Hello followers,

I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday. I'm happy to say that all 53 images of the deck have been finalized! This is not including the 54th and final title card (I still have yet to create!).

The important part is that one of the toughest parts of creating a deck is behind me. However, now comes the difficult process of publication, which is proving to be a tricky business. The publisher I've gone with takes a specific image and resolution size, none of which my images match (I was expecting to make some adjustments). After spending about a day and a half working this out, I now have something that looks like it's going to print to the specified size of 2.75 x 2.75 inches. Yes, quite a small deck. The original was a little over 2.5 inches on each side. So this is a little larger than what I've been using in the forums.

I'm estimating it's going to take another week to a week and a half to get the reformatting done. With a possible job offer and school starting in another two weeks, I'm feeling the pressure, yet hoping to have a published copy in my hands by the end of January. If this is acceptable, I'm hoping to make the deck available by February or March. If not (sigh), I'm prepared to take a little bit of a longer journey and continue to make updates to this blog on that process. Either way, I'm hanging in there and just nervous.

I will be posting up more images of the deck, so please stay tuned for this! Happy holidays and thank you for staying updated!!

Facebook

Hi all, I wanted to mention that I have a Facebook page. I will be uploading pictures of the creation process there and talking a bit more about this deck and other stuff of interest. All followers are welcome, friend, artist, or simply the curious.

My Facebook can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/espearitesreadings

More updates to come soon!

Happy Friday!

As I mentioned this week, there would be some finalized images of the deck going up, and so here they are. Yes, they have borders! This was a no-brainer for me. I personally thought they added a nice touch.

In any case, it has been a long road getting to this point with this deck, which is still not over. I have yet to finalize four and half more sets. The good news is that the cards in the last two sets will not need very much work. I have also been creating a table of contents for the manual, re-writing, and organizing information. I want to try to get this out at the same time the deck is published (if and when... *crosses fingers*).

I do not think having a meanings sheet is going to cut it, as images of this deck need to be seen and there wouldn't be room to give them good visibility.  In any case, I'll be hard at work trying to complete everything by the end of December or first week of January!

Distance (left) and Longing (right) Cards

Man (left) and Healer 3 (right) Cards

Gathering (left) and Locked II (right) Cards

Past Person (left) and Psychic Link (right) Cards

 I hope you have enjoyed seeing some of the cards from the deck. Please feel free to leave any comments or questions about the images.

Update

Hello folks. Updates to the timeline have been made with ongoing weekly ones at this point. Some final pictures of the deck to come soon!

Synchronicity

I'm checking in this week to let you know I have a lot of hard work behind me! About 98% of the artwork has become digital. I have finished the "Main Suit," or main cards of the deck, and have started re-drawing the "Healer Suit" in digital format.

I am going to say the artwork is looking better, but there still needs to be some re-formatting to earlier improvements, including some minor enhancements to most cards. This deck is screaming to be seen and isn't going to be content with being a bunch of sticks on paper.

Aside from looking at a potential publisher for the deck (www.makeplayingcards.com), I'm anxious to start updating the oracle's manual, which is currently around 40+ pages. I'm hoping this manual can cover a lot of ground, giving readers a deeper understanding of the cards in many dimensions, as well as offer different ways to read with them. Hopefully, it will get a basic message across without overwhelming the reader. I am still thinking to myself at times - really? Come on, there are already three indices... I would like to keep the manual updated on a yearly basis online but I am not sure if this is practical. In any case, a little white fold-out sheet will be included with the deck.

This oracle appears to be deceptively simple: I want to aim for simplicity, yet it can be a deck for those readers who want complexity, too.

The manual will contain pictures of all the cards once they have gone through the final enhancement phase. This is probably going to take another 3-4 weeks, and I'm running at least 2-3 days behind. I'm going to try to work on the manual as well as the deck concurrently from this point on, but I feel like I shouldn't rush things, either. Good things take time to grow.

I think experimenting more with the career/guidance dimension of this deck will help flesh it out, and so I'll probably be asking for more guinea sitters this week at the forums.

