I pre-ordered the Oracle of the Birds five months before its release date. So, yes, I was pretty keen for this deck. Why? Because I have a strong affinity with birds. I love watching them go about their day and I am fortunate enough to have abundant bird life around my house. As I’ve been sitting here preparing to write this I’ve seen a magpie, a rainbow lorikeet, a wattle bird and a noisy minor all in the area outside my office window. I see birds as messengers and so this deck provided the perfect combination. The Oracle of the Birds Cards Firstly, let me say that these cards are slippery little suckers. They slide around everywhere. Keeping them under control is difficult. Maybe in that alone there is a message, but I’m not going to go into that. I’m going to focus on talking about the cards themselves instead. I love the artwork. The colours, the inclusions, and the details all work beautifully. However, it has taken me a while to adjust to the prominence given to the writing on the cards. Many people love having the keywords on the card and I understand that and I think it is advantageous in many cases. In this case I would rather just have the title and the italic section without the added explanation. That may well just be me. Personally, though I prefer to focus in on the imagery rather than read how someone has interpreted them. I like that the backgrounds are coloured to tone with the card but, for me, they still command too much attention. So, to be honest, I was a little disappointed when I first looked through the cards. To be fair though I have become quite used to them and they don’t stand out to me nearly as much as they did initially. Nevertheless, if I could do so successfully, I would trim the additional information. Also, pictured above you can also see the card back. To me it looks like the front of a card rather than the back. So, even though I love the colouring, I wasn’t convinced with the addition of the message. I kept feeling as if a card had flipped over. Yet, since I only see one full card back when I fan the deck it hasn’t ended up bothering me when I’m working with themselves. A few cards that stood out to me Penguin and Ibis Both the penguin and the ibis speak to me directly. The Penguin card is a beautiful card and it speaks to me on many levels. One example is that I know male penguins give a pebble to a prospective female. If she’s interested, then together they’ll go on to build a pebble nest togeher. While not quite the same, each time my husband and I go on one of our mini adventures, (these can be as simple as a cup of coffee at a new beach or a 500 km round trip drive on a Sunday), I started to select a random small pebble or rock as a keepsake. I did use to believe that penguins were monogamous, which added to the connection, but I have since discovered that isn’t always the case. Nevertheless, in my office I have a glass vase full of rocks. Many others are scattered around the house because I need another vase. They each serve as a reminder of all the small moments we’ve shared. This card speaks to me of making moments together and being there for each other. It has such a loving feeling about it. As for The Ibis, I find the keyword “Wisdom” so appropriate. In Australia many people refer to them as “bin chickens.” This is because you often see them around bins or at the tip. In Australia they migrated from interior wetlands to urban areas when their habitat began to diminish in the 1970s. Since then, their populations have continued to grow in city areas. Put simply, they have found a way to adapt and thrive. Therefore, when I see this card, I see it as a call to trust any inner callings. If you do, just like the ibis, it suggests you will find a way to, not just survive but to, thrive. That might not be what first comes to mind for other Australians, but that’s what comes through for me. Raven and Jay The Raven and the Jay cards feel differently to me to. The Raven gives off a very different energy to the rest of the deck. I connect inner wisdom, in part, with the ancestral wisdom encoded in my DNA, so I don’t see this wisdom as coming from afar. If it did, healing ancestral wounds wouldn’t really be a thing. I don’t want to get off track here but one day I will write at length about this topic. The information contained within our DNA, and our ability to change it, fascinates me. The science in this area continues to grow as does my reading list. But back to the card. This card gives me Labradorite vibes which ensures I connect with the energy even if I don’t 100% agree with the message suggested. Through the connection I make with Labradorite, the idea of magic and wisdom stands out to me. Plus, it’s a stunning card. The Jay stands out to me for a different reason. Firstly, I am aware of the Blue Jay but not one with yellow tones. A quick Google only brought up yellow cardinals which I discovered are only distantly related. So, it seems a lot of creative license was taken here. That doesn’t bother me in this instance because I am not personally familiar with the bird. Plus, it adds another element. Also, I like this card because of the message it shares. As a writer, but even without that aspect, I have always loved words. This card talks about the magic words contain while also cautioning the need to use them wisely. This applies both to the words we say out loud and to the ones we say to ourselves. I associate it with the suit of Swords in tarot. Also, since this is a yellow jay it serves as a reminder that we can change how we see things just by changing how we label them. Both a cardinal and a blue jay are song birds. Therefore either would have been appropriate. However, if this was a cardinal card, it wouldn’t have had the same impact on me. Garuda and Phoenix Jeanne Ruland has included mythological birds as well. There’s Ba Bird, here labelled the Ba-Soul Bird, Garuda and Phoenix, (both pictured above), and the Thunderbird. I find these all slot into the Oracle of Birds seamlessly. Even with my glasses on I cannot read the writing on Garuda though so I magnified the photo. If you’re curious it reads, “Invisible and everywhere, thunderous, blustering, and very clam, wind, weather, castle of clouds, I breath in, I breathe out, within and without, and you connect me with All. Breathe, Atman, All-One, space in which I am with all.” Surprisingly, this is not printed in the book. Something else that surprised me was that the only card in the book that mentions a specific mythology is Ba-Soul Bird. The Oracle of the Birds Guidebook The Oracle of the Birds comes with an 111-paged, perfect bound, black and white book. Entries are alphabetical but the Contents page can guide you directly to any card you’re looking for as well. The card meanings span two pages. A small, black and white photo of the card, the card title, and the keyword/key phrase, are followed by the “Meaning of the Card,” and sections titled, “Magic Feathers,” “More Meanings,” and “Affirmation.” As an example of the latter, the affirmation for Feather, pictured below, is “I rise above all my unconscious beliefs and patterns of action with the help of divine truth. In lightness and full of bliss, I follow my path.” The card meaning is intended to help you answer your question whereas the Magic Feather section suggests why the bird entered your life. Some of the text is a bit “flower-y” but overall the book is an easy read. I like that in many of the initial “Meaning of the Card” sections, Jeanne Ruland poses questions rather than telling you what to think. For example, for Nest, she asks the following questions: I like this approach. It is well suited to this deck, especially since there are no spreads included in the book. She just suggests you draw a single card. Of course, what you do is entirely up to you. Wrapping it all up I haven’t worked with this deck much as yet but my initial intention is to work my way through it by journaling about each individual card. In time I am curious to see how I integrate Oracle of the Birds into my practice. For now, I’ll wrap up with part of the message printed on the back of the cards because I believe it’s a great maxim: Be unique, free, and yet connected. Summaries The Oracle of the Birds Cards Artist Petra Kuhne Card Size 9 x 12.5 cm Card Stock Flexible semi-gloss cardstock Shuffle Slippery and I find best suited to overhand shuffling Fan & Flip Through Easy to fan, slippery to flip through Miscellaneous Solid two part box, non-reversible backs, The Oracle of the Birds Guidebook Written by Jeanne Ruland Pages 111 pages Appearance Perfect bound, B & W Contents – Preface– Introduction– How to Work with the Cards– The Cards (listed alphabetically)– About the Author– About the Artist Spreads None included Publishing Details Deck Creator: Jeanne Ruland with illustrations by Petra Kuhne Pictured Version: Published by Findhorn Press in English 2023. (It was originally published in German in 2022.