DECK REVIEW: Journely Oracle Cards, by Adrienne Trafford

The Journey Oracle, Adrienne Trafford

Schiffer Publishing, 2011

http://www.schifferbooks.com

ISBN #: 978-0-7643-3783-3

Box Dimensions:5 3/16 X 3 3/16 X 1 3/16"

Cards & Guide Book Dimensions:4 1/2" X 2 3/4"

From the box:  “Discover your personal pathway.  Oracle cards for the choices we make in our daily lives.  46 stunning art cards featuring strong, decisive women & an easy-to-follow guide.”

Contained within a ribbon-hinged box with a magnetic closure, the Journey Oracle cards rest in a recessed niche with the paperback guide book resting on top.  The box is small enough that it can easily fit into a purse and it is nicely laminated to save it from eventual wear and tear.

The card backs are decorated with a tree containing a nest with two blue eggs – a very sweet visual homage to the author’s “two eggs,” her daughters.  The cards are nicely laminated with colored backgrounds of various colors throughout the deck; including, violet, pink, orange, three shades of green, light blue, burnt orange, etc …  This is not a reflection of various suits, but each color works well with the colors within that particular image and helps them all to visually “pop.”  Departing from the typical portrait-orientation, four cards are rendered in landscape orientation.  As a professional reader and artist I found this to be both interesting and refreshing. 

Card titles reflect characteristics that strong women have in common (Passion, Hope, Patience, etc …), along with cards reflecting possible weaknesses or sources of inner conflict (Storms, Torn, Confined, etc …).  Other cards represent qualities women possess that are also spiritual forces that can help in a particular situation; such as, Appreciation, Hope, Innocence, Independence, Defiance, and Desire.  Other cards represent universal archetypes; such as, The Guardian, The Adventurer, The Actress, The Quiet One, The Vampire (as in psychic vampire, not the mythological creature of the night), The Champion, The Messenger, and The Radiant One.  Divine energies are represented by The Goddess, Mother Earth, Eve, and The Ancestors.  Two cards depart from the formula and do not depict women.  Resilience is a tree stump with a single small living branch protruding from the very top with a blue bird perched upon it.  Home is a very comforting image of a quaint cottage surrounded by lush trees with a loving Mother Moon gazing down upon the scene and a bird’s nest in the foreground containing two blue eggs representing the author’s children.

The guide book contains a black and white image of each card on the opposite page from that card’s interpretation, which is divided into two sections:  “What the card says” and “What the card means.”  The cards for Appreciation and Home include a third section, “Consider this.”  The guide book contains no spreads and the author tells the reader that her cards can be used any way we see fit, including standard tarot lay outs.  I have done single card draws, 3-card draws, and a few Celtic Cross readings for myself using this deck.  It works well with all of these methods.  The Celtic Cross readings I gave myself were particularly insightful.  

Shorter lay outs result in readings that are clear and to the point.  A wonderful example of this is a 3-card draw I did regarding my 12-year-old daughter and a teacher who has been giving her problems.  My husband has just spoken to the principle and my question was, “How will all this turn out for my daughter?”  She had received an F in the class for the previous grading period due to having seven zeros on assignments and the teacher had never informed us she was doing so poorly, plus there were other issues going back to the start of the school year.

The cards I received were as follows:

-          Defiance:  “stand up, dust yourself off, & fight back …” (Guide Book, p. 18)

-          The Radiant One: “Wherever you go, people will be glad you are there.  You can inspire them to do great things…” (Guide Book, p. 84) (this card always comes up to represent my daughter)

-          Changes:  “As we change, we also grow …  We can’t change what has already happened, but can only move on and learn from what has happened …” (Guide Book, p. 14).

I interpreted this to mean we were correct in going to the principle as our daughter’s well being was at stake, and that changes of a positive nature would occur.  Interestingly, in other readings where the teacher appears as a card she is always represented by The Vampire.  The day after I did this reading the principle called me to say the teacher will allow our daughter to make up all the zero assignments and after she turns them in the F will be expunged from her record and her grade will be changed.  This is most definitely a situation where, although you usually can’t change what has already happened, in our daughter’s case she was being granted a unique opportunity, but we are all moving on having learned a great deal from the experience. 

This short reading got it right.  We were defiant and supported our child by going to the highest authority at the school.  Our daughter has remained bright and optimistic despite it all and she truly is The Radiant One, as depicted in this deck.  Changes were something that were most definitely needed in the situation.  You can see how well The Journey Oracle addressed this issue. It was clear, concise and to the point, not to mention very accurate. 

Personally, I really enjoy this deck. It has a very nice energy – comforting, nurturing, and reassuring.  Colors are bright and vibrant.  The cards may stick together a bit while shuffling if you live in a very humid climate as I do, but overall, I’m very happy with the Journey Oracle.  This is a deck definitely for the girls due to women being depicted on all but two cards; however, I have used this deck to read for my husband and it gave him two very accurate and helpful readings.  The deck may not appeal to male readers, however, it can be used to read for men if you so desire. 

I highly recommend the Journey Oracle, which is high praise indeed as oracle decks and I usually do not get along very well.  As a reader I am usually much more comfortable working within the framework of a major arcana and four minor arcana suits.  

I rate this deck 5 stars for the following:

·         Accuracy

·         Artistic rendering

·         Contains wonderful energy

·         Ease of use (no tarot or oracle reading experience is necessary, making this a great deck for beginners)

·         Packaging, in which Schiffer Publishing has excelled time and time again.

