projects

now on sale: fleurs de l'espace oracle deck!

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Over the past year I’ve been working on creating an accessible & easy to use oracle deck for card readers of all skill levels & today that deck–Fleurs de L’Espace–is released for purchase!

I created this 33 card collage deck inspired by my 90s childhood intro to divination: the Magic 8 Ball. I wanted to create an oracle deck that was cool as hell but also easy to use–so that anyone could use it to get started on their cartomancy journey. This deck is all about building your intuition without the rules & regulations we sometimes ascribe to oracle cards of all types. There is no guide book, no rules, & your interpretations can go as deep as you feel is right! Use it as quick way to answer daily yes or no questions (it's small enough to carry in your bag) or sit with its short words & phrases a bit longer to dig into how you really feel about a topic. Fleurs de L'Espace is for everyone, from beginners wanting to get their divination feet wet to advanced readers who want an easy-to-use daily deck.

It was important to me to make the deck as accessible as possible, so I strove to keep the price point below $40. To save on overhead costs, you can purchase your copy of Fleurs De L’espace directly from the printer!

Oracles

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if you know me you know I have been an avid tarot & oracle card reader for nearly two decades. over the past several months I’ve been developing my first original oracle deck to be released to the public. I wanted to create something that was fun & approachable to people with any level of experience reading & working with cards. fleurs de 'l’espace is what I came up with!

this is a 33 card collage deck designed & created by me. it’s meant to be used fast & loose, without the pomp & circumstance some other decks expect. to that end, there is no guidebook & no rules about how you use these funny little flower cards. the deck was inspired by my divination gateway drug: the magic 8 ball, & can be read as straightforward answers to simple questions or explored further, depending on your mood.

fleurs de l’espace will be available for sale SOON. stay tuned to my tarot insta (@nobullshittarot) & website (nobullshittarot.com) for launch details & more card previews on the way.

obsession: giulia tofana

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I recently learned about giulia tofana, a 17th century poisoner. she is believed to have provided the means for the death of over 600 men between 1633 - 1659. her infamous poison, named aqua tofana after her, was comprised of mostly arsenic & lead & was sold disguised first as makeup & then as devotional holy oil in honour of st. nicola of bari. after being turned in to papal authorities by a remorseful customer, she was executed alongside her daughter & three assistants in july 1659.

virtually nothing is known about her life prior to the mid-1600’s, when she appeared in southern italy as a beautiful widow selling cosmetics. her mother, thofania d’adamo, was executed for the murder of her husband in 1633 & may have passed the aqua tofana recipe down to her daughter. there are no records of giulia’s marriage & no surviving portraits of her.

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ruminating on how I can expand her story. women in history were so much more than housewives embroidering cushions…

2 Years

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Since February 2017 I’ve been writing a new poem every single day. Recently I’ve been thinking about when & how my poem-a-day project should end & I think two years is a nice symmetrical number. 730 total poems. Today is the day. Poem-a-day is done!

The project initially began because, after I finished my MFA, I felt like I wasn’t being creative enough in my daily life, & my creative muscles were shrinking. The poems became little warm up exercises for my poet brain, just to get the juices flowing. As an avid journal keeper I’m used to processing life events through words, but the poems also gave me space to examine the things that happened to me over the past two years. Really they gave me space to think & chew on ideas.

I like to joke that 99% of the daily poems are terrible. They were more about the process of doing & practice than being any “good”. But I do still have my favourites. The poem-a-day tumblr will stay up at poemadaydoctoraway.tumblr.com if you feel inclined to explore it. I’ll continue writing poetry of course, & have reserved a highlighted instagram story for new compositions, @natalie_raymond. Below are some of my fave pieces from the project.