Monday 1 January 2024

Folklore Oracle by Mike Bass


The only oracle deck to tap into the current interest in folklore. These beautifully illustrated cards feature famous characters, plants and animals from across UK and US folklore, from White Bison and Sasquatch (Big Foot) to Herne the Hunter, Sheela-na-gig and the Green Man.

This wonderful linocut-style card deck features characters and beings from the folklore of the UK and the US:

Creatures such as Mermaid, the Brownie, the Boogyman, Sasquatch, Black Shuck and the Jackalope.
Divinities such as the Green Man, the Muse, the Banshee, Pan, Sheela-na-Gigh and Herne the Hunter.
Trees such as Oak, Maple, Willow, Yew, Hazel and Redwood.
Animals and birds such as Fox, Raven, Badger, Rattlesnake, Wolf and Eagle.

A booklet details a profile for each card, including three quality keywords, a story to bring the character or being to life, three divinations (each linked to one of the quality keywords) to show what the card means when it comes up in a reading, and suggested practices for working with character’s energy.

Use the deck as an oracle to answer questions, to fire up creativity, connect with nature, and enrich daily life with a sense of magic.

Firstly; the artwork is this is absolutely beautiful, reminiscent of old line-cut works. Holding them and looking through the cards is a joy.

The cards are based on characters from folklore, with the cards loosely divided into animals, trees and creatures from folklore; there's a couple of outliers, but in general they'll fit into one or another of those categories. The book is written in simple, easy to follow language, talking about the author's history with folklore, how to connect to the cards and some spreads before diving into the meanings of the cards.

Each card gets (roughly) three pages, with a small image of the card, a keyword, a description and explanation of how the character features in folklore. These stories are from all over the world and I found them fascinating. There's a short section of guidance and a final affirmation, which would be a great starting point for mediation or journaling.

The cards are a little bigger in all respects than standard tarot, but not unmanageable. They have this lovely reversible design, although the book makes no mention of reversals and they don't usually apply to oracle cards:


The cards have a lovely glossy finish and shuffle nicely, gliding over each over without catching or stuttering. I did find I had to shuffle then face down or I kept getting distracted by the artwork! Here's a small sample of the cards;


The affirmations are clear and simple enough to form part of a daily habit, and I enjoyed reading the folklore stories - they've inspired me to read up more on some of the characters and trees featured! This is a great deck if you have any interest at all in world folklore, as it will give you plenty of starting points for more research as well as just being lovely to look at.




Folklore Oracle is available now. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.

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