Deck Review: The Wisdom of Avalon Oracle Cards by Colette Baron-Reid

I first came across this deck in 2011, during a visit to São Paulo for a digital book conference (that I even wrote about here). I found it for sale for in a book store, very cheap, and brought it home. Even though this deck is by Colette Baron-Reid, creator of The Wisdom of the Hidden Realm, a deck I like very much, The Wisdom of Avalon did not leave a strong impression on me and I ended up passing it on and forgetting about it.

Last Christmas, I was given this deck as a gift again. As it found its way back into my hands once more, I decided to lend it a bit more of attention.

The Wisdom of Avalon comprises 52 cards and, as the name implies, its symbolism is meant to be related to the Arthurian legend. To be honest, this is done in a very freestyle way, which is not necessarily a bad thing but might disappoint those who are looking for a deck that portrays the lore more faithfully. For instance, we don't have cards for each of the most common Arthurian characters, like Arthur, Lancelot, Guinevere, Morgan, Percival etc. The only ones that appear are The Merlin and The Lady of the Lake, and here they are archetypes rather than characters.

The cards are large-ish (12,8 x 9 cm), but the flexible cardstock makes them easy to shuffle despite the size. The edition I have does not have gilded edges, but I heard older editions do... I prefer it that way, as gilded edges usually make the cards stiff. The booklet is perfectly bound and fits neatly into the two-piece study box with the deck, which is very good in case you want to transport it. All cards, aside from "the sacred journey markers", were illustrated either by Gary A. Lippincott or Denise Garner. The back of the cards is non-reversible and depicts a golden cup filled with water, with a crescent moon reflected on it.

The cards are divided in four groups. The first is The Messengers of Avalon, which consists of the more archetypical characters, such as the Merlin, the King, the High Priestess, the Bard, the Grail Knight etc. The second group is The Animal Guides of Avalon and, as the name says, includes the cards depicting sacred animals, like the Owl, the Raven, the Horse, the Serpent, the Dragon, amongst others. The third group is called The Guides of the Faery, comprising the four elemental faeries and a goblin. Finally, we have the fourth group, named The Sacred Journey Markers. These cards show landscape scenes with symbols on them... they are not traditional art, but rather photos that were digitally altered to look painting-like.

One of the criticisms I heard about this deck many years ago is that these landscape cards felt "cheap" compared to the other half of the deck, which has very beautiful art. I understand this frustration, but I must say it does not detract from the deck in my opinion. In fact, these cards remind me of the importance of looking for signs in what surrounds us, because life and nature are constantly speaking to us in non-verbal ways.

The booklet by Colette Baron-Reid gives very basic instructions on how to use the cards, three suggestions of spreads and then the cards meanings. Each card occupies between 2 and 3 pages of description, with some of them being more detailed than others (for instance, the Novice card takes nearly three pages, while the Cow card barely takes two). There are no upside-down meanings.

A puzzle for Beltane

This year's Beltane has been rather melancholic. Not only it was cold and raining yesterday, which hardly inspires the thought of bonfires and dance, but it was also the aftermath of a very difficult election here in Brazil. The whole collective atmosphere felt like it had been drained.

It has been a few months since I last stood before my altar and talked to the Mother... My heart has been heavy with things I cannot really express to anyone else, if only because I cannot fully understand them myself. The mask of my persona – the unflappable, competent upfront I have created in order to function in the world – grows heavier and heavier. And yet, I fear that taking it off would reveal that there is nothing underneath. So, while drumming (I have a small shamanic drum), I asked the Mother for strength and clarity to do what I must and to accept my path. It's not easy for me to accept what I cannot control when it comes to myself or my life... I have too much fire in my natal chart and often feel compelled to act to solve things. But lately, all my actions have amounted to nothing. Sometimes you just have to trust the process... and I have such a hard time trusting anything! As I meditated a bit, I decided to pull a card about my musings. What was meant to be a single card pull ended up becoming a more complex puzzle, comprising many cards from some of my favourite oracles. And together, they revealed a very interesting message.

A soul in need of time

I have been out of time.

