Star+Gate lives!

Who remembers the old oracle set "Star+Gate"? There's a very old post from about 2007 somewhere on this site about it.

It was set last published I think in 1988 by Vintage. In the set are 96 cards (playing card sized), a rubber mat with layout for cards on it, similar to Celtic Cross, a paper "circle pattern" which is a kind of a mandala-like design to enable you to view how your cards relate to each other more in-depth and a 256 page book.

Back in the late 80s I was at university and had tons of fun with this oracle. It's a really well-thought-out system. Actually I'm not sure whether it counts as an "oracle" because it's supposed to be all about intuition and self-reflection and absolutely not about fortune-telling, but anyway.

You can find the book and card set or just the book itself on amazon for really pretty cheap, in a variety of conditions. I thought the author had long since died or given up the card business because there seemed to be no trace of him when I searched in the past, but now it seems he's back! or has been there all along:

Richard H. Geer, inventor of the Star+Gate system is at http://www.star-journey.com/ The system is now called Star Journey. Unfortunately they don't have book and card sets available anymore. The new Star Journey book is ebook only and seems a tad expensive at $19.99. There is also an iphone/ipod/ipad app which seems more reasonably priced, and you can buy an online set of cards for $1.99. I'm not sure how that works- probably just a set of web pages you can access. They do have some physical card sets still available, which also seem expensive at $19.99 but there you go. If you want a set of the cards I would recommend looking on Amazon personally.

So I feel mixed emotions really. I'm glad the author is still going and still interested in the system, but I'm a bit disappointed there isn't a physical book and card set you can buy these days.

Does anyone else have fond memories of this set?

edit: I checked out the iphone app. It seems pretty disappointing, only having a 3 card layout like a lot of the free tarot apps have. I was expecting it to have the 10 card version from the set. Oh well.

edit again: It seems the new Star Journey book is forthcoming in print, it says Winter 2010 so perhaps the site hasn't been updated in a while. There's apparently some sort of online community for it in Second Life, but I'm not a fan of that so I can't tell you anything more.

Funny you should mention it; I saw a second set of cards and books in Hay-on-Wye last week, but never really clicked with it, and gave my set away, so didn't buy another.
But you can obviously still find them if you really want one

I have this deck - at the bottom of a drawer somewhere. I didn't think many people used it. I bought mine 30 years ago! Perhaps we should set up a Star+Gate revival group!

Elendil.

You know that's a very good idea. It really is a marvellously deep system and it has potential to be added to, too. For example, making new spreads for it. Also, it's still surprisingly available if people wanted to buy it to join in.

Keep me posted!

Ooh I'm not the man when it comes to organizing things. I could have a go though, maybe.

I made a Star+Gate thread awhile ago.
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=128154

I also took the Sky Spread that was in the book and posted it in the Tarot spreads area. I like using it with Tarot cards.

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=128175

Is there enough material to start a study group?

I think as a system, its simplicity belies its use. I have found it to be direct and revealing - and an interesting look at personal reaction and response to symbols, with no IMPOSED little white book meanings, just a few key word pointers if you get stuck.

What do you think, Glass Owl?

Elendil

Elendil said:

Is there enough material to start a study group?

I think as a system, its simplicity belies its use. I have found it to be direct and revealing - and an interesting look at personal reaction and response to symbols, with no IMPOSED little white book meanings, just a few key word pointers if you get stuck.

What do you think, Glass Owl?

Elendil

Click to expand...

It is a very interesting system and I think that it is something that can be useful when looking at other oracles. I had brought up before and it seemed as though not too many people were interested in it. It is nice to see some interest now though and I would welcome the chance to study it in depth with others.

I have started a new thread to guage interest and then we can take it from there.