Recently a
new deck has found its way home to me. I have been working with it for some
time now without sharing it online, to get to know it a bit better before
writing a review about it.
The
Chronicles of Destiny Fortune cards by Josephine Ellershaw and Emily
Ellershaw with artwork by Claudia McKinney (Schiffer Publishing) is an oracle
deck which is a must have for all people who love to combine storytelling and
divination.
The 60 cards
come in a beautiful box which looks as if it is a real luxurious ornated old book. When we open the
box with the famous Schiffer magnetic closure,
there is even an ex libris on the inside.
This amount
of detail is also to be found in the guidebook which has beautiful paper and colored representations of the cards with extensive descriptions.
Each card is an illustration of a continuous story. This story is very
beautiful written and gives you so much to work with when you want to start reading
with the cards. The language is rich and
very colorful. Together with the artwork
they tell a perfect story which held me
captive until the end.
Besides these
little chapters each card has been given some keywords and a more extensive
divinatory interpretation..
The artwork
in this deck is amazingly stunning. Although I
usually don’t like the use of photos for my decks, I can understand why
the creators has chosen for this kind of artwork. It feels almost like
snapshots from another realm; a place where you can picture yourself traveling
to and having al kinds of adventures and it is also very easy to interact with
the characters of the story. I mean, who wouldn’t want be like the hero or
heroine of this deck?
The cards
are gilded and the cardstock is excellent. They have a glossy finish and after
some time they shuffle quite well.
After reading
the guidebook I drew my first card and I got , believe it or not, Review. It shows
the wonderful experience I had reading the story and don’t you just love the
Dutch windmill in the background.
Although
one card draws are perfectly fine, the cards are meant to be read together.
Just like in a story something needs to unfold in a reading. In the book we can
find a two card spread: “the open book spread” which is great to start learning
how to read with this deck. I say learning but it is not really that difficult.
Especially when you have read the entire story the cards read very intuitively.
From there on you can proceed which larger spread or just flip the cards and
tell a story.
For my first
open book spread I got:
Distant shores
and Weaver of Words. Again fitting very cards
because writing a review can a feel a bit like a distant shore for me
I also like
to use the deck face up. It is great to examine important chapters from your
own life’s story and retell them with
the cards. It is also possible to rephrase your past experiences in life. With this
deck every victim can become his own hero. Recreate your life story into a
empowering fairy tale, myth or legend.
Some of my favorite cards:
All and all
a great versatile deck and I am so happy to have it in my collection. If you have
any question whatsoever about this deck, please feel free to ask me in the comments.
(I've been given this deck for review purpose. All opinions are entirely my own.)
