Oracle's Card of the Month: December '22

What could be more appropriate for welcoming the official start of Winter than this Mountain Goat scaling a snow-covered peak under a nighttime rainbow? Navigating icy terrain (literal and emotional) with ease and confidence, this master climber looks to us with reassurance and encouragement. Watch your footing and keep going. This is the King of Cups card from the Gentle Tarot deck by Mari in the Sky. From the Gentle Tarot’s guide book: “My spirit is already at the top of this mountain. I simply have to meet it there.”

Moving into the hectic wintery months, in the studio we get more requests for ideas that help foster an atmosphere of comfort and grounding; looking for ways to support that inner mountain goat with his emotional maturity and sure-footed progress.

Maintaining a connection to nature can feel more difficult in times when the outside world goes into hibernation and the chill feels unwelcoming. Honoring both the quiet and internal nature of the season while also keeping up with hectic end-of-year schedules and commitments can feel daunting. Remember to take time for yourself and small quiet activities.

Making small bouquets of dried leaves, picking up a pinecone you find on your walk, or hanging a simple chime in your window to draw your eye towards the sky now and again are simple ways to feel more aligned with the season.

The Witch’s Book of Self-Care is filled with tips and ideas for reconnecting with yourself and honoring your spiritual and emotional health.

Lighting a beeswax candle can lift the spirits while cleansing the air and bring a gentle warm glow to your room. The Mirth Pillar Candle by Alyssia Mazella provides 40 hours of burn time.

Rose Quartz is said to be a stone with gentle and nurturing energy. These smooth palm-sized Rose Quartz Moons make perfect pocket companions or a lovely desktop piece. Also a sweet token of affection for a friend or loved one.

Aragonite is prized as a crystal aid in emotional healing. Aragonite Star Clusters are a beautiful reminder to stay calm and confident in self-healing work and emotional growth. They make a lovely meditative focal point as you can stare into the crystal points forever!

December brings many challenges; between harsher weather and heightened social expectations it can be difficult to keep grounded. Take time to tap into your confidence and make solid steady progress at whatever pace is manageable for you at the moment. The mountain can be climbed. One step at a time…

— Laura Pensar for Oracle Natural Science

{ Holiday Gift Guide :: For Scientist, Geologist, & the Witch }

Every year we put together a showcase of our favorite items; curated with the intent to help, not only to shop Oracle’s shelves through our eyes, but also to help shop for that soul who has it all. And with that, our annual Holiday Gift Guide presents…

For the Scientist:

Our gift guide starts off with our dearest Scientists. Definitely the tricky friend to buy for, because what haven’t they found on their recent hike or latest adventure that they might want to add to their overflowing curio cabinet? (Sorry, rude of me, always more room on those shelves…) But what about an exotic skull or frame they’ve been eyeing? Or a good book to cozy up with? Something to tie the room together or help with that latest hypothesis? Or something they can DIY, like our Bug kits or Bare Bones Articulation kits (great project to do together)?! Or what about unique bone jewelry? Something inconspicuous to wear in the lab of course…

Probably my favorite choice, is our collaboration with For Strange Women; a Taxidermy Protection spray, that not only smells great, but also helps deter pests for your cherished collection - great for any avid collector…

For the Witch:

Next is for our inner witch! Those dirt and herb stained hands need some time off to tend to themselves for once… so I recommend mandatory cozy rituals; a beautiful brewed cup of tea they haven’t tried yet or a spell jar for extra harnessing of luck. Or candles to inspire some new creativity or tools for their next big ritual? Or how about a pocket edition tarot deck, which would be so great for that reader on the go!

