Post your oracle elements here!

Regenerative Culture Social Technology
#16

Ha! This one grabs me. :stuck_out_tongue:

OK, at last a spare moment to post a few. . . from various sources of inspiration (maybe you’ll recognize some):

A night-loving fir tree, bedeviled by the everpresent glow of streetlights.

A tired watchman at rest in the Citadel, testing the air for dragon smoke in his sleep.

The newly widowed daughter of an incense-maker, dressed in her nephew’s clothes to flee the crushing blow of an edict forbidding her from fragrance.

A raft of ghost food, rocketing through the landscape on eighteen wheels to reach its destination just-in-time. . .

A generous tree, holding a magical plum in her highest branches.

The turncoat’s envoy, tensely waiting in the pre-dawn shadows of a tomb, coded message in hand.

An spindly orphan girl with the strength of ten men.

#17

An old and wise man, willingly loosing his memories, one by one, until he forgets all. (anyone know from where this one comes?)

#18

The aeon-old soul of a formerly enslaved star, wearing an otherworldy suit of onyx armorl, bent on retribution…

#19

I really like the elements posted on here, and the imaginings they provoke by just reading them.

Some to add to the elemental ways, which I decided to try by using pieces from my dreams as the elements:

[i]- a mountainside covered in a battlefield of fallen giants, who have re-awoken

  • a small fluff of a dog and her companion making mischief while fleeing the authorities who follow their trail of pranks
  • a city set on fire by a volcanic eruption from a dragon’s back
  • plotting spirits held captive in a park waiting for the moment to revolt
  • a strange tree with a opening that leads into another land
  • a woman who awakes animalistic powers within others
  • a child underneath a sacred hill, waiting to know birth
  • the warlord wishing to kill a trickster of the forest who rivals him
  • an abandoned town turned into a refuge for a shapeshifting people
  • a black wolf unable to stop himself from attacking others
  • a mother grizzly bear in a tree with her two cubs, concerned by the dangers around them
    [/i]
#20

Wow. I can hardly believe the coolness of your dream elements. Wow. I officially steal them! Just try and stop me! :slight_smile:

#21

A cranky old woman with a heart of gold…

A band of wise, yet humble sorceresses who travel across the land healing it’s wounds…

A wise old man with much to contribute, respected by no one…

#22

This is awesome! I’ve been doing tarot with playing cards off and on for many years (I quit for a spell because I was creeped out by how accurate my readings were…)

I started to do mine, too. Here’s some:

SPADES:

2- No new growth; No extra taken
3- Taking life without regenerating
4- Hibernation
5- Habitat defended but loss experienced
6- Renewal of life!

DIAMONDS:

2-Putting the needs of other life ahead of one’s own
3-Solves pertinent issue with community or threat to land
4-Living peacefully with the Sunflowers and snakes
5-At odds with Sunflowers and snakes
6-Spirits hear cries
7-He who hates the Prairie learns to love it; If a bough won’t bend, it will with loving coaxing

I’ll post more later when I have them fine-tuned.

#23

<<Queen of Diamonds: A warrior, wielding coppersword and cougarskin cap, jealous and ready for love>>

I use the Queen of Diamonds as my face card and have for years, but this fits me even more than the traditional meaning I used to use. This is great, Willem, and thank you for this thread!

#24

[quote=“sunflowersFTW!, post:23, topic:771”]<<Queen of Diamonds: A warrior, wielding coppersword and cougarskin cap, jealous and ready for love>>

I use the Queen of Diamonds as my face card and have for years, but this fits me even more than the traditional meaning I used to use. This is great, Willem, and thank you for this thread![/quote]

Crazy and cool! :slight_smile: What an unexpected response. Thanks you! :slight_smile:

#25

Ace of Spades - A gigantic serpent with glittering scales waits in darkness…

Queen of Hearts - A green haired woman stands in the creek staring at the water…

3 of Clubs - 2 mischevious children paddle away in a canoe…

#26

A distant pair of weary travelers covered in bits of moss and debris walking the roadside between forest and industrial zone, who, upon approach, reveal friendly faces.

