Tea Oracle and Portal Guidebook [Pre-order. Ships in November 2024]

What is Tea Oracle

A tea themed Oracle Deck with 55 cards that open portals of inspiration, contemplation, provocation, and of course divination! This magical deck contains elemental themes and potent images that are resonant with the infinite possibilities we bring to oracular inquiry. 

The Tea Oracle cards themselves are extremely intuitive and evocative. The Portal Guidebook takes the cards a step further, inviting your wisdom in 55 ways—designed to leave lasting positive imprints on your relationship with the oracular.

Tea is always opening portals

Reflections shimmering on the surface of your warm cup invite questions of the heart. Connections emerge in the tea's aroma like memories of old friends and visions of far off mountains. Tea lends itself so naturally to divination and spending time with Oracle Cards. A lingering sweetness, staying with the feeling, seeing what wisdom opens in the rising steam.

Coaxed from the Void 

When I heard about AI image generation, it sounded super fun to me. My first real inspiration after getting a feel was to make labels for my tea company, Via Tiempo. After a few attempts, I couldn't help but feel the similarity between Tarot and AI images. The shared collective subconscious that generated our oldest decks is not far from those that source the AI algorithms. The difference of course is time. 

The Marseilles Tarot took centuries of artists, contemplatives, magicians, and accidents to reach the form it was in when printing technology made standard the images we've come to love. Today with AI, in a matter of seconds an image emerges out of human collectivity. Then we can divine a meaning of the spontaneous image that no "one" properly created. 

The final curation is a well rounded mixture of gestures. You'll have favorite cards that bring you ease, and those that challenge you. Altogether the set gives your awareness a full palate of passageways into clarity and integration. 

A Few Examples of drafts

Lion

Standing with great poise, an elegantly dressed lion looks back at the past, their tail flowing with the passage of time into the shape of infinity. On their dress, you can see boxing gloves or claws, embroideries of past aggressions. Their hovering glass looks more like a vessel for wine than tea, perhaps a former source of comfort that no longer serves them. Now their hands are relaxed in long opera gloves held in front, no longer drawn to struggle, only enjoying the dramas of humanity from the balcony.

Some may wonder at the male hair and female attire of the lion—their dress fits them perfectly but doesn’t fit the expectations of others. In the sky the various configurations of societies with their norms float like planets. Belonging nowhere for this moment, as if standing on mars, they’ve become their own astronaut. A peaceful ronin with armor designed piece by piece through chance battles lost and won. 

In the past the lion served many masters. Each misstep provided the cloth which they stitched together into their bespoke non-uniform of non-belonging. Now they enjoy the serenity of self-contained reflection as they wait with infinite patience—really there is no rush—for the approach of another who wears the insignia of genuineness, to enjoy the mutual connection, acceptance, and freedom of non-belonging together.

Raven

A tall raven carries a golden bowl at the level of the heart. Above and below, dots of momentary awareness descend softly. Some leave trails of orange radiance, others flash in and out of perception in rings of blue and yellow. These atoms of perception collect in the raven’s bowl and become the substance of the offering. The larger circle behind represents a more complex cosmology that originates from this more simple direct knowing. Walking past it, the corvid’s black talons scratch the surface of naked brilliance.

When you hear the raven’s caw, take the time honored cup in your hands and allow moments of perception to gather. Enter the forest and make ritual offerings to the powerful and underserved deity of appreciating things just as they are. Rousing the heart of appreciative awareness adds the final ingredient to the recipe for enlightenment from a stone. The Slight Shift from being in the world as it is, to loving the world into being as it is. 

Monkey

Living up atop the highest peaks in the world is no easy life. For this monkey, being removed from clutter and noise is such a priority that they’ve made this stark landscape their home. While comforts are low, their joy is palpable when they first smell the aroma of their favorite tea amongst their favorite neighbors, the peaks of the mountains and the dragons swirling in the clouds. 

The monkey’s posture is that of a relaxed meditator. Triangular, they look just like one of those mountains. With arms gracefully holding their teapot at the heart, instead of turning the wheel of teaching, they open the lid of brewing. The yellow line of fragrant steam explicates the inner energy pathways—showing a channel from the ear, rounding by the nose and mouth, and down the neck to the heart. When the cold wind blows, inner winds generate heat. There is inspiration in the exposure to the elements, and awe in the tenuous feeling of being so small in a landscape so vast and cold. The snowy monkey likes to wear bright orange clothes as a daily celebration of the baseline miracle of being alive.

The monkey wears a three layered hat that is reminiscent of a stupa, a structure built as reliquary at holy sites, a building full of potency that people will come visit and circumambulate. Some stupas even have eyes painted on, as if to say this is more like visiting your uncle than going to a museum. In this case, it is a monkey’s uncle who people make the treacherous and exhilarating trek out to visit in hopes of finding inner peace. Arriving, the monkey’s joyful demeanor, living where even trees dare not grow, provokes self-reflection. Where does my preference for comfort limit my reach into the beauty, awe, compassion, and simplicity that my heart yearns for?

In the astonishing power of highland mountains and winter landscapes, this monkey invites you to feel your living heart, and its cool edge of freedom and impermanence. Let small fears and consternations freeze like the beads of sweat on the monkey’s brow that fall crisply to the ground. Cleansed and enlivened by the cool wind, be with the trembling and chills every time you stare up into the moon and feel the cold of night, or snow, or awe, or love, or fleeting connection. Wear the outfits that express your celebration of life and become the monkey’s uncle that people come to for wonder and peace.