Probably my top pick would be our Unicorn Towers; a new crystal we have never had before which comes from a natural stone called Pegmatite; containing Lepidolite, Pink Tourmaline, Smokey Quartz, and Clevelandite - a wild combo cotton candy affect great for emotional healing, endurance, bringing a positivity to life challenges…

For the Geologist:

Finally our dear Gem-Hounds! What crystal haven’t they brought back from their trek in the woods? (Side note… how do they always find such cool wild gems?!) They always give so much of their dearest gems away, so they need some care in return; maybe help them splurge on that tower they’ve been eyeing… Or some incense, oil, selenite bowls, or salt cleanse to help them on their next moon charging or cleansing rituals? Or a cute bag or locket to hold grounding charms or ashes of their beloved? Or maybe for those just starting in their gem journey, a zine to add some extra tips and tricks in their tool kit?

My top choices are tied for this category, between an original Tyler Thrasher art piece, (an alchemized natural specimen with growing crystals into this most beautiful combination of geology and natural science) and mourning jewelry by Margaret Cross with pearl teeth…

There is so much to choose from, that it’s hard to know where to start - but don’t feel overwhelmed! We also offer gift certificates! If anything else fails, a paw bouquet and a hand written note is a classic loved by all; because above all else, it’s the thought that counts. You can find some of our own curated gift boxes in our ‘new additions’ tab. But do come in and we’d be so happy to help guide you into picking your just the right specimen. Not everything on these guides are listed online, so if you see something you are in love with, please email us at oraclenaturalscience@gmail.com

Hope that helps and Happy Holidays <3
- Oracle Team

Oracle's Card of the Month: November '22

For November we chose a deck with soothing and gentle energy, Gold Lyre Tarot by Lacy Martin and Christine Scanlon. The Death card, with its message of inevitable change, is a fitting draw for the cooling and darkening days of November. From the Gold Lyre’s guide book: “Death reverberates a contrast to anything that holds life. She holds out her skull as an offering.”

Given our work here at Oracle as a taxidermy studio, Death is woven into much of our daily endeavors. As we approach the animal remains we work on with respect and seek to honor them in their new stage of existence, we also consider that even within life we are constantly changing. Our personal evolutions take place in both tiny and monumental ways. Memorials are done with love and holding space for the emotions and memories of those involved.

Rituals are done as a way to mark these transitions and acknowledge the impact that has been made. “Death holds out her skull as an offering.” We hold out our hands, our lit candles, our tears, our flowers and stones in response. A call and response to the inevitable losses that comes from embodied existence in a fragile and complex world.

Finding ways to mark and honor the changes which occur in our lives can help us process our often complex emotions surrounding these events.

Taking time to consciously observe a transition can ground and calm us. Memorial work allows us to integrate lessons learned and reignite hopes for the future. Seek solace in written words. Find beauty and grounding in objects from the natural world. Light a candle as an offering of light and a release of energy. Memorial work can be as ornate or as simple as you need it to be.

From Here to Eternity by Caitlin Doughty chronicles death practices from several cultures and explores what makes mourning practices effective.

This is Your Brain on Grief zine by Faith G. Harper is a quick and simple guide on what to do and say (and not) for yourself and others when experiencing any type of grief.

Apache Tear crystals (a form of Obsidian) are specifically associated with grief and said to aid in grounding, protection, and emotional cleansing. These smooth glassy stones are found in Mexico and the Southwestern part of the United States. Wearing an Apache Tear or carrying one with you can help you reconnect to joy even in times of loss and sadness.

Elegy Candles by Moth and Candle were made exclusively for Oracle with memorials in mind. The hand-dipped beeswax tapers are dressed with an herbal blend: Hawthorn for love. Nettle for strength. Lavender for peace. In each pair, one candle is dressed with an Obsidian crystal for courage and grounding; and the other has a Rainbow Moonstone for soothing sorrow.

Victorian Sympathy Cards by Open Sea Design Co. are a simple way to send a quick note of understanding to a loved one. You could also jot down favorite memories or wishes and tuck them away for your future self to read.

November’s days may bring cold temperatures and less sunlight, encouraging us to draw more inward. The coming holiday season can bring up difficult emotions and surface memories of those no longer with us. Take time to honor the difficult feelings that appear. Sometimes just having a cup of tea and allowing the emotions to speak their message will bring closure and growth. May your sorrows be acknowledged and released. — Laura Pensar for Oracle Natural Science

FIELD NOTES FROM A TAXIDERMIST-IN-TRAINING: Articulation Kits (+tips!)