But who hasn't been out of time lately, right? This seems to be the motto of our current age: to rush through life carrying out a thousand of things, while feeling like there are not enough hours in one's day to accomplish all that we have set out to do. However, the lack of time is not something I feel only in relation to my activities or routine, in a practical sense. I feel like I have been running out of soul-time. Or, rather, like I am running on empty, soul-wise.

In the last couple of years, as the pandemics forced me to isolate and work mostly from home, I was somewhat able to function in what felt like a more natural rhythm for me. Of course, being away from everyone and having to do everything through a computer had their own negative effects. I do not regret going back to work and being with others, as it does me well. The problem is that being constantly on the move between my job, my internship and my classes at the university, while still taking care of my relationships and social life, has been taking its toll. Mainly, it has been leaving me without time nor energy for what I perceive to be my soul-making moments.

Despite what the name may suggest, the 'soul-making' moments are not necessarily related to spiritual practices, like doing rituals or reading oracles, although they may involve these too. If I had to describe it, the soul-making time is about having a certain degree of freedom... a certain degree of emptiness... in which I can just be there. Moments in which I do not have to concern myself so much with others, or to accomplish something practical, or to answer calls and demands that are external to myself.

I remember certain summer evenings in which I would quietly watch a film while crafting something to decorate my altar, or cold winter nights in which I would have some soup while savouring a book. The difference between such occasions and the way I have been living now is that, during those times, there was a certain emptiness, an inner freedom, which allowed me to be fully immersed in the moment. I was empty, yes, but in the way that made it possible for me to be filled again by new ideas. It was a good emptiness. It gave me enough silence to listen to myself.

Nowadays, such moments have become extremely rare. There is always something I must take care of, or something else I should be doing instead. If I am reading a book, I am guilty because there are tons of other things I should be reading for my classes or even my internship. If I decide to do something at night (the nights have always been a potent soul-making time for me), I end up feeling guilty because I should be already asleep, since I have to wake up early every morning.

In short... I am persistently out of my own time. Always having to fulfil an outer obligation, or to follow a rhythm which is not the one my body and spirit are attuned to. I am always tired, always late and always frustrated. I cannot even hear my own thoughts. I feel empty, but it is a bad emptiness, one that leaves me obnubilated, with no inner room for creation or inspiration.

Now, I know the common advice would be for me to maybe take some days off and reassess. The problem is that right now... I cannot just leave my job, or not go to my classes, or cancel my appointment with my patients (my first ones ever, yay!). When I decided to follow this new path, I knew some sacrifices would be required of me. And, right now, the world is asking me to stay true to what I have chosen, and to press on despite the discomfort.

I realise that, even though I feel like my soul is kind of starving right now, I am not desperate, for all this is part of my spiritual journey too. There is something I need to learn from this, either about the world or about myself, a lesson in strength, in resilience, in being able to keep walking through hell.

In the long run, these days will be worth it. But right now, I cannot lie... they feel quite awful!

If a tree falls in a forest...

"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"

In the age of lightning speed communication via social media, with its hypnotic aesthetics and videos, it seems personal blogs have pretty much become a relic. Who has time and patience to read the meandering thoughts and experiences of some random anon on the internet, whose life events don't directly affect any of the readers? It is a lot easier to follow others, like their posts and share your own photos: a picture is worth a thousand words, now more than ever before.

Even in the few tarot and cartomancy communities that are still alive, I have noticed a deceleration of the discussion, as well as a decrease in their complexity. Those endless threads of woolgathering and bouncing ideas off with others no longer exist and blogs, which used to be how we followed other people's more individual journeys, are out of fashion.

I do not mean to wallow in empty nostalgia here – there is not pointing longing for what used to be, we are not going backwards after all. Our social rhythm of communication has changed, that is a fact; the results of this, only time will show. In itself, it's neither a good nor a bad thing.

So why do I bother writing here, knowing that no one reads it any more? I ask myself that sometimes too. I have tried to be a part of the divination/spirituality "community" of Instagram, but it wasn't for me because I express myself the best through words, not images. Furthermore, I do not like the constant exposition and 'self advertisement' that social media seems to be all about. 

At first, the prospect of writing for no one but myself did seem a bit pointless. But then I remembered that, for centuries, people have kept private journals they never showed anyone, or only allowed a selected few to read. Was their writing pointless? I do not think so. 

