General Oracles Study Group #18

DragonFae

For this exercise you do not have to worry so much about meanings....but more about the framework that holds your deck together or the "overall" theme or big picture.

Is your deck animal based? If so what types of animals? How do they fit together to form a whole picture or a wide range of meanings?

For other decks: What are the images? How do they seems to fit together? Are they connected by some tradition, history, or other thing? How do they work together to tell the whole story of the human condition/experience?

Think of the deck as a jigsaw puzzle....how do the cards fit together?

I'll start with my deck. The Medicine Cards.

The deck is animal based. The animals are primarily animals that would appear in the daily lives of many Native American tribes. It is interesting to note that they include dolphin and whale. While I know there are tribes that lived near the ocean these are not animals I usually associate with native folklore. Also included with the deck are nine blank cards that you can use in a variety of ways. If there is an animal you feel a kinship with that is not in the deck you can represent it on one of the blank cards.

The medicine wheel is a physical expression of the powers of Mother Earth, with different animals along the wheel contributing their unique energies. It is a symbol of the wheel of life. The purpose of the animals are to guide us through this life on our Earth Walk. Sometimes we are drawn to certain animals because we have characteristics of that animal. At other times because the animal has something to teach us...be it a life lesson, a warning, or a way of living life.

Although all of the animal messages have powerful positive energy to present to us. They also have an opposite (reversed). For example: The Eagle represents great spiritual wisdom but reversed he suggests that you have lost your connection to the Great Spirit.

The cards overall speak to many levels of the human experience from being observant, to seeking a partner, to secrets and leadership. The cards form a venue in which one can seek inner wisdom. It is not that they "give" wisdom but they allow wisdom to bubble forth from within a person. It is not about being "acted upon" but about listening, reflecting and knowing things that are really not as hidden as one might suppose.

There is some focus on the directions (North, South, East and West)and the paths of each but not as much as in an earlier deck I worked with The Spirit of the Wheel. For that deck there were multiple levels: Moons and Winds and the directions as well as the animal to draw upon in a reading. I haven't really read the book with this deck much yet so maybe there are more of those type of jewels in there.

The purpose of this exercise is to think about the BIG picture of your deck and what it offers to you.
 

2dogs

I have tried a couple of animal decks but they don't really speak to me. Earth Magic only has a wolf, a whale, an eagle and a dragonfly which I can just about cope with. The bulk of the cards show other natural objects with which I am more familiar and which immediately bring to mind various memories, ideas and associations. For example the ever moving river, cleansing rain, hot sun, lonely island, powerful lightning and enduring mountain. I suppose this comes from spending a lot of time out walking in Nature - an oracle of shopping malls would no doubt throw me completely. There are a few odd cards that don't at first sight fit in, such as DNA, Fairies and Music, but the explanations in the guidebook make more sense in relating them to the overall message of the deck which is to get more in touch with Nature, other creatures, spirit, develop a feeling of connection to the rest of the world, and learn to appreciate its wonders.
 

DragonFae

I have read a lot of good things about the Earth Magic deck...I would like to get it sometime.
 

DragonFae

Bump....any other thoughts about decks and the "big picture" you see in the overall theme?
 

2dogs

Well, I was trying to understand a big picture last year of how my various Oracle and Tarot decks fitted together, but eventually a series of readings encouraged me to put the Oracles away and work through the four Tarot decks one at a time. Some of the Oracles had beautiful images and I learnt some valuable things about intuitive reading and getting away from systems, but overall I found it very slow going to get the interpretations. It seems the Secret Language Of Color may have a part to play in working with my Sirian Starseed Tarot, perhaps in getting feelings for energies, but I don't expect to be learning that deck for some time.

All the best for the Study Group,

2dogs :)