Banshee’s Weekly Oracle Card Draws, Part 4
I’ve always been a fan of Science Fiction & Fantasy, ghosts, creatures of legend & lore, UFOs, Aliens…the paranormal. Paranormal themes (other than monsters & ghosts, etc.) have had little coverage among Tarot & Oracle decks (to my knowledge anyway). So when I found an oracle deck with a cryptids theme & 1 with an Extraterrestrial theme, I was a happy camper LOL!
Besides these 2 unique decks we’ll be exploring on Far Out There Fridays, comes 2 decks from the imaginative world of entertainment: A deck based on a popular Star Trek TV series & 1 based on the characters in the Marvel Comics Universe!
I thought these decks would make a fun combination to use on Fridays in the months ahead. I chose the name Far Out There Fridays because these decks are truly Far Out There. Here’s some background on the decks. Perhaps you will want to add 1 or 2 of them to your collection! As Captain Picard once said, “Let’s see what’s out there”!!!
NOTE: Far Out There Fridays will not appear in the month of October. Mr. O will be doing special “Frightful Fridays readings during the month of Halloween. Far Out There Fridays will return again in November.
1. Charming Cryptids Oracle
Charming, adorable, silly, is how I would describe this oracle deck by Madeleine Priebe. I backed this deck on kickstarter.com & I am glad I did! I was so surprised to see a deck covering the world of cryptids, the stuff of urban legends & lore, I just knew I had to own it! Yes, I watch some of the Bigfoot shows on Travel Channel & have been fascinated by the sightings of Bigfoot & these other strange creatures. So this was a nice find for me; not a topic you usually come across in oracle or Tarot decks.
The deck itself is a nice-size, easy to shuffle, thin, but durable card stock. There are cryptids I have never heard of before, such as: the Badlands Banshee, Tizzie-Whizie, & the Fresno Nightcrawler, as well as the familiar: Bigfoot, Mothman, the Jersey Devil, & Chupacabra. Priebe’s guide mostly focuses on the history/lore of the creature (including where/when there were sightings) along with a few upright & reversed keywords to be used for oracular interpretation. It leaves a lot to your intuitive abilities to ferret out what the cards mean for you, but…the Banshee loves a challenge, LOL!
Priebe does have some card spreads at the back of the book (from 2-cards to 6), but you can always just read 1 card if you prefer. I love reading the brief legends/histories & lore of the various creatures. And the, what I would call: colorful, fun, cartoon-like artwork on a black background, will make you smile. This deck is a little treasure & hope you enjoy my readings from it.
2. Mystic Martian Oracle
Well, it had to happen eventually with all the interest in UFOs (now UAPs). Not sure why it didn’t happen sooner, that someone would come out with an oracle deck based on aliens/extraterrestrials! But the deck is not just about alien species. The first 24-cards are “Extraterrestrial Archetypes”; (including: Alpha Centaurians, Greys, MIB (Men in Black), Sirians & more) cards 25-40 are called: Sacred Geometry Linking cards & include cards such as: cards for each of the individual elements, Crop Circles, The Golden Ratio, Shadow Self, & Star Seed).
The artwork on the cards contains bold, vivid, colors. The sides of the cards are an otherworldly neon green color. The characterizations of the extraterrestrial archetypes are varied & imaginatively depicted. The guidebook offers 2 spreads: a past, present, future spread and a Martian Spread which focuses on which ET species you are most connected with. There’s a nice page or 2 description for each card & a generous amount of upright & reversed card keywords.
I do enjoy the visionary, out-there artwork. It’s definitely, along with the Charming Cryptid Oracle, a unique addition to my oracle card collection.
3. Star Trek: The Next Generation Tarot Deck And Guidebook
I am more than willing to boldly go where no Tarot reader has gone before, LOL! The Next Generation Star Trek Series was one of my favorites (along with Star Trek: Voyager). I was very excited when I learned this deck would be coming out. The characters in that series were so iconic, I knew they would make great Major Arcana cards. And they do! For example: Data is the Fool, his evil brother Lore is the Devil. I also like the way they made Picard the Justice card & Picard’s nemesis, the being known as “Q”, the Judgement card. Definitely some nice thought went into the construction of this deck.
Now the bad news: the Minor Arcana are pips…just pips. The suits are: Cloaks=Wands, Latinum=Pentacles, Bat’leths=Swords & Starships=Cups. The Court Cards have some recognizable characters as well (Sarek, for example is the King of Starships). I wish there would be a little more imagery on the minors than just the pips, but the good news is, the brief descriptive upright & reversed write-ups of the cards connect the cards nicely to the theme of the deck.
I like drawing 1-card, but there are some unique tarot spreads provided at the end of the book: Calculating the Odds (3-card spread), Red Alert (5-card spread) & Prime Directive (7-card spread). All in all if you’re a Star Trek, Next Gen. fan, you will love exploring this deck, pips & all.
4. Magic of Marvel Oracle Deck not yet released; arriving October 4, 2022) San Rafael, CA: Insight Editions, c.2022. (44 color-illustrated cards & [64]-page color illustrated guidebook).
Well, I’ve never really written about a deck I didn’t have in hand yet. There’s always a 1st time. I am enthusiastically awaiting its arrival! I’ve been hoping for a deck (oracle or Tarot) based on the Marvel Comic Universe to be published for a long time now. I hope it lives up to my expectations. From what I’ve seen so far, I believe it will.
Of course, It’s an officially-licensed deck & guidebook. I’ve included a link to the deck on Amazon so you can see some images there (click on the deck title above). The deck looks to have very nicely drawn representations of many of the Marvel favorites: Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Scarlet Witch, Spiderman, etc. And, oh yes…there are some villains as well! The names of the characters are on the cards as well as a sometimes-tongue-in-cheek oracular phrase.
From what I can see of the guidebook, there is a brief combination description & oracular message for each card, some briefer than others. From the few messages I’ve seen, they really do capture the essence of the character in the card interpretations. If you’re a fan…you already know, you want this, LOL! Looking forward to adding it into my Friday Oracles as soon as it’s released.
So If all of these aren’t far out enough for you, you never know. I may be adding the DC comics Tarot into the mix when that deck is released in November. I hope you enjoy the readings I will be presenting on Fridays.
The final blog post in this 5-part series will be covering the selections I am using for Self-Care Saturdays!