There is value in recording our own unique journey, even if just for ourselves. Reading back through this blog, I can gauge how much I have changed as a person, both in spirit and in writing, while still pinpointing the many particularities that make me... well, myself. Nothing is exactly like it used to be, and yet there are parts of who I am that are constant. They grow and adapt, of course, but they are still indelibly me. And it is fascinating to be able to see this, to have this little time machine of ideas, thoughts, events and inner states.

So I keep writing. When my fingers fall on the keyboard and there is no one around to see it, they still make a sound. And even if no one else ever listens, I know that I will – in the future. 

Besides, who knows? Perhaps blogs will someday come in vogue again...

PCO: What to expect of my new internship?

I did this reading about my new clinic internship in Psychology, which has just begun. I'm going to stay in this program for one year and a half and it'll be my first time working individually with patients (in my last internship, I only worked with groups). Anyway, before I even started there, a lot of changes happened: the last internship coordinator was fired from the University, so now we are under a new leadership and also have new supervisors.

This made for a rather shaky start, but things are going well and the new supervisors are great people, who are making positive changes in the program. Still, the prospect of finally exercising what I have so far only studied in theory has been making me really nervous, so I decided to do a reading. My question was "what can I expect from the internship in these first weeks?"

The top card of the spread is the 5♦, which is usually remembered by its most negative connotation of being a warning in finances and transactions. But it has other meanings and, being in a dignified position here, in the place of its own suit, it can refer to changes in one's financial plans and even in one's identity (Diamonds is the suit of ego and identity after all).

I feel like this card is telling me things will not go exactly as I am expecting, but also that this new experience will change how I see myself or present myself to the world. My self-confidence will be tested, but it's neither a positive nor a negative thing per se – it all depends on how I choose to respond to the challenge. Combined with the 10♦ (Tendra) right below it, I also get the impression that this will be a very demanding undertaking at first, requiring a lot of my energy.

The A♣ is all about thoughts and perceptions, and in the Heart position this card tells me that, indeed, my powers of perception will be in the "heart" of the matter here. When I posted this spread in the Discord group, Ana Cortez gave me yet another possible interpretation to this card – a wish for a heartfelt fulfilling relationship with this internship! This spread surely lacks Heart cards, so the A♣ occupying this position could represent my desire to really create emotional ties to this place and the people in it, which apparently will not happen so naturally at first (but the potential and the desire to is definitely there).

Lastly, we have the Q♠, Morgana, in her own suit position. At first, I thought Morgana was telling me I would have to build some strong roots in order to not be swayed by the things I see there (we deal with many difficult cases there). Ana,complemented my interpretation by noting how the Earth Queen is upside down... she's trying to get her feet back to the ground, but that is not happening, which is a rather uncomfortable way for her to be. So there's this impression of rootlessness, of taking a while to find one's footing. The lack of Hearts once again plays its part, since Morgana is lacking her complementary energy and needs to work with the rather elusive A♣.

Under Lady Morgan's care

It has been a while since a reading has really comforted me in a difficult time. I have been super anxious and stressed due to my new internship (I have done a proper reading about it, which I'll post later), and the big change it caused in my routine has really thrown me off my axis.

First, I attempted to use The Triple Goddess Tarot which, sadly, has that problem I wrote about in the review. As beautiful as the art is, the book is just shiny metaphorical yadda yadda that really doesn't say anything when you stop and think about it. The message I got was "the glorious light of the Maiden of Heaven surrounds you with Her luminosity; the flowering pleasure of your highest destiny". What the heck, right? Or perhaps I am just too dumb to understand it.

But I'm getting off topic here. So, having got nothing useful there, I decided to go for one of my surefire decks, the Oracle of the Dragonfae. And, as usual, it did not disappoint.

Morgan le Fey is a card of healing and protection. She reminds me that I am never alone, which is true... I am an intern, and at all points in my work I can trust my supervisor and colleagues to be there and help me in case anything goes awry. Also, she tells me that, despite the feeling of being a dislocated alien there, the truth is that I am "coming home" – I am finally about to start doing that which I have spent years studying and preparing for! "You are coming home, to the truth of your soul and of your skills. Working hard will be a part of this".

