The Story of Folklore Oracle

The Folklore Oracle launches today. Let's talk about the deck I never planned to write.

Writing an Oracle deck was never something I imagined doing. I used Oracle cards, yes, but with my minimal artistic ability, it didn’t occur to me that a deck also comes with a book of meanings, and often, that book is written by a writer, not the artist who designed the cards.

So when the artist of the deck launching today reached out to ask if I wanted to collaborate, half of me was in shock, and the other half was fluttering with a resounding YES. Yes, of course I wanted to collaborate!

Giada Rose was an online acquaintance and painter that I’d admired for years. I’d even bought a couple of her prints. One of them—a woman kneeling by her Victorian hearth, pie bubbling within—still hangs on my kitchen cupboard. Giada had worked with Rockpool Publishing before, but this time, she had an idea for a new deck. Knowing my love of folklore, she wondered if I might be interested in working on it with her.

From there, we pitched the concept, celebrated the contract, and dove in. The collaboration felt like a dance between her brush and my pen—an alchemy of vision and word. And as if the universe wove its own enchantment, we discovered we were each carrying daughters during the creation of this deck—birthing it alongside them, another kind of magic made real. In a final decision, we dedicated the deck to our baby girls.

If you’ve been following my writing/publishing journey on Instagram, you may know that traditional publishing has been a dream and goal of mine for a long time. I’ve queried novels and received hundreds of rejections. Hundreds. It was only this past year that I finally decided to stop waiting for permission to share my books, and I self-published my novel Dove in an Iron Cauldron. It’s been one extremely curvy learning curve to teaching myself everything I once hoped someone else would handle: cover design, formatting, and worst of all, marketing. And yet, I have no regrets. It was the right choice, full of the lessons I needed to become the kind of author I want to be.

All the same, there is something very sweet and satisfying about being traditionally published through this deck. I always thought it would be my fiction that got picked up. But the universe has a way of gently prying our fingers from fixed visions. This, too, is a dream come true. And also, a reminder: never wait for permission to create or share your work. It’s the mystery, the unpredictable unfolding, that makes the journey so alive—and ultimately, shapes who we become.

Now, more than a year later, the deck is finally ready to be in your hands.

If you’ve never worked with an Oracle deck before, know that you don’t need any prior experience. Unlike tarot, you can begin right away: pull one card a day, tune in, and ask yourself what it might be saying to you. If you’re ready to go deeper, the booklet I wrote offers the full story—context for the tale behind the image, and reflections on how it might mirror something in your own life.

We created this deck for anyone with a love of folklore—whether casual or obsessive. A deck that could ask questions and offer guidance. We use the cards ourselves to invite whimsy, wonder, direction, and magic into our days. And now, they’re ready for yours.

About the deck:

Folklore Oracle explores the rich symbolism within folk wisdom, mythology, custom and superstition, acknowledging each symbol as a key to unlock the hidden pieces of the psyche. A deck in the vein of Women Who Run With the Wolves, but with a practical eye toward insight within the seeker's own hidden depths. Each card is a literary exploration of an image, a symbol, an item, a habit or a phenomenon found in folklore and regional tradition and used to highlight an aspect of the soul that needs to be brought out from the murky subconscious into the light of consciousness.

The cards are ready to speak. If your fingers are tingling, your dreams stirring, your shelves making a little extra room—maybe they’ve been waiting for you, too.