The Materia Medica Oracle Deck: Origin Story

The Materia Medica Oracle Deck was recently funded over 1000% on Kickstarter! This success was totally unexpected and I’m thrilled to be able to release this project into the world. A few folks have asked about the origins of the deck and how it was inspired, so I thought I’d share the story here.

In February 2019, I began a 28-day drawing challenge on Instagram. I had recently taken an interest in herbal medicine and was also looking for a way to bring a spark of inspiration back to my illustration practice. 

My goal for the challenge was to illustrate one plant for the entire alphabet and turn the end result into a poster. I’ve attempted many daily challenges in the past and while some have been quite successful, others have fizzled out before they built much momentum. I’m sad to say, this was one of the latter.

Something I’ve realized through years of participating in Inktober and other online daily challenges is that it’s crucial to have a larger reason for undertaking the challenge. Then it becomes values-driven and leads to a higher likelihood of completion.

Part of the fizzling of this project was that I couldn’t see the larger use for a bunch of herbal illustrations.

So, I let it rest. I actually took a break from art altogether that year, spending several months working a day job and giving myself time to disconnect from thinking of art as a job.

Then out of the blue, as if by magic, it hit me – what if I made a set of cards that could be used as flashcards to help people identify the plants in the wild? Taking it further, what if I made an oracle deck that could serve both purposes – helping folks identify and remember key aspects of medicinal plants, while also diving into the deeper, emotional, and spiritual meanings of these plant allies?

Thus, the Materia Medica Oracle Deck was born.

I started off by making a list of all the plants I was interested in learning about for any reason at all. It could be that I had worked with the plant before and wanted to dive deeper, or that I was simply interested in drawing the plant. Usually, my next step would be to research the plants to see what they’re all about before I start drawing, but in this case, I let the drawing guide me.

I started with the plants that most piqued my interest - mugwort, dandelion, chicory - and kept all the drawings in one sketchbook. After experimenting with digital color vs gouache, I decided on a combination of the two. I would paint the fills separate from the linework, assembling the full illustration in photoshop. 

Once I finished most of the artwork, I got to writing and researching all the plants I’d just drawn. I gathered every book on herbalism and plants that I could, set myself the goal of researching one plant per week. My research was not limited to reading – I spent time creating relationships with each plant as much as I could. Tasting the herb, working with a tincture of it, and calling it into meditations. This research was as logical as it was intuitive.

The Materia Medica Oracle Deck was inspired by vintage seed packets and catalogs, the old farmer’s almanac, and vintage field guides. I’ve been intrigued by these types of resources since I was a kid. I remember my mother first showing me the farmer’s almanac when I was young and feeling starry-eyed at what I was seeing: a book that predicted weather forecasts for the whole year, outlined the moon phases and other astronomical phenomena, and also gave advice for gardening, farming, homesteading, and herbal medicine.

Looking back, I think that may have been my first introduction to witchcraft. Not the velvet robed, black candle, curated-for-Instagram kind of witchcraft, but witchcraft that is land-based, seasonal, and rooted in tending the heart by tending the land and living in harmony with our fierce and fragile ecosystem.

My hope for the Materia Medica Oracle Deck is that the magic within is accessible and grounding, helping folks to connect with the wisdom of the earth and themselves.

The Materia Medica Oracle Deck is now available for preorders through June 29th. This 36-card pocket-sized oracle deck illuminates the magic and medicine of plants with an accompanying 60-page guidebook. Learn about common preparations of each plant, herbal actions, magical uses, and psycho-spiritual properties of each plant. Decks are slated to ship in August 2020.