General Oracles Study Group: Week #1

DragonFae

It's time to get started...Week #1 Deck Introduction

I know some people may be using more than one deck through the course of our study....but I hope you have one picked for the month of October because Week One is to introduce us to your deck...

1. Tell us the name of your deck and any other important info (publisher maybe, number of cards in it etc)

2. Tell us what drew you to this deck? Did you see it in a shop? Read about it? Get it as a gift? Also tell us how long you have had it and whether you have worked with it a lot or maybe it has just lingered on the shelf?

3. Tell us the "theme" or "characters" of the deck....you don't have to go into great detail but some decks have animals, others objects, some people etc...

4. If you have a place where we can "look at" the deck please let us know that also. That may be helpful later on.

5. Then concentrate on this group and your deck as you shuffle cards...draw a card. This will represent this group and the direction or path or involvement we all will take as we work together....tell us about the card and your feelings and first thoughts when you look at it and relate it to this group.

That's all for WEEK ONE...you can do all the posting at one time or do a couple questions and then come back another day to post the rest. It might be easiest to post 1-4 together and then post 5 at a different time but it doesn't really matter...whatever works with you and your schedule etc.
 

magpie9

I guess this is the place to do this?
The deck I'll be using for the next month is Brian & Wendy Froud's the Heart of Faerie Oracle. It has 65 cards divided into 7 groups:the Faerie Queens, the Queen's Consorts, the Archetypes, Sprites, the Ladies, Tricksters, and the Journey.
I had his first faerie deck for a long time, and loved the art, but could never really do anything with it mostly because each picture was so crowed with possibility. I loved a lot of them, but ust couldn't seem to work with it. a lot of it was just impenetrable to me. So when this one came out, I didn't expect that I would get involved with it. But I saw many of the cards and they were so good and so...uncrowded, and seemed to have a point to them other than "we're all here, isn't that great!" that I decided to try it. I could always trade it away, if I needed to. And I loved it. But I never got past pulling the occasional card or 3. And I do "get" the cards, over-all, and find what's in the book valuable almost without exception. Most Oracle books are either too high-minded or happy-happy-think-positive for me. I love oracles, but never seem to use them, or really get into them, and i think I can, with this one.
The characters in this deck are...ummm...faeries. Lotsa different faeries. Male, Female, big, little, historical, new to me....all kindsa faeries. mostly they seem friendly. Each has a lesson to tach, but they do it gently, with humor.

I drew "the Green Woman", #30. She is a Beautiful green woman with leaves in her hair, completely unlike the smirking green woman in his first deck. I get that this will be an organic, natural process for the group. According to the book, she is a gentle nurturing process, much like the subtle greening of spring. No stress, laid back, but continuously moving along. I like that...all to often, study groups somehow become a little frenetic, moving quickly to the next card, stressful in trying to keep up, and trying to find something new to say after everybody has seen pretty much the same thing in the card of the moment. I love that this is a lot of different decks, just as in the Green Woman's domain, there are a lot of different plants.

Here's the pix:
http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/heart-faerie-oracle/
more on their website, of course.
 

DragonFae

magpie9...this is great! I have both Froud's Faeries decks but I am going to start out with the original deck for this group. I have some of the same feelings about the Heart of Faery as you do...the cards "speak" very well....but the originals also do for me and they are my "first love" ...my first oracle I bought. They call to me often.

The Faeries Oracle by Brain Froud with Jessica McBeth writing the companion book. The deck has 65 cards divided into 5 groups: The Singers of the Realms, the Sidhe. the Faery Guides and Guardians, the Help Line Troupe, and the Faery Challengers. I find the Singers the most difficult to read but also they are in some ways the clearest.

I saw the deck online and was immediately drawn to it because my love of the fae. It arrived in one days time...no kidding. That was the first amazing thing and there have been others since!

The characters are faeries and other creatures from the other side...Like Oh That Gnome. The cards are full of faery creatures rather than just one image on each card even though there is just one MAIN image.

The Card: #38 Laiste, Moon's Daughter. (light cast in shadows, spiritual guidance, illumination, riddles) She tends the Gate of Revelation...I think this group can provide revelations to us and she is saying..."here is the gate". She also wants us to be open to the mystical and to relate to all the worlds together. She may be the daughter of the moon but she is also an illumined child of Unity. She is saying...We are all one. Together we can reach a "higher self". This group will lead us away from our old selves and help us gain insight and wisdom. There may be pitfalls (our schedules, time, riddles to solve) but regardless these pitfalls are intended to wake us up. (So don't get too discouraged if you miss a week or find some activites hard to do).

Picture of card: http://lenormandquest.blogspot.com/2012/10/laiste-moons-daughter.html
 

magpie9

I have an ex-husband (frog 2) who looks exactly like O that Gnome! Except gray and lined. :D
 

DragonFae

That's funny! When I was shuffling the deck...I thought it would be interesting if I drew the Green Woman also....but the faeries had another message to send! :)
 

krystalkitty

Hey

I love your oracles the artwork on those is stunning..

I have chosen to use the Messages from your animal spirit guides by steven farmer. I brought these cards recently upon recommendation from someone that I had done a reading for, as normally I use my intuition to connect to peoples animal guides and then put their image to paper.
The theme is animals and what they want to tell you.. I love the art work on these and looking forward to getting to know them.. The animals vary from wild animals to domestic ones and the cards have a lovely use of colour, a little washed out looking but different to other animal decks I have used before.

You can see the cards here http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/messages-animal-spirit/

Thinking about this group I have drawn the weasel. His message is to be silent and pay attention and observe. I think everyone here will make a valuable contribution and there will be lots of learn and take in. There will be a need for some focus but this will also bring out our intuition. There is no need to be shy here.

im looking forwards to seeing more of your decks :)
 

DragonFae

Welcome krystalkitty. I like the look of your deck. I have an Animal Messages deck by Susan Green..but I think I like the pics of your deck better. That is going to be the problem here I can tell....I'm going to be wanting to buy new decks.
 

krystalkitty

Hey Dragonfae, I know what you mean it is tempted since joining the forum have already accumulated several oracles and tarot decks...;)
 

kmartin60

My deck Im using.....

Hi! Im going to be using:

The Faeries Oracle by Brian Froud with Jessica McBeth writing the companion book. The deck has 65 cards divided into 5 groups: The Singers of the Realms, the Sidhe. the Faery Guides and Guardians, the Help Line Troupe, and the Faery Challengers. The singers to me are very hard to read as well! though this deck is not as clear to me as the HOF is..YET!

I had gotten the HOF originally, and they are the ones who insisted I get thier kin home! winks

The Card: #12 "The Singer of the Chalice" tells us that this path of learning that we are undertaking will be filled with unconditional love, trust & hope, healing & patience and more. that everything will be open to us and we in turn need to be open, or learn to be open!

http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/faeries-oracle/
 

DragonFae

Great kmartin60...!! Now I am wondering if I should use a different deck since we have Heart of Faery and Faery already represented and we are sure to get a couple more Faery people!!

Hmmmm......I might...let me ponder this...but then I'll have to re-introduce my deck...hehehehe.

Don't get me wrong it doesn't really matter except a variety might be nice....and I have some decks just lingering...while I work a lot with the fae.