OH

Cards Quick-Start Guide

OH Cards are a genre of metaphoric associative cards. This handy

guide introduces you to the OH Cards genre, offers a few OH Card
activities, and provides links to additional resources. Please feel free
to share it with friends, clients, and colleagues, in print or digital
format with all four pages included in full.

imagination through a variety of interpretations. OH stretches our

capacity to listen and to respond, to really hear each other without
judgment or competitiveness. OH is a way for people to exchange
feelings, fantasies, and ideas within a framework that protects
privacy and vulnerability. In a round of OH, everyone wins.

Contents

Each deck can be used on its own or in conjunction with any (or all)
of the other decks. Unlimited variations are possible. Easy-to-follow
instructions for play and work are
included with every deck.

OH Genre Basics
OH Etiquette
Activities Using the Original OH Deck
Activities Using Any OH Deck
An Invitation to Share Your OH Experience
OH Websites
Contact Information

The OH Cards are not a soothsayers

prop. Theres a temptation to ask
the cards a question. We prefer to
believe that the answers to our
problems lie within ourselves,
within our own perceptions and
interpretations. Fundamentally, OH
Cards are about our subjective
sovereignty, where nobody can tell
us how to feel, how to interpret our
perceptions, or how to decide who
we are. We do that for ourselves.

OH Genre Basics

The term OH Cards refers to both the genre and a specific deck of
cards within the genre. The genre includes all the different OH
decks. OH is also the name of the very first deck in the genre, often
called original OH, to distinguish it from other cards in the genre.

OH Cards look like a simple game, but in truth theyre a many-

faceted cross between a game and an ever-changing book. They
stimulate creativity and communication. Theyre a tool and a
springboard for the imagination, suitable for adults and children of
all ages for a wide variety of uses, from therapy to art creation,
family play, and corporate team training.

OH can be used as a co-creative, cooperative activity designed to

enhance communication, encourage expression, and stimulate

Decks can be used in many ways,

not restricted to the variations
offered in the inserts, in books about OH, or on the OH websites. Its
up to OH Card users to decide what form their activity will take.
ECCO

There are currently 18 different OH Card decks and two books about
OH. The original OH deck is available in 22 different languages.

2013 OH Verlag | www.oh-cards-institute.com

OH Etiquette

OH Cards are not meant to be interpreted literally. The essential

spirit of a picture placed on a word is an interpretation of intuition
and the feeling it evokes. Interpretations may be contradictory,
paradoxical, or ambiguous.

There are no set rules that must be followed when using metaphoric
cards. The guidelines recommended below foster the development
of an atmosphere of trust. Ely Raman, the creator of the original OH
cards said, When these guidelines were experimentally set aside
during the test-phase of OH, the spirit of love and communication
and the feelings of trust and acceptance quickly vanished.

ROUND-UP (For 2-12 people)

Round-Up is a good warm-up for

OH. Its a silent form of visual art,
with no explanations, comments,
or responses. Place 8 or more
word cards face up in the center
of the group. The first person
picks a picture card and places it
face up on the word card that
seems to make the most
appropriate combination. Each
person, in turn, places that same
picture on any of the 8 word cards
to make a combination. The same
ORIGINAL OH
word card may be used by
different people. Once everyone has used the picture, a new picture
card is drawn and used in the same way.

Round-Up Variations
The picture card can be used as a bridge between two or more
words, thereby making a more comprehensive statement. Another
variation is to make a brief statement when playing a card, related
directly to the combination. In another variation, after each round
there are brief questions and answers about the criteria used to play
a card. It doesnt matter if a discussion develops and the cards are
forgotten. In a round of OH, the journey is the goal. Round-Up
shows how OH Cards can be catalysts for generating mutual
understanding.

In OH, we honour each others privacy.

I may choose to pass, to not play the cards I have drawn.
I can do this with or without explanation, revealing my cards
or not.
In OH, we honour each other.
I will not interrupt you.
In OH, we honour each others intelligence and imagination.
I do not re-interpret (or interpret) your cards.
In OH, we honour each others integrity.
I do not contradict you or argue about your interpretations.
I try to remember that there are no correct interpretations
of the pictures, no misreading of words.
In OH, we honour each others individuality.
When I interpret my OH Cards I do not assume that you see
what I see, feel what I feel, read what I read.