#27

These SIX GREAT STRENGTHS came from a tale I read and stuck with me. some of them give me strength just thinking about them (and one has to do with one of my most powerful dreams ever):

the footsteps of a cat

the beard of a lady

the spittle of a bird

the roots of a mountain

the voice of a fish

the longings of a bear

They give me strength when I get curious about what makes each one powerful, magical.

Also, what if you mix & match? the footsteps of a mountain, the longings of a fish. . .

#28

Amazing!

This makes me want to start a riddle-making thread. :smiley:

#29

a beaver lodge made of bones, with moist earth tucked lovingly in between.

#30

this is fun. i used google image search as a springboard for the imagination. so many nearly forgotten stories, so many lovely paintings…

a smoky path horses may traverse, riderless, to the moon

a x-shaped mushroom patch that will chage all vision to black and white except for choice opportunities, which appear bathed in a fiery gold, when trampled

a woman who is stricken voiceless when her husband disturbs a solemn ceremony

a paintbrush that brings images to life when used to paint over eyes

a phantom rat that exists to dash before the vehicles of merchants, blessing those who instinctively attempt to swerve

a warrior standing loyally by their master, sending back all charging enemies although mortally wounded by many arrows

a wandering drunkard who dreams of being reunited with a lost love who in fact never existed

a furious recluse who always receives copious amounts of the things least desired, attention and affection, the fury triggering increasingly reckless behavior, a quality which only adds to his charm in the eyes of the inescapable fawning enthusiasts

#31

funny, this reminds me of something I used to do to help myself get to sleep (I embody the insomniac’s insomniac). I’d envision someone (the sleep fairy?) painting me with sleep using a giant soft paintbrush, from head to toe. One arm at a time, each finger, one leg at a time, each toe, my face, my eyes, etc., slowly and sleepily. . .

brings dream images to life!

#32
a wandering drunkard who dreams of being reunited with a lost love who in fact never existed

a smoky path horses may traverse, riderless, to the moon

My favorites. So cool Richard!

#33

In the Fifth World, you’ll have an oracle for each land. You flip your coin five times to get a reading; then you match it to a season, and you have your reading.

So, to make an oracle for your land, you:

  1. Identify the seasons that happen in your land
  2. For each season, list out 32 people, places, phenomena, etc. that you observe in your land during that season.
  3. Write a riddle for each one. Willem had some really great things to offer in the College of Mythic Cartography podcast about how to write riddles. I’ll include a lot of that advice in the Fifth World book with the instructions on how to write your land for the Fifth World.

Which would mean that making such an oracle for your land would involve coming up with 32 riddles for each season–bioregional, seasonal, animist poetry. When I came up with the idea, I realized, that would actually make for a really, really good rewilding exercise, story game aside, now wouldn’t it? :slight_smile:

#34

The Three Rivers Oracle

Most of the elements here come from local legend and folklore, or the stories of Seneca, Mingo or Shawnee groups who once lived here. I wrote this for In a Wicked Age, which mostly focuses on “sword and sorcery,” a pseudo-historical genre usually set in the early era of civilization. In this case, I wanted a bioregional animist oracle for my own home, the area now dominated by the city of Pittsburgh. I have a bit of a lead-in for when I use this for a local gaming con here in Pittsburgh–

Have any of you here ever gone to Meadowcroft? It sits maybe a half-hour’s drive from here. For a long time, we thought the first humans came to North America maybe 10,000 years ago. Then we dug at Meadowcroft, and found signs of people here–right here–over 30,000 years ago. We live in an ancient, ancient land. Thousands of years ago, giants lived along these rivers and built mounds to honor their dead. And a thousand years after they fell, their last children remained free here while down the Great River, the Ohio River, there reigned the Sun King, from the City of Mounds–we call it Cahokia now, and we built the city of St. Louis on top of it. But back then, no city in the world sprawled larger than it did. They traded cedars from the coasts of the Pacific Northwest, obsidian from the empires of Mexico, shells from the Gulf, and copper mined in North Carolina and Virginia. The power of the Sun King stretched across Turtle Island, but here, the children of the giants remained free, ever under pressure from that kingdom, bound to the land that gave them the strength to endure. In that wicked age…

#35

Suh-weet use of the “Spring - Romance, Summer - War, etc.” suit seasons.

Again, to reiterate: SUH-WEET!