She advises me to stay open to friendships, even if I feel like retreating back into myself (which I do, unsurprisingly). My confidence has been very damaged by others in the past, which has led me to distrust most of people; but she tells me I must make this effort to build bridges, knowing that I do have important things to bring to this job too. The right influences and support will help me restore my broken confidence and bring out the best in me.

I know this sounds like wishful thinking, and could be seen as a rather self-serving interpretation of my situation. That said, sometimes it feels good to be comforted, instead of only being made aware of the hardships and challenges that lie ahead. It makes waking up in the morning a tad less scary.

Oracle of the Dragonfae (2nd edition) © Blue Angel Publishing & Lucy Cavendish

WHR: Are you ready to take your place?

I went through a rather wild episode yesterday. I was in bed with my boyfriend when, quite suddenly, I was assaulted by a torrent of mental images and sensations, which did not seem to have anything to do with my life or anything I have lived recently. I felt as I was remembering dreams in high speed, one after the other... but these dreams were not my own, and after a while I could not tell whether they had been dreams or actual events.

Needless to say, this left me very disoriented for a couple of hours, not to mention sensitive and vulnerable. No amount of rational reasoning could stop the influx, to the point I sat crying on the bed while L. tried to understand what was going on. Thankfully, despite being a very rational engineer, he is very patient and open to my weirdness.

After I had calmed down, it became very clear to me that I had been 'flooded' by unconscious contents, in a sort of dissociative episode (which my therapist later one confirmed was probably the case). It's not the first time I experience something like that, but I cannot say it's a common occurrence either.

Seeking to understand the meaning of this strange experience, I did a small reading using the Wisdom of the Hidden Realms.

1. The first card is The Diamond Dreamer in upright position, which makes him an ally in this spread. It's a very materially-oriented card, which at first confused me a bit. After some thinking, I realised he speaks of the physical manifestation of something that had been, so far, only a potential.

2. The second card is The Altar Priestess, upside down, which makes her my challenger. In this position, the priestess reprimands me for "selling myself short" when it comes to my intuitions, and refusing to step into my sacred role. Also, she tells me that I have been downplaying my importance in the world, believing my talents and knowledge don't make any difference and, thus, withholding them.  

Together, these two cards seem to point at a moment of manifesting skills that so far I had kept only to myself, or only thought about but never really put into practice. I'm being called to do something in this world, and this episode I suffered on Sunday was the way my inner self found to make me snap to attention.

Then I pulled one last card, asking what aspect I have been unable to see about my situation. I got The Mapmaker of Destiny, who is both an ally and a challenger. He tells me that the latest circumstances are 'fated', in the sense that I must go through them because they are part of my unique path. To live in-between two worlds, that of pragmatic reality and the one of visions and dreams... to serve two (often opposing) masters, consciousness and the unconscious... to remain loyal to both the living and the dead... these are some of my charges, which I cannot ignore without losing a big part of myself. That said, I can turn what is 'fated' into 'destiny' by responding to such challenges in constructive ways... My choice does not lie in what will or will not happen, but rather in what I do with what has been given to me.

I have been given certain gifts which are now ready to materialise, but their full potential can only be reached if I step up to the role I am meant to occupy. In a sense, this reminds me of the previous reading I did, using the Mythic Oracle. Clearly, I must stop shying away from my own path... but I am still too afraid of being seen as arrogant or downright crazy for feeling the way I do...


Wisdom of the Hidden Realms © Jena DellaGrottaglia & Hay House, Inc.

Mythic Oracle: Learning to be free

For many weeks, I barely touched my cards. I became heavily caught in other personal projects, plus my academic responsibilities, and did not feel called by the oracles. However, as it is wont to happen, when we focus too much on one aspect of our lives, soon the others begin to demand attention.

Like Carl Jung said, "this is also the fate of the Logos: in the end it poisons us all" (Liber Novus, p. 280). Give too much to the Logos – the rational, organising side that helps us make ideas concrete in this world –, and soon its overpowering light turns everything dry and brittle. See, in the creative cycle, both Eros and Logos are needed. Eros is the wet, primitive earth, the great binder and loosener in which ideas are formed. And Logos is the light and air that help these ideas to make their way into the concrete world. To stay too much in Eros is drowning madness. And to stay too much in Logos is death by drought.

