Belinda Grace's oracle is a soulful exploration of romantic relationships that will be useful for singles or partnered people. The imagery draws on issues that affect and influence relationships for good or bad. Some of the imagery uses well-known world myths to illustrate couple dynamics and qualities of relating. This being the case, the cards can be used in counseling or therapeutic settings.
Lori Banks' artwork is just my cup of tea: colorful symbolic paintings that are pregnant with meaning and very intuitive to use. However, what makes this decks so lovely to me is not just the cute artwork, is the quality of the guidebook and the texts that accompany eachc card.
FAB QUALITY
RockPool demonstrates, once more, that other Tarot publishing houses have much to learn on how to produce affordable good-quality decks.
> Beautiful keepsake box with magnetic clip.
> The quality of the booklet is amazing. Premium glossy paper, color illustrations, good-sized lettering.
> Flexible good quality glossy cards, easy to shuffle and handle. Despite the size, the deck is light and not bulky.
> Good value for money.
ON THE FLIP SIDE
> The cards are a big too big for people with small hands.
> No ethnic or gender diversity.
> Three of the full body frontal images have wrong proportions between head and body, thus, the characters look a bit dwarfish: The Divine Masculine, Chivalry and the Sacred Woman.
Moonology is a book, deck and companion website by astrologer Yasmin Boland that delves into the influence of the phases of the moon in our daily lives. This is a very popular deck, one that you'll find used in many YouTube Tarot reading channels.
Honestly, I was never a fan of the images I saw on the screen. I purchased the deck as it was heavily discounted but, to my surprise, the deck is, in real life, beautiful.
GOOD STUFF
> Moonology is a highly intuitive deck, and this is something that, for me, makes an oracle, an oracle.
> Nyx Rowan's paintings and deck design are really beautiful and hypnotizing.
> The deck can be used as a normal oracle, i.e., you shuffle the cards, get one and get an answer to your question. Secondly, you can use the booklet as stand-alone guide to check specific phases of the moon, and events/circumstances associated to that phase.
> Good quality card stock with mate coating, so the cards shuffle well and let the painted artwork shine. Mate suits the night/moon theme, as well.
> Beautiful sturdy keepsake box.
> The card back is really pretty despite its simplicity or because of its simplicity.
> The booklet is very good regarding texts and also nicely bound, so you can fully open it and read it comfortably.
SO-SO
> I have had a mix of results with the deck, as I haven't had for for long and I am getting to start to understand it.
> I think if you are into Astrology and familiar with astrological charts, this deck might be a bit difficult to understand.
> For the same reason, unless you are really familiar with the cycles of the moon,the structure of the booklet is going to be challenge. Don't take me wrong, it's totally congruent and something that you can expect from a Moonology deck, yet, impractical for many people. I'd rather have the cards numbered so the user can look up them straight away, still keeping the current booklet structure.
> The keepsake box coating doesn't allow the lid to glide as easily as other decks.
This is a very cute little oracle based on the secret life of plants, to call it something.
THE GOOD STUFF
> Original concept.
> Very intuitive cards, something that I love. They can be really straightforward with their answers and it reminds me of the linearity in question-answer that I find in Kipper oracles.
> Beautiful vintage-looking children-book illustrations.
> Booklet has good quality paper and nice text.
> Good quality beautiful sturdy keepsake box.
NOT SO GOOD
> Very small number of cards.
> The cards coating makes them stick to each other so shuffling is deficient.
> The back has poor contrast between background image and lettering.
> Cards aren't numbered, but they are numbered in the booklet. As the cards are not alphabetically ordered in the booklet and are numbered, and the card has no number, you'll have to go through the whole index to find your card.
Colette is "the" Oracle master so I imagined that, if she had to create a Tarot deck, was never going to be a replica of the RW Tarot. The structure of this deck is, however, that of the classic tarot, but the imagery has been freely interpreted and simplified. Also a very feminine vibe has been added, as well as characters of different ages and ethnic backgrounds made part of the deck. Colette says in the booklet that she has added some LOA and positive psychology principles, but I am not sure is this is just blah blah blah. For sure, the deck has a positive vibe as reversals are gone as well as any 'distressing' imagery. The LOA and PPsy is more clearly found in the meanings in the booklet.
