Playing Card Oracles - Alchemy Edition
Playing Card Oracles - Alchemy Edition - by Charles J. Freeman and Ana Cortez
A provoking new edition of oracle playing cards based on original oil paintings by Charles J. Freeman (1941-2010)
Charles J. Freeman was interested in the history of playing cards and fortune-telling. He wrote: “There is probably nothing with such widespread cultural significance we know less about than the playing cards”. He noted that the regular playing card deck has the same structure as a natural calendar based on 13 lunar cycles spanning one year of 52 weeks. Furthermore, the four suits, numbers and images lend themselves perfectly to the art of divination, as though this is what playing cards had been invented for. Following these ideas, this oracle deck also contains 52 paintings from the artist’s imagination which enliven each card with a story and depth of meaning. Charles Freeman was a collector of the unusual, a natural mystic and student of the occult. He was unconventional in every way, eternally curious, unfathomable by most. He loved rare and strange books with fantastical imagery, and collected unusual statues and curiosities. All this no doubt fed his fertile imagination, but the concepts and essential imagery in the paintings were his own. He would visit the astral world then return to waking state and draw what he had seen.
The new deck fits comfortably with the already published Playing Card Oracles and accompanying book “The Playing Card Oracles, a Source Book for Divination”. All layouts, including how to use the deck as a calendar, suit and number associations, geomancy applications and the other essential information in the book all work with the new deck. Even some of the images between old and new decks are similar, and the basic building blocks remain the same.
Decks contain 52 cards + 2 Jokers and are available in two sizes: normal and large.
By Ana Cortez
Member since