Activities Using the Original OH Deck

The original OH consists of two decks, each with 88 cards: one of

miniature watercolours that refer to aspects of our daily lives and
one with words that provide a backdrop for the paintings. There are
7744 combinations of words and images possible. Viewed one per
day, it would take over 21 years to view all possible combinations.

In combining word and picture, the original OH Cards address the

whole person by stimulating both the left and the right brain. The
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OH CARDS QUICK-START GUIDE | 2013 OH Verlag | www.oh-cards-institute.com

MOSAIC

the voices of the participants become familiar, and the flavour of

different imaginations creates a special and convivial potluck
experience.

Place one picture card on a piece of blank paper. If that painting

were only a part of, a detail of, a larger picture, what would the
complete picture look like? Whats happening outside the edges of
the picture? How does the painting continue beyond the limits of
the card?

Tips and warnings

Dont think too much. Use the first phrase that comes to mind.
Make your statements personal, using the words I, my, or me.
Keep statements in the present tense.

Younger children enjoy this variation since it doesnt require a wide

vocabulary. Instead of describing the cards, they can simply
elaborate on the picture by drawing beyond it with crayons.

OH Stories Variation
Do the same process with the original OH word cards included, or
with word and picture cards (from any deck) combined. If using
word and picture cards combined, say something that contains the
word itself, the sense of the word, or the opposite of the word.

PROBLEM SOLUTION

Activities Using Any OH Deck

OH STORIES (For groups)

OH Stories is a simple way to become familiar with the cards. (If

using the original OH deck, at first use only use the picture cards.)

Participants receive or take 5 cards, which they examine in private.

The first person lays one card face up on the table, describing briefly
a problem portrayed by that image. Any other participant may offer
a card and an explanation as to how it points to a possible solution
to that problem. This card is laid down next to the first one.

Shuffle the cards and place them face down.

The first participant chooses a card, turns it face up, and makes a
simple statement about it (for example, for a picture of a spade
leaning against the wall of a house: I go into the garden to dig
up the flower bed). Use only one sentence no more!
The next participant draws a card, places it face up next to the
previous participants card, and makes a simple statement thats
no more than one sentence and thats related to what the first
participant said (for example, for a picture of a laden donkey:
... to work two bags of manure into the soil).
The next participants follow in the same way, going around and
back again until all the cards have been used.
Before starting a round, you can agree on a story title or theme.

The person who offered the card to the first participant now
addresses a new problem by laying down a card and describing it
briefly. A solution may be offered, as before, by any other
participant with any other card. This continues until all cards in the
hand have been played. It is important that all participants have the
opportunity to address both problems and solutions.

This activity will obviously lead to differences of opinion and to

discussion, for in problem-solving there is usually more than one
option. In the process of discussion the cards may be forgotten. At
the conclusion of the discussion, participants may ask themselves,
What have I learned? How did I contribute?

All the sentences will add up to a story a strange and often

hilarious one. Perception and fantasy combine to erase boundaries,
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An Invitation to Share Your OH Experience

Notes

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The community of OH users spans the globe. Because of OHs

undogmatic nature, the genre has become a valued tool worldwide,
used in many ways, by many different kinds of people, and in many
areas of work, play, therapy, and creativity.

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Since the 1980s, people using OH have shared their experiences to

help each other discover new ways to benefit from using the cards
in their work and in their lives. We invite you to join us.

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We share OH Stories on the OH Cards Institute website. The mission

of the non-profit OH Cards Institute (OHCI) is to gather and share
studies and resources including academic papers, articles in the
popular press, videos, and more with OH users around the world.

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If you have an OH experience youd like to share, or if you create or

hear about a resource regarding OH Cards thats worth sharing,
please let us know (see the contact information below).

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OH Websites

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OH Cards Institute (non-profit): www.oh-cards-institute.org

Sharing OH studies, stories, and resources worldwide
OH Cards North America: www.oh-cards-na.com
Connecting OH users in North America
OH Publishing and International: www.oh-cards.com
International publication and distribution,
coordination of worldwide seminars and workshops

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Contact Information

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OH Cards Institute and OH North America:

Grace Kerina, grace@oh-cards-na.com
OH Publishing and International, OH Cards Institute:

Moritz Egetmeyer, info@oh-cards.com
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OH CARDS QUICK-START GUIDE | 2013 OH Verlag | www.oh-cards-institute.com