Tea Oracle and Portal Guidebook [Pre-order. Ships in August 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. 

When I set out on this journey I was longing for a deck that spoke to me, liberated from overbearing hierarchies and limiting archetypes. These are the cards that came in response. Limitless in their intuitive resonance, they offer spacious, nimble, and playful guidance.

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. 

Examples from the Portal Guidebook

The cards can be read on their own, intuitively mixing with your consciousness. Or, you can open up the Portal Guidebook and find an evocative entryway into inspiration, contemplation, provocation, and divination.  I'll share some example drafts for you to get a feel for the variety of portals that this guidebook opens. 

Autumn Boar

Participatory Abundance; Getting Better with Age

This hog has a certain je ne sais quoi. Aromatic like a fine French cheese, they are aging with great funk—embodying their style with more chill each passing day. Their teapot looks like a pineapple. It may be full of tepache, a 2 day ferment of pineapple discards mixed with cinnamon, cloves, and brown sugar. Life is easy when delicacies can come together so casually. What's all the fuss? Relax and enjoy the funk, whatever is blooming in your life right now, the simple delicacies that are fermenting, and whatever pleasures are getting better with age. 

Crab

Sojourns, Diversion, and Dreamy Meanders

Whatever season it may be, this crab evokes long summer days with its two claws raised up towards the sun. Crabs scurry side to side invoking the wisdom of a diversion—something fun—diverting energy from the march ahead as the tides move in and out.

Dreamy experiences find you when you let go into an aimless summer evening, meandering here and there—or just spending the day carefree at the beach. Take a journey off your usual path. See what magic is revealed in the outerlands.

As you move from place to place, encounter to encounter, or dream to dream, let the tides of chance swell. Venture swimmingly into the unknown and uncontrived, following a new line of possibility that you couldn't have thought or efforted your way into. This is the wisdom of the sojourn. 

Thundering Yak

Elemental Ritual

The Yak’s surroundings are alive and thundering. The yak too is full of energy, movement, and power—enraptured in elemental communication. Their teacup is turned upside down, opening it to a new or more ancient use as a ritual implement. 

The yak shares this profound moment of reciprocity—knowing that elemental connections are core relationships, and that ritual offering can purify the destructive behaviors born of separation from land that spill into every part of life.

The invitation is quite simply to go out and be with the elements. From there, you may wish to make offerings of water, tea, fruit, grain, beer, or whatever feels precious and appropriate. Spending time being in simplicity with a place and making offerings is transformative and healing, renewing the bond between you and your surroundings.