 
 

This month, as part of our Field Notes: Tales from a Taxidermist-in-Training series, I am so excited to share with you some of what I have learned about bone articulation! Last year when Oracle began selling these incredibly nifty articulation kits, I could not get my hands on one fast enough. I did not have any previous experience working with articulation and was nervous about making mistakes as a result, but was enchanted that these kits existed and came with nearly everything I needed to get started. The first kit I started with was a Red fox and after nearly ten months of degreasing and whitening (foxes, as I’ve come to learn now, are notoriously greasy creatures due to their diet and skin oils), it was time to begin articulating it!  As I previously mentioned, I was incredibly nervous that I was going to mess up and very, very slowly began putting it back together. I spent an enormous amount of time pouring over Alessandra’s zine, The Bare Bones of Articulation, and anything I could find online about this tedious process. I started to keep a notebook where I collected all my notes, little diagrams, and drawings of what I envisioned the final result to be. This became an invaluable part of my process, and in the end, I was quite pleased with myself and my progress!

The next time around, I was feeling a bit more confident in my ability and was ready to pick up the pace with another kit. I was ecstatic to get a limited-release kit of a wolf paw and got to degreasing right away, which dramatically took less time to do than the fox. I thought it might be helpful to show you, dear reader, how I begin the process of piecing the bones back together, and share a few tips I’ve learned along the way. While I’m very much still learning, I feel like I’m making good progress in my studies of learning the bones and how they ultimately come together. 

 
 

A few basic tips from a beginner- 

  1. I truly cannot recommend enough that you get yourself a copy of Alessandra’s Bare Bones of Articulation zine! For me, it was the ultimate beginner’s toolbox of resources, and it really gave me a detailed account of what I was in for through each step of the process. If you’re interested in bones or skeletal articulation, this book will be your holy grail!

  2. Get yourself a fresh, new notebook specifically for the craft. Your notes and findings can get lost within the pages of a sketchbook that might already be full of other musings. Keep your process streamlined and the book available for new findings. 

  3. Get yourself a nice strainer basket. This will catch all of your bones when you’re cleaning out your bucket’s water during the degreasing phase. If you don’t use one while cleaning, the chances are high that you will inevitably lose at least one when you’re cleaning your water. To borrow a line from Lee Post, “A bone can get lost down the drain faster than you can say ‘shit’.”

  4. Practice putting your bones together with white glue until you’re confident that you found the correct arrangement. I didn’t do this my first time, and I can tell you I spent so much time frustratedly picking adhesive off the tiny wrist bones. It not only is incredibly challenging to remove, but it will alter the shape of the bones, making it impossible to organically recombine together harmoniously. 

  5. Study your animal intimately through a variety of mediums. Watching YouTube videos of them out in the wild and the way they use their bodies to get around is extremely helpful for me. Pouring over National Geographic magazines to find reference images, making sketches from different angles, and reviewing illustrations of their skeletal structure also help with further studying their anatomy. Once you spend more time investing in your studies, you’ll start to see the animal in a completely new way. Afterall, you’re paying more detailed attention to the way bone fits under the muscles and skin layers, and ultimately how the body works as a whole mechanism. 



While it seems like such a daunting project in the beginning, let me assure you by saying you, too, can do it! Like I previously said, I’m still learning so much of the basics, but I think it really just comes down to practice, studying, and determination. I also think that the mental pressures I put on myself ended up hindering my progress in learning this skill more than it needed to. In the long run, instead of worrying so much, I should’ve got another kit, as another round of practice under my belt. Take time to practice, to refresh your skills, and take plenty of pictures along the way. And if you do get an articulation kit, be sure to tag us on Instagram so we can see your progress! You’ve got this!


Elise Hanson
Oracle KC