Pick A Pile | General Reading | WEEK AHEAD

Hi everyone! This Friday (PST) I have a new video coming out. It will be a general reading for the week ahead featuring my two oracles -- The Little Black Deck and The Plutonian Oracle. See first-hand how I use my oracles along with the tarot. Thank you for watching! 

Link here: https://youtu.be/k3k0-Cb7fLY

- Monique

Re-Do

It's been 2 chaotic years, but I haven't lost any desire to publish this deck. For those of you who are STILL following this blog, thank you! I am in the process of re-designing the Plutonian Oracle! I lost all of my original working files a few years ago, made a career transition, started dating, faced the pandemic, took up a new hobby, and got married. Yes, it's been a wild ride! Now that life has settled into some stable routine, I'm able (with the wonderful support of my husband) to continue this project. 

I've been working with small, grainy images of the deck in Illustrator and have made quick progress. While the look of the oracle will stay 90% true to its original format and appearance, there will be small changes to cards that need fixing.

Meanwhile, I tried working in different art apps on my tablet, such as ArtFlow and Ibis Paint, but these aren't going to do it for this deck. It was originally designed in Illustrator and therefore will be the best medium to finish it with. So far, I'm pleased with the results. :)

I do have a ways to go; however, when I feel confident enough, I will be posting a time table for when I publish this deck. 

In the meantime, I already have a published deck called Little Black Deck. I put this up on Etsy this year. If you're interested in checking it out, please visit my Etsy shop.

Etsy Shop: MKirkleyCrafts

Thank you so much for stopping by!

 

 

What's the Word?

Hi everyone. Well, it's about another year and here's another update. I just can't get myself to break this bad habit! I've been here and there, and nowhere. While I have been making progress in other areas of my life, I have had some time to work on the deck. Those maroon-colored borders are now gone. Additions and subtractions to the artwork have been made. Truly, to be an artist, you never quite feel like what you put out there is good enough. But I'm working on this, and the desire to change things has become less over the recent months.

Last month, I made a mini version of the deck here at home. I have been demoing the cards at the forums and offline with positive results. While I'm happy with the changes, there will be another change to the Life Areas card. I have been having trouble getting the right design on this one. However, it is one of the most complicated cards of the deck.

I've also resumed edits and revisions to the oracle's 90+ page manual. I will be working on a little white book that will come with the deck, and so I hope to have this done before the is month over. It shouldn't take that long, since its purpose is to be brief. So without further ado, here is the result of some of the changes I've made as well as a first look at the mini deck. I'm not sure if there will be a mini version of the Plutonian Oracle because the original size is already small enough. If I do come out with this second version, it will probably be the size of iota game cards, which is quite small.

Thank you for being so patient and keeping up with the deck!

- Monique

I'm Back...

So after almost a year of nothing from this project, meaning crazy busy-ness.. I'm back to finally work on completing this project. I'm nearing the end of my university program with my final class, and now I have some time on my hands to revive The Plutonian Oracle project.

To recap, I had to go digging for my card images on backup (I got a new computer last year), yet they were nowhere to be found. I resolved this issue by going to my card publisher's website, and thank god... they were still saved. The only issue now is that each card has a maron-colored outline in the border and I need to clean this up before resuming work.

I purchased CorelDraw, because Illustrator is just too expensive nowadays. So I have to get used to a whole new way of editing images, but, I think it's similar to Illustrator and I will manage. So far, so good. I have my images, and I do hope I can finally make some progress.

Thanks for following me!

- Monique

Nearness

It's been some time since I talked about the oracle deck. I've had a lot of time to practice with it these last several months and formulate some pros and cons. Aside from the German stock holding up well, this entry is going to be focusing on problems I've run into and haven't had an answer for until now.

About two months into reading with this deck, it became difficult for me to interpret the messages. This being an oracle deck, I'm more familiar with the tarot. About two years ago, I started to rely more on pictorial scenes and the human figure, and I've had some really accurate results from doing this. However, I'm afraid a little too much. The Plutonian oracle doesn't leave much in the way for this kind of interpretation. Finding this more of a drawback, I'd wondered how I might go about resolving this issue.

Because the deck is minimalist, I designed "positions" into it in order to specify information. However, I feel it's not enough, especially for the reader with a visual appetite. I also wondered: Is packing "positions" just a way to squeeze more cards into a 54 card deck? Nevermind rotating the card once (which is how to specify information), it can become a daunting task just after one try. I'd wondered if making the cards a bit more specific in their basic meanings might help, but something told me to just keep the meanings as is. Most of my sitters have already become familiar with them, anyway.

For those of you who rely on figures and gender to tell a story in the reading process, I have come up with an idea to get around this figureless, non-person problem. I am going to assign gender to each card, and perhaps, a tarot card. This will be added to the "Optional Correspondence" list that will be made available with the deck. This kind of reminds me of the way in which gender is assigned to words in languages.

But what about those readers who rely on the more expressive elements such as facial expression, stance, etc..? This can be a huge part of the reading, and this deck may just not end up being for those who want more. This entry is beyond the scope of how to build a deck that can be both tarot and oracle, minimalist and not, and so I will allow the limits I'm facing along these lines to be drawn here. It is, after all, an oracle deck, not a tarot.