As for pictures, I am not going to post the whole deck online, but I will make some finalized images available this month, so please check back for these. :)

Thank you for staying updated and stay tuned!

P.S. - Two new cards have been added to the mix, one of which is an extra Locked card. So I think this brings the deck up to 53 cards.

Transition

Hello all,

I've been spending lots of time on this project in the last two weeks and I'm happy to say I've made lots of progress. :)

 The Good News: I now have 17 out of 51 cards that need to be re-drawn digitally, but it definitely inches me closer to a final completion date (see below). The artwork has taken on a "life" of its own and has gone beyond my expectations. They are certainly becoming stylish pieces of artwork!

The Bad News: I'm going to re-do some pieces that do not quite match the new style. However, there aren't very many to fix and hopefully not time consuming! This is going to set me back to January/February provided things go smoothly.

I will not show any images this time, but perhaps in future entries.

I will also be hosting a new reading thread this week by popular demand! Stay tuned. :)

Eva4

Mutual Attraction

I'm back! I have had one heck of a month. By some miracle, I've managed to devote some time to the deck, and it's been coming along nicely. =)

Over the past couple of weeks, I've made improvements to several cards and have found some ways around ongoing problems. Mainly resizing has been an issue, as it can affect image quality. Using Illustrator helped to some degree, but once I needed to get smaller images for the glyphs in this deck, I had issues. That solved for the most part, I was able to go back to a few cards and replace larger, intruding glyphs with smaller ones (both center and corner symbols and glyphs).

While I have some dislikes about the way the art work has come out, I'm mostly satisfied with the progress made.

Below is a comparison of the former version of this deck (right) with the new version (left). You may click the image to enlarge it. The only qualms I have right now are with the new Jealousy card (bottom right). Trying to create a traditional 'J' shape digitally and putting a spin on it has been pain-staking. At times, some symbols appear thicker than others. But because curvy symbols are hard to re-do, I'm not about to mess with the Retrograde card any further (top right). However, I think it's true what they say, you can't rush art.

In other news, I've been doing daily draws with the oracle for 3 weeks now, and as I get to know the deck better this way, some of the cards are not what they seem.

Thank you for staying updated. If you have any questions, comments, etc., please leave it below or you can email me. Thank you!!

Eva4

So...

Hi again! I apologize for the long gap between updates. I realize some of you are coming daily to see what's going on. I've had lot on my plate during the last couple of weeks of September where I wasn't able to think about my deck at all. However, this week it looks like things are settling down, and yes, I have a real update on progress.

I felt I needed to go back to cards I thought didn't need any improvements. Instead of 20 cards that needed refining, it was more like 30. Overwhelming!

I want to say the changes are very positive. I had about 2-3 days of great work back in September, then after that I started to have difficulties again. I guess that's art. As you can see, the improved images (on the left) are thinner and more crisp. The originals were also highly contrasted and some of this was lost with a recent improved version. I also added a stenciled style to some of the glyphs, as you can see with the Transition card (bottom left). Yes, these are all "drawn" in bitmap! I do not use Illustrator or Photoshop (again, to draw them!).

I'm hoping this deck is really going to come together in a decent amount of time. As mentioned, I would like to keep some of my original hand-drawn designs and smooth these out (most of these are hearts). I had a great start with Desiring to Communicate. I'm hoping to get back to my deck this week. Thank you for reading and staying up to date!

True Love

No, I really pulled this card for tonight's entry. As you might've guessed, the more time I spend on this project, the more I discover what works and what doesn't. After the last update, I decided to do some planning. I made a list of the easiest cards and the more difficult ones and will work on the cards in this order. This has definitely sped things up.

The only issues I've run into lately are line thickness and having the artwork stay balanced throughout the deck. Some symbols appear thicker than others (curiosity). Again, this worried me and I thought I wouldn't be able to figure out a solution. I am also happy to say this issue needed some time, and I found a way to get around this unevenness (gosh, what one learns in the world of digital art).

So far, I have made improvements to four cards, and, again, these are rated 1-2 on a scale of 1-4. I have also been working on the Life Areas card, which is having some thinness issues (as opposed to the symbols being too thick). I will be excited to unveil the new look at the reader's forums once I can get a certain amount of symbols done.