THINGS I LOVE
> The concept is perfect for beginners as there aren't reversals.
> The "frightening" images in the RWT are not there, so all the imagery has a positive feeling.
> The artwork by DellaGrotaglia is stunning once again. Her layering, textures and colouring are superb. Despite the sophisticated symbolism of her imagery and the richness of symbolic elements, the images feel clean and sophisticated at the same time. The imagery has a wonderful oneiric fairy-tale feeling that I love.
> The interpretation given to each card is short and sweet and captures the essence of what the original card meant upright.
> The fancy lettering describing the suit card and number is fanciful wonderful.
> Beautifully simple card back.
> The
Good Tarot has a mythological ethereal whimsical archetypal feel that
roots in the Tarot and in traditional fairy tales and angelic realms.
> The cards Strength and Love are wonderfully related with the women first controlling the beast and then falling in love with it. Like Beauty and the Beast.
> Sturdy beautiful keepsake box.
THINGS THAT BOTHER ME
>
This deck is massive and extremely difficult to shuffle even if you
have average-size hands, so it's really a pain for people with small hands.
> The cards gloss coating makes them stick together so they are difficult to shuffle. Shuffling well and easy is at the core of any reading, so if the cards don't shuffle well, what's the point?
> The booklet printing quality and paper stock are average.
> Some of the cards are slightly blurry.
> The major arcana card numbers aren't placed on a fix position, something that really annoys me.
> The blue tones from air and water suits are so similar that is difficult to identify which suit is which one by the color. The same re the earth and fire suits. Why not having completely distinct suit color palette for each suit?
> Too many winged beings in this deck. The air suit with angelic winged beings and the earth suit with butterfly-ish fairy beings and there are wings everywhere, really.
MIND
> The overall feminine tone of the deck might not speak to male readers or tarot aficionados. The only male figures are the Kings plus the hanged man and the page of earth. Figures that are usually depicted as male in the RW Tarot like the knights (messengers) and the Hierophant are here feminine as well.
> This is a simplification of the Tarot most common meanings, so it is not as rich and deep as the original.
SUGGESTION TO THE PUBLISHER
US Games Systerms has the best card stock in the market. It not only make shuffling a pleasure, it is good enough to have any artwork really pop up and display the right way. I think Hay House should just copycat the card stock, because most of HH Tarot decks, like this one, are too bulky, too heavy and to mass-produced.
GOOD STUFF
> Great affirmations that go to the point, aren't too short or too lengthy, and have substance.Due to the fact that doors are the main theme, the deck as a 'transitional' vibe and messages. > Very small deck, so it's perfect for people with small hands.
> Beautiful real-life photography of unique doors from around the world.
> Elegant design of the back,on the affirmations side, in white-marble and gold colors.
> Good quality glossy flexible cards that shuffle beautifully.
> Very good quality keepsake box with upper non-detachable magnetic lid.
> Instructions of how to use the cards are written on the inner lid. > Great portability.
SO-SO
> Tiny deck, so if you have big hands, it might not be for you.
> There is no guidebook or booklet explaining why the door theme was chosen. Because really, there must be one. It
might be the case that Engracia came with the messages after choosing
the photos himself and meditating on them, but we don't know about the
concept that inspired the deck anywhere. A bit of background on the
concept might have been wonderful. > Contrast between lettering and background is deficient on the inner lid.
> Most photos are stock photos from Pexels, Shutterstock except for four of them attributed to Melissa Lee Vernali. There seems not to be much effort put beyond choosing the photos and Engracia's lovely messages on the back.
This is another beautiful tiny deck by Rockpool Publishing. It has the house trademarks:
> Small stylish deck.
> Motivational messages.
> Gorgeous illustrations/photos/artwork.
> Portability.
> Great quality glossy card stock
> Sturdy practical keepsake box with upper self-closing lid.
> Pleasurable shuffling
ALSO GREAT
> The illustrations are all beautiful Aboriginal motifs in earthy colours. The deck has artistic congruence, as well.
