The Realest Oracle deck is here!

You should preorder one. There's a reading in here too. Yellow Brick Road.

Credit: Ethel Moore

If you haven’t already heard, I am becoming an author this summer!

The Realest Oracle deck and guidebook, illustrated and designed by Bria Benjamin, will be published on July 18, 2023. She is distinctly multicultural, body diverse, disability inclusive, and queer as hell. What’s not to love????

Photo: Kelsey Cherry at Piece Studio

The deck is officially available for preorder anywhere you buy books, and it would mean the world to me if you snagged a deck for yourself or someone you love. I’ll make it easy by linking all retailers here:

Whenever I talk about my life as though it’s on auction for public consumption or being perceived by a stadium of critics, my therapist says “Kendra, I sense The World is here right now.” For the last year and a half, I’ve kept my head down to work on shit that means the world to me without The World interfering. The Realest Oracle is one of those things; and I truly believe it is my greatest contribution to date because it was made with a pure heart and certainty. I sought zero opinions and zero validation that it was worthy of existing. As an insufferable over-thinker and ball of anxiety, this was a huge win toward self-trust. When you know, you know. I just knew this was going to bring many people the comfort I was searching for at the genesis of my own spiritual practice.

Credit: Bria Benjamin

Before I was a deck creator, I was a deck collector and admirer. For me, the experience of using an oracle deck was a journey into the author’s fantastical, magical, and whimsical world, so I didn’t consider what I wasn’t seeing until their limitations became glaring. So many of the beloved decks published, albeit beautiful and useful, feature white, straight, thin people in medieval settings doing shit that absolutely nobody is doing in real life.

Photo: Kelsey Cherry

I understood this to be a barrier for the average person who has no interest in adopting new languages, or picturing themselves in exclusionary imagery in order to be deemed “spiritual.” I’m also a firm believer that absolutely everything is spiritual. The magic of our path to fulfillment happens while we cry on the train, swipe on a dating app, ruminate in therapy, and begrudgingly build IKEA furniture. It’s up to us to assign meaning to our lived experience — to see opportunity for the mundane to transform our lives. Our spiritual tools should reflect the environments we live in and the people who we live our lives with. Anyway, I made the thing I wanted to see. This is my offering to those who are intimidated by spiritual tools, but powerful beyond belief and feeling called to build a relationship with their inner voice. I know you’ll love it, ‘cause it’s the realest ;)

Credit: Bria Benjamin

Reading 4 U

We’re building resilience and self-trust for the moments when we don’t get our way, but we are shown the path to a better and more fulfilling outcome. Rejection comes in the form of thwarted plans, derailed expectations, and flat out “nos,” but we are gifted with perspective almost immediately. Whatever was offered or desired would require compromise of the spirit and your most authentic expression, and you knew that from the beginning. We often want things because they hold a sense of prestige, they are the most obvious path, or because we know someone else has achieved success following the “right” steps. This is a version of self-betrayal, but I sense that this has become a game you’re tired of playing with yourself.

Frankly, you were too special for this situation. There is a new chance to love, to connect, to create, and to step into abundance coming just around the corner that is made for you. This will show you exactly why you’ve never really felt aligned in this aspect of your life. You have to stay open and flexible because the relationship, career opportunity, or life you are born to occupy is unconventional to some extent. The consequence is feeling like an outsider. You will not be able to track your progress in life based on external metrics. Your own value system is your guide.