Angela Hartfield and Josephine Wall, Nature's Whispers Oracle. Victoria, Australia: Blue Angel Publishing. ISBN: 9780738746579. (Link to Llewellyn, the U.S. distributor.)
Genre: oracle deck
Subgenre: nature, magic
Format: 50 card deck with small companion book
Source: I own this one, bought second hand at Half Price Books
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| Promo photo from Llewellyn |
I used this deck for the first time for my weekly oracle card draw during September 2021. I wanted a deck with a nature feel to it, and this one worked out nicely. The deck kit includes 50 cards and a small companion book.
The guidebook is 72 pages long. The book opens with an introduction. Here the author briefly describes her vision for the deck. The introduction also goes over briefly how to use the cards. It can get a little restrictive, or rather prescriptive. She writes about the cards:
"Always know these are your cards. They are not meant for anyone else to handle other than you" (9).
For me, that seemed a bit limiting as at times I let people touch my cards, maybe even draw a card now and then. Having said that, so far I mostly use oracle cards for personal use. This deck seems designed for personal use rather than public readings. Naturally you can do as you wish, but at least from the book it appears personal exclusive use is the deck author's intended design. In addition, the introduction offers brief basics for using the cards and a couple of small card spreads to try out.
After the introduction,, you get the entries for the cards. Each entry has a small image of the card, the card number and name, and a long paragraph (seven to ten sentences give or take) for the message. The message mainly provides an interpretation that is mostly positive. The message encourage some reflection and are mostly optimistic.
Overall, the book is fairly basic and minimal in terms of content. Messages are good, a bit short, but you get enough to ponder and reflect on. These cards can mostly be read intuitively, but I still recommend reading the book to better appreciate the deck.
The cards in this deck are great. They are colorful with some depth. The cards combine nature with some fantasy and ethereal elements. The result is a set of cards that you can really look into. The cards work well for personal reflection and meditation. I'd say the images offer a magical sense of wonder and can be very soothing. For folks who do healing work, this deck can be a nice choice. It is a good deck to seek and find calm and bring a bit of nature into your life.
The cards measure about 5 1/2 inches by 3 3/4 inches. The edges are rounded. The cards are borderless, which allows us to appreciate the art better. Each card has a banner at the bottom with the card number and card name and short message. Cards have a matte finish which makes them easy to shuffle. The card stock feels flexible, durable not too thin. Deck features a beautiful card back with butterflies. It is not reversible but for me that is not an issue. The guidebook by the way does not say anything on reversals, and I do not see this as a deck for doing reversal readings.
Overall, I like this deck. The guidebook is pretty basic and minimal, but the cards are great, and I really like them. It feels like a good summer or early fall deck, but you can use it any time you feel like adding a note of nature and its magic to your readings. This is one I am happy to have in my collection.
4 out of 5 stars.
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