The Motif Deck is now available on Game Crafter!
A unique oracle deck using color and objects to find meaning
Thank you, everyone, for your interest in this deck and for your input on its final touches. The Motif Deck is now available for purchase at The Game Crafter.
(Marker for scale)
What is The Motif Deck?
The Motif Deck is a unique cartomancy system where the images have no inherent meaning, and so its up to the reader to assign significance.
The cards consist of seven objects interacting with each other: hand, candle, rose, feather, key, string, and cup. Each image consists of one or two of these items on a plain colored background.
There are four colors: red, green, blue, and yellow.
Each image appears in the deck four times in different colorways, for a total of 112 cards.
These images were designed to be meaningless- they are just objects. What gives them meaning is the combination of color, frequency, placement, and interpretation from the querent and the reader.
I want the reading to allow a back and forth with the reader and the querent- be able to ask 'what does the cup represent to you? or 'who does this red key represent in your life?'
Who is behind The Motif Deck?
My name is Lee and I have been a tarot reader for more than ten years. I am the author and artist of The Sweeney Tarot, which has been my go-to deck this whole time.
As I became more skilled in reading, I learned that I had a unique reading style: rather than having specific spreads and card placements, I let the cards decide for themselves what order they're meant to be read in. I allowed myself to gravitate towards specific cards and read them like a story.
I have always been a fan of stories told through objects, and I thought about the symbolism of everyday items was powerful in that a key can mean so many things to so many people. And from there I began thinking about those objects and how a thread can symbolize love but it can also symbolize struggle. And I thought that was beautiful.
On occasion, I will be doing a tarot reading for a stranger and they will have a different interpretation of the cards than I do. I always encourage this- the querent knows who they are more than anyone. And I wanted to make something that made space for that.
Is there a guidebook for this deck?
There is a simple guide book that comes with the deck, that gives a sample reading as well as some approaches to the reading, some potential meanings to individual colors and objects.
However, I have been (and will continue) posting a weekly spread and asking people to give their interpretations. There are no wrong answers, and you can find them in the 'sample reading' tag.
Thank you, once again, to everyone that egged me on and gave their opinions. I hope you have as much fun with this deck as I have had showing it off to strangers for the past month.