In addition to this update, I have created a progress bar (see above). I will keep it more accurately updated in the future.

As always, my helpers continue to give valuable feedback, and I have been able to think about the cards in new ways and modify them. There are still some gaps in getting the most information out of this deck at times. However, the P.O. is beginning to show it's personality, tending towards a literal one. I think, really, it depends on who is doing the reading.

In any case, I plan to be back with major updates. Until then, please stay tuned and thank you for reading!!

Time...(no not the song)

Social psychology class is now over, and I've made some time to devote to the deck. Several people have been asking about it and when it will be available. And still, I am not really certain. If I can keep a good pace of working on it a few hours a week, it could be anywhere from 6 months to a year.

So far, there are 7 cards I've spent the day making serious improvements to. I've also been able to darken the indicators around the cards, which is what was bugging me for the longest time. I've added indicators to the Gathering card and modified its symbol to better represent its meaning. I've also added indicators to the P.L. card (code for those who have had a reading before!).

While 16 cards will stay as they are, revisions still need to be made to 20 cards. I'm trying to be as enthusiastic as I can be right now *grin*. Good news is that some of these improvements will not take long, now that I've learned much. However, some will require some ingenuity and improvisation, and it might take days rather than hours to improve one card. I've saved the Reunion card for last, because this is the one card that needs the most work so far.  Aside from this, I do not even want to get into discussing the manual.. because it needs a lot of updates. So far, it is a good 40+ pages in Word that does not include the new cards or the updated ones.

In any case, I'm pleased to report that things feel like they're coming together. I will be printing the new cards in the coming day or three, along with that missing life areas card (improved), and will be trying them out.

Wish me luck and stay tuned!!

Too Excited I Forgot the Title...

So over the past week, I've made and settled on some revisions to the deck that I can say I'm happy with. I used good-old fashioned bitmap to redraw (refine) some of the symbols, and Illustrator to smooth them out with the trace feature. And no, I didn't have to, or want to use any other tools!

The cards I've made improvements to are Transition, which has a more thicker line to it; Longing, these lines were straighten up a bit, the Man and Woman cards, which now include 'both' and 'neither' glyphs in addition to the sun (yes) and no (crescent) ones. So I'm excited. I also figured out how to line up all the glyphs so they are level at each of the four corners. The Path card was also refined in its appearance and meaning. It is similar to the Wheel of Fortune in Tarot or like the Key in Lenormand: it appearance signifies an open door that presents a golden opportunity when upright, none or delayed if in the inverse. This is in addition, to it's original meaning of having a clear head (when upright). Bear with me as I still discover this creation ;)

There are still many in the deck that need a lift. This week I may also be unveiling some new cards I mentioned in a previous post and see how well these do at the reading forum. I have decided to continue working digitally from this point on, but if there is a need to switch back over to a real pencil, then I may do so and see if I can actually get away with it. Below are the new Man and Path images.

In the meantime, I have been really enjoying the process unfold, solving puzzles around the creative process.  I am also looking forward to showcasing new versions of the cards this weekend at the forums.

And of course, none of this would be possible without those who gave all their great feedback! Thank you!!

Please check back for more updates soon. Thank you for reading!!

Mind: No Mind

So I thought I'd give another update on the deck's progress after the 4th of July holiday. So far, things could be better. Last week, I got this tablet in the mail. Let's just say it was not what I was expecting. The lines came out sharper, but there were too many drawbacks to continue using it. I think I may just stick to hand-drawn images and make revisions the old fashion way, at least until I have enough money to purchase something better.

On top of everything, I lost my life areas card and will have to print another one. I have at least five new cards I need to print and test via my forum thread. I am also thinking of adding "both" and "neither" indicators to the sun and moon ones, but I'm thinking maybe I have all the indicators I need and it is just a matter of asking the right questions, and not cluttering up the cards.

