Cave Water Dripping
oracle card of the week: design & meaning
Cave Water Dripping
Description:
In the deep caverns and holes of the Earth, hundreds of thousands of feet below the ground, water is moving. Water drips slowly from stalactites, tracing patterns that have been formed over eons of flowing into vast pools below. The stone is carved by unending movement, by eternal dripping. The shapes of its design cannot be seen by mortals restricted by their fleeting time. Its design is unseen, unfathomed and yet, exists all the same.
For even in the depths of solid, stable, seemingly unchanging stone, there is life and there are cycles — that which water brings everywhere it flows. Blind fish swim through the cave water accumulated between the piercing stalagmites it holds.
Interpretation:
Humans oft disregard and undervalue that which they cannot see. For millennia we believed the Sun was what was in orbit of our Earth because we saw the Sun move. We couldn’t believe and even prosecuted those who claimed that the ever steady Earth was flying around space at speeds we could only imagine.
Cave Water Dripping invites one to listen into the stillness of our bodies, of our world. Sitting and listening deeply to that which seems quiet and unchanging will reveal a myriad of intricate noises, changes in pressure, breaths of wind, whispers of chemical transformations. This card asks the reader to tune into the deep intuition and slow processes of their body.
You may feel stagnant, like nothing is changing, like you are learning nothing, like you are always doomed to make the same mistakes. However, just as the mother sees the child grow day by day but, only notices the change after weeks or months of time; you are ever growing and ever learning. The reason you cannot see it is because our society’s sense of time is warped and bloated with capitalist demands: expectations for instantaneous growth and production, expectation to always increase productivity exponentially.
The vast majority of processing, learning, and growing happens too slowly to be seen by our progress-hungry eyes. This blindness leads us to discount the deep rhythms of our inner workings. It leads us to depreciate the background work of our brain, heart, blood, and body which consistently sort, process, connect, and integrate new and old information and experiences.
If you seek the truth of the cadence of your internal movements then delve into yourself. Sink deeply into your mind, your flesh, your oneness — embrace the darkness. Do not shield your eyes from the dark, open them widely, allow them to adjust, see the etchings of shadow and gray light. Open your eyes and your self to the darkness until you can distinguish form even in the absence of light. Find the motion, find the pattern, find the beauty within. Listen to the slow dripping of cave water and trust that your internal song reflects that of the Earth below.
What are Oracle cards anyway?
Oracle cards are a divination tool similar to Tarot. While Tarot cards generally follow the same structure of 22 Major Arcana & 4 Suits each with 14 cards for a total of 78 cards, Oracle cards do not follow any such structure.
Oracle decks come in all shapes, sizes, and structures. They follow all sorts of themes, subjects, and styles. The meanings, interpretations, and messages vary from deck to deck.
So why are you making Oracle cards and posting them on Substack?
As a lover of all things magic and statistic, I’ve always been drawn to Oracle decks. I recently had the idea to design my own Oracle deck. I wrote down multiple card ideas along with brief notes about their interpretations. The first card idea I had was actually Cave Water Dripping, so it seemed appropriate to be the first one I share.
As my Substack has taken on a spiritual and reflective ambience, I thought this would be the perfect medium to explore the idea!
I’ll be publishing oracle cards interchangeably with my longer personal essays towards the beginning of the week.
if you like the art in this piece, check out my links below.
i’m streaming on twitch now! check out my VOD below to see me drawing the art in this piece <3