Oracle of the Radiant Sun

I can't remember if someone's already posted this link, if so I apologize -- I just saw this and was excited about it. It's a new oracle deck to be published later this year. It's by Caroline Smith, who did the Elemental Tarot.

http://www.stars.clara.net/radiant/intro.htm

-- Lee

I like those cards...Will definately have to check it out when they go up for sale.

moon oracle

she's also done a moon oracle. for all you lunatics-- it works really well. it involves a set of twelve goddesses, the phase of the moon in each of the elementary signs and the mansions.
and the art's just like her elemental deck. IMO it's worth getting


LVX
steve

Hi,

I got her moon oracle, am expecting the Elemental but the new one does not knock me off, sorry.

nope, these aren't for me.

but then, they ALL can't be or i'ld be poor LOL

in light,
jade

**Excitement**

Lee, a local small bookstore had it in Northern Cal...and it has 84 cards...smaller cards, as small Enchanted Tarot. Great pictures, silly attached well for the deck on the wraparound cover of the book...more later.

This is an astrology deck.

Correction:

I have separately, in books by Mary Greer and others, charts of the tarot and astrology and element correspondence, but will explain what I find, after work.

Mari

Wow, thanks, Mari! I can't wait to hear more.

-- Lee

Lee B. et al...on linking this with tarot

Lee and others, I went through some of my easier tarot-astrology references that was based on Mary Greer's summary of Thoth/Paul Foster Case's work. In the astrology forum, I listed the Majors, Minors and Courts with suggested astrological correspondences to a pack of 78 cards.
My hope is this will help me with this pretty deck of astrological cards---I actually am starting a pairing exercise with the smallest Enchanted deck. For example, a Moon in Libra card in the Oracle of the Radiant Sun corresponds with the Two of Swords in the Enchanted. How the meaning might meld or mix, I'm not certain...but I am hoping for a richer reading that has echoes and a range of meanings for such a correspondence.
I don't know if this helps at all or will be confusing...but I'm approaching this pretty deck leisurely and quietly. Alsop & Smith's work in the past seem to result in book-decks that I regard as friendly critter-companions during turbulent times. I liked the playful differences of the Elemental Tarot and Moon Oracle--the Moon Oracle is a very pretty comfort.
If you have questions, I'd be glad to answer...but I'm doing something rather experimental, which might not suit your curiousity...

Book structure/Cards

I've been trying to use the astrology deck of the Oracle of the Radiant Sun with another tarot. At the moment, I matched the oracle in a card pull with another art tarot---but it was more myself matching up the prettiness of the pictures and small size of the cards. By themselves, the cards seem to be very much in align with general astrology texts that would describe, Moon in Libra aspects. I have a fondness for that aspect of my birth time, so I found it a good measure when I check for astrology descriptions.
The general structure of the book is the first 20 pages gives some general astrology information for the novice, and then from pages 26-110 you have card descriptions of 12 cards for seven planets-the historical planets of ancient astrology before the final two were discovered (Was that Uranus and Pluto?). There are 84 cards.
If you can stay with the system, each card over time has both glyphs on either side of the card easy to identify--so that Moon in Libra or Sun in Gemini can be memorized that way. Or if you also look at the background line structure of each card, as the book shows you. Each of the seven different planets have a line/shape pattern that frames the pictorial motifs for its associated 12 cards. So even if you are colorblind, I believe you can use these cards.*
Each card is pictured in the book as a small yellow insert with black writing on a white page---the cards themselves seem to be quite pretty. The male and female figures seem to be from print lithos or Victorian engravings that were overpainted with soft colors. Handpainted postcards or Victorian photographs circa 1850 through 1950 seem to have these similar tints that vary from pink to aqua to blue, very lightly and springlike. But I haven't counted all the archetypes yet--I do see that most of them are idealized and rather delicate, definite engraving. In contrast, I look at the pretty Enchanted Tarot and think the colors are more moody and dramatic. I used to have a colorblind boss who said he saw what other people called yellow as a lighter gray and that he didn't see pastel colors--since the line quality of the cards are very very good and not obscured by light tints, I believe I could also recommend this to those with color visual impairments*
Pages 121 through 143 are detailed about sample readings and layouts.
Overall, I believe this is a nice companion to learn more about astrology, but perhaps long time astrologers can already see difficulties and limitations of only seven plantes.
I know that comments about matching these astrology cards to tarot, as I'm trying to do, already show some limitations. I commented in detail in "Old Astrology=Tarot Cards?" in the divination forum of nontarot oracles. I'm going to try to give sample readings soon.
Mari H.

Got it Today

I picked this deck-and-book set up at Hastings today (Amazon sells it on-line), and find it both beautiful and "vocal." The seven planets included in the deck were the ones used by the earliest astrologers, and classical astrologers to this day use only those seven (including the Sun and Moon, although they are not technically planets) as sign rulers in charts, and regard the modern planets -- Uranus, Neptune and Pluto -- as modifying influences.

The use of the original seven planets in astrology is, in practice, no more a limitation than using only three- or four-card spreads for tarot readings. Information is cleanly funneled through the seven-planet symbol system: nothing is lost thereby, and much can be gained.