Good news is that two out of five of the new cards have already been designed and I may start working on the other three this week. As mentioned, I will be hand-drawing these and then cleaning them up digitally. I'll also be searching for a tool/method that sharpens and darkens lines. As for cards that have already been designed, this will be especially difficult to do, but I will find a way and update this blog on that process.

Okay, so here I go... I'll hopefully be back with better news. In the meantime, happy reading!

Querent

I realize it's been awhile since I posted an update. I've had some set backs in my personal life which have delayed the deck's progress. But it's okay. Everyone goes through that period when nurturing something. I've come up with a few new cards that will cover some gray areas. For example, the Enemy card has come up to describe conflict between friends instead of it's literal meaning, i.e., someone the querent hates. In the meantime, I've come up with some new cards. These will touch on messages from "the other realms," such as the dream world. I know that in my life dreams are very important messages. The Unseen World is, and so this deck will be a little more versatile in that manner.

The artwork, again, is not to my liking when not drawn by hand. I feel organics will be very important when it comes to connecting with the deck. There is going to be a delay in getting the necessary equipment for this, but I'm staying hopeful about it. :)

I've also updated the manual to include some timing methods, but they can also be used with any card system really. I would like to share them here in my blog soon.

Some realizations/discoveries I've had about this deck is that it's a great informational deck. I took it to the park the other day to read for a friend and realized this. Prior to this, I did some research into minimalist decks. I wasn't quite sure why. I've always been that reader who connects to photo-realistic decks. But it did cross my mind that less art lends more to the imagination, much like books do to television. There's too much "noise" with a lot of visuals. I think that was what I discovered with the viking runes when I got the inspiration for this deck. Ok, yes, I'm barely understanding this in my 20 years of taking up cartomancy.

So where does this leave me with the deck? Well, I'm still exploring it and seeing how it can cover guidance questions as well as career/financial questions.

Stay tuned for the next update!!

New Additions + Revisions

Yesterday I added five new cards to the deck and tested them out at the forums. I feel like they've added some much needed depth to the readings. Note these were not drawn by hand but constructed digitally. This brings the deck up to 53 cards. So I may not have been entirely accurate when I posted in the introduction about number of cards here originally :x

I have been doing "what-the-next-day-holds" readings to further evaluate the predictive methods and capabilities of the deck. It's still too early to report in the results, but once I have some, I will share them here.

It's still going to be another month or two away for artwork revision. I'm getting ready to work again for the first time in seven months and so this will provide some funds that will go into the deck. I work in both paint and illustrator right now, and I am considering the purchase of a drawing tablet for revisions. I hear it can be a lot easier to work with graphic images rather than using a mouse. While I was looking up tutorials on Youtube, I came across a program called GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) that might be able to make things a bit easier as well with scanned images. Working in Illustrator has proven to be very complicated! I will be looking more into this program in the coming weeks.

As for changes, I've taken some indicators out of the deck. So far, these have been from the man and woman cards. I plan to leave all sun and moon indicators. I have also been tempted to re-do the hand-drawn cards in paint/illustrator using improved shapes and lines, but I feel this is going to take way the authentic artistic touch/style the deck originally came into being with. The only thing that would be original is the creative twist put on some very old symbols as well as new symbols.

Then there is the question of copyrights, too. I feel like before I post any further images of the deck, or discuss it in further detail, I need to seek out the advice of a legal expert. Gosh, it does feel really limited, but I can always watermark the images and place a copyright at the bottom of the blog, right?! I'll get back to you on this!

So I will wrap it up here for the night. Until next time, thanks for checking back!

The Double-Edged Sword

I've been in the testing phases with my deck as mentioned in my last entry. Before I attempt to make any further (and final) artistic modifications, I'm working on a clear idea of what the oracle can and can't do. I know, it's a huge undertaking... and I didn't expect it to be.

The way I've been going about answering such a question is by asking more questions that yield a more specific reading.

Another significant question that ties in with the first is: how will the deck change my previously held experience of what a reading is? How specific can it be? I think I've gone the farthest today with this question in one of my weekly readings.

Another way I am going about discovering this deck's potential is to go through each card. How much can a reader get out of a single one? How might vagueness be a problem? What can I do about it? I know, it's a lot to get lost in, but it can make a huge difference in the deck's quality.

