It’s only the last 12 or so months that I have been interested in oracle cards as there wasn’t really many out there that I was interested in until I started finding oracle decks like The Literary Witches Oracle.
Whether you love women’s literature or not, you will love this rather endearing literary style oracle deck will have you wondering how you managed without it. The Literary Witches Oracle is a charming, enchanting and darling oracle deck.
I am a sucker for a beautiful tarot or oracle deck, especially if it is relating to things I love. Literary works are very close to my heart, especially the golden oldies we all read generally at school. My literature is very broad, I like the classics to horror, romance, crime and even non-fiction.
Now, I have been lusting after The Literary Witches Oracle since I heard of its release and I struggled to get it. Most wanted to ship from across the pond and I was concerned about paying fee’s that are ridiculous when it arrived at customs. So I patiently waited until I managed to catch it and whipped it up.
Where I purchased it from, did take almost 4 weeks to post out, even though they were in the UK and then shipping was just under 2 weeks. Even though it was based in the UK, we had a lot of postal issues as we had lockdown throughout November and then delays with the post due to the even higher than usual volumes of parcels etc. But I have to admit, it is one of the cheap oracle decks I have.
I’d waited very patiently, but was so excited when it arrived just before New Year.
So, here is my very anticipated review of a Literary style oracle deck!
The Literary Witches Oracle Review – A Literary Style Oracle Deck
About The Deck
The Literary Witches Oracle is a 70 card oracle deck that is a celebration of female magical writers. These are all women who played a part in our wonderful literature and gave us amazing works of reading art.
Includes 30 literary female icons and then 40 symbol cards which play a part in offering a wonderful oracle reading and it is a very literary style oracle deck.
You also get a beautiful box to house your cards and a book which guides you into how to read the cards and the meanings.
The symbol and icon cards were illustrated by Katy Horan and the guide book written by Taisia Kitaiskaia.
When I was thinking about doing The Literary Witches Oracle review, I really wanted to share just how wonderful this deck is.
Packaging and quality
I am a sucker for good quality and this book is certainly that with this literary style oracle deck.
From the box to the cards, The Literary Witches Oracle is very well made and I will go into this further and why I think this is the case.
The packaging firstly, it’s wrapped in plastic to protect the box from damage and once you are in, it’s a very thick, sturdy card box that flips open, rather than pulling off like a lid.
There is also a ribbon inside and a card insert which holds the oracle cards in place than the book nestled on top.
Over the box has a cover which feels like a book. That rough texture that hardback books have, it feels exactly like that and wanted to get this in The Literary Witches Oracle review.
Now, this has also transferred over to the cards themselves as they have the same texture and a thick quality to the cards.
The book in The Literary Witches Oracle does not have the same quality, although it does feel like the rough thin card.
You can see the texture more so on the cards over the box and they have a slight sheen to them, but do not feel sticky or tacky. They shuffle very smoothly.
Going to the guide book, it is the same size as the packaging. It’s a very simple book with a card cover and good quality paper inside.
The literary cards in The Literary Witches Oracle are 2 per page and gives a bit of an excerpt about the writer on the card along with 3 keywords. Then with the symbol cards, there are 4 per page with 3 keywords.
I’d expected a little more information on the cards, but I can work with this. I would recommend looking online for more information, if you struggle using the internet then highly recommend IT certification practice test to get you up to speed.
You also get information on the deck, how to use it and also gives you a couple of spreads to use. Feels a little more like a tarot deck in how to use it, rather than an oracle deck. Not that it makes a difference to me.
Now the size of the cards is a standard Oracle card size at 5-inch high x 3 1/2 inch wide and 1 1/4 inch thick.
Overall, they are really good quality cards and to be honest, I would expect to pay a lot more than I did (Around £15). A perfectly cheap oracle deck!
The Literary Witches Oracle Review
As outlined above, the packaging is perfection ith The Literary Witches Oracle, I couldn’t ask more from my oracle card packaging and is the best I have had in a while.
Now, the design of the deck is really lovely, it takes you back to the works like Wuthering Heights and Pride and Prejudice.
On the backs of the cards, it’s black and white and has a playing card look to them. In fact, this deck reminds me of overly large playing cards from the feel of them too. There are some beautiful flourishes around the backs of the cards and a hand with long fingernails reaching out to a card.
Getting on to the artwork, the first 30 cards of the iconic women in literature does have a theme of an 1800s style portraits of the women, like something you would see in a newspaper or book.
There is also iconography throughout each card within The Literary Witches Oracle that relates to that writer. So for example on the Zora Neale Hurston card, it’s ‘story’ and has a hand and forearm on the table, looking a bit decrepit, bottle of something knocked over and flowing, a skull and a ghost, hare and devil looking character above her head. She was most widely known for her books on Hoodoo (which are fabulous I may add).
The female writers are so varied throughout the deck and the artwork is simply something else. I’ve really enjoyed flicking through the cards of the writers and learning about a few writers I had not heard of. It was something I wanted to point out in the Literary Witches Oracle review.
Now, there is a dark undertone to the writers and the writer and name of the card suits them so much. As an example: Virginia Woolf is ‘Vision’, Emily Dickinson is ‘Soul’, Emily Bronte is ‘Fantasy’, Charlotte Perkins Gilman is ‘Freedom’ and so on.
These are strong, creative women within this literary style oracle deck that have the power to change perceptions on many things, writing things that make you think and wonder about life in general. They are both dark and light, nothing is fluffy with them and they have created some of the most amazing literature out there!
Each card has three keywords, such as Joy Harjo – plunging in, making decisions – fear. Then an excerpt about the card explaining the woman’s history with this card and about their works of literature.
Next, we have the 40 symbol cards and these are plainer and created in a watercolour style with a pale yellow background and neutral, washed-out tones.
Generally just everyday things, a snail, volcano, ghost, braid, apple and so on.
Each card in The Literary Witches Oracle has 3 keywords, so House, for example, is stability, stagnation and family. Toad is humour, grotesque and joy.
They are super easy to use and a complete pleasure to look at and read. I’ve found they are pretty accurate and have been able to use them in a lot of different types of readings.
As I have used this deck repeatedly, I’ve found no problems with general wear and tear and they look just as pristine as the day I got them. No warping or peeling. They are very well made cards!
So overall, a fantastic deck and wanted to put this across in my The Literary Witches Oracle review.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I am seriously impressed and The Literary Witches Oracle is certainly something different!
The quality is perfect and everything about the deck is wonderful. You want to delve right into the deck but a part of me wishes there was just a bit more to the book. I’d have loved to have seen a thicker book. However, there is also a Literary Witches: A Celebration of Magical Women Writers book which I have now ordered and can’t wait to read this, I anticipate it being amazing!
What do you think about this beautiful literary style oracle deck?
You can grab the deck from:
Amazon
The Book Depository
Waterstones
Can you please explain how to actually do the readings?
The key words are very broad and i am not sure if i should use creativity or there are defined ways.
Please help,
Anastasiia Moore
Reading I find is more intuitive based for me. I spend a lot of time getting to know one deck. You would be best pulling a card a day for the day ahead, see what comes up and what feelings and ideas you get. Then see at the end of the day, did it happen? What can you learn from it.