For those of us who enjoy adult coloring books (myself included), also available from Schiffer Publishing is a coloring book containing a line drawing of all the cards from The Journey Oracle.  This is a unique opportunity to be able to color in the cards from this deck in any way a person sees fit.  As an artist myself this idea really appeals to me and I hope that more publishers will follow Schiffer's example.  The title is, "The Journey Coloring Book."  It is in paperback and measures 8½ X 11”.   It retails for $9.99 and the ISBN # is:  978-0-7643-3784-0.

 

Tarot of the Sidhe: Deck Review

Tarot of the Sidhe, 
by Emily Carding                    
Publisher:  Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.
Copyright: 2010
Forward by John Matthews

This deck is impressive from the start in a number of ways.  First, the packaging.  Schiffer has done another wonderful job with one of Emily's decks.  Like the Transparent Tarot and the Transparent Oracle (both by Emily & published by Schiffer) The Tarot of the Sidhe comes boxed in sturdy laminated cardboard.  Packaging is compact, just slightly larger than the cards themselves so they pop out of the box easily, unlike decks published by Hay House (by Doreen Virtue & others) that are packaged so tightly that it results in a battle of wills to get all the cards out of the box without denting any of them.

The cards are 3 1/2" by 5" and are all nicely laminated and printed on thick card stock.  Although larger than average, I found that the cards do shuffle well.  The card back is a Sidhe Glyph designed by John Matthews, author of over 90 books on Celtic mythology & co-creator of the Arthurian Tarot.  The background of each card is black with a 1/4" border all the way around.  The number of the card appears at the top, the name at the bottom, both of which are done in white Papyrus font within the black border.  I like the black borders because they help to make the bright colors of Emily's artwork pop right off the cards.  These cards look stunning against a black reading cloth.

The guidebook fits right in the box along with the cards and is a self-contained paperback.  It begins with a forward by John Matthews.  The guidebook is quite impressive.  It begins with the major arcana and each card concludes with a section entitled, "Artist's Notes," for which Emily provides information on how the image came to her.  In many ways, this section is as important as the actual card interpretations & as an artist I found this portion of the cards' interpretations to be very interesting.  A brief list of keywords is also provided for each major arcana card for those of us who do not wish to read the entire interpretation, but I strongly advise you to do so because you'll end up getting a lot more out of the deck.

The section on the minor arcana has a short poem of 4 - 5 lines for each card that aids in its interpretation, followed by a number of keywords.  All card images are illustrated in the guidebook so it's a good reference if you wish to use it as a study guide.  The guidebook concludes with a meditation one can use to enter each card and to interact with the Sidhe depicted and the landscape.  Spreads include: The Pentagram Career Spread (6 cards), The Hexagram Relationship Spread (7 cards), and the Septagram Spread of the Whole Self (8 cards).  Emily concludes her guidebook with a hauntingly beautiful poem entitled, "Song of the Sidhe" that brought tears to my eyes.   

Two of the major arcana have different titles.  The Hierophant in this deck is called The Elder and the Devil is called Pan.  Justice is major arcana VIII while Strength is placed at XI.  The minor arcana specific to this deck are:  Dreamers (Air - Swords), Warriors (Fire - Wands), Dancers (Water - Cups), and Makers (Earth - Pentacles).  All minors are fully illustrated and each card has a title related to its meaning.  I found the imagery on the court cards to be very helpful in conveying their meaning.   Interpretations for the most part follow traditional RWS.


When reading Emily's section on "Creating the Deck," I was very surprised she used watercolors.  The colors are so bright, full-bodied, and vibrant that I assumed she had used acrylic paints.  The imagery has a nice free-flowing quality to it and Emily tells the reader that the images were channeled by her from the Sidhe.  The cards do have a very otherworldly appearance and feel to them not readily apparent in other fae/faery related decks that I've seen over the years.  The artwork itself is gorgeous and it's obvious each image was rendered from the heart and soul.


The deck amazed me by immediately working for me straight out of the box.  Many readers "season" their decks by first cleansing them with incense, sleeping with them under their pillow to merge their energy with that of the deck, and so on.  Tarot of the Sidhe required none of that in my case.  This may be different for others, I cannot say, but I was quite delighted the deck began to work for me immediately.


For my first reading with any new deck (tarot or oracle, it doesn't matter) I always ask the deck, "what sort of a relationship will you and I have with one another?"  

I drew The Fool, Dreamer 8 (entitled "Web of Mirrors"), and the Sun.  I was pleasantly surprised upon laying out the cards to hear in my mind's ear, so to speak, a chorus of voices ring out and say, "In good times and in bad we will be there to guide you through."


Personally, I have no close connection to the Sidhe or to the fae world in general, yet the energies of this deck blessed me by speaking directly to me.  Upon reading the interpretations for the cards I had drawn I heard, "Come!  Take our hand.  Join in the Dance of Life."  Once again I was stunned, more so considering this was the first time I had ever looked at this particular deck. 

Regarding ease of use, the inclusion of key words for all cards makes this a very easy deck to use.  Knowledge of esoteric systems and symbology is not required as Emily nicely dances to the beat of her own drum.   Therefore, even newcomers to tarot would find this deck pretty simple to use. The only possible drawback of this deck is due to ignorance of the type of energies embodied by the Sidhe.  The eyes of the figures do not contain irises, which can give the characters portrayed on the cards a somewhat creepy look to someone who is not used to using a tarot deck.  In fact, I read one reviewer on Amazon who went so far as to refer to this deck as "satanic" for that very reason.  I found that to be completely uncalled for based upon the intense positive energy I felt emerge from these cards the first time I used them.  This is a classic case of "to each, his/her own," but anyone who loves tarot, the Sidhe, and beautiful art would benefit from the deck.   I highly recommend this deck to all.