One thing is for sure, I want to keep its look as simple as possible, and this might mean the elimination or minimization of some indicators. I created this deck because I wanted something simple but then the need arose along the way to have something that was specific inside. I think it's going to be one of those "deceptively simple decks."

I also did a reading on where I need improvement. The main concern was how much the reader's freedom plays a role in using the deck. Again, I'm on the side of simplicity. I think the more simple a deck is, the more room (or freedom) a reader has in using it to complete their reading style. However, that reader needs a creative awareness in order for the deck to be of any use. With this blog and deck, I would like to raise more of an awareness of that creativity in readers. Not to get all philosophical, but some readers have "maybe," "either," "or," and "I'm not sure" in their vocabulary. I'm one of them.

How and where does awareness become achieved? Are you actually limiting a reader's creativity by the more options you make available to them, or less? I'm really going Hermit here! As a creator of an oracle deck, one can only go so far in trying to help readers feel more creatively free with tools that otherwise place limits. I am definitely on the side of believing readers should be encouraged to transcend the limitations of what is provided in tools.

Ironically, I've been reading with this deck without using any real spreads. I think now is as good a time as any to begin trying this. When working with specificity, it becomes much more of a challenge to keep an open mind. Again, this is what either makes or breaks a reader, just try not to nick yourself.

Desiring to Communicate

I have been desiring to communicate about this deck for a while now, and I'm excited to finally be able to do that with those who have expressed an interest in it. =)

For those of you who have not heard of this deck, please go here to learn more about it. For a timeline of the deck's creation process, please go here.

The deck is still in the concept phase, meaning I've been adding, subtracting, and redesigning these cards. I haven't been able to work on it much in the last few weeks due to job search and other priorities taking up most of my time.

I took the liberty of testing it some with my own personal journals and in readings at the reader's forums. So far, I think it's done it's job and now it's up to me to improvise and start making the most of its features. 

As for the testing phase, I will be doing some more practice readings, mainly testing predictive qualities with weekly readings at the reader's forums. I am also revising the manual and cleaning up the artwork a bit more. They won't be major changes. I feel this deck still has room for improvement and changes can't really be meaningful without first using it. ;-)

I thought of adding more indicators to cards that don't have them. (For those of you who don't know what indicators are, they are small symbols in the corners of a card that can help clarify a reading). I think, however, this deck has more than what readers will know what to do with.

I will end my entry here and hopefully make an update soon. Bye, and thank you for reading!!

The Plutonian Oracle Timeline

Here you can find a quick reference timeline of The Plutonian Oracle.

April 2023 - Deck available in printed form? Hmm... ;)

December 2022/January 2023 - Deck available in printable format.

August 2022 - Deck redesign completed.

November 2021 - Deck salvage and redesign. 

January 2017 - July 2019 - Updates and revisions to the deck, as well as new home mini deck created for demo use. 

December 2016 - Minor improvements to deck (upcoming) + updating and revision of oracle manual.

December 1, 2016 - All cards digitized. Second edit phase in progress.

November 2016 - Main cards revision completed. Last suit revision in progress.

August 26, 2016 - Several cards revised.

August 2016 - One new card added. 

May 5, 2016 - Five new cards added (Locked, Gathering, News, & Person of Interest cards).

April 27, 2016 - Blog "The Plutonian Diaries" launched

April 12, 2016 - second revised edition with picture readings at AT

April 5, 2016 - first revised edition with picture readings at AT

March 19, 2016 - first revised edition readings at AT (no pictures)

March 2, 2016 - first picture readings at AT

March 2016 - first revision started and completed

February 27, 2016 - first readings at AT reading forums without pictures

February 2016 - original mini deck created

The Plutonian Oracle

Curious about The Plutonian Oracle? Here, you'll find an introduction to the cards. If you have any questions I haven't addressed in this section, please send me an email at theplutoniandiaries@gmail.com (the plutonian diaries at g mail dot com).
 
THE INTRO...

