Flights of Fancy - The Winged Enchantment Oracle Deck Review

Imagine you are walking out in nature, simply enjoying your path, aware of the breeze on your cheeks, the sway of your hips, the colors and textures surrounding you, and the sound of birds nearby. Maybe it's the sweet trill of the hummingbird, the chattering of swallows, the calling of crows and ravens. You take a moment to find your avian familiar, maybe hiding in the trees or soaring over your head. Like an augur of the past, you take the time to honor your sacred familiar, and all of the messages being brought to you now.

Playing with The Winged Enchantment Oracle Deck, written by Lesley Morrison with artwork by Lisa Hunt, and published by U.S Games Systems, puts you in touch with our feathered friends, taking one on a flight of fancy, a chance to deeply connect with our soul's ability to soar above and into the beyond. 39 oracle cards are accompanied by a 48 page illustrated book, so whether you are actually out in your garden and visited by a feathered friend, or engaged in personal vision quest and use these cards as a meditation tool, there is much to be found in these extraordinary cards.


Today we have New Moon in Taurus while Mercury is retrograde in Gemini. These heavenly bodies are transiting my tenth house, traditionally associated with career and life path. I consult the cards to review my chosen profession, contemplate my current private practice, and create a proactive plan for upcoming business opportunities. After shuffling the deck 9 times, I pull three cards: left hand, from my heart, reflecting the past; right hand, using my head, representing the future; and and both hands, the hear and now, combining my head and heart to reveal my soul's purpose.

The first card I pull is 29-Robin. A young girl who seems to be metamorphosizing into a robin sits in a nest. Around her are the four seasons - a wintry ground below, bright blossoming summer cherries above, migrating birds and budding branches on either side. She looks intently towards the heavens, a snowflake like crystal in her hand. "The hibernation of your talents and dreams has no place in my medicine... I am your wake up call at sunrise...Something needs tending... You are the caretaker of your own soul.You are your own change." Powerful words and a powerful image, full of determined hope and a call for self-actualization.

The next card is 36-Turkey. Deep in the woods a shape-shifter takes a moment to go into trance, hands clasped, melding with both the birds and the forest spirit itself. "You are being asked to serve a purpose. You are being guided to put something else first...Look around to see who needs you...There is quiet dignity in servitude." A profound affirmation as I deal with the mundane aspects of creating a business plan, contemplating budgets and domain names, to remember my original intention - creating right livelihood by helping others.

The last card I pull, letting my hands play with the deck, back and forth until finally my fingers agree, is 23-Ostrich. This card reminds me of a fantastical masked ball, a fusion of human and bird that blends into a delightful and whimsical image that is both enchanting and delightful. "I am Ostrich, one of the great connector birds... Raise up your head and keep your eyes on the prize. I am a quick runner and can show you how to quickly spread your newfound wisdom...I have simply come to ensure that you follow it through."

Robin, Turkey, and Ostrich - not the totems I usually work with or would have chosen, but I respect that they have come to me for a reason, as new teachers and I humble myself before their teachings. Renewal, Servitude, and Follow Through - a new mantra for my daily meditations, my visualizations as I continue to dream, imagine, and take action on my own flights of fancy.

"If you want to fly, let go of everything that weighs you down." - From the introduction.

Ghosts and Spirits Tarot

While are ancestors and those who have passed are always around us, certainly it is at this time when the veils are the thinnest at Samhain that the Ghosts and Spirits Tarot by Lisa Hunt seems the most appropriate tool. Published by US Games Systems, this 79 card deck explores international supernatural lore and legend. Messages are delivered from the beyond through these ethereal images, illuminating our current situations, bridging past, present and future.

The author was always a sensitive child, picking up energies in her surroundings and compelled to transcribe her visions in order to bridge the physical and spirit worlds. She was fascinated, like all of us, by how do we as humans reconcile life and death, honor the dead, and prepare for the afterlife as expressed through many sources of lore and legend. As Hunt puts it, "Let the ghosts and spirits talk to you and help you dissolve the barriers between conscious constraint and objective inner reflection... (they) are messengers (and) a conduit for further communication and understanding."

Hunt presents a five card spread called The Realm of the Spirits spread to unearth whatever haunts your past and to free yourself to enjoy the present. The five cards pulled are:

1. Spirit of the Present: The right now, inspirations, concerns, anything that feels missing.
2. Ghost of the Past: whatever is lurking from the past that needs liberating
3. What frightens you: What is buried in the subconscious and needs to be faced and confronted.
4. What lifts your spirits: that which brings joy and liberation that needs to be embraced more fully.
5. Spirit of the Future: one you have removed the cobwebs of doubt, you are ready to move towards your chosen destiny.

I shuffle the deck, first the standard seven times for randomness, then thirteen times as it seemed appropriate. I am a wimp by nature and my daughter laughed when she saw the deck, knowing I am easily spooked. With the intention to look my demons in the eye and bid us to become allies, I pulled the following cards:

1. Present: Queen of Pentacles. A pale yellow card reminds me of the harvest, a dour looking queen wanders the fallow fields surveying the first sprinklings of snow. Dressed in white, she carries an amulet. Here is Cailleach Bheur, the Scottish bringer of winter storms, a reminder of the necessity for cycles of change and to make plans for the future.

2. Past: 3 of Pentacles. Three wraiths seem to juggle three different disks deep inside a cave, blocking a pathway that has stone spirits guarding the way. Considered the Divine Dead, the Manes inhabit crypts and burial monuments. The card represents a time to renew or create skills, and to acknowledge how individuals contribute to team effort.

3. Fear: 8 of Swords. A skeletal being reaches for the hilt of one of eight swords. In the background are many skulls, seeming to me like the echoes of the past, regret and remorse. The Flying Dutchman represents being indifferent, restrictive thinking, and feelings of futility.

4. Joys: 8 of Pentacles: one of the more positive images, a small bald headed gnome in a green tunic pauses between two enchanted trees who seem engaged in gossip. You know, they herd it through the grape vine. The Kobold from Germany is a household spirit who are helpful as long as respected, a reminder to work hard, be skillful and invest wisely.

5. Future: The Chariot. The only major arcana pulled, a figure labors through the snow by the edge of the treelike, staff in hand. In the background we see skeletal figures on horses, blades drawn, trampling across the night sky. More spectral faces fill the cosmos as birds take flight on the horizon. This is The Wild Hunt, signifying the polarities and a time to take action.

I love stories and mythology, and certainly the Ghosts and Spirits Tarot has added to my repertoire  of lores and legends. I intend to convey to my clients in order to give them comfort, hope and ways to let go of the past, to properly grieve and mourn that which has died, whether a relationship, business, deeply cheriched concept or actual being who has passed to the other side.

Blessed be.