oracle deck – Serendipities

Oracle Deck Review: Faery Forest Oracle

Cardstock: The cardstock is pretty standard — they'd be easier to riffle shuffle if they weren't quite so large! But they're a bit difficult for me to hold, measuring about 5.5″ tall and 3.75″ wide (or 14cm x 9.5 cm). I end up using a variety of shuffling methods to get them well-mixed. The deck box is a two part hard case, which so far is holding up well.

Artwork: The artwork is a variety of media — according to the booklet, the artist works in everything from from digital to oils — but the general style of the artwork is fairly consistent, and the themes of the deck are clear. The only drawback is that some of the images are less crisp than others, probably due to differences in the original media. These cards have pretty thick borders — thick enough that I'd be tempted to trim them down. And in addition to the card titles at the bottom, each card has three keywords.

Book: The booklet starts off with a few pages about the imagined Faery Forest, and how to use the cards. There are four provided spreads, including a past/present/future, a Celtic Cross, and two spreads for this specific deck. There is a small black-and-white image for each card before the meaning, and the meanings are not too sparing — most have three medium-sized paragraphs.

Likes: I like the general vibe of the deck, as I am more partial to fae being depicted in less twee ways. Also it does read fairly consistently well; there's a good mix of words used for the titles. The booklet meanings are all pretty clear, and give a good overview of each card.

Dislikes: I really do not vibe with the cards for Freyr and Frigga in this (there's no Freya or Odin), so... I pulled them out. I'm also not a huge fan of the differences in art media and especially in clarity — it feels a little bit like the artist went and pulled a bunch of their old work and put it all in one large binder, and didn't try very hard to make sure they all felt cohesive. And this deck, as with most fairy-themed decks, does have mainly depictions of conventionally pretty, thin, young-looking, light-skinned, feminine fairies (I would say "white" but even the ones that are too silver or blue or green to be human have very light skintones). There's not much diversity in body type and hardly any masculine fairies.

Overall Recommendation

If you like the dark faery aesthetic it's pretty solid as an additional deck, but I don't think I'd recommend it as a first deck or an only deck. I think I would love it more if the artwork was more consistent, but even as it is, it's a very visually appealing deck, and with the titles and keywords on the cards, it lends itself pretty well to off-the-cuff readings. As I said in my review for the Wild Wisdom of the Faery Oracle, that one and this work pretty well together, with that one offering a little more sugar-coating if that's what the situation calls for. But ultimately I think this is another deck I wouldn't bother replacing if it gets damaged or goes missing.

Oracle Deck Review: Wild Wisdom of the Faery

Deck: Wild Wisdom of the Faery Oracle
Publisher: Blue Angel
Writer: Lucy Cavendish
Artist: Selina Fenech
Overall Rating: 5/10

image (c) Blue Angel. Cards shown are: Lift the Darkness, Acorn’s Invitation, Star Dust, and Into the Woods

Cardstock: They’re pretty flexible and smooth, but the cards are nearly too large for me to shuffle. They measure about 5.5″ tall and 3.75″ wide (or 14cm x 9.5 cm). Still, I manage to get them mixed up well with a combination of shuffling methods. The deck box is a two part hard case, which so far is holding up well.

Artwork: The artwork appears to be mostly traditional media, but the artist’s website says that she often begins with watercolor or acrylic, and then adds a little more in digital form afterwards. If you haven’t noticed yet, I’m generally a sucker for watercolors. A lot of the art is pretty “twee”, almost all the fairies have wings, and while there’s a range of sizes (from tiny to human-sized), there’s not much by way of diversity of body shape or skin tone (mostly femme, white, thin, and wearing filmy clothing). The cards also have the name and keywords written over the image, despite the rather large border, and the contrast isn’t great on a few of them.

Book: The booklet pretty large, about 170 pages, though the beginning is a bunch of New Age Fairy Nonsense that sees Them as mainly benevolent (if tricksy) nature angels, and says that all the stories of bad luck and negative encounters are a product of Church propaganda. For example, they define the Unseelie Court by saying: “not so fond of humans, as they feel we have been very harmful. Most of the Unseelie’s [sic] have ‘given up’ on us. ‘Tis up to us to prove them wrong.” Yeah okay, I guess maybe kelpies eat people because they… littered? Sure, okay, let’s just ignore several centuries of living belief and practice. [/sarcasm]
The booklet does include a few interesting spreads, though I still can’t advise invoking the Fair Folk or asking them for divinatory advice on your life situations, the way it recommends.
The descriptions of the cards themselves have a few paragraphs of description and then a few paragraphs each of divinatory meanings and reversed meanings, which is always helpful. The cards all have their number on the top border, so you can flip through the book to find them, but they aren’t in alphabetical order.

Likes: I like the general art style, though I wish it depicted a more diverse cast. I also do actually really like the amount of information the booklet gives for each card, because as I’m learning a new deck I really like to figure out what the writer and artist were both thinking, so I can better understand their symbolism, and build that into my intuitive readings. I do also like it when there are a couple of keywords on the card when it’s an oracle deck, because with those there’s no set of meanings like there is with tarot, lenormand, or runes.

Dislikes: Basically the entire introductory section in the the book. And the lack of diversity. And the borders, and how the keywords aren’t well contrasted. The size of the cards.

