Month: July 2022

Goddesses, Gods, Hekate, Hera, Hestia, Oracle Cards, Polytheism

Review: Mythic Oracle: Wisdom of the Ancient Greek Pantheon

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Image of the Box, Guidebook and three cards from the Mystic Oracle: Wisdom of the Ancient Greek Pantheon.

This is a review of the Mythic Oracle: Wisdom of the Ancient Greek Pantheon by Carisa Mellado and artwork by Michele-lee Phelan.

Items Included

  • Cards
  • A Guidebook
  • A sturdy box

The Guidebook

This book has a table of contents and each card is listed with the page number, but the cards are not in alphabetical order. They have sections: Protogenoi (Uranus, Hemera, etc.), Titans (Rhea, Prometheus, Mnemosyne, etc.), Olympians (Hera, Hestia, Athena, Artemis, Apollo, Aphrodite, Persephone, Hades, Hebe, etc.), Magical Beings (Hecate, Pandora, Chiron, The Moirae, Thanatos), and Heroes (Perseus, Psyche, Helen of Troy, Heracles, etc.).

There is an introduction and then there is a section on spreads to use with the Oracle cards. Each page about each card has an image of the card, a small paragraph about each deity and then a message of the card. The messages are longer than in most decks, but they are insightful, useful, and applicable to the querent’s question. Excellently done.

The Cards

Three Rows of the Cards from the Mystic Oracle.

The cardstock is sturdy. The cards are on the larger size so they are slightly hard to shuffle, but maybe that’s just me.

The artwork is beautiful. Athena has her helmet, spear and owl. Hestia is holding a huge hearthfire. Hecate (Hekate) has three forms (two of which look more maiden like and one is elderly. While the image is beautiful, initially Hecate was a maiden (even three formed Hecate were all maidens and only got the older form in the Roman period, iirc). Hades has a dark cloak. Persephone holds a scepter and it looks like she’s in the Underworld as she’s the Queen of the Underworld. Hera is seated on her throne holding peacock feathers.

Three Rows of Oracle Cards from the Mystic Oracle.

The images are wonderful. I highly recommend this deck to anyone who loves Greek Mythology, Greek Gods and Goddesses and Oracle Decks.

Goddesses, Oracle Cards

Review: Legendary Ladies Goddess Deck

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The cover for the Legendary Ladies Goddess Deck.

The is a review of the Legendary Ladies Goddess Deck by Ann Shen.

Items Included

  • A sturdy box
  • 58 Colorful Cards
  • An 80 page guidebook

The Cards

There are 58 cards! Normally Oracle Decks have 44 cards so this deck has over 10 more Goddesses!

This art is beautiful! The cards are so colorful and great! I love the art! I do not like that they have Aset (Isis) as half naked. Her breasts are covered by her hair. Even Aphrodite and Hathor are fully clothed.

The cardstock is sturdy, but the cards themselves are on the larger side. The shuffling technique may need some adjustment for these cards.

The Goddesses included in this deck come from a wide range of traditions and cultures! Here are a few of them included:

  • Japanese: Amaterasu, Benten
  • Chinese: Kwan Yin, Chang-O, Hsi Wang Mu, Mazu, Nuwa
  • Vietnamese: Lieu Hanh
  • Hindu: Saraswati, Lakshmi, Parvati, Durga, Kali
  • Egyptian: Aset (Isis), Sekhmet, Hathor, Ma’at, Bast, Nut
  • Sumerian: Inanna, Atargatis
  • Norse/Germanic: Freyja, Hel, Ran
  • Celtic: Brigit, Morrigan, Arianrhod
  • Greek: Hecate, Athena, Aphrodite, Artemis, Demeter, the Muses
  • African: Yemoja (Yemaya), Oya, Oshun, Oba, Mami Wata
  • Mayan: Ixchel
  • Inuit: Sedna
  • Polynesian: Hina
  • Hawai’ian: Pele, Laka
  • Native American: Estsanatlehi

The Guidebook

It is 80 pages. There is no table of contents.

The art is colorful. On the pages about the cards, all the Goddesses are listed in alphabetical order. The Goddesses’ names are large and colorful so they are easy to find without a table of contents.

Each page about the cards has: the name of the Goddess, a keyword about them (Isis: Strength; Hecate: Magic), their place of Origin (Egyptian, Greek), a sentence about the Goddess, and then a sentence or two about the card meaning. I wish these had been broken up into two paragraphs (so the piece about the Goddess is one paragraph and then the second has the card meaning).

