uraszz
Hello and welcome to what I think will be a very long post!
I originally posted this in the Oracle forum but now seeing that there is an oracle study section I thought this would be a better fit. Enjoy!
I've been studying and reading Tarot for more than seven yers now and I have to say, I never thought that I would consider buying something other than a Tarot deck. The structure, tradition and mysterious past has always been very inviting (and accomodating) to me as I am very interested in the fields of Occult and Esoteric Lore. I value structure and methodology and that is exactly what I found in Tarot
For the past year I've been studying Tarot mechanics. When I say Tarot mechanics I'm referring to the Qabalah and The Golden Dawn reading methods. They have helped me immensely with furthering my understanding of Tarot and have propelled me to question Existentiality, the spiritual structure of the Universe and the Oneness we all share, but, too much of a good thing is harmful and I do not want to exhaust the limits of the near limitless thing called Tarot
So I decided to channel this cartomantic interest into a different, maybe more 'limited' form of divining and right at that point I came across The Wild Unknown Animal Spirit Oracle. Since it's release I have watched a lot of reviews and walkthroughs to really feel out the cards and understand the vision behind them and boy was I surprised to see that Kim Krans didn't just draw 63 animals and jumble them together; she created a very coherent structure that I can really work with
You know I said I wanted a more 'limited' form of cartomancy to anchor me down? I was so wrong to even assume that I could achieve such a thing and this post is a testament to that
This post is the result of my research "before" my purchase of the deck which will happen in a few days if everything goes smoothly
ANALYSIS OF THE FOOD CHAIN
Before starting on anything I wanted to understand each animal in the deck, especially their diet because diet can dictate a lot of the features in an animal's life; habitat, behaviour, migration routes etc I then split the herbivores (the ones that eat plants and vegetation) with the carnivores (the ones that eat meat) and the omnivores (the ones that eat both) and proceeded to analyze the dietic relationship the animals in the deck have with eachother (I believe that Kim Krans suggested to look out for these relationships along with apex predators (the alphas of the food chain)) so I drew out a map showing this relationship as a diagram which I call The Web. Then according to this diagram I rearranged the animals within the suits because the arrangement that Kim Krans made didn't resonate with me on an intuitive level and to my understanding of the animals
http://i1262.photobucket.com/albums/ii618/uraszz/Mobile Uploads/IMAG3594_zps2wnxd14t.jpg~original
Rearranged List
http://i1262.photobucket.com/albums/ii618/uraszz/Mobile%20Uploads/IMAG3599_zpsejgfvf5s.jpg~original[/IMG]
The Web
I know that it is very complex but the true reason that I wanted to show this diagram was not because of it's functionality but to show the amount of connection that only 63 animals have with eachother, let alone an estimate of 950.000 species that encompass plants, animals, insects, and fungi. Once I drew this diagram up I knew that I was getting myself into something as deep as Tarot. I've made a list form of the diagram for easy reference (the numbers are the rearranged numbers ex. 27: Bat 47: Fish so 27-47 means that Bat eats Fish)
List Form of The Web FIRE&AIR
http://i1262.photobucket.com/albums/ii618/uraszz/Mobile Uploads/IMAG3601_zpsyk2qgcbr.jpg~original
List Form of The Web WATER&EARTH
[size=+3]・[/size]Spirit
[size=+3]・[/size]Fire
[size=+3]・[/size]Air
[size=+3]・[/size]Water
[size=+3]・[/size]Earth
The reason I've spent time and effort on understanding this relationship is spiritual and functional. There's a really nice two part discussion of this deck between Kelly from the Truth in Story and Patrick from In the 78 Cards and a very valid question was asked; how will we understand if a card's energy is blocked or reversed as we would when using reversals in the Tarot?
My first suggestion would be to use these diagrams. If say a four card reading was comprised of Crow, Mouse, Deer and Elk you could check and see if these animals are dietically connected. Looking at the diagrams I see that Crow Eats Mouse so the Mouse would have a reversed meaning. Deer is in the clear here and enhanced by it's cousin Elk so it's not affected and the Crow has just had a nice juicy meal so it's meaning has enhanced too. See where I'm going with this?
Of course if that's too complex my second suggestion would be to go all out Golden Dawn on these cards and use Elemental Dignities to understand the fluctuation of meaning. There is a lot of material on the internet that could help with the learning process and the good thing is that it's not hard really and definitely more simpler with the Animal Spirit because with the Tarot you have to memorize the elemental associatons of the Major Arcana which is not always universally accepted by every Tarot reading circle which can get confusing
My third suggestion would be to actually use reversed cards which is simple enough and familiar for someone coming from the Tarot and who already uses reversed cards
My fourth and final suggestion would be to take the intuitive route
As I said I haven't purchased the deck yet so I can't say that I'm an authority on the use of them, hell I can't even say that I know my way around Oracle cards!
