Review By Terri Clement
Vintage Wisdom Oracle by Victoria Moseley
Published by U.S. GamesSystems, Inc., www.usgamesinc.com
ISBN: 978-1-57281-781-4
Retail: U.S. $21.95
Vintage art, coupled with mixed media, create montages of powerful but feminine imagery in the Vintage Wisdom Oracle by Victoria Moseley.
Each card in this oracle contains much detail from classic sepia photographs, drawings, and paintings. The addition of flowers, animals and locations add to the symbolic meanings a reader has to pull from when using this deck. You will find lush gardens, the Eiffel Tower, floating butterflies, and wise owls to be just a few of these additional symbols to look for.
This 52-card oracle deck and 80-page book set come packaged in a sturdy and beautiful cardboard lift off top box which is sealed in plastic. The deck and book are also sealed in plastic inside the box. The set does give off a bit of an inky smell, but that should dissipate with use.
The cards are printed on a flexible cardstock with a very light lamination. They are a bit oversized, measuring in at 5 5/8” x 3 ¾” and might present a challenge for riffle bridge shuffling especially for those with small hands. The card edges are very smooth to the touch.
The card backs are not reversible friendly, featuring what looks like a very ornate, blue jeweled, vintage picture frame, with a picture of a woman’s face in the center. The card fronts have a ¼” border around the outside done in muted, blue, green, or purple which enhances the images making certain colors seem to pop out. The card titles are written in a ½” title space just inside the lower border.
The card-sized paperback companion book has a short introduction, then it jumps right into the cards, which are listed alphabetically. There are no images of the cards in the book. From the information about the cards, the book moves into a small section about using the cards where things like selecting a spread and shuffling are discussed. There are 5 spreads that I have not seen before, which I found quite refreshing!
Change is an image a woman in a purple dress is trying to hold her lavender colored wrap around her, while the wind is trying to blow it away. The scene is set at twilight, the ‘tween time. There is a barn owl assessing the situation while sitting on a branch, in a tree behind her.
The companion guide says “…change on the horizon. Like the falling leaves and the twilight sky depicted, a cycle has reached its natural conclusion.”
Healing is the image of a well coiffed woman, wearing a long strand of pearls, dressed in a pale green dress, trimmed in red ribbon. Behind her sit two large, large, corked medicine bottles.
From the book “…take time and reflect on the energy of healing by allowing its light to shine on any areas in need of renewed wholeness.”
Playfulness shows a woman in an old fashioned one piece bathing suit perched lightheartedly upon a toadstool. She has Monarch butterfly wings. There are leaves and ferns in the background.
The companion book states “The woes of the world can wait for a while as she revels in the renewed perspective of her world through the eyes of playfulness.”
The Vintage Wisdom Oracle can easily be used right out of the box by most readers, because of the rich symbolism featured with every image. This would make a great deck for anyone working with Sacred Feminine Energy or those who are looking for some female empowerment. This set would make a nice fit for anyone from the newbie all the way through the professional reader. This deck and book set would also make a great gift.