As for the artwork, I need to get a move on. I have had feelings once again of changing the look of the art; however, I don't really want to prolong this phase any more. As for the card stock, I'm not sure if I want to stick with the German stock at MakePlayingCards.com. As mentioned in an earlier entry, it will definitely drive the cost of the deck up, and I wonder if it would all be worth it. If things go smoothly, this deck could be available after the 2017 Thanksgiving Holiday.

Thanks for reading!! :)

Fate

Hi, I'm back with an update. I received my sample deck on the 19th. I didn't realize it had been in the mailbox until Tuesday afternoon. Nonetheless, here are the details.

INITIAL THOUGHTS

There has been a substantial improvement to the quality of the deck's look and feel (not the art itself). The colors are more defined. The white background, for example, is not opaque (first deck), but solid. The smoothness of the cards is quality (what I'm used to when I hold a new deck of tarot or oracle cards in my hands). I think the word I would use is for this deck is "professional looking." The feel (texture) mirrors the professional look as well.

First edition (left) - 2nd edition (right)

Again, not much can be said for the card stock. It's still the same. At this point, I will contact the publisher about a stronger stock. These changes will most likely drive the cost of the deck up, but I would like for my future customers to wait a while before getting to the "black sharpie" phase. :P

As mentioned, the Venus and Mercury retrogrades are coming up, and this will be the time for insights. I already have changes and additions to the deck on paper as well. 

The whole idea with this copy was to enlarge and make the central symbols darker. As mentioned, symbols in the first copy were weak, faded, and small.

1st Edition (left) - 2nd edition (right)

On the down side, there were numerous errors I made, and with both copies. For this copy, smoothness of the artwork (lines) is my first priority. There were a different set of "tweaks," I did with certain cards, and I will have to see which is the best one. I may still need to do some further investigation.

1st Edition (left) - 2nd Edition (right)

The sun and moon placements were reversed (not sure how I missed this). In most cases, the sun is in the upright position of the card, while the moon shows up in the inverse position.

The Longing card is probably the card that needs the most work. Compared to its predecessor, it is not as smooth, and the silhouette effect needs to be re-worked. I trashed this card pretty good!

1st Edition (left) - 2nd Edition (right)

On the plus side, I like the improvements. The smoothness and solid colors (again) are good and this closely aligns with a professionally made deck. I am also happy to have the Pause card back in the deck (though it needs a few tweaks). I was using the old laminated one and it made shuffling crazy. Huge improvements have also been made to the Enemy, Realms, Man, and Ex cards. 

Pause 1st Edition

Ok, this is it. Below, I have left an excerpt from the oracle manual as well.

EXCERPT FROM THE PLUTONIAN ORACLE MANUAL:

READING EXAMPLE #3 - ISLAND READING EXAMPLE

When two arrows face each other, the reading can have a subtext, meaning that the energies reinforce each other. As a result, they can become “islands” and can stand on their own apart from the reading. In this case, the reader can interpret the example as reinforcing energy. One of the cards in the reading may be causing the island to occur. Once the pattern is recognized, either through interpretation, a clarifier, or guidance, the island may collapse or be reinforced. If it's a helping energy, then the pattern is usually reinforced. If it's not a helping energy, the pattern (island) can be broken.

ISLAND SYNTAX: Locked 1 --> <-- Transition (inverse)

In the above example, Locked 1 is facing Transition (inverse). The Transition (inverse) card indicates change that needs to happen, but isn't. Let's say the querent needs for this change to occur and feels frustrated as a result. However, on the mirror side of the reading, Locked 1 points back to the Transition (inverse) card. Locked 1 indicates sensitive information being withheld. Let's say this is your querent withholding information that could lead to the change she needs. Now we have a case where the actions of the querent are the offset of the pattern. So in this case, the cause of the island is coming from the Locked 1 card or the querent's actions. To break the cycle, disclosure of the information is needed. 

If you want to find out why she's holding back (background), you can place more cards behind the Locked 1 card. If you want to find out what this information is, you can place cards below the Locked 1 card in a column. If you want to see what kind of effect the disclosure will bring, place cards behind the Transition (inverse) card.

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Thank you for staying updated!

- Monique

Desiring to Communicate (Again?)

Ok, so I've decided to let some time pass before making my next update. I ordered a new sample deck with less cards (about 18) from the publisher back on February 1st. This copy contains most cards that I've made fixes and updates to. I also ordered a higher grade card stock, but I'm not sure 330 gsm is going to make a difference. I am thinking this will just make the cards more slippery like playing cards. The good news is that this copy does contain the missing Pause card, and stronger images that first appeared weak or faded in the first copy.

That aside, I am still going to take a cautious approach this month. I also probably won't be making the deck available in March or April. This extra time will allow me to work out any kinks during Venus retrograde.

So this aside, I'm really hoping to make some progress into the spring. I'll return with another update on the second copy, which is due to arrive on February 21st. I'll also be posting another excerpt from the manual then as well.

So please stay tuned and thank you for staying updated!!

- Monique