I hope this helps anyone using the deck already and would like to go a tad bit deeper. I will be posting an essay type of piece that expresses my spiritual connection with the cards
Sincerely
-uraszz
I originally posted this in the Oracle forum but now seeing that there is an oracle study section I thought this would be a better fit. Enjoy!
I've been studying and reading Tarot for more than seven yers now and I have to say, I never thought that I would consider buying something other than a Tarot deck. The structure, tradition and mysterious past has always been very inviting (and accomodating) to me as I am very interested in the fields of Occult and Esoteric Lore. I value structure and methodology and that is exactly what I found in Tarot
For the past year I've been studying Tarot mechanics. When I say Tarot mechanics I'm referring to the Qabalah and The Golden Dawn reading methods. They have helped me immensely with furthering my understanding of Tarot and have propelled me to question Existentiality, the spiritual structure of the Universe and the Oneness we all share, but, too much of a good thing is harmful and I do not want to exhaust the limits of the near limitless thing called Tarot
So I decided to channel this cartomantic interest into a different, maybe more 'limited' form of divining and right at that point I came across The Wild Unknown Animal Spirit Oracle. Since it's release I have watched a lot of reviews and walkthroughs to really feel out the cards and understand the vision behind them and boy was I surprised to see that Kim Krans didn't just draw 63 animals and jumble them together; she created a very coherent structure that I can really work with
You know I said I wanted a more 'limited' form of cartomancy to anchor me down? I was so wrong to even assume that I could achieve such a thing and this post is a testament to that
This post is the result of my research "before" my purchase of the deck which will happen in a few days if everything goes smoothly
ANALYSIS OF THE FOOD CHAIN
Before starting on anything I wanted to understand each animal in the deck, especially their diet because diet can dictate a lot of the features in an animal's life; habitat, behaviour, migration routes etc I then split the herbivores (the ones that eat plants and vegetation) with the carnivores (the ones that eat meat) and the omnivores (the ones that eat both) and proceeded to analyze the dietic relationship the animals in the deck have with eachother (I believe that Kim Krans suggested to look out for these relationships along with apex predators (the alphas of the food chain)) so I drew out a map showing this relationship as a diagram which I call The Web. Then according to this diagram I rearranged the animals within the suits because the arrangement that Kim Krans made didn't resonate with me on an intuitive level and to my understanding of the animals
http://i1262.photobucket.com/albums/ii618/uraszz/Mobile Uploads/IMAG3594_zps2wnxd14t.jpg~original
Rearranged List
http://i1262.photobucket.com/albums/ii618/uraszz/Mobile%20Uploads/IMAG3599_zpsejgfvf5s.jpg~original[/IMG]
The Web
I know that it is very complex but the true reason that I wanted to show this diagram was not because of it's functionality but to show the amount of connection that only 63 animals have with eachother, let alone an estimate of 950.000 species that encompass plants, animals, insects, and fungi. Once I drew this diagram up I knew that I was getting myself into something as deep as Tarot. I've made a list form of the diagram for easy reference (the numbers are the rearranged numbers ex. 27: Bat 47: Fish so 27-47 means that Bat eats Fish)
List Form of The Web FIRE&AIR
http://i1262.photobucket.com/albums/ii618/uraszz/Mobile Uploads/IMAG3601_zpsyk2qgcbr.jpg~original
List Form of The Web WATER&EARTH
[size=+3]・[/size]Spirit
[size=+3]・[/size]Fire
[size=+3]・[/size]Air
[size=+3]・[/size]Water
[size=+3]・[/size]Earth
The reason I've spent time and effort on understanding this relationship is spiritual and functional. There's a really nice two part discussion of this deck between Kelly from the Truth in Story and Patrick from In the 78 Cards and a very valid question was asked; how will we understand if a card's energy is blocked or reversed as we would when using reversals in the Tarot?
My first suggestion would be to use these diagrams. If say a four card reading was comprised of Crow, Mouse, Deer and Elk you could check and see if these animals are dietically connected. Looking at the diagrams I see that Crow Eats Mouse so the Mouse would have a reversed meaning. Deer is in the clear here and enhanced by it's cousin Elk so it's not affected and the Crow has just had a nice juicy meal so it's meaning has enhanced too. See where I'm going with this?
Of course if that's too complex my second suggestion would be to go all out Golden Dawn on these cards and use Elemental Dignities to understand the fluctuation of meaning. There is a lot of material on the internet that could help with the learning process and the good thing is that it's not hard really and definitely more simpler with the Animal Spirit because with the Tarot you have to memorize the elemental associatons of the Major Arcana which is not always universally accepted by every Tarot reading circle which can get confusing
My third suggestion would be to actually use reversed cards which is simple enough and familiar for someone coming from the Tarot and who already uses reversed cards
My fourth and final suggestion would be to take the intuitive route
As I said I haven't purchased the deck yet so I can't say that I'm an authority on the use of them, hell I can't even say that I know my way around Oracle cards!
I hope this helps anyone using the deck already and would like to go a tad bit deeper. I will be posting an essay type of piece that expresses my spiritual connection with the cards
Sincerely
-uraszz
