the Oracle of Associated Light
ignite creative thinking
63 card deck and guidebook
Fine-art quality cards feature original paintings
Paintings are abstractions of inspirational words
Guidebook explores the meaning of the words and the interplay of the life-giving elements Space, Earth, Water, Air, Fire
By artist and hypnotist Rachel Kice
Selected as a “Project We Love,” by Kickstarter, a limited-edition print
run was funded on the platform, and was released in February 2022Cards size 3 x 5 inches, printed on card stock, satin finish
the elements:
the first five cards in the deck represent the elements Space, Earth, Water, Air, and Fire with paintings of their symbols
the rest of the cards feature paintings that are abstractions of inspirational words,
such as Intuition, Mind, Love, Kindness. . .
The guidebook reveals the word abstracted in the painting and offers a description and chart for each card.
The chart shows the interplay of each word with each element, providing extra insight.
DID YOU KNOW?
Abstract images encourage "right-brain (creative) thinking.” Researchers at Columbia University have observed that abstract art creates a psychological distance that allows the viewer "to devise new ways to explore the painting outside of traditional patterns of object discovery."
HOW TO USE
keep scrolling for a one card reading and for the creative process behind the Oracle of Associated Light
ideas for using the deck
oracle: Draw a card. Consult the guidebook for insight related to your query. Draw three cards to create a past, present, and future narrative. Use the Oracle of Associated Light in conjunction with other decks.
intuitive: Read the cards as if the paintings were coffee grounds or tea leaves.
subconscious discovery: To uncover subconscious associations or patterns of thought, observe the painting on the card and tell the story you see as if it were a memory, or the retelling of a dream.
affirmation: Place a card that carries meaning for you in a place where you will encounter it regularly.
suggestion for a one card reading
CREATIVE PROCESS
created by an artist and hypnotist
Rachel Kice, artist and consulting hypnotist, combined her practices to create the Oracle of Associated Light. From word selection to painting while in a state of hypnosis, each part of the creative process was intentional and intuitive.
Rachel Kice, in studio with the Oracle Paintings
artist note:
STORY & PROCESS
It was around 2010 when I started painting abstractions of words. I don’t remember the moment the idea struck my consciousness, but do remember being out of a studio and working in a generous friend’s garage, and his driveway, drum room, and kitchen—I have good friends.
By 2019, after a few failed projects resulting in several years of working with lateral thinking prompts and divination tools, I set out to visually re-interpret a traditional Tarot deck. I started painting. It felt like I was forcing it. Something was off. I took a break and remembered a commitment that I’d made months prior in a personal development workshop: to work with my own ideas.
Because I didn’t have my own idea for an oracle deck and the Tarot didn’t seem to need me, I let it go—maybe an oracle deck was not in my cards (pun intended)—until I decided to paint while in hypnosis.
An abstraction of the word “Wisdom” by Rachel Kice
Artist Rachel Kice, preparing to paint by self-inducing a state of hypnosis, 2020
It was 2020. Initially, I hypnotized myself with the intent to paint shapes of memories. After creating a dozen of these paintings, I stepped away from my studio for a few days. When I returned, it was like seeing the paintings for the first time, except they felt familiar, like running into an old friend. I remembered the oracle. This way of painting—hypnotized—is the way of the oracle, my oracle. The paintings felt divine, as if offered to me from forces and realms beyond myself, but the process I’d stumbled into was my own idea.
If you’ve experienced hypnosis, then you know that being in a state of hypnosis can be a wild, vast, and undulating experience—kinda trippy, to be exact. The subconscious mind knows no limits, and we tend need some limits to bring things to form in the physical realm. So, I created a structure, an “imperfect geometry” to represent the human experience.
Starting with the elements Space/Spirit, Earth, Water, Air, and Fire, I selected words in an intuitive process, and placed the words on the points and parts of the geometry. Things changed as I worked. As I forgot some words and added others, the imperfect geometry served as a grounded place and force for my process. It became the channel and allowed the oracle to express a life of its own. The oracle became my guide.
"Stop thinking about artworks as objects, and start thinking about them as triggers for experiences.”
—Brian Eno, musician/composer/producer/visual artist and co-creator of Obliques Strategies card decks
No matter how you choose to use the deck and no matter your query, the Oracle of Associated Light is here to lead you to your own ideas.
And thank you—be it spiritual or physical, your support of independent artwork like mine is what makes art possible in our world.
from my light to yours,
Rachel Kice
The imperfect geometry used to channel the Oracle of Associated Light
is printed on the box and the back of each card.
