I am not usually one for oracle decks, or for that matter, versions of the tarot deck besides the Rider-Waite-Smith. As a reader, I have nothing against them, it is just hard to make the investment, to know that I will feel connected to the multiverse presented within. The last experience I want to accumulate is one of buying a deck and then having it sit unloved on my shelf. Luckily for me, this has not happened yet, especially after purchasing “Oracle of the Micropatterns” by Regina LaRocca.
I met Regina sometime late last year, running sound at a friendly neighborhood rock bar called The Hawthorne Hideaway. Her band St. Jack’s Parade performed, and I instantly felt a warm sense of friendly respect for her. She played some really killer and tasteful guitar lines, was generally a very pleasant spirit to be around, and I loved the band. A few months later, I found myself walking through a sunny rain to get some divination at a local witch shop called Invoke. We had sparingly kept in touch over social media, and I had not realized she was a Tarot Reader at a store that I could stroll towards in a minute or two. As I told her at the reading: like one tries to support other bands in the local music scene, I love to try my best to support other community readers like myself by getting divinations done when I can. I end up learning so much, and sometimes as readers and healing facilitators we can forget what it is like to be on the other side of the table. I am pretty picky about who I feel good about getting a reading from (my issues, not theirs!) but I was blown away by Regina’s style and presence. So blown away, that I did not hesitate to pick up a copy of her book and oracle deck, which the store was readily selling.
Oracle of the Micropatterns feels like more than just a beautiful, independent, locally made Oracle and guidebook: it feels more like a world or cosmology that you get to peer into. And more importantly than that: it is constructed in a way that Regina’s written words can help empower you to find tools for yourself to fill that cosmology with a world all your own. My latest post on We The Hallowed was about a video relating to “Worldbuilding as a Tool in Chaos Magick”, well the informational book that comes along with this deck, titled “Things to Consider When Using Divination Tools” is a 250 page field guide for folks who were interested in that and want a lot more work to dive into! I don’t want to shove Regina into the “Chaos Magick” box, however her writing has so many different avenues for a practitioner to dive into, and each one asks lovely questions. Her writing does a wonderful job of not only giving answers, but instead leaving you with just the right questions to ask yourself in order to craft and build upon a foundational personal mythology that you can engineer all your own.
She also does a wonderful job of not being too flowery or metaphorical with her words, but also not going down an obtuse academic wormhole, which are two writing habits that I find often make divination or occult texts hard to understand or keep interest in. Regina has an excellent way of covering many basic practices in ways that I had never thought of, because she has such an interesting way of viewing how different dimensions interact with each other, as well as taking a practice not many authors are willing to do: mentioning a subject and then directing a reader to go do research elsewhere. These texts are incredibly smart and super spiritually resonate, while at the same time remaining relatable and down to earth. There is so much to learn here!
The cards themselves (of which there are 44, and involves artwork and photography by her father, Jerry LaRocca, making this a truly wonderful piece of familial and ancestral magick) are beautiful, expansive, and powerful. Size-wise, they are about the side of my full hand, all the way up to my fingertips, giving them even more emotional weight due to the physical size. Each one, according to the book, seems to represent a cosmological element, spirit, place, or action energy, but even beyond all this each card represents to me: an environment. I can feel myself going elsewhere and to liminal spaces whenever I even look at these cards, which makes me personally very excited to use them as part of my practice for Astral Work and Astral Journeying. The scrying potential for them is completely off the charts amazing. This is probably a niche term, but I can easily attain the ASMR feeling simply by pulling on and lightly focusing on it for a minute or two. The images in Oracle of the Micropatterns all have oddly specific names as well, some examples include: Fog Prayer, Man Opening Rock, and Life in Life. Regina has done an excellent job of listening to the spirits and downloads for information that can be both super specific AND open to the interpretation, which lays groundwork for excellent cosmology construction for the personal practitioner.
Oracle of the Micropatterns (did I comment yet on how awesome of a title that is?) is an incredible piece of work facilitated by Regina LaRocca, and given physical form by Strand in the Ether Publishing. My reading with her was incredible, and you can find her at Invoke every other Friday, or elsewhere as listed on her website.
For an example of the excellent text written in the manual that comes along with this beautiful and wonderful oracle deck, check out this video involving a recreation of an astral meditation I did using it as a focus!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpO0CwFwORY]
Also, for the rock and roll oriented among us, Regina’s band Saint Jacks Parade will be performing again at the Hawthorne Hideaway in Portland, OR on Saturday May 4th! You can find out more information here!
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