I've been reading the House of Night book series (by P.C. and Kristin Cast) over the past month or so. I originally bought the first four books for my teenage daughter for Christmas last year, thinking that if she got into them and really enjoyed them, I'd get her the Wisdom of the House of Night oracle deck (by P.C. Cast and Colette Baron-Reed), which seemed like a pretty cool way to expand on a story. In the end she never read the books, but I decided to read the first one this summer for vacation entertainment, and was hooked enough to keep right on reading. Now I've got the final few books on hold at the library, and in the meantime I picked up the oracle deck from a local bookstore. I like it quite a bit!
The illustrations are digital, but they remind me of art from the Halloween Oracle which is one of my favorites. I don't feel like I'm looking at a computerized image, and the use of color is very inviting. This deck has 50 glossy cards and covers all the expected and necessary elements of life, such as love, discovery, mystery, healing, education, success, hope, and change. The card stock is durable yet flexible, and I think my only real surprise was that the card edges are not rounded. In fact I've poked myself a few times while shuffling! I can't figure out why a publisher would produce a deck of cards without rounded edges, unless it was to cut corners (pun sort of intended!) on cost. But in the end it's not a major bother.
The guidebook is a nice size at 127 pages, and discusses the intention for the deck, spread options, and sample readings in addition to a full list of card meanings. Of course the writing style is done in such a way that it reflects the book series' theme, so each card description sounds like the goddess Nyx (a loving, compassionate moon goddess from the series, based on the Greek night goddess of the same name) is bestowing her wisdom personally unto the reader. The tone of the writing can be slightly annoying since of course this series is aimed at teens and young adults (roughly the same audience that Twilight was meant to appeal to). But the meanings are clear and the substance of the deck itself is vibrant and applicable to all. While the cards are a great way to connect with the series, they're a good, all-around oracle and reading the books is not a prerequisite to working with them.
One card that I particularly like is called "Fragment," which shows a spirit hovering in a shadowed meadow full of flowers. The sun reflects slightly against the highest tree branches but doesn't quite reach down far enough to illuminate the grove. It highlights the experience of being torn in so many different directions that one no longer feels whole. It also covers the concept of the shattered soul, where grief cuts so deeply into a person's psyche that they experience long-lasting effects of loss that impact many areas of life over a long period of time. That is really interesting, and has the potential to be very eye-opening. It's not a topic I've seen explicitly covered in a deck before, which is why it intrigues me so much!
This morning I decided to pull a daily card from this deck, and chose "Fulfillment." The image shows a pomegranate full of luscious seeds, and a glass of red wine. As one might expect, it's about enjoying life and experiencing satisfaction with one's achievements. It was a perfect card for today, for a couple of reasons: on one hand we've been working on reorganizing the bedroom that our two littlest ones share, and made a trip to Ikea to find some finishing details which they had fun putting together; and two, yesterday we picked up a bottle of red wine at the grocery store, which is something we rarely do, and I'm prepared to thoroughly enjoy a rich glass of it as soon as I finish typing this post! A lasagna is in the oven, a gentle rain is falling outside. Yes, I'd say I'm feeling pretty fulfilled this evening.....!
