Draft One: Birth of a Deck

Meet our Lore Keeper & Guardian of the Familiar, Cairrowyn

Caretaker Cairrowyn says:

“We don’t choose our bonekin. They arrive. Not with answers, but with mirrors and riddles. Not to coddle — but to challenge. You’ll know they are near when the back of your neck chills, or perhaps when a strange dream leaves dirt under your nails.”

Welcome, witchling, wanderer, and weary soul.

This is the first telling.The first thread in the stitched-together tale of The Bone Familiar Oracle Deck. What began as a whisper in the dark — a handful of bones, a name or two spoken aloud when no one was listening — has taken root.

Fifty-Five spirits. Five bone-bound suites. One hollowing wood, still growing.

This blog is where we’ll share their stories, one marrow-deep familiar at a time. The art. The lore. The rituals. The teeth and tenderness. And maybe a few breadcrumbs for those of you wandering too long in the woods.

You're not lost. You're just about to be found.

Pull up a chair.The bones are speaking.Let’s listen.

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Cairrowyn is our Sluagh na Marbh (SLOO-uh nuh MAR-uhv). That is she serves as our "host of the dead", Our Gadyen Zo (GAH-dyen Zoh) "keeper of the bones", and Gaurdien of Coille nan Cnàimh Zansèt or Forest of the Bone Ancestors, but around here, We Call it the Bone Patch Hollar. Cairrowyn can be found throughout the book with tips and tricks about the familiars, the spreads and rituals, and anything else associated with the deck. Right now she watches over 55 Familiars; that is, Five Houses, Eleven Familiar Cards per House, a collection of rituals to honor and utilize the bones, and an assorted variety of customized spreads to help you work through your shadows in the most proactive and informative way. To aid in your progress there will be an appendix, a couple of glossaries, and a list of books that inspired the practices that helped inspire this deck in case you wish to expand your studies. Yes, there are some grammar issues, some editing challenges and don't worry about the spelling, because this is the first official draft, and it is safely on its way now to becoming something dear and near to my own personal teachings and experiences. So, don't let the rough edges fool you, there's magic and growth to be found here and we've only just begun.