A few months ago, I went through a very rich Eros moment, which filled me with ideas that I turned into writing. Recently, however, my writing has become forced – I have given into the 'obligation' to produce stories, rather than the pleasure or joy of it, to the point I have been trying to write even though my mind feels empty of ideas. I understand we must not keep waiting passively for ideas to arrive but, sometimes, we need to acknowledge that we are going through a moment of inner dryness, and that the only solution is to let go so that the waters of creation may rise in us again. It is, admittedly, a very hard thing to do – specially for a control freak like myself, who am in the middle of project I want to finish no matter what, and feel utterly unable to do so.

Trust me, being a Psychology student makes you no smarter when it comes to detecting your own blind spots. Stubborn pride ("I will not fail at this!") often causes us to ignore that out carefully laid plans are no longer taking us anywhere. It was upon realising it – and I did spent some weeks struggling with what I thought was mere laziness or impotence on my part – that the cards called me once more. The deck that I chose (or, rather, the deck that chose me) was the Mythic Oracle.

To read or to not read... for free?

For a long, I read card for free in order to practice. Things were usually fine when that happened in a "safe environment", such as the divination communities I have been a part of during the years. There, people had the same goals, so everyone (with some rare exceptions) took exchanges seriously and helped each other through feedback. All was good.

Then, I started the venture out into the "real world", to do reading face to face. While not all experiences were bad, I noticed a trend: people did not really take my reading very seriously. Not that I expected to be regarded as an oracle or anything special, but many times they would forget what I told them in a matter of minutes. Also, I was often left in a depleted state, because when people heard I knew how to read cards they immediately lined up in front of me to ask for a reading that, ultimately, they did not really want or need. And they never offered anything in return.

Recently, in the PCO Discord Channel, we had a discussion that touched upon this subject. How good is it really to practice by giving people free readings. Again, I am not talking about exchanged done in learning communities, but rather the reading we offer random people, either live or on social media, in exchange for feedback in order to hone our skills.

I'm posting below what was my reflection about this. This is what I found out to be true, in my experience, after many years of reading cards.

~*~

Most of people don’t value what they get for free - that is, what they received without having to give something material or measurable in exchange for. This is because we live in a society too concerned with taking, rather than giving. 

PCO: The Picture Book of Fate & Fortune

Finally, after waiting for nearly two months (why must international post be so damn slow?), I finally have in my hands the latest version of the Playing Card Oracles. It's called the Picture Book of Fate and Fortune, and it comes in 13 trading card packs available for sale at the Ana Cortez Store.

So, what about this deck? According to the site, it's the third and final deck designed by C. J. Freeman before the 'standard' Playing Card Oracles came out. Before it, there was the Alchemy Edition and another, very rare one, which I have the luck of owning, called "Kingdom of Outcasts" (from which the Fate & Fortune edition derives a couple of images from). In my opinion, it's a lot closer to the conventional PCO deck than to the Alchemy edition, though it's still different from both.

Each trading pack contains four playing cards (one from each suit), one instruction card with the basic meanings, one C. J. Freeman portrait card, one "blurb" cards and a sticker (you can see it all here). The 13th pack is a special edition, and comes with the two "joker" card, which are illustrations Freeman did of Ana Cortez and of Ladoux (a mysterious lady mentioned in the original Playing Card Oracles book). As you can imagine, if you buy all 13 packs like I did, you end up with tons of Freeman portraits and blurb cards, not to mention a few repeated stickers. I am still figuring out what to do with them... 

The cards are small, truly "playing card" sized, but have a good quality. The cardstock is very similar to the Alchemy Edition  The backs show the usual 'swirly' design of all PCO decks, but this time in blue. Most of the cards follow very closely the structure of the standard deck, with only a few having different names (which I will list below), but it does have some unique aspects of its own. First of all, the Twos and the Threes are called "Deuces" and "Treys" which I loved... it gives such an enchanted, old-fashioned feeling to the deck! Also, the Eights are all "scales" in this deck. This is rather fascinating, because for the first time I see some coherence in the symbolism of the 8s, which are cards I often find challenging. 

