Deck Interview: Small Spirits Oracle
I’m not going to lie: I’m not really an “insect person,” if that’s even a thing. However, I find the insect- and arachnid-based Small Spirits Oracle by Michael Anthony and artist Hannah Leigh of Small Spirit Studios to offer really insightful readings that force me to look beyond my assumptions and preconceptions of what is deserving of my attention. Why can’t the Slug have as much wisdom to offer me as a shimmering unicorn? And because I can find a slug in my everyday, it may have even more to say about my experience here on earth. After I set aside my initial reactions, I really dug into the little bugs. Gnats are still damned annoying, but that works with the messages I receive from them!
As always, I’m using my own deck interview spread, about which you can read more here.
Interviewing the Small Spirits Oracle
What major lesson are you here to help me learn? Inchworm
Through which divine energy can we best communicate? Slug
In what area can you aid me to help others? Tick
In what area could your guidance be easily misunderstood? Honey Bee
What can I do to keep our communication clear? House Fly
How can I use your guidance for the highest good? Daddy Long Legs
How will I know when we’re ready for a new lesson? Gnat
The Small Spirits Oracle is here to teach me about myself in the everyday. It’s all about new perspectives and getting down on the ground to confront reality and not get swept up in the easy snowballing of misunderstandings. This misunderstanding can relate to our surroundings, including the little creatures we take for granted, but also to ourselves.
As I read through the guidebook interpretations for each of these cards, I imagined creator Michael Anthony as a child seeing and wondering at each small spirit’s potential wisdom. That connection point can help when some of the insects and arachnids, frankly, repulse you. There are some reasons to fear or avoid or loathe them, but most are harmless or annoying at worst, and they have lessons to teach. Gnat? Big fucking Virgo lessons and lessons for anyone who gets lost in their own clouds of overthinking.
As seen by the Tick and Slug, this is a deck that will help me be aware of myself and where I put my energy and how it affects my body, for good and ill. This is not a deck of all honeybees, and my insights from these spirits will help me and others to see the nonsense and clouds and cords that limit and drain us from being our authentic selves. And why? Because of some bullshit someone told us to believe (Daddy Longlegs)? I don’t think so. We’re grown now. It’s high time to accept responsibility for making decisions and creating the mindset that creates movement toward a life examined and a life worth living.
House Fly reminds me that we all (we being the people in a position to get a reading from me) have what we need in the moment to make actual strides. It’s the card that perfectly tied into the Queen of Pentacles tarot spread I created last week. Put aside the doubts, the fears, the assumptions, and the past rejections. Yes, they may have really happened and affected you and me in fundamental, seemingly unalterable ways, yet we get to move ahead. What we have left after what we’ve been through? That’s miraculous. Think on that.
The wonder you experience when you recognize the miracle that is your continued life—your soul’s experience of being a person—that’s the inflection point for future growth. Be amazed at yourself. However shitty and gross and small you may feel some days, you are full of wisdom and potential. And you are alive. There is infinite matter in this universe that cannot say the same. Some little bugs reminded me of that, so just imagine what you have to offer. And then dream even bigger.
The cards pictured here are from the Small Spirits Oracle, created by Michael Anthony and Hannah Leigh of Small Spirits Studio © 2019. All rights reserved. You can see details about the deck on the Small Spirits Studio website.