** Latest update 14th November ** Third stretch goal announcement – spread cloths!! Design to be finalised, but I will let you make the final decision in a vote! We still have a little way to go, but anything is possible!!
** Update 9th November ** We have unlocked the second stretch goal!! All decks will now come with soft-touch cardstock, and gilded edging! We are now on track to unlock the third mystery stretch goal which will be announced!! Stay tuned.
** Update 31st October ** For those of you who may not have noticed, I’m delighted to announce that we are already fully funded!! Can you believe just over a week and we are already there?? Not only that, but we are also getting very close to unlocking the first stretch goal – gilded edging on the cards!
To celebrate smashing through the funding goal, I will be putting every backer into a draw to win one of five exclusive extras! You don’t need to do anything to enter, the lucky winners will be drawn at random at the closing of the campaign.
When My Soul Whispered Oracle Deck has been my passion project for almost five years. My dream was to create a deck with minimal imagery, focussing on only one or two central colours per piece. The idea was that the simple illustrations would serve as a starting point for the user to discover what the image meant to them, without being bogged down by excessive imagery. What initially began as a list of 44 keywords grew to 44 roughly sketched drawings with a vague colour palette, and some scrawled notes about the relationship between the image and keyword. In mid 2016, the universe conspired to put me in the path of Jess who I commissioned to become the artist for the deck. Card by card, she drew and coloured every image in a combination of ink and watercolour, and she would never cease to amaze me by turning each card from my childlike etchings into the visions I held in my mind. She was simply the perfect artist for the deck. As Jess completed the art, I busied myself on the guidebook, and after countless revisions of the text, several edits of the art, and producing many variants of the end product, it is finished. The idea once seeded in my heart and soul has been brought to life, and I am finally ready to share it with you.
Click on any of the images below to see the full deck in greater detail.
I pondered over the guidebook for quite some time. I knew with the high cost of international shipping on top of the deck, that a guidebook may add significantly to the cost. I also thought of those who don’t care to have a guidebook, or wish to leave their shelves as uncluttered as possible. For these reasons, I have chosen to provide a PDF guidebook to all those who pledge for a deck, and to offer a separate tier for those who wish to own a physical copy of the book.
Despite having a fully completed deck ready for production more than a year ago, it took me a further twelve months to write the guidebook. I wrote large portions, edited, deleted, started fresh, and ended up at a creative impasse; it’s hard to put my finger on exactly why I struggled so much with it. I think my main concern was not wanting the text to come across as prescriptive or perhaps even suggestive. I wanted people to draw a card and find their own meaning without being bogged down or clouded by my thoughts or ideas. Yet at the same time, I didn’t want people to feel disconnect with the chosen image and keyword. I have structured each page as follows, and I hope that the information offers you enough, without being too much.
Keyword – the bare, stripped back, essential core of the card
Quote – a poignant message that sums up the energy of the card
My Light – keywords that encompass the positive aspects of the card
My Shadow – keywords that touch on the negative aspects of the card, and will help to bring attention to areas that may currently be blocked or are in need of attention
My Sacred Words – an affirmation, mantra or chant that evokes the meaning of the card through one sentence
Chakra Association – the deck is designed loosely around the nine-point chakra system, with keywords and colours being chosen specifically on this basis. The predominant card colours are used to resonate with the particular chakra
Raison D’être– from the French language meaning purpose or reason for being, this entry provides a brief explanation for the choice of illustration for each card to provide you with an understanding of the card’s role in the deck
As much as I love to read guidebooks from different decks to discover the creator’s intention behind each of the images, I also love to develop my own relationship with the cards and I know I am not alone in this! To help you connect in your own personal way with the deck, I have created for you an additional bonus to accompany the deck called the Essentia Handbook (in PDF format). This handbook gives you the opportunity to decide on your own meanings for each of the cards, allowing for a deeper intuitive connection. Think of it as a write-your-own guidebook (with a little guidance)!
Stretch goals are rewards applied to all pledges that contain a deck after basic funding is met. Below are some really exciting upgrades that would really give the deck that extra-special feel. Be sure to share the campaign with anyone who may be interested so we can see these stretch goals come to fruition!
I will be collecting shipping addresses a few weeks prior to dispatch of your parcel. This will be done via a Kickstarter survey, so please ensure your email address in Kickstarter is up to date so you recieve this notification – if I don’t have your address, I cannot ship your rewards!
Which leads nicely into the next point about your address – please ensure it is correct! All parcels will be shipped exactly as per the address you provide. If your parcel is returned due to an incorrect address being provided by you, it will be necessary to charge an additional shipping fee.
All parcels will be sent tracked, and you will receive an email with tracking information after dispatch. International shipping estimates are 4 – 6 business days to New Zealand, 6 – 13 business days to North America, Western Europe, Asia and the Pacific, and 10 – 15 business days to the rest of the world. Domestic deliveries are up to 5 business days depending on your distance from Melbourne, and potentially a little longer for regional/rural/remote locations. All deliveries will be carbon neutral.
While I have done my best to absorb some of the shipping costs myself, there’s no denying that international shipping (AKA – the bane of small business) is a massive pain in the butt. I apologise sincerely for the this, but alas we are slave to the perils of international shipping rates.
Customs. It’s almost a dirty word these days for those who enjoy online shopping, but depending on your country, some of you may be subject to a customs duty/tax upon receipt of your parcel. This is unfortunately not something I have control over, and is something you need to be aware of. I do not know what charge you will incur, so please contact your local customs office should you wish to enquire further.