Overall Recommendation

TL;DR: if this one goes missing or gets water damaged, I probably won’t buy a new one. A lot of my clients seem to like the artwork, but I never use this one for my own personal readings unless I can’t use something better. I bought it a while back because it was pretty, but this one really is a bit too twee for my tastes. The Faery Forest Oracle by Lucy Cavendish again, but with artwork by Maxine Gadd, is a bit less twee, and I find that they work okay together, for better rounded answers. The Wild Wisdom of the Faery Oracle sugarcoats like a candy store, so if you’re looking for a very gentle deck with a sunny disposition and cute artwork, it’ll probably serve you well, but I think a fair few of my readers will be put off by the twee.

Oracle Deck Review: The Vintage Wisdom Oracle

Deck: The Vintage Wisdom Oracle
Publisher: US Games Systems, Inc
Writer & Artist: Victoria Mosely
Overall Rating: 8/10

image (c) US Games Systems. Cards shown are Release and Ancestors

Cardstock: They’re maybe a little thicker than I would like, considering the size of the cards. They measure 5.5″ tall and 3.75″ wide (or 14cm x 9.5 cm). My hands can’t riffle shuffle them very easily, but I manage with a combination of shuffling methods. The deck box is a two part hard case, which holds up well.

Artwork: The artwork is mixed media, using old photographs and paintings as the base, onto which the artist has added embellishments, both physical and digital. I really enjoy the dreamlike quality of it, and some of the base images are recognizable to me. (At least one of the cards is a Waterhouse painting.) If the art doesn’t speak to you, though, that would probably knock a whole point off my review.

Book: The booklet pretty large, 75+ pages, with 5-8 paragraphs describing each card and its meaning. The cards are all in alphabetical order which is a really nice feature, and makes it easier to look up a card. It also includes five example spreads at the end, and instructions for laying the cards.

Likes: I really like the artwork. It matches the card titles pretty well, and also most of card titles are pretty straightforward: Abundance, Adventure, Ancestors, Awakening, etc. This deck lends itself well to intuitive reading.

Dislikes: I would have liked the cards a touch smaller for easier shuffling. Also, some of the cards have more Christian symbolism than I prefer, despite the deck in general being very new age neutral.

Overall Recommendation

This is my go-to deck for messages from Ancestors, partly because it’s so easy to read intuitively. But as with some of the others I’ve reviewed, one’s enjoyment of the art will make or break this deck. If you don’t like the art style, if it doesn’t speak to you, it will lose most of its magic.

Oracle Deck in Progress

I’ve been working on an oracle deck for a while now. I started with 36 terms/symbols/cards/whathaveyou, but I’ve been filling in some gaps and now I’m up to 42, which I think is probably where it will stay. I’ve also changed some of the names to be more gender-neutral, and I’m really quite happy with how it reads that way. I’ve written a lot of free association on the terms, too, and my next step will probably be a rough draft of the meanings as they’ll read in a companion booklet. And then it will be time to brainstorm art!

Here are my current terms:

The Child
The Youth
The Caregiver
The Elder
The Ancestors
The Companions
The Stranger
The Authority
The Benefactor
The Apprentice
The Healer
The Farmer
The Warrior
The Artisan
The Bard
The Oracle
The Cleric
The Hedgewitch
The Sorcerer
The Fairy Queen
The Green Man
Deer and Wolf
Sheep and Dog
Fallowness
Cornucopia
Precipice
Sanctuary
Earth
Waters
Fire
Skies
Spring
Summer
Fall
Winter
Sun
Moon
Stars
Wheel of Time
World Tree
Balance
Compass

What do you think? Want to be a guinea pig and receive a free three-card pull on a question of your choice? Email me, and make the subject “Oracle Deck Free Reading”! (7serendipities at gmail)

~Réaltán~

Etsy Shop Update

So in my Etsy Shop I’m migrating towards two types of listing, as far as the tarot and oracle card readings are concerned: by deck, and by spread. I think having one listing with multiple price tiers is a better idea for me in the long run, because it will cut down on relisting costs and expirations. To that end, I’m starting a new sort of aesthetic for that. Most of the deck listings currently look a bit like this:

That’s a lot witchier than the cards by themselves with plain wood beneath them, don’t you think? Hopefully potential clients will like it, too. I’m still including lots of pictures of cards, of course, especially in these deck listings.

The thematic spread listings got a facelift, too, but I think they may still be too plain. Here’s an example:

That could use witch-ing up a little, probably. But at least this one’s pretty straightforward and was up in time for Valentine’s Day. For these I’m also including a picture of all the decks I have, to make it a little easier for clients to choose one.

Beyond Love and Career and New Year (which will be leaving soon), I don’t have any thematic spread listings… but I’m thinking about perhaps making one or two more, if I can figure out what sorts of things potential clients are looking for.

Outside of the realm of divination, I’m working on devotional bracelets for Sekhmet and Anubis, and hopefully those will be in my shop soon! Stay posted!

In other news, I’m going to start trying to update this blog weekly, probably on Mondays, although I’ll be out of town for the end of February, so I may not start posting regularly until mid-March. Thanks for following along!

~Réaltán~