The Surseasonal Oracle
Surreal & Seasonal
The Surseasonal Oracle and its guidebook are love letters to the four seasons and to all the animals roaming this beautiful earth. Witchcraft is the alignment with the natural world and the witnessing of its (and our) magic. The seasons and the creatures of the cards have messages for us to not only connect with the universe as a whole but with our own personal craft.
The Deck of Cards includes:
16 Cards of Autumn
16 Cards of Winter
16 Cards of Spring
16 Cards of Summer
16 Cards of Tools of the Craft
The guidebook contains 200 pages of interpretative suggestions for the corresponding season, animal and craft.
The Seasons
Spring is magical and transitional
Summer is mundane and external
Autumn is magical and transformational
Winter is mundane and internal
The Familiars
Along with the qualities of the season, the familiar (animal) in the card has a message for you. A (witch's) familiar is an animal with whom one has a special relationship. Unlike a pet, dependent or livestock, a familiar is a creature who is more like a colleague, deputy or partner in crime.
The Crafts
The crafts are skills and practices the enhance one's life, that make the mundane magical. These crafts invite us to not only be more mindful in our rituals but to enjoy them, as well.
The Tools of the Crafts
The tools of the crafts are found scattered throughout the cards and they each haver various but harmonious correspondences. They can often suggest tools, materials or ingredients for a spell one's casting.
Art as Oracle
Using oracle cards is one of many ways to tap into our intuition, which is wise and connected to the universe as a whole. Listening to our intuition is trusting the universe and our natural place in it. We are the universe. So, trusting the universe is trusting ourselves. When we trust the organized chaos, we tend to be more successful—even if it’s not in the direction we had planned.
The simplest way to listen to our intuition is by listening to our body and the physical signs it sends us. Pain, for example, is not an ailment in its self; it’s a message. Pain is one way the body communicates with us. We can choose to ignore it or investigate it.
Some things are more complex, vague, or opaque, and there are tools to help us align with the universe more, such as oracle cards, runes, scrying, lucid dreaming, shadow work, and smoke transmutation rituals.
“Oracle cards” is an umbrella term which includes tarot, angel or other decks with a more specific symbolic reference. Oracle decks can have any number of cards, any theme, and any symbolic system (or none). The Surseasonal Oracle deck celebrates the whimsy of the surreal and the cycles of the seasons.
Inspiration
When we moved to a small village of 200 residents near Interlaken, Switzerland, in 2014, I spent my mornings and evenings walking our dog along a footpath beside the Lake of Brienz. Switzerland the land over is beautiful, diverse, and carefully preserved, but the walk from Niederried to Ringgenberg is especially charming. Having lived a year there, I saw each season in its glory, the curious crevasses in the rock walls, the gentle waves of the lake against the sudden banks, the wildflowers that flourished in the meadows, and the vegetables that swelled in the well-tended gardens. My imagination was sparked like that one of my childhood, and I began to envision a fantastical world of miniature creatures and inconspicuous abodes. Thus, a series both surreal and seasonal was developed. Since then, I have meticulously captured scenes and animals all over Switzerland and composed them in delightfully whimsical ways in hopes of provoking a curious smile. I have also incorporated those animals that live with us at Mulin Sura.
Photography Prints
Any of the individual images inside the cards can be ordered as fine art prints on professional luster 260g/m2 paper in A4, A3 or square. Contact me, Jamie, by email at jamie.karnik[at]icloud.com for more information.
Readings
Do you have a question for yourself, your inner child, or the universe at large? Are you searching for direction or support? Would you just like your decision affirmed? You can book a reading--vague or specific--and get clarity on anything that's nagging at you--past, present or future.