The Mysterious Spirit of Nature: An Oracle Deck by Moksha Marquardt
A couple years ago, during the pandemic, I first published this oracle deck, The Mysterious Spirit of Nature. It was a small run of only 250 and I quickly sold out. I’m now half way through the second printing of 500 copies! People seem to really enjoy it and it looks like I’ll be making a third printing before long. The following is an update of a post I made when I first released the deck…
I’m excited to announce the release of my new oracle deck, The Mysterious Spirit of Nature. The 48 cards in the deck feature my art on the front, paired with some inspirational words I wrote on the back. Making this “mini portfolio” has been a dream for at least the last 10 years or more and I couldn’t be more happy to finally see this dream become a reality.
The art in the deck spans a very significant 10-year period of my life and career as an artist. In fact, for almost 9 years I had quit making art completely. Durning that phase I didn’t make even a single sketch in my sketchbook. Then one day I found the inspiration I needed to start painting again and I came out of my hiatus with a roar. The work in this deck starts there and moves through the next decade, documenting my personal journey and spiritual transformation.
You can see a visual transformation if you were to arrange these cards chronologically; the color palette shifts from primarily earth tones and moves into blues and then magentas. The subject matter changes from trees and a deep fascination with roots and moves upward into the planets and stars. I started painting more animals too.
Someone once commented that all my paintings are essentially self portraits and I think that is a very insightful observation, and is for the most part true. Therefor this deck is a visual journal, a travelogue documenting my journey into self-knowing and confidence.
Another interesting thing to note is that in those first years when I rebooted my creative practice, my output was very small. I was lucky to finish 3 or 4 paintings a year. But recently I’m producing closer to 30 paintings a year. So there are more recent works in this deck than from the first few years.
This has been an extremely rewarding journey for me, both in making the paintings and in designing and producing this little oracle deck. I’ve learned so much in the last ten years, and I’m already looking forward to the next deck in another 10 years.
A couple other notes; this deck is self published in a run of only 250. It was printed in Seattle at a small company called Girlie Press. I had the option to have it made for cheaper in China but I wanted to keep it local and support my community.
Please click the link below and check it out, and share it with others if you can. As an independent artist I’m doing this all on my own, and promoting and selling anything online can be a challenge. I’d love to see this deck flourish… Thanks so much for your support.
