Druid Animal Oracle – Trade Paperback

Gorgeous cards & exceptionally informative, beautifully written book!
I love these cards and the book that comes with them! I am not all that experienced when it comes to reading cards, so I still need a book. This is a book–not a little booklet. And it has FOUR pages for each card! The first ~1.5 pages tell you about the card illustration, the meaning of the card, and the reverse. The rest tells the traditions and stories of the animal in Druid history that make the animal come alive.The cards are beautiful and have all sorts of extras that relate to the animal, the times and the Druids. They are of the larger variety and I have small hands so I have to shuffle them sideways, but that works just as well for me. They are good card stock and glossy, but not overly glossy.The book is great! For each card, it gives the Druid name of each animal first. Then it lists the gifts, qualities or abilities of the animal. The part I love most is that it tells you about the illustration. Why the animal is painted in the surrounding that it is in, what the plants, trees or flowers are that relate, about symbols shown carved in rocks, and so on. In addition to that wonderful feature, it is beautifully written! When I first got these cards, I went to the first card, The Blackbird, and began reading, first about the illustration…. which shows a blackbird sitting in a rowan tree with the entrance to an enchanted cave in the background. It is twilight and the first stars are just appearing….the Blackbird “calls to us from the gateway between two worlds. . . . He calls to us in the twilight, showing us the path to Otherworldly secrets…” It is so beautifully written that I fell in love with the Blackbird (and the book) instantly.I love these cards so much that I bought another set for my sister for her birthday. But because the U.S. edition no longer comes with the scarf, I splurged and bought hers off the U.K. page. The U.S. edition does not come with the scarf anymore, sadly, but a large poster instead with card layouts front and back–I haven’t used it because it is very large in order to accommodate the large cards, and therefore sort of awkward.The U.S. edition has a nicer box! Very sturdy. The inner box slides out the right side with a pull-ribbon, always a nice feature. The UK edition box isn’t as nice or sturdy; just a regular type of box that has a flap closing at top, but a nice, glossy finish with the gorgeous hawk card illustration on front. Then it also has a slide-out inner box that slides out the top–I don’t think there’s a pull-ribbon since it is a regular “box-top” closing. The slide-out box also holds the cards in a cut-out area on bottom, with the scarf and book on top. I noticed my sister had a difficult time sliding the inner box back in after unfolding the scarf and maybe things weren’t so perfectly flat anymore, so she was having trouble sliding it all back into the flimsier U.K. box and closing the box top. The U.S. version box has the Stag on front. The UK book is hardback versus the U.S. version which is paperback. Both books are the same size.The books are larger than the cards, so the cards nest in a smaller cut-out portion underneath the book within the slide-out, inner box. The cards do not have their own box. Therefore I have mine tied in a pretty ribbon that also makes it easy to lift them out of the cut-out bottom of the box. I put the ribbon knot on the side in the little thumb hole notch so everything can lay flat. But with the U.K. edition you can wrap the cards in that pretty scarf. I don’t have the U.K. edition in front of me to test this, so don’t take my word for it here, but I noted that the cut-out portion in the bottom of the UK box was double-wide and shallower and the cards were evenly separated in two side-by-side piles. I am thinking that layout might be so the cards can be wrapped in the scarf and still fit nicely in the box, but I can’t test this because I have the U.S. edition. In the U.S. edition, the cut-out portion in the bottom is single-size and holds all the cards perfectly.The book has lots of extras in the front and back — different spreads as well as information on Oracles and the Sacred Animals of the Druid tradition, and several charts! There are charts listing the animals in the order they come in the book with page number, the Gaelic name and Qualities & Gifts of each animal. Then another chart listing them alphabetically with page number so you can easily find them, always with Qualities/Gifts and Gaelic name. There’s a pronunciation guide for the Gaelic names. There’s a chart grouping them by Qualities & Gifts, showing pairings between certain animals, and again grouping them by their associated elements–love this chart most! There are also some really great spreads and suggestions for doing readings on Druid festival days, such as the Solstices and Equinoxes. So I have done that, and It makes for extra fun as well as extra powerful readings.All of this extra information has contributed to my love for the cards, as well as spurred a greater interest in Druid beliefs and practices, and the connection to my own power animal. I have done several spreads–mostly larger more involved ones because I enjoy the readings so much–and my readings have been AMAZING! So I decided to start keeping a Journal of my readings, showing the layouts, AND very importantly showing relationships between certain cards in the spread! Noting relationships between cards, which the book strongly suggests doing, has been extraordinary in my readings! So in keeping the journal I can draw lines between related cards, and it’s easier to note themes such as a predominance of a particular element appearing, relationships between cards on opposite sides of the Druid circle, or a majority of cards reversed. The connections between cards has been just as important as the cards themselves in my readings! So exciting. I have spent hours on most my spreads.This deck was created by people who are part of the modern Druid Order over in the UK, so I feel I can trust this deck of sacred animal cards. I have written the authors email a couple times with questions and always got a timely answer! So you can write and ask anything. That’s pretty great too.So….. love them! Beautiful cards and amazing book, exquisitely written to take you back in time, and forward on your journey!

Stunning Artwork and Well Written
The text of the book is fantastic. I primarily use the cards as an inspiration for meditation. The artwork is absolutely stunning. Whether you use the cards for divination, as a meditation aid, or both… you can’t go wrong with this very impressive Oracle.

beautiful messages
I dearly love my parents and miss them. They both passed to the other dimension. When I would like toknow what my dad or mom would have to say to me when I am trying to make a decision or just to get a message from them, I shuffle these cards and just select one card and I always feel comforted by the message on the card I selected. That is how I use these lovely cards.Recently a lady babysit our dog and she asked me where I got this set. I gifted her the one I had and replaced it with this order. She loved the idea of how I use the messages and how lovely these cards are.

Beautiful
I love these cards, though I don’t use them in the traditional way. the way I use them is as sort of meditation or devotional aids in the same manner as I use my catholic holy cards. example: after reading about St. Melangell, patroness of hares, I wanted to muse upon the various aspects of hares and so I pull out the card and use it as a sort visual aid to help me focus. the artwork is very lovely and I recommend these cards to everyone no matter if you use them in a rather unorthodox manner like I do or use them for divination purposes. it is a wonderful deck to have.

Gostei muito do produto.

Great cards, beautiful Description on each card and amazing art work on each card and throughout the book.

Llego bien y en bien tiempo