Oracolor, the color-coded, Torah-infused self-discovery tool by Portland’s Debbie Plawner, is getting a broader audience in formats both large and small.
Oracolor began as a deck of 52 cards which connected color theory, Jewish wisdom and self-awareness – 52 cards for the 52 weeks of the Gregorian year.
“According to Kabbalah, every week has its own energy and opportunities for transformation,” Plawner told The Jewish Review’s Gloria Hammer in 2023. (“The colors of the Torah,” Nov. 29, 2023, page 8) “Tapping into the week’s energy empowers us to make major changes we yearn for in our lives.”
Now, it includes a book, “Illuminated Paths,” which is set to be released later this month, and a wheel that serves as a psychological and spiritual map of self-discovery and transformation that is both included with each copy of “Illuminated Paths” and will be coming, in a walkable scale, to the Portland Jewish Festival on Sunday, Aug. 30 at Zidell Yards in South Portland and at other events throughout the month of Elul, the Hebrew calendar month leading into the High Holy Days.
“Illuminated Paths” and Oracolor are the answer to a question Plawner found herself asking while, literally, lost in the woods of Forest Park in Northwest Portland -”Why is it that all this wisdom I’ve collected over my lifetime isn’t actually accessible when I need it?” The Oracolor wheel is both a path and a map, divided into 48 parts – a recognition of the 48 qualities of learning Torah mentioned in Chapter Six of Pirkei Avot – with those pieces corresponding to cards from the Oracolor deck. The wheel is divided into four rings and 12 sections. Each section – a pathway, in the wheel’s parlance - carries a color, spanning the spectrum of visible light, and a trait or characteristic, both in English and Hebrew. Each ring, or stage, is a shade of that color and represents a level of awareness – from the most basic inward to the more practiced.
All converge in the center – “Peace, where you recognize the wholeness of your soul,” Plawner said.
There are more layers still – the relationships between the different parts of the wheel, its circular shape as a representation of a cross-section of the Tree of Life, how the colors and the words and ideas they’re aligned with connect – but the point isn’t to become awash in the complexity. It’s a tool, really a collection of tools, that are meant to meet you where you are. There are many ways, detailed in “Illuminated Paths,” to use the cards and the wheel.
“Rich, insightful, and beautiful, ‘Illuminated Paths’ is a guidebook that goes beyond organized religion to unite the ancient wisdom of the Torah, the mysticism of the Zohar, and the healing power of color in order to show the way to wholeness and joy,” reviewer Kristine Morris wrote in the July/August edition of the independent book review, Foreward.
“The idea is to give people a moment of time where they tune into their own inner wisdom with these tools that help spark them. To be honest, that’s what Torah does every single Saturday. Someone goes into the synagogue, and they read the same exact words that are read every single year, but because they’re in a different moment of their life, facing a different challenge, decision, transition, they approach those words differently,” Plawner said. “These cards are not magic, but there is something that is quite unique about having the combination of a tool that allows people, in a very accessible way to tune into what’s happening inside of them.”
A 20-foot rendition of the Oracolor wheel will be on hand at this month’s Jewish Festival, with three guided group walks hosted by Plawner throughout the day; a young families focused walk at 11 am, a 1 pm walk for young adults and a 3 pm walk for older adults.
“Illuminated Paths,” published by The Collective Book Studio, will be released on Aug. 25 and is available for pre-order through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and the publisher’s website.
For more information about “Illuminated Paths” and upcoming Oracolor events, visit Oracolor.com.
PHOTO: Courtesy Broekman PR