As for the design, the images are definitely rougher than the standard Playing Card Oracles, and nowhere as detailed as the Alchemy Edition. That said, I have found them to be quite magical. The Fate & Fortune reminds me of those antique decks, like the Belline or the old Lenormands, which have a rather stark design. And I happen to love this sort of aesthetics to bits, so I am very happy about this new member of the PCO family.

Autumn, a time of cleansing

My Lughnasadh was rather uneventful. I was sluggish and honestly not at all in a Sabbat mood due to the heatwave we had here. I did, however, decorate my altar for it. Mabon, on the other hand, was more inspiring in terms of craft and spiritual work. There was an obvious change in weather and the air here after the Equinox passed. The days have been growing colder and shorter, although we still have some very hot days, which are the final breath of Summer.

With every passing season, I grow more aware of my ageing, of time and opportunities past, of the possibility of life becoming more crystallised and less prone to wonder. It frightens me. I have to constantly fight the ghost of my own bitterness, which leads me to feel disappointed with myself and with this world. It makes me want to hide in the rich world of my dreams, nature and magic forever, but that too is impossible. So I must learn to walk between both worlds at once, without truly ever belonging to any. It's a lonely journey, but it has its moments of awe.

For this Mabon, I decided to create a little amulet shaped like a witch's broom. It has a couple of hematites hanging from it, that is both a grounding and cleansing crystal. I plan on eventually hanging it near or behind my front door, as a way to keep negative energy out. 

It also reminds me that we, too, must cleanse ourselves from the inside out... shed the old skins and the useless expectations... It's easy to become heavy with the bad things we see and experience in this world. We need to stay conscious of it and realise that life is not meant to be ideal or peaceful or even happy, but rather to be accepted as it is, with all it's entwining aspects of light and shadows. When we cleanse ourselves, it is not to be "purer" or "superior", but to become more able to look at life without the fog of self-deception clouding our view, and thus to seek the potential of rebirth behind every apparent fall...

"Free will is the ability to do gladly that which I must do." ~ Carl Gustav Jung

The (In)famous Celtic Cross

The Celtic Cross is a spread that tends to divide people. Some swear by it, while others consider it overrated. It usually gets a bad reputation because nearly all tarot books teach it and, yet, it is hardly the best spread for a beginner to start with due to its size and complexity.

In my opinion, The Celtic Cross requires a certain fluency in the language of the tarot to be best understood. It is not enough to read what each card means in each position because all cards together create a snapshot of the situation from different points of views, so you must be able to see not only the individual meanings, but also the general picture that together they paint, even in the contradictions. And while this can be complicated, it also provides a rich amount of information.

Personally, I have had good results when using the Celtic Cross for the times when my sitter is being "vague" in revealing what they want to know. I don't mean to say it works well without any focus or question, but it is not rare for people to come seeking to shed light on a certain area of their lives without having an exact question. I have found the Celtic Cross can be used to give a general picture of the most important issue at hand, as well as its most likely developments.

Below, I share the positions that I use when reading with the Celtic Cross. There are many ways to use this spread, and this is the one that works the best for me.

You are not required to finish the task but...

The last two months have been a bit strange. After a significant rise in my creative energy, I was suddenly let down once more, and kind of fell into a void. It's as if the images that had been filling my mind with almost maddening speed and liveness suddenly went quiet, and what felt like an effortless flow became a task that requires much toiling. 

I struggle even to write this now.

What a bummer. I wish I was not susceptible to such highs and lows of the spirit, that are deeply tied to the rise and fall of my own passions. When something stirs me, my creativity is awakened. But when I am becalmed, well, then it's like living through a small death.

"You are not required to finish the task, but you are not free to abandon it," says the Talmud. In the past, I used to think (or fear) that the "lows" were a sign I was not 'good enough' to be a creative person. Now I have come to understand that I go through waxing and waning phases, and that sometimes I have no choice but to remain as an empty vessel, waiting for something new to fill me again. It does not make the task any easier or less frustrating though. And every time I hit the troughs, I have this terrible fear that the highs will never come again... that I will not have the inner fire to carry on the unending task that my soul asks of me.

In this context, The Lovers show up for me, reminding my that life often thrusts us into decisions before we have all the knowledge we need to make the choice clearly. Events in my own life have been leading me to the crossroads between the unique way I feel compelled to live - which could be seen as 'selfish' by many - and the responsibilities I have towards the external world.