Oracles and Creativity: Designing Your Own Symbolic System

In this follow-up to Oracles, Intuition, and Creativity, we will go deeper into our exploration of sets of symbols and how they function as tools for self-study and guides for artistic creation. The class will begin with a brief survey of the history of divination and an analysis of various types of oracles (their art, symbolism, and structures), including a conversation with contemporary oracle designers about their practices. Each participant will then design their own oracle system and write a guide for its use. No artistic ability is needed for this class, but there will be an opportunity at the end of the five weeks to attend a special session with a hands-on creative component; details will be given in class. While it is not necessary to have taken the first Oracles class, some basic familiarity with symbolism and/or oracle use will prove helpful.

Access Program
We want our writing classes to be accessible to everyone, regardless of income and background. We understand that our tuition structure can present obstacles for some people. Our Access Program offers writing class registrations at a reduced rate. The access program for writing classes covers 60% of the class tuition. Most writing classes have at least one access spot available. Contact Susan Moore at susan@literary-arts.org if you would like to take a writing class at the Access Rate.

Coleman Stevenson is the author of Breakfast, The Accidental Rarefication of Pattern #5609, The Dark Exact Tarot Guide, and a book of essays accompanying the card game Metaphysik. Her latest collection of poems is Light Sleeper. Her writing has appeared in a variety of publications such as Seattle Review, Mid-American Review, Louisiana Literature, tarot.com, and the anthology Motionless from the Iron Bridge. In addition to her work as a designer of tarot and oracle decks through her company The Dark Exact, her fine art work, exhibited in galleries around the Pacific Northwest, focuses on the intersections between image and text. She has been a guest curator for various gallery spaces in the Portland, Oregon, area, and has taught poetry, design theory, and cultural studies at a number of different institutions there.