The Plutonian Oracle is a concept oracle currently containing 50+ cards.. (bigger than Lenormand, smaller than tarot!). Simple in its artistic design, each concept is represented by a symbol rather than a picture or central figure. I've put my own spin on most representations, and others have not been altered, such as the traditional retrograde symbol. Some representations in this deck include the sun, the moon; astrological glyphs, hearts, circles, crosses, and arrows (arrows are a big deal in this deck).

The deck was originally designed to answer love questions, however, is currently being revised to effectively address other life areas.

The cards are about half the size of an index card. The card stock, to most readers, sucks at this point. The deck I use is printed on card stock from an ink jet printer, then cut and rounded after lamination. I know, lamination is not pretty, but I'm a long way off from publication.


THE BACKSTORY....

I came across the concept one day shortly after returning to read with runes (it's been over 10+ years!), I had never really connected with the runes when I was young and new to them, but now that had all changed. I created a mini rune deck out of a few index cards in no time. The connection I had with this self-made deck went beyond my expectations. During one of these days reading with the runes, something occurred to me. If I could connect with something simple such as the symbols in the runes, why not make something more specific and "up to date"? It would be a deck that would fill in "the blanks" of a reading. Some querents I'd read for were asking more questions than I could answer, and I just didn't know how to solve this problem. I'd never given it much thought or practice. I was more used to saying something like: "I'm not sure if it's you or X that has the problem..." or "It may be career-related..." The readings ended up having two or three different interpretations.

Original c. Feb 2016

This deck would be able to eliminate this problem in a more straightforward way.

I broke from the traditional viking art, seeing arrows, triangles, hearts, loops, and semi circles. I grabbed my notebook and started making a list of what people wanted to know and created a symbol for each concept. Some of these concepts weren't new, others I revised. Before I knew it, I was on the internet researching symbols, ranging from alchemical, wiccan, astrological, and even tattoos I'd never seen before.

I created the original deck the same way I'd created the rune one, with index cards and a fine ink marker. I started using the deck, which was the same size as my mini rune one, on myself first. I then read for others with it. After some initially good results on both sides, I refined the deck. I resized it and added more features: There were more indicators, some cards became one, such as the attraction and one-sided attraction cards. Other cards were completely eliminated (the psychic reader card). I took a lot of the eyes out because they frightened me. Fear was not what this deck was about, I told myself. It was a tool that allowed one to re-connect with their highest self (as is the purpose of all divinatory systems).

Original c. February 2016

A WAY OF READING...

This deck has lots of arrows. And the reason for this is simple. Once I'd gotten back into tarot, my focus started to shift from its abstract (traditional meanings) to pictorial arrangement. I understood that accuracy also depended on the way the card's central figure was facing rather than on it's traditional or reversed meanings! Most of the time, the pictorial meaning was correct. So I started listening to this side of the reading.

The Lenormand concept of reading was also influential in this deck's design because it makes use of space and its information depends on where cards fall in proximity to one another. I discovered this was a very effective approach to reading, and I incorporated it into my oracle. Instead of having a figure facing a certain way, I drew arrows at the ends of most symbols to help "connect the dots" and transform the reading into a complete picture.

Shortly after I'd started using the new deck, I started to use a syntax to describe the reading, (also making use of arrows). This approach made a difference in "connecting the dots" in written form.

The same concepts used to read with this deck can be used with any tarot deck. The creation of the deck and its use has taught me that readers need a more comprehensive and effective system when reading and, in particular, specifying information. I realize that specificity can be a tricky, elusive business, but not impossible.

So why did I name it The Plutonian Oracle? When I first read with it, the experience was not like anything I'd felt before with other decks. It was eye opening, transformational on a significant level. I'm not sure if this has anything to do with the deck being something personally connected to me. However, I've understood that in in the creative world, we have a much stronger connection to things we create. It goes back to our tribal ancestry. For readers, this can make a significant impact on their readings. I think that is what this deck is about in its makeup and backstory.

I hope that you will stay updated on my journey with these cards. It's been both a frightening and wonderful experience to say the least... it is when you're playing with specificity.

Eva4
April 2016