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Just recently I decided to dig up the Gene Keys course Dare to be Divine that I bought two years ago. The offering is slated to be overhauled as it is now simply a series of videos by Richard Rudd. Two years ago I didn’t end up playing in the course as I needed more structure. I am now able to play in a more structureless field and I’m raring to go.

Dare to be Divine is built from a series of hidden codes within the hexagrams and deals only with the Siddhis. Richard is firm that it is fine to play in the realm of the Siddhis as long as you do your shadow work so recommends doing the Golden Path at the same time. Perfect! I’ll do Dare to be Divine as I walk the Sage’s Golden Path. 

Without giving away the magic, Dare to be Divine gives us Siddhic dares throughout a year that end up covering all 64 Gene Keys. There are 16 dares overall and dares within the dares. For instance “Dare to see Beauty in everything” is the first dare. What he leaves up to us is how to contemplate and bring these dares into our lives and awareness. 

I officially began the first set of dares on the Summer Solstice, and will shift to the next set at Autumn Equinox. I have four dares and 16 Gene Key Siddhis to explore in the next three months. As you might guess the first way I considered playing with them is through art and I couldn’t think of a more fun way of populating my art than with the birds from the Dream Arc. 

Before I began I made tentative explorations into how I might do this. I started with the art journal page in the header, as Magpie is the Dream Arc bird for one the Siddhis covered in this first set of dares: Gene Key 23. Then I played with index card art and tied it in with my own purpose key of Gene Key 37 and the Sparrow as that is also one of the first 16 keys.

I loved both of these avenues and imagine I’ll play in these realms as I move forward. 

And then I landed on a digital idea …. one I’ve used before …. an oracle deck. What if I built an oracle deck that combined the Dare to be Divine material with the Vision Birds from the Dream Arc (the vision birds represent the Siddhic state). How fun is that idea? Granted, it’ll take a year to complete the deck but I’m in no hurry. The creating it is the fun part! 

And voila! Now I have a soft structure to hold the teachings of the Siddhic energy of each key through the Vision Bird messages. Now I’m experimenting with a style. For the first time I’m making a deck with cards that are unique on both sides. Below are my first drafts of three of the cards in the ‘Dare to see Beauty in everything’ category. The artwork is AI generated using a very detailed prompt by me in Designer. I then add my original written messages in an art app (Bazaart) on my iPad – the dare with the bird that’s on the first side is Richard’s words from the DtbD course.

Gene Key 1:

Gene Key 28:

Gene Key 44:

I love the direction these cards are taking. I think I have found my way into these Siddhis by using the Dream Arc birds as interpreters. Delicious!!!!!

Once I had made the cards you see above I began to wonder about what other creative exploration I could go on and I had an aha moment. Oracle decks often have booklets to accompany them. With all the personal decks I’ve created over the years, I’ve never made a book to go with them but have always wondered if I could. Why not write a sacred kind of ritual booklet to accompany the cards?

So, I am creating a full deck with an accompanying booklet for myself (and my intrepid traveling companion Lizzie Dewey). It’s taken me a bit to get the style right. I’m not one for fancy rituals and as much as I wish I had sacredness, I really have more the everyday kind of spirituality. So I let go of hoity-toity ideas, and went with what fit me. But I think I’m on the right track.

See what you think of the opening of the booklet:

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The Wild Dare Field Guide

Bird Guides, Sacred Questions, and Wild Dare Journeys for the Beloved Messy Human

This deck is a small ceremony of perception, but I also want it to feel like something you can actually live with — not too precious, not too lofty, not something that requires a perfect altar or a perfect mood. You do not have to arrive serene, impressive, spiritually organized, or even particularly ready. You can arrive with tea in hand, hair doing whatever it wants to do, a sink full of dishes, a tender heart, a tired body, a sense of wonder, or no sense of wonder at all yet.

The birds in these cards are guides, companions, tricksters, messengers, hunters, unifiers, threshold-keepers, and sometimes deliciously bossy little friends of the soul. Each one carries a way of seeing. Each one invites you into a particular doorway. Together, they form wild dare journeys — small ceremonies you can enter one card at a time, or move through as a complete sequence.

Please do not make this another thing to get right. Read slowly. Pause often. Let the questions follow you while you make lunch, walk under trees, fold laundry, cry in the car, laugh at yourself, or watch the light move across the floor. If it feels good, make a simple altar with a candle, a bowl of water, a stone, a feather, or any ordinary beautiful thing that reminds you that beauty does not need to be invented. It needs to be noticed.

You may draw a card for a day, a week, a season, or a single breath. You may turn to the booklet for the fuller teaching, the practice, the bird’s medicine, the invocation, the reflection questions, and the blessing. You may also ignore all instructions and simply let the image, the message, or one small phrase work on you in its own time. This deck is not here to hurry your healing. It is here to keep you company as perception softens, widens, and becomes more honest, alive, and whole.

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I am a little restricted here sharing much more as Dare to be Divine is its own course offering in the Gene Keys, as is the Dream Arc. But I can give you a little taste to whet your appetite so you might enroll in either or both!

All of the dares are from the Siddhis, and all 64 Gene Keys are eventually explored by dividing them into fours. So Dare to see Beauty in everything has Gene Keys 1, 28, 43 and 44 in it by means of a secret code within the hexagrams.

That’s all you need to know to understand this next section I’ve written for my booklet:

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The Beautiful Mess

A wild dare journey for seeing beauty in everything.

Starring Cockerel, Crow, Sparrowhawk, and Quail

Invitation

This first wild dare journey invites you to dare to see beauty in everything: the beauty that wakes you up, the beauty hidden in the dark messy places, the beauty that arrives as sudden insight, and the beauty that becomes possible when you remember you do not have to do this human thing alone.

The card gives you the spark: a message, an inquiry, and a mantra. The booklet gives you somewhere to wander with that spark — a core message, a practice, the bird’s medicine, an invocation, reflection questions, and a blessing.

How to Use This Journey

You may draw one card and read only that bird’s entry, or you may move through all four cards as a complete journey. Use the card for the quick spark. Use the booklet when you want depth. Use the practice when you want to bring the teaching into your body, your creativity, or your day. Use the bird’s medicine when you want to enter more ceremonially.

Before beginning, place one hand over your heart and say aloud, or whisper if that is all you can manage today: I dare to see beauty in everything. I dare to let beauty change the way I see. I dare to begin exactly where I am.

Journey Map

·       Cockerel — beauty wakes us.

·       Crow — beauty transforms what is ending.

·       Sparrowhawk — beauty reveals hidden meaning.

·       Quail — beauty completes itself in relationship.

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That’s all I’ve written so far but text for each of these four birds and their deeper sparks and medicines are in rough draft form, inspired by the birds as written in the Dream Arc by Richard Rudd, and the dares from Dare to be Divine, also by Richard. 

I’m absolutely in love with the title of my deck. When I first began writing this booklet I was super serious and thinking I had to be all sacred and stuff and then I realized that just wasn’t me! Nor is it the style of the images I’m generating. I love the permission that The Wild Dare Field Guide title gives me to throw all that fancy stuff out the window and just write what I’d like to read.

Since Lizzie joined me and heard the title, we’ve both felt like intrepid explorers at the turn of the century exploring the wonders of the world with all our gear. Hence the image above. 

I am continually excited and amazed at how my creativity is such a constant inspiration for me (and others) in embodying this amazing Gene Keys transmission.

This deck will be for my personal use only.