There is a companion book about the myths of each Goddess by Ann Shen: Legendary Ladies: 50 Goddesses to Empower and Inspire You.

I would highly recommend this deck, especially if you love the art style.

Goddesses, Gods, Oracle Cards

Review: Egyptian Gods Oracle Cards

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Image of the Egyptian Gods Oracle Card Box and a few cards.

I got the Egyptian Gods Oracle Cards by Silvana Alasia (author and artist). I love the ancient Egyptian art that was used in this deck!

Included in the Deck

  • A Guide Book
  • A Sturdy Box
  • 36 Oracle Cards

Things I liked

  • Aset (Isis) has a blue throne headdress. The ancients did that too.
  • Aset (Isis), Nephthys (Nefhti), Mut, Neith, Seshat, Sobek, Anuket, Satet, Set, Taweret, Serqet (Selkis), Khonsu, Ra, Thoth, Khnum, Ptah, Sekhmet, Nefertem, Amun-Ra, Osiris, Meretseger, Bast (Bastet), Anubis, and Shu were included in this deck! I loved the artwork!
  • Hathor (Hator) card is on point! She is in a red dress, with Her horns and sundisk headdress! And there is a cow on Her card!

Things I wanted to see included

  • A Wepwawet card! Anubis is included, but not Wepwawet! He needs more love! (I have two books on Wepwawet if anyone is interested: Lord of the Ways and Lord of Strength and Power)!
  • Shu was included in this deck, but not Tefnut? Why wasn’t Tefnut here? She’s his other half! They are almost always together! (Here is my book on Tefnut with some Shu material: Lady of Water and Flame).
  • Anubis’s card image is of Him weighing the heart and feather. I wish there was another image for Him. But that’s just personal preference.
  • The Hathor card has the keyword “intelligence” on it. I think for emotional intelligence, this is spot on! If the author meant book learning intelligence, maybe that would fit Aset (Isis), Djehuty (Tehuti, Thoth) or Seshat more.
  • The guidebook mentions Set is a god of storms and chaos and also mentions he is evil. (Set is not a god of evil in ancient Egyptian religion. He was demonized later…).
  • The Aset (Isis) section only mentions Her as the “Mother Goddess” and the ideal wife and mother (She’s a widow and a single mother. How is that ideal?). It does mention She is a goddess of magic though. This was disappointing to see only this mentioned. Aset is a sorceress, a trickster, a scholar, a warrior as an Eye of Ra and so much more.

What was Odd

  • Some of the names of the Gods and Goddesses are spelled differently even from their Greek names. Nephthys is Nefhti and Hathor was spelled Hator, for example. Maybe this is due to transliterations being different in different languages?
  • Mut’s card image is off. She is seated and has a vulture headdress only. Where is the rest of Her headdress? She is normally depicted wearing the Double Crown of Upper and Lower Egypt by itself or ontop of the vulture headdress. I’ve never seen Her depicted with just the vulture headdress, but maybe She can be? I don’t know.
  • Mehen (Ouroboros) is included in the deck. This seemed odd to me.
  • Ammut is in this deck. She is not a Goddess. She devours the souls of evil doers. She was not honored as a deity by the ancient Egyptians. Why include her in a deck about Egyptian deities?
  • Apophis (Apep) is in this deck. It is not a Netjer. It is the Entropic Serpent Enemy of the Gods. It is destroyed by Ra, Aset, Set and other gods every day so the sun can rise at dawn. May It be felled! Why would you include this in the deck? This was a horrible choice! It wants to destroy all of creation so that creation never existed. Why include it in an Oracle about Egyptian Gods (and Goddesses)?

Final Thoughts

  • Overall, I like this deck. The artwork is stunning!
  • I’m going throw the Apophis card away. So, now the deck has 35 cards instead of the 36 cards in an already shortened deck! (Usually Oracle Decks have 44 cards or more).
  • The Guidebook is in four languages and the Table of Contents are divided into each language (English, Italian, Espanola and Portuguese) and the cards themselves are not listed in the TOC (and the cards are not in alphabetical order so you have to search to find them). For each card (in the English section), there is the name of the card, a paragraph of who the deity is and the meaning of the card. The meaning of the card is included in the paragraph so it is not easy to spot for a reading. I would have preferred another section for card meanings like they do in most Oracle Card books.
  • I am disappointed in the guidebook and including the two non-gods in the deck. I love the art though.