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As anyone who has ever delved into the mysteries of the Tarot for the purpose of divination knows, the Cabbalistic influenced deck so popular with its universally significant imagery and symbolism works well on general influences and large-scale events. For the adept there is a tool of divination that can be constructed to give a more detailed account of one's future forecast and indications on a more personal level.
The creation of a custom deck of divination cards is not a task to be lightly undertaken. It will require some time and meditation just to work out what people and influences in your life will need to be included. For cards representing specific people, you will need to decide the symbolism to include with them that reflects what aspect of your life they influence. A card representing an important teacher, for example, may require blending not only them personally as a source of knowledge but to represent an influence of learning in general. For a creative individual, adding a card representing your specific Muse may help indicate where your artistic nature influences your life.
Keep a list of the cards and their governing influences so you can review it and refine your choices and understanding of how the individual meanings affect you. A fresh insight may cause you to change or eliminate some cards and add others. Specific subsets may be included to work as modifiers to your personal influence cards. To include the essence of numerology into your divinatory matrix, one may wish to add ten cards to the growing pack that represent Zero through Nine.
Other imagery that has a specific meaning to you, whether it be dream symbology or psychological keys, should be considered for your personal divination pack. Regardless of what may be the archetypic meaning of a particular item or entity, you should determine its specific meaning in relation to yourself and use it accordingly. As an example; in dream interpretation spiders are generally considered to be positive images to encounter. If you have a dread of the arachnids and they instill fear in you, they should be portrayed in your personal iconography to reflect that influence. Remember that you are creating a tool that is specifically designed for you, not the world in general.
Once you have some idea of the types of cards you are going to include you will need to determine the way you will create the actual physical artifacts of your deck. Some office supply stores carry card blanks of the kind used to print political campaign handouts. These are larger than a standard business card and are a good size to work with. Barring these as a source of card blanks, one may have to settle for standard poster-board and a knife and straight edge to cut your cards into the preferred size. Investing in a round-corner cutting tool adds not only to the aesthetic look of your cards but also makes them easier to shuffle and manipulate.
If you are not comfortable drawing your cards free-hand style, you can work the designs out on light tracing paper and transfer the image to the actual card surface by rubbing a soft lead pencil over the back of the paper holding the image. You can then transfer it like carbon paper onto your card. The ink you then draw the permanent images on with can easily cover the soft pencil marks. Using the 'cartoon' motif of black lines to define your picture, you can color and fill the image in with permanent markers, watercolors or other media of your choice. If your artistic medium has the potential to be rubbed off with use, you may wish to use a light spray fixative over the completed card face to preserve it.
A uniform card back can be created with a linoleum block cutting or rubber stamp. This allows you to either opt for a simple pattern or customize a more elaborate design for your personal divination card deck. Leaving the back a plain white is also acceptable if you desire but do not do so just for the expediency of completing the task. You will be imbuing the cards with your personal energy and aura as you create them.
Only you will be able to know when you have enough cards in your deck to begin working with them. Thirty or forty, though, are usually minimum amounts to handle well. The creation of this sort of personal divination tool is an ongoing work. As you work with them you will be able to see what aspects may yet be missing or other cards that don't ultimately fit and will need to be replaced. Just as your life changes and influences come and go your personal deck will change over the years. For this reason it is good to always keep some card blanks around.
As for using your cards in a reading of the influences and potentials for your life, you may use either a standard card spread and pointers or devise your own way of laying them out and determining how each symbol should interact with the other positions. This is a tool for accessing your personal inner psyche. You will be creating in it a personal cosmos reflecting your specific place and understanding of it.
One who seeks divinatory knowledge should not cease their use of the traditional tools. They are there for determining more universal knowledge and have the power of the centuries to back them up. However, by adding this type of personal tool to your repertoire, you may also be able to gain much clearer ideas of how your personal life fits into these patterns.
As well as writing and researching on the paranormal and occult phenomena that intersect our reality, Douglas Mefford can also be found helping spread literature to the world at Bell, Book & Candle Publications or hanging out at his bungalow in Greenwoods Village.
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