Printing decks is an expensive enterprise for independent creators. Without crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter, it is nearly impossible for the little person to get their creative works out into the world unless they’ve got the funding to put behind it beforehand. As a creator, paying for a whole lot of decks up front can be a risk – you can’t be sure that anyone will buy them. Enter crowdfunding – my personal platform of choice being Kickstarter. Crowdfunding is a great way to test the market to see whether your product has an audience, and a successful campaign gives you adequate funding to produce and deliver a product to the standard that it deserves. Many creative projects would never see the light of day without platforms such as Kickstarter, which is why I have supported many others in their own crowdfunding pursuits and consider it a privilege to be part of their dream.
I understand not everyone is familiar with the Kickstarter platform, and realise that this may be a little daunting if it is your first time backing a campaign. Don’t worry, I have backed many projects in my time on Kickstarter (I recently received an email to celebrate my Kickstart-iversary as a Superbacker – that’s a thing!?!).
Let me break it down for you.
You arrive on the campaign page and check it all out. You take a look at the reward tiers being offered and decide on the one that best suits your needs and budget. My campaign will display in Australian Dollars, but if you are signed in, Kickstarter will convert the price in your local currency. Press the ‘Select this reward’ button, and you will be taken to a pre-confirmation page. Make sure that your shipping destination is correct (it should automatically default for you) and click ‘Continue to payment’. Do a final check to make sure you’ve selected the correct pledge level and shipping location, and you will then proceed to the pre-payment process using a credit card. Your card will not be charged at this time. For the duration of the campaign you are able to change your pledge to a different reward tier, or you can cancel your pledge altogether. At the end of the campaign, provided the minimum funding goal has been met, your card will be charged and you can sit back, relax and wait for your goodies to arrive according to the timeframe specified. During the ‘checkout’ process, you will not be asked for your shipping details, you will provide these at a later date in response to a survey that I will send closer to the shipping date. If your payment method is declined, Kickstarter will attempt to contact you via email to fix your payment details before another attempt is made to make a charge to your card. If you do not fix up payment on your end, your pledge to the campaign is cancelled. As a backer, you will have access to backer-only updates through Kickstarter, so please be sure to check in regularly to make sure you don’t miss out on any important news or requests. Easy-peasy!!
Based on a funding goal of $8, 500 AUD, the breakdown of the funds will be spent as follows:
The timeline below provides tentative dates for different aspects of the campaign. The deck is ready to head straight into production following the release of funds from Kickstarter, so I anticipate that a delivery date of March is reasonable. I have also factored in slow shipping times throughout the holiday season, as well as Chinese New Year (2020 – Year of the Rat!) which typically sees the cessation of much production activity in the country. I will keep all backers informed on the status of the project via Kickstarter, so please check in regularly for updates.
Hi, I’m Mel. I’m one of those people who performs terribly in job interviews because I never know what to say when people ask me to talk about myself, and this bio will likely be no exception! I’ve been an enthusiastic deck collector for many long years, and always wanted to create my own deck. Despite being passionately creative, I do not have an artistic bone in my body (Pictionary partners anyone??), however I wasn’t going to let this deter me from finding a way to bring my vision for a deck into reality. When I’m not tied up with my creative muse, I am also a Psychology/Criminology student, a wife, and mum to two teenage girls. I am over the moon/crapping my pants to finally be wearing my creative heart on my sleeve and sharing this deck with the world!
I was fortunate enough to meet Jess during a fundraiser she was conducting for Beyond Blue in 2016. I remember timidly approaching her to ask if I could commission her to do the artwork, and being worried that she wouldn’t know what an oracle deck was, and even worse that she would think I was some sort of weirdo. As soon as she told me she knew what I was talking about AND that she even owned a few decks, I was sold! Her first artwork was the Bee, and I now consider this a very special illustration.
Jess is a talented tattoo artist based in Melbourne, Australia specialising in 100% vegan ink tattoos. She has an impressive portfolio, and I am very fortunate to have crossed paths with her. Jess was able to take the childlike images I gave her (at times I’m sure she had a good laugh!), and transformed them into exactly the vision I held in my mind.
Check out Jess and her amazing illustration and tattoo work @liljtattoos on Instagram, or visit her website here.
In order for the project to be successful, we need to meet the funding goal. To help in achieving this, please consider sharing this project with anyone you know who may be interested. You can share directly from the platform by following the guidelines below:
All campaign updates will be posted here on Kickstarter, but if you would like to follow me on social media all links can be found below!
If there is anything that is unclear, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me via Kickstarter, or admin@melissaselvaggio.com I am more than happy to assist.
Thank you so much for your support, it means the world to me!
Taking into account my experience in backing other projects, I have given myself plenty of breathing space in the event of unforeseen delays. The artwork for the cards has been completed and I have printed several prototypes of the deck to get everything just right. I am in the editing stages of the guidebook at present, and this will be finished by the end of the campaign. All suppliers have been sourced, and are ready and waiting for me to give them the go-ahead!
Delivering on a campaign that spans the holiday season, as well as Chinese New Year may present unexpected delays, however I have set a delivery date of March in the hopes that this will absorb any delays of this nature.
I will keep all backers informed regularly via Kickstarter, so please be sure to check in for updates as they occur.