The RACKHAM Oracle: Real Magic

"I was not prepared for how deeply this Oracle would move me. This deck is cleverly executed, 

comprehensive, and displaying high aesthetic quality and sorcerous potency. ...  I could 

not recommend the Arthur Rackham Oracle more highly!" — Hollin, five star Etsy review.

Customer Photos

Absolutely gorgeous deck! The card stock is fantastic quality, with almost a velvety feel to it ...  It reads very, very well and I actually find it to be a bit of a cheeky deck. ... I love the creativity and eccentricity in the title words used on each card ...  the eccentricity factor found in some of the titles just really adds a little something extra to this deck.  — Tina, 5 star Etsy review.

Photo by Benebel Wen

The Arthur Rackham Oracle and all original material ™and © 2015 Duck Soup Productions.

The Final Reveal

Click on the cards to enlarge.

This concludes the card reveals for this deck. News of the deck's release is coming quite soon. I'm not given to exaggeration; I do mean quite soon. I have now seen the finished product, held it in my hands, and I'm going to go out on a limb and say it: that this may be one of the most beautiful oracle decks ever produced. And certainly this: I don't think that Rackham's art has ever looked better.

-- Frede.

www.tarotbyducksoup.com

www.ducksoup.me

Without Peer

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Actually, the cards in this update are very much WITH Peer... Peer Gynt, that is. Henrik Ibsen is perhaps my favorite playwright, but Peer Gynt is not my favorite of his works, by a long shot: it's flat-out allegory, which makes it pretty much not to my taste. It did, however, make perfect material for the pen or Arthur Rackham, who created twelve illustrations and a wraparound cover for his edition of the book. 

Here's a raw scan, a high-resolution PNG of that cover. I did not make a card out of this image; it is pretty much a simplified version of the book's frontispiece, which I did use on a card that was revealed in the last update.

Last time, I showed you the choices of Oracle Bags on offer with deck... this time I'll show you the two reading mats I've created to go with the deck. The first is heavily distressed, but the second one I haven't touched. Both images are from Rackham's Misummer Night's Dream.

Only two more updates to go! The Rackham Oracle is coming soon!

-- Frede.

www.tarotbyducksoup.com

www.ducksoup.me

The End of Midsummer, The Beginning of Peer Gynt

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Here are the last of the forty images from Rackham's illustrations for A Midsummer Night's Dream. The final image on this set is, of course, from Rackham's illustrated edition of Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt. It its the frontispiece from that volume, and depicts the play's most famous scene, in which Peer confronts the horrible troll king under the mountain -- the scene that was so memorably scored by Edvard Grieg in his Peer Gynt Suite. I was going to provide a link to a performance of the music, but frankly no one on YouTuble plays the god damn thing right. You need to track down the recording made by The Cleveland Orchestra with George Szell conducting.

At this time I am pleased to be able to preview the matching tarot pouch for this deck, which you will be able to get in your choice of FIVE different styles:

Titania and Oberon   •   Puck

Red Riding Hood    •   Titania

Tree Hugger

That's all for today. The deck is coming soon, but we still have more cards to preview here, so keep on coming back!

-- Frede.

www.tarotbyducksoup.com

www.ducksoup.me

Click on the cards to enlarge them.

Fall seems like the perfect time of year to be working on a Rackham Oracle.

Sometimes, as with the final image in this update, I'll open up an illustration and have no idea what to do with it in terms of creating an oracle card.  Most often, the thing to do is simply *bleep* over it and come back to it another day -- I can open the same image a week or so later and Know Immediately how it wants to be used. Sometimes, it's a little tougher than that. I wondered for weeks what to do with this illustration, then I want back to the book and read the text that it was meant to illustrate. That will usually do the trick if I am really stumped. In this case, for the card Subtitle I settled on quoting Shakespeare direct. 

Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoy the update. Still quite a few cards left to go!

-- Frede.

www.tarotbyducksoup.com

www.ducksoup.me

Rackhams 53-56

Click on these puppies to blow 'em up...

I now know what the final stats of the deck will be. It will feature 75 oracle cards, plus five extra cards for a total of 80 tarot-sized cards in the deck. Alternate backs will be available @ no extra charge. There will be an option for extra customization at an additional fee.

The Arthur Rackham Oracle is going on sale in late October! -- but you have nearly 20 more cards waiting to be revealed here between now and then.

-- Frede.

www.tarotbyducksoup.com

www.ducksoup.me

Click 'em to enlarge.

Although there are still plenty of illustrations ahead from A Midsummer Night's Dream, I've begun working with images from Rackham's illustrations for Ibsen's Peer Gynt: and I almost feel like I need to warn you about them. It's a dark story -- and so the cards will inevitably be Overwhelmingly Negative in tone. Just sayin.' Well -- you work with the materials you have.

-- Frede.

www.tarotbyducksoup.com

www.ducksoup.me

Rackham Rolls Along

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Rackham didn't exactly take liberties with his illustrations of A Midsummer Night's Dream, but some of his illustrations are inspired by diversions and sidetracks in the text, and occasionally by as little as a turn of phrase. Here is where the art for the DISQUIET card comes from, as Rackham chose to illustrate an allusion in one character's line of dialogue! 

I hope you enjoy these designs.

-- Frede.

www.tarotbyducksoup.com

www.ducksoup.me