> However, what stands out to me, having as many motivational decks as I have, is that the messages in the cards aren't the same-old messages. On the contrary, the they are original nuggets that will make you ponder.
SO SO
> Aboriginal artwork has a multitude of ocher and earthy tones that makes it both rich and earthy, but this deck lacks colour depth and feels a bit flat in that regard.> A bit pricey for what they are.
> Perhaps, not good for people with big hands.
This is a cute small oracle deck devoted to Kuan Yin, the Divine Mother.
I LIKE
> Beautiful imagery by the talented Chinese fine-artist Wan Yiguang with an atmosphere that captures adventure, youth, playfulness, and has a marked Tibetan/Mongolian vibe.
The young Kuan Ying,seems to be floating over the Earth playing with her yak, moving around happy and free with her loyal companion as The Fool in the Tarot would do.
> Fairchild's texts in this deck really resonate with me. In this deck, Fairchild's usual writing is deprived of her usual flourished never-ending verbose style and the meanings goes to the point without losing depth.
> A great oracle to start your day.
> No need of guidebook as the oracle message is written in the card back.
> Light, easily-to-shuffle deck.
> Hard keepsake box.
> Perfect for people with small hands.
ON THE FLIP SIDE
> The Divine Mother is a bit too young in the imagery. The character is not a woman yet. The story seems that of a young spirited girl who travels the world with her yak in a very playful mood more than that of the Asian goddess.
> The imagery and the text on the cards do not relate much. Other images might have been used, unrelated to the Asian goddess, and it would have not mattered. This being the case, this is more a text oracle than an intuitive oracle that relies on imagery, as the latter seems more decorative that intuitive.
> Cards coating makes them stick together, which is very annoying.
> Not many cards in this oracle.
> The quality and overall product does not justify the price.
This is such a well-known oracle, ubiquitous on YouTube tarot-reader channels that is difficult to say something that it hasn't been said before.
The oracle is personified in the human head/face that appears on the back as well as blended in in most front cards.
THINGS I LIKE
> Beautiful digital artwork by DellaGrottaglia, a digital artist with whom Colette collaborates and has a wonderful eye for intuitive imagery in divination decks. Overall, the whimsical surrealist clean imagery is wonderful: polished, simple but rich enough to be used on its own or with the guidebook interpretations. The deck has a strong presence of spirit animals and fairies, and it's embedded with tenderness and sense of humor.
> Presence of racial diversity in the characters depicted on the cards.
> The symmetric colorful back is a stunner.
> The guidebook contents. Each card has an oracle message, a relationship message, a prosperity message (career, business, work, projects) and a protection message, so it's not only practical but versatile and in-depth.
> Good quality card stock
> Sturdy keepsake box.
I DON'T LIKE
>
At the end of the day, what matters the most when using any oracle
deck is that things flow and your answers are replied with precision. You ask a query about work and the card imagery and/or guidebook
text are spot on and go to the core of the matter. I tend to ask any
deck, when I first start using it, questions about things I know the answer about or things about myself that I obviously know. Unfortunately, I have a mix bag of results with my queries on that regard and the oracle has been less magnificent than expected.
> The beautiful flourished numbering is not positioned on the same spot on each card. Sometimes, it's on the right hand side (in most cards) but not always at the same height. In one case, it's on the middle tip, while in other cases, the numbering is located on the left hand side but at different heights. This is simply bad design.
> The card stock isn't flexible enough and the glossy coating makes cards stick to each other, and, as a consequence, shuffling it's not natural or pleasurable.
> Average guidebook printing quality and paper stock.
> 23 cards have a flag garland on the top while the rest have none.Why? Does the flags signal something different on those cards that have them?
> The cards are on the large side so they're easy to shuffle if you have small hands.
This is one of the most interesting oracles I've come across lately. The deck relies and draws on a very-strong feminist array of women archetypes. All of them are writers with lives that are/were out of the ordinary. Their life and work is the basis for the symbolic portraits (major arcana if you wish), while their materials (symbols associated with their writing and/or lives) are in the sepia simple icon-like cards.
CLAP CLAP CLAP
> Original concept. > Amazing 'odd' women and writers from different cultures, races, sexual orientations and historical periods (from historical figures to living legends), so the deck feels contemporary and in tune with the need of cultural diversity in our world.
