Crystal Mandala Oracle by Alana Fairchild

Hi!

Does anyone have (or have had) the Crystal Mandala Oracle by Alana Fairchild?

I got it a week ago after reading and watching so many reviews that were super positive and recommended it.

I like the artwork, and I am usually a fan of Alana (I love three of her decks! And the guidebooks!), but this one... Hmm. I don't know.

I'm a bit annoyed by the constant references to her other products in the guidebook ("if you like numbers you should get the book Bla Bla Numbers by Alana Fairchild as well" and similar).

I feel like it's a bit of an odd mish-mash of things too... Crystals, mandalas, ascended master, goddesses, angels...?! I was personally drawn to the crystal part of the deck, not so much the angel stuff, since I don't agree with the Virtue/Fairchild idea that angels are here to just serve us anything we want etc.

With that said, bad first impression yeah... But I want to try it out (it's pretty )and might just go fully intuitive and ignore the guidebook for now. I was thinking I'd go with the card title and the crystal, but maybe ignore the number and angel stuff...

Any thoughts on this deck? The guidebook? Ideas on how to use it?

I have this and use it intuitively. Colors, shapes, and the associations I have with the Goddesses and crystals themselves. One isn't bound to use a deck the way the creator of it intended.I imagine you know this but it's nice to be reminded of that from time to time especially if you're feeling stuck. The guidebook is typical Alana Fairchild. Meditations, visualizations and descriptions of the various goddesses and crystals. I tend to do my own research on whatever goddess and crystal has been drawn. I don't use it often but when I do I've found it useful. Sky's the limit, really. If you're drawn to the imagery let it work in you rather than trying to work around the concepts presented by its creator.

Madrigal,
Thanks for commenting. Yes, often I will stray from the guidebooks and similar, like with the Mary-El, I read one page and then never touched the gibberish again... I guess I'm so used to really loving Fairchild's guidebooks that this one threw me off a bit?! I'm gonna try a more intuitive approach, I really do love the colors.

I know you're asking about a different deck, but if you're into apps, you might want to try Intuitive Mandala Oracle Cards by Ashley Snow (if you haven't already). I think it's a very powerful oracle. Again, I'm just mentioning it because that's the deck I thought you were talking about. If you're into crystals, this one does innclude crystals in the art work and makes recommendations on which ones to work with.