Shakespeare Oracle

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 07 Jan 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

destinyawaitsme	07 Jan 2004
I recently bought this...flipping through the cards I absolutely love the concept and how each character or quote fits into a tarot concept. The spreads that the book provides are really cool too. However...these cards are HUGE...I can't even shuffle them. Not to mention the coating on the cards makes them very resistant to riffle shuffling. I'm disappointed because I really wanted to use this...now I'm going to have to learn how to shuffle in a different way. :( (I'm a riffler!) (This is the deck by A. Bronwyn Llewellyn and painted by CYnthia von Buhler)

Melvis	09 Jan 2004
Hi! What about a sideways riffle, where you turn the cards 90 degrees in your hand, so your thumbs are placed on the long sides of each half of the deck. Then when you riffle, you end up blending the top corners together. It's not as pretty as the full riffle, but it kinda works. I like these cards a lot, too! At first I didn't like just the quotes on the Pips, but I've heard from so many people just how much they love them that I'm re-considering my position! ;) I'll have to work with them a bit, I guess. Good luck with the deck! I hope you find a way to make it work for you! Peace, Melvis :TSTRE

WolfSpirit	17 Jan 2005
I just saw this deck + book set here in a shop, in a Dutch translation. I don't see too many decks here, and it is also very reasonably priced :) It's all a bit confusing; it is really tarot, but the name of this deck is Shakespeare Oracle - probably because there are two other decks called Shakespeare Tarot. But the Dutch version of this one is (again) called Shakespeare Tarot. Here's a link with a review + some pictures: http://www.tarotpassages.com/shakespeareoracle.htm

rachelcat	18 Jan 2005
Ooo, this one is on my wishlist (translate as "Amazon shopping cart"). I am a big Shakespeare fan (English major, what can you do?) and of course a big tarot fan. I think the quotes will be cool. But I'm not sure I will be crazy about the primitive art style. How do you like it?

WolfSpirit	18 Jan 2005
Well I only just got it :) As the review already said, the minors are not particularly interesting, apart from the quotes on them. But the courts and the majors don't look too primitive, I think they look better in real life than they do on line. They are not elaborate, but mostly quite well drawn and I like the colours - they are bright and warm but not garish. What probably helps is the border that is brown "wooden look" that makes the colours look warmer. And the box of the set was a pleasant surprise for me, I think it is made of wood but covered with paper. It is made like those wooden cigar boxes. At a first glance, the book looks interesting too - with a Hamlet spread and a theatre-spread for example.

rachelcat	18 Jan 2005
for the mini-review! It does sound pretty, and the box sounds nice, too. Uh oh, my mouse is mysteriously rolling closer, closer to Amazon.com . . .

The Shakespeare Oracle thread was originally posted on 07 Jan 2004 in the Tarot Decks board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Tarot Decks, or read more archived threads.