Research is about asking and answering questions. So too is an oracle
card reading. The oracle cards in this book follow the design of a
traditional tarot deck which uses a set of 22 cards (like a major arcana)
(3). However, my cards are designed using 22 original pieces of collage
art as shown in the pages of this book. This is a unique oracle deck:
the front of each card in this deck is bespoke and distinct. Each card
is artwork crafted through processes of intuition, soul and in
conversation with the materials themselves.
While the idea for my artwork, called a Currere Oracle deck, has
its roots in frameworks of arts-based inquiry, currere, and curriculum
theory, the Currere Oracle cards are not just the stuff of scholars or
researchers (see Mcdermott-McNulty, Barros, & Daspit, 2025).
Research is simply a high-dollar word for searching; and who. amongst
us does not search for meaning, for answers, for clarity, or for
possibility every single day? The cards invite anyone, from any
background to "play" with questions and possible answers afforded
by the oracle process. Its multiple entry points disrupt linear
understandings of what it means to ask a question and to seek an
answer. Each card corresponds with, and can be interpreted
according to, the moment of the reading, the relationality or
positionality of one card to another, and the interpretation of the
reader. Questions and answers remain open-ended in their
multiplicity, thus inviting disruptions and displacements of "normal"
positioning of our usual linear way of thinking about cause and effect
in our lives.