> Beyond some renowned female writers, you'll get to know some others that are equally remarkable but not so well known.
> Horan's art is just great. The illustrations of the witches are the most evocative and helpful for intuitive readings. I'll give you an example:
I asked, 'What I have to know in my relationship with guy X?" The card that came up was Octavia E Buttler's The Future. The image depicts a woman opening a young man's chest, at the heart level, as if she was healing a wound or just a opening his heart. The man seems to be dreaming, surrounded by darkness and subject to the hold of subconscious tentacles. The man is white and the woman is black, so she might be his shadow side. Can you see the beauty of the card and how this would work on a romantic question? You don't really need to know who Octavia E. Buttler is to use the cards because the imagery is rich and multi-layered. You can still go to the booklet, look up Octavia's story and add some further elements. The summary says, for example, that she wrote novels that reflected on power dynamics about sexes, so you could see that the woman on the card has the upper hand in this relationship, she's bigger than the man perhaps she has power over him, she has power over his heart or is more mature, or more conscious. In other cases, the enquirer might find that the image depicts a woman breaking the guy's heart, for example. I took two other cards to clarify the message and I got the cat (a being that comes and goes, who attaches to people freely but needs its own space) and the snail (a being that is slow in movement, has a shell, and has a small house). Just beautiful, isn't it?
- Indie wonderful design.
- Elegant practical keepsake box, beautifully designed inside out. The box has an inner pull-up ribbon to help get the cards out.
- Great quality card stock with flexible textured luxurious cards that shuffle beautifully and don't stick to each other.
- Good printing quality.
> The deck seems to works for me. It gives precise answers to my questions. I have tried it with questions about people I know well, and then asked the cards, and boom, the answers have been spot-on.
THUMBS DOWN
> I get that this is a spin-off of the eponymous book, but this booklet doesn't say much. The summary about each artist is good enough, and the Wikipedia surely has more information. The booklet basically says, use your intuition with this deck, which is great, but doesn't help explain the concept behind the oracle. So, what's the point of producing an oracle that has no oracle guidance? And really, I don't want to buy the book just to understand the deck.
> Some design issues. For example, the witches cards have their name and keyword on the front; however, the materials cards have the keywords in the booklet. That's bad design because it doesn't seem to show design congruence.
> The materials cards relate to the witches, yet, we aren't told why and which materials belong to to each witch.
> The keyword attributed to each writer isn't always intuitive for me. Emily Dickinson is the epitome of the hermit and solitude. However, she's given the keyword 'soul' instead of 'solitude' which is given to Alejandra Pizarnik. This would not matter if both writers were unknown, but Dickinson is well known for her solitary life.
> Lettering in the booklet is diminutive and you might need a magnifying glass to read the text.
MIND
> The strong feminist blueprint might not be some people's cup of tea and men with strong male energy might not relate to the deck at all.
> This deck is bulky and the cards are on the large size so people with small hands might struggle shuffling.
Sandra Anne Taylor is really a master in creating decks that resonate with me, and this is another example.
This is one of the best decks I've purchased from Hay House in a long time regarding the quality of the artwork, deck design and production. It is overall a very feminine oracle, but also a very shamanic one, both very earthy and magical. Images of spirit animals, powerful feminine archetypes, natural forestry settings and Indigenous shamanic imagery blend together to perfection to bring us an oracle that will speak to people with strong feminine essence and into alternative spirituality.
THE ARTWORK
Webber's fine-art paintings for the deck are amazing. They are multilayered and richly metaphoric, exuberant but still sophisticated. The imagery has a predominance of earthy colors: ocher, golden, browns and greens that convey well the connection with Mother Earth and the world of spirit/totem animals. You could have any of the images in large format hanging from your walls. OTHER GOOD STUFF
> Although there are many oracles and decks devoted to the divine feminine, this one shines over the rest because of its mix of Gaian, Pagan, Wicca, Native-American, shamanic and reiki-like elements, which will resonate with anyone into alternative forms of spirituality and energy work.
