Filaments of Rupture - Paperback

by Morna McDermott McNulty (Author)

Research is about asking and answering questions. So too is an oracle

card reading. The oracle cards in this book follow the design of a

traditional tarot deck which uses a set of 22 cards (like a major arcana)

(3). However, my cards are designed using 22 original pieces of collage

art as shown in the pages of this book. This is a unique oracle deck:

the front of each card in this deck is bespoke and distinct. Each card

is artwork crafted through processes of intuition, soul and in

conversation with the materials themselves.

While the idea for my artwork, called a Currere Oracle deck, has

its roots in frameworks of arts-based inquiry, currere, and curriculum

theory, the Currere Oracle cards are not just the stuff of scholars or

researchers (see Mcdermott-McNulty, Barros, & Daspit, 2025).

Research is simply a high-dollar word for searching; and who. amongst

us does not search for meaning, for answers, for clarity, or for

possibility every single day? The cards invite anyone, from any

background to "play" with questions and possible answers afforded

by the oracle process. Its multiple entry points disrupt linear

understandings of what it means to ask a question and to seek an

answer. Each card corresponds with, and can be interpreted

according to, the moment of the reading, the relationality or

positionality of one card to another, and the interpretation of the

reader. Questions and answers remain open-ended in their

multiplicity, thus inviting disruptions and displacements of "normal"

positioning of our usual linear way of thinking about cause and effect

in our lives.