There is no shortage of deck artists or deck producers online these days, from people who are both artists and occultists who blend their crafts together to people who spit out thoughtless AI slurry or use randomized clip art. I remember a time where artists were encouraged to make their own Tarot decks—even if they knew nothing of Tarot. It was just considered to be a ‘big project’ that ‘real artists’ would eventually get to and complete. As if it were a right of passage to the ‘real artist’ label. 

Extant Resources

Books like The Oracle Creator will explain that creators should find their own symbols and use correspondences to create the artwork. And that’s something you can honestly find as advice/directions anywhere. It’s available for free on Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, and a ton of other websites. Honestly, aside from the fact that it’s a pretty book, this is why I consider ‘The Oracle Creator’ to be an absolute waste of money as a book. The information is available, for free, if you just do a search for it. So what was the point in printing a book? 

Magical Mediums

One of my occult friends and teachers explained that there are many kinds of mediums to use for magic. Correspondences are one of them. Red candle for this. White candle for that. Roses for love, etc etc. But, one thing that I rarely, if ever, find mentioned outside of Rune Emmerson’s writings (Check out his great stuff, by the way) is the concept of Ephemeral Mediums. And I am specifically talking about time/surrounding events in this blog post. No, I am not talking about hours of the day—I consider that under a list of established correspondences that rotate. Things that rotate less often are more special. People talk about Halloween having a special feel to it—because we look forward to it for so much time. 

For this post, I am specifically referring to times that can only come and go very few times—like a first kiss or first Halloween. These are powerful moments—because they only exist for a very short time. Consider, why are eclipses so special? They’re rare. You might only see a total eclipse once or twice in your life, if you’re lucky. I got the idea to make use of an Ephemeral Moment for an experiment around the summer of 2024. After all, it was about time for my graduation from my masters program. And I had absolutely zero intention of getting another graduate degree.

So my ‘Graduation’ from the program was going to be a once in a lifetime event—something worth harnessing. 

I made a small selection of ‘Graduation’ Oracle cards during about a 2.5 month period just after I finished my program—while the confusing liminal space of being ‘done’ with something but not ‘started’ on something new was still in my consciousness. If I ever made a ‘Graduation’ Oracle card for mass production or even small print production, I doubt that it would be as potent as any of these one-offs made during this time. And that was why I also chose to make only a few of them. 

Where Do They Go Now? Where Do They Go? 

I am not sure what I will do with the rest of these cards. Two have already gone to my friends, and hopefully they will be of use. The ones that I have left are all trading card sized, which were meant to fit with the Artist Trading Card Oracle (ATC Oracle) I have discussed before. For the time being though, I am not really sure what to do with them. It felt ‘right’ to make them when I did. The greater mystery is now their purpose and who they will end up with.