Oracle Keywords

[TerraAkhert]

I’m currently designing my first oracle deck and I’m making a list of keywords. If you were creating an oracle deck what keywords would you find important to include?

[2dogs]

I no longer use decks with keywords but drew a pair of cards from The Photographic Card Deck of the Elements and The Photographic Card Deck of the Solar System to see if they had any helpful advice. Possibly not, but for what it’s worth they’ve at least explained what they have against keywords ::).

 

Element: Terbium (65). The photo on the card looks like a mountain range but in the book it’s not only rotated 90 degrees but is also reflected as in a mirror and so evokes a completely different image, maybe the end of a broken key. The text is about matching the right sort of loudspeaker driver to the speaker cone being used - a rod of terbium alloy can make a solid wooden table act as a speaker which is impossible for ordinary magnets designed to vibrate lightweight materials. I wasn’t expecting to find a Tarot correspondence from 65 reducing to 6+5 = 11 however the Quantum Tarot XI Justice - Planck’s Constant points out that while money could come in many different amounts such as $3, $7, $12, bank notes (which symbolise money) are restricted to fixed, pre-defined denominations such as $5, $10, $20. So it’s saying that keywords limit the range of meaning - they make it difficult to interpret the card appropriately when it appears in different contexts.

 

Solar System: Nature’s Laboratories. This talks about simple explanations for the major differences between the planets based on measured physical properties like their mass and distance from the Sun, which can be determined by remote observation from Earth, but also variations due to more subtle and complex effects and finally complete surprises such as the unexpected discovery of water on a distant moon. “The interplay of different forces is so complex that we often cannot guess the result. We have to go there and see for ourselves”. This suggests putting a lot of information into the cards - maybe imagery or background text, a story with plenty of detail or a subject which people are likely to have their own experience of - so the reader can think for a while, give their subconscious mind time to reflect, then come up with their own ideas or perhaps experience a flash of inspiration.

[EmpyreanKnight]

I think that the keywords that you'd use should depend on your theme, like a deck about angels must have a different set of keys compared to gothic oracles.