Welcome to the first in my reviews of the decks that I use on a regular basis. I’m going to start with one of the first decks I ever got; The Hidden Realms Oracle Deck by Collette Baron-Reid. This has long been one of my favourite decks for Oracle work. Aside from the beautiful art work, the deck itself feels very positive. How a deck feels is incredibly important to me personally. If you dont have a connection with your cards, it’s simply not going to work. Don’t be put off if that connection isn’t instant, sometimes it can take a few passes. In will be discussing this in a post at a later date.
The cards themselves are absolutely stunning with bright almost glowing artwork. The card stock is high quality, thick gloss. The only issue I’ve seen, and a few people have complained about this, is that when I first open the pack I had to unstick each card from it’s neighbours. These seems to be a problem with the die cutter used. I’ve had this deck a few years now so hopefully they have resolved this issue. All it means is that you have to spend a bit of time taking each one apart. This can be beneficial as it will give you a chance to examine each card from the beginning. I’m sure I’m not the only person guilty of getting a new deck, opening the box and flipping through at the speed of light…
The guidebook is very well written and easy to use. It begins with an introduction to what Oracle cards are, how they differ from Tarot and recommends some pre reading rituals. Of course these are just recommendations and you should always go with what is right for you. Each card gets a two to three page description and breakdown. My only gripe would be that the guide is physically smaller than most Tarot guides you will come across and the print is similarly small to accomadate the amount of information.
Something nice about this deck are the key meanings printed on each card. These allow you to forego the guide if you so wish and try free reading , using them as prompts. This is an excellent way of tuning your abilities and encourages the reader to look at the card in a different way. To really use their intuition and learn to trust that. This is a fantastic starter deck as well as being great for the more experienced reader.
