Deck Review: Oracle Alma Bose by Grimaud

Grimaud is a French company, responsible for a many well-known decks such as the Tarot de Marseille, the Grand Eteilla and the Astro-Mythological Lenormand. But mostly, it's responsible for a huge amount of rather unknown decks. The Oracle Alma Bose belongs to the latter group.

The Oracle Alma Bose has 67 illustrated cards that come in a sturdy silver box. It also comes with a bilingual booklet, in French and in English, to help you to read the cards. Who created the deck? Who illustrated it? We will never know, because there's no credit in the booklet - just instructions. Instructions that, I daresay, are better than what we usualyly find in little white books. But getting ahead of myself.

The deck's most interesting feature is the fact it comes with three querent cards: a man, a woman and a man/woman cards, that can be used for couples or for NB and NGC people. And there is more to it! You get four cards that are all about sexual orientation, the different genders symbolised by little penises and little coffee-beans (a rather cute way of representing a vulva), as you can see in the image below.

The first card in the picture shows a "Bacchant", a woman who likes men. The second cards shows an "Artemis", a woman who likes women. The third card shows a "Faun", a man who likes women. And the fourth cards shows an "Antinoüs", a man who likes men. Trust me, this is the most thoughtful deck you'll ever come across when it comes to sexuality. 

So, this is perhaps the most original feature of this deck. As you may have already noticed, it's not a specially creative deck when it comes to imagery. The images of the cards are not related directly to fortune-telling... you'd think it's a collection of post cards if you didn't know better. There are beaches, forests, temples, islands, waterfalls, manors, all kinds of beautiful environments sculpted both by nature and man. And they repeat in some cards.

What really matters in this cards for fortune telling purposes is the little symbols and astrological glyphs you see at the top and at bottom of the cards. The cards heave both upright and reversed meanings, and these are written on the card in French and in English. Most of cards have reversed and upright meanings, but some of them do not. The booklet provides no explanation on why this happens. They also gives a small list of 10 cards called "trump cards" for the game, but no explanation on why these cards are special.

The Answer Spread

Ever since I joined the AOC Forum, I saw a lot of people using a spread called "The Answer Spread", specially with playing cards. It's quite fascinating, because it helps you to answer specific questions, while remaining simple!

I'm sharing it here, so other people may learn about it. I did not create it. I got it from a post by Kepherus at the AOC Forum.

Choose 6 cards from the deck and lay them on the table as shown below. Read the columns from left to right, one at a time. You are working with combinations of two cards.

First column: indicates the past, or the premise of the question (ie. the reason why it's being asked, or the circumstances that led to the situation in hand).

Second column: indicates the present, or the answer to the question (taking into account the past and present influences).

Third column: indicated the future influences, or the factors that contribute to the situation (these are usually factors unknown to the querent).


It can be used to answer yes/no questions, when using playing cards. If most of the cards are red, it means 'yes'. If most of them are black, it means 'no'. If the amount of red and black cards is even, that means the answer is not set yet.

It's said that the time span covered by this spread is usually from 2 to 6 months, but in my opinion the spread is too small and short-term to cover such a huge amount of time. Personally, I'd say it covers from 1 to 3 months, depending on how unstable and prone to change the situation is according to the cards.

The Grail Tarot says... when home is not home.

I did my daily reading with playing cards, but I actually felt the need to do another kind of reading. Yesterday, I went to bed very sad, feeling the oppression of my own choices, wondering what to do when you simply don't know what to do. If you have a goal, that's a start! But if you can't tell anymore what your goal is? Then it gets a bit more complicated.

Ask me why I don't do a reading about this? Well... I do not believe I can read for myself about such a complicated matter. But I do believe I can still seek for some advice when it comes to my reaction to these problems.

So that's what I did. I grabbed my faithful Grail Tarot and asked the cards: What can I do to overcome this feeling to despair that takes hold of me sometimes? I got the Preceptor of Lances, known in more traditional decks as Knight of Wands.

This card shows the preceptor giving the Lance of Longinus to a younger knight, who is about to go on pilgrimage. The preceptor known the mission is difficult, and looks even a bit grim about it. In the words of John Matthews:

"A great deal has been learned so far; now this knowledge should be applied at every level of experience to bring fresh insights to the journey and help separation from worn-out ways." (p. 124)

This card is telling me that I'll only stop feeling this despair and constant frustration when I use my knowledge and creative energies to pursue a different path - even one far away from home. I am stuck in so many levels!

Then I decided to pull another card - no, not a clarifier - and ask a different question: How do I begin this journey? How to bring this change to myself? I got the Ten of Vessels.

This card shows the same young knight of the last card (the one receiving the lance), but he's now older and wiser after such a long journey, and he has become the Guardian of the Grail, a Grand Master of the Templar Order. He shares his knowledge with the new generations of knights, bothers and preceptors, finally being completely in peace with himself. He has found the Grail - he has returned home.

Now, that's interesting. The last card told me "leave your comfort zone, leave your home, a journey awaits for you". But this one tells me that to begin this journey, I must start by seeking... home.  Contradictory? Only in a superficial level... I believe these cards are telling me that where I am now is not my home - it's not the place to where my heart and soul belong. And this journey far away is not going to take me away from home, but bring me closer to it, to the real home, not to that pile of bricks we call "comfort zone".

I must admit I do not know how exactly to apply these cards to my life right now... I feel myself more tied up than that 8 of Swords lady of the RWS Tarot deck! But it's a start - a distant voice from far away is calling me, perhaps I should start listening to it...

When darkness lays her crimson cloak
Your lamps will call - call me home.
(Loreena McKennitt, "The Mystic's Dream")

The Grail Tarot © REDFeather, John Matthews & Giovanni Caselli

PCO: Building card castles (or homes, or bridges, or....)

One of these days I was sitting at my usual spot in my favourite Café, doing an exercise from a cartomancy book, when a sudden question filled my mind: if I wanted to represent my workplace in reading, which card would I choose?

Traditionally, the Ace of Hearts stands for the home, and the Ace of Spades may stand for imposing buildings and institutions. But of course, since there is no one-true-method of reading playing cards, you do not have to adopt these meanings.

In the Playing Card Oracles method created by Ana Cortez, all cards number 6 have buildings on them. They usually have very metaphorical meanings, but I suppose that they could mean physical places too. Representing these places could be very useful to determine "where" the facts shown in the reading are happening (specially if it's a general reading, with no specific question). If a conflict shows up - is it at home, or at work? If one of these cards show up, they may provide a hint.

So, I came up with some ideas for each of the 6s. It's by no means a complete list, but maybe it may help others to come up with their own ideas!

Six of Diamonds - The Tower

This is one imposing building, and since the diamonds suit is related to money and creativity, I'd chose this cards to represent my your workplace, or the place in which you usually earn their money (even if it's not a formal company). As Ana Cortex says in her book, this also could represent a bank.

I suppose that it could also symbolise any actual towers or skyscrapers.Combined with the 6♥, I would also think of a hospital. With the 8♣ (The Scales), I could easily see a church (the building, not the community).