It’s been another week, dear readers. I don’t know about you, but where I live we have just gone through the peak of peony season. Now that it regularly rains several times a week, they blooms don’t last very long outside. I’m hoping I get one more week to enjoy them next week. Last week and this week I put a bunch of fresh cut peonies in my day job office and the aroma really helps me get through the work day. 

Meanwhile, Alexander Speaks over here won’t stop trying to get me to leave my comfort zone and produce a divination deck—even if it’s just for personal use. Can you believe the nerve of this dude, trying to contribute to the artistic and spiritual development of his friend? I’ll have each and every one of you know that he’s also been calling out my own maladaptive thought patterns in our chats. The nerve. The audacity. 

The Oracle for All Hell Site Denizens

Unless I can find a way to make this deck available for free, it’s very unlikely it will see any form of publication. After all, these are not my posts, and I don’t have any right to make money off of them. I had been turning over this idea in my head for literal years before Alexander told me to just make a draft with screenshots before deciding on the art medium I wanted to use. I can’t believe this guy and his useful suggestions. Utterly infuriating. 

But, it thought it would be fun to show you all some of the cards for the first draft / prototype. I think that this is a specific sort of deck that requires a lot of historical context of a very specific part of the internet. There are also plenty of cards in the prototype that have specific meaning to me, but very much may not have the same meaning to others. 

So what would the card Weed Smorking Girlfriends mean in a divination context? Deception. Perhaps of the self. Or maybe a lie that has gone so far that it’s lost its original meaning. Insecurity. Maidenless behavior. 

I specifically wanted to collect a few things that had specific meanings—such as a post referring to the Tramp Stamps. A good card to, once again, indicate an op or dishonesty. A lack of earnestness or a hidden (but not very well) motivation. 

I’ve got at least 40 cards mocked up for the prototype. What are your favorite historical Tumblr (or other internet) posts and some of their correspondences? I’d love to hear some of the goofy context and other Deep Lore behind your choices. This is not meant to be a “serious” project at this stage, but something goofy I work on when I feel like I’ve been getting too serious lately.

Note: My intuition tells me that 42 cards is the minimum to make this deck ‘work’ but I want the prototype to have 69(Nice).