Woodland Wisdom Oracle Cards review

Woodland Wisdom Oracle Cards

by Rev. Frances Munro and Peter Pracownik, published by U.S. Games

This is a 29 card deck, which is divided into a set of 24 cards and another set of 5 cards. While consulting or doing a reading with these cards, the author suggests you shuffle and choose from each group separately.  The author suggests a three card past-present-future spread, supplemented by one of the cards from the set of five as the reading of choice with this deck.

The introduction in the LWB is beautifully written and lays a great foundation for the deck and working with it. The card subjects and all information in the deck were channeled by the author. Therefore, to work with the deck you must be willing to accept channeled information or be comfortable with the idea of spirit guides, of which there is considerable reference in this work.

These cards are slightly wider than the standard card deck.  This really gives you the opportunity to take in the vivid, masterfully depicted scenes on each card. 

Each card has as its subject a fairy with a name (Snowdrop Fairy, Corn Fairy, etc.) depicted in a natural setting. I have found that there are multiple ways to use this deck and the information it presents: the card itself with its background, symbols, colors and tones as a visual understanding; the header text in the LWB for each card; and the channeled message given for each card following the header text.

Just as an example, let's compare two of them briefly using the visual clues:

The Primrose Fairy and the Lily Fairy

Each card contains a wealth of different symbols, a different sky and therefore a different tone. The fairies are in very different postures - the Primrose fairy is seated, clasping her arms around her legs with her knees pulled up to her chest. The Lily fairy is kneeling, supporting herself on one arm, and water trickles off her left hand. the Lily fairy holds a magic wand, the Lily fairy has none. While I've only scratched the surface, already there are enough visual details to compare action / inaction, outlook, level of energy to suggest interpretations for a reading. This is before even considering the additional objects and other symbols in the cards, such as which card is filled with bubbles and which has a deep, dark skyline.

Each card in the LWB gets a brief description of the scene on the card as a header text. This could constitute a second layer of reading with the deck. By absorbing the card description as it appears in the LWB, this text can serve as an interpretive starting point to get a satisfactory understanding of the message in the cards. Example: the Primrose Fairy "Her gentle appearance belies a steely nature that is there when the weather turns bitter and she needs to protect the open petals of the primrose. She has a way of turning each flower head into a crystal ball when they need to be protected and then unfolds her wings to protect them..."

The card description is then followed by a channeled message. The third option would then be to let each channeled message continue to speak to you every time you receive that card. As this deck was created with the intention of helping "you take your life forward in positive ways," the language in the book is of a very spiritual nature. The author uses the word 'power' very frequently throughout the LWB, and for good reason.  Each and every card in the deck is meant to motivate the seeker, or steer them forward from a different perspective.

There are no keywords for each card, but that doesn't mean it isn't possible to create your own. 

Readers who are used to more mundane decks may find a freshness in this deck - or simply be frustrated by the fact that this deck does not at all touch on concrete matters. It is less apt for questions like "Will I get the job?" and more geared to questions like "How can I bounce back after this rough period in my life?"

John Alan 

Tarot Guild