The Stone Circle Oracle

Mind Body & Soul Ezine Card Deck Review: The Stone Circle Oracle - Transformation Through Meditation by Sophia Kelly Shultz. Boxed set of 45 Cards and b/w Guidebook. Published by Schiffer Books. RRP US $39.99 

There are no wrong answers! 

Sample card and text: Phoenix Emergent: keywords: Rise Out of Darkness. Failure is part of life. Rise up. The courage to try again. Rebirth. Renewal. Emergence of a new consciousness. Out of a dark, swirling void rises the magnificent phoenix, renewed after being reduced to ashes. The Phoenix occurs in many mythologies worldwide. Destined to be destroyed and then rise from its own ashes, it is a creature of rebirth and regeneration. But in order for the Phoenix to rise, it must fall and burn. No one wants to fall, to crash and burn, but it’s normal part of the cycle of life. Whether because of situations of our own making or because of health issues, a family death, or severe injury, we all experience times when we feel like we have been beaten, our lives laid bare. There seems to be nothing to guide us. We are all extremely resilient, and as we explored previously, it comes in many forms. The long darkness evaporates and we find we are not the same person who was plunged into the darkness, but someone different, brighter, with elements burned away. It was a painful process, but look at the result! 

You are asked to choose a card and record what thoughts strike you. Then open the appropriate page in the guidebook, read the text and record the result. You could create a study group. If you are reading for another person, they choose a card and you read the meditation. The first card is the situation, the second, considerations, and the third card is the outcome. 

This is a highly personal deck of cards by artist, Sophia Kelly Shultz who is also the founder of Stone Circle and Four Quarters Interfaith Sanctuary. She has used her local area of Pennsylvania in the United States as the setting for these cards though they feature ancient Egypt and Greece, Afro-Caribbean and Native American culture. Eclectic! 

The Guidebook begins with a fantastical story that turns out to be a dream, so I felt mislead. There are 3 suits: Self Awareness, Cycles, and Forces of Nature. The guidebook has pages for keeping a journal of your impressions of the card art, and the meditations. 

Not the deck for me. I am recommending it for young people as a first deck into articulating their thoughts. 

Reviewer Wendy Stokes https://wendystokes.co.uk