> I love that this oracle imagery doesn't relate to Tarot major arcana as much as other oracles do. In that regard, this is not only an original deck, but also a true oracle.
> Imagery is potent enough to be used on its own in intuitive readings.
> A contemporary diversity-sensitive deck that depicts characters from several races and color skins.
> The cards stock is wonderful.
> Despite its size, the deck is not heavy or bulky.
> Very pleasurable easy shuffling.
> Great design and production from the interior of the keepsake box to the quality of the paper used to print the guidebook.
> Guidebook is wonderful. The quality of the paper is great and the texts are good. Each card meaning ends with a lovely affirmation.
OK STUFF
> No surprise, but except for the divine masculine card, all cards are feminine, so this is not a deck for men with strong masculine essence and energy.
> Cards are large-ish, so, people with small hands might find shuffling them a bit difficult.
> The card edges deteriorate easily with little shuffling.
> There is a lack of synchrony between some of the images and the meanings given to them. I'd say that the deck is 50% congruent and 50% non-congruent. In some cases, the concepts the cards relate to are difficult to convey visually. In other cases, the connection is not clear to the user even though it might have been for Taylor. Take for example cards 38 sensuality (not very sensual), 25 go with the flow (character seems concerned and apprehensive more than going with the flow), 22 Telepathy (it takes two to tango for telepathy), 49 Achievement (It looks more like power/strength) or 33 Building your World (it looks like an hermit) , just to mention some of the cards that I don't think represent well the concepts. would loved more if they had not keyword associated as they don't seem to match. For the rest, card 14 seems out of tune with the rest of the lot, and looks more like a painted photograph. It reminds me of some countryside scenes that I saw in Turkey or the Middle East years ago. Taylor says that she chose the artwork and then channeled the energies to create the deck, so the artwork wasn't specifically created for the deck, or so it seems.
> In the guidebook, I miss a reproduction of each card before each card meaning..
MIND
> The authors recommend reading the whole guidebook before using the cards.
> Order of the cards was chosen randomly and intuitively and some of them, looking very similar, were put together, even though they relate to different matters.
I've find Baron-Reid's oracles magnificent. Some of the best oracles in the market to me, due to the accuracy and depth of the answers given to my queries.
What is the Wisdom of the House of Night? It is a world between worlds, the fantasy world created by novelist P. C. Cast. The story is loosely based on the Greek myth of the Godless Nyx, the Goddess of the Night. Mother of Hypnos (Sleep), Tanathos (Death), The Oneroi (Dreams) and Erebus (Darkness) among other mythological characters. Nyx's realms are liminal, those interstitial spaces between he day and the night, waking life and dreams, the conscious and the unconscious. In short, those in which the occult dwells. It is still nothing really dark or Lovecraft-ish. The cards, on the other hand, draw on Norse runes, Tarot, Greek mythology and I-Ching elements.
GOOD
> Very original concept.
> Good quality cards. Flexible, light and glossy, the cards glide beautifully in your hands.
> Excellent quality printing.
> Wonderful atmospheric artwork. The deck has artistic harmony and
integrity, an the images seem to connect to each other well.
> I
also love that the oracle has 50 cards and not just 40.
> Silver edges.
> Good size card, not too big, not too small. Perfect for everyone's hands.
> Decent quality guidebook with a nice description of the Nyx's story on which this oracle card is based.
> Durable deck. I have had this for several years now and is still in a good condition.
> Good quality packing box.
> This is overall, one of the best decks, re quality, I own.
> Pointy square edges.
>
Some of the images and the meaning attributed to them do not match. In
my case, those are: Loyalty, Denial, Invisible, Rigid, Honesty.
Complicated, Hope, Individuality, Understanding, Confidence,
Fulfillment, and Listening.
> The cards not always respond to my queries, that's why I don't use them as often as other oracle decks.Sometimes the guidance is spot on, but others the cards have nothing to say or to advice on or, said differently, do not resonate with me. As other reviewers have commented, I might need to warm up to the deck. Sometimes decks have spoken to me at the beginning and stopped speaking to me later on, and vice versa. This might be the case with this deck.
> As the card back is glossy dark, your fingerprints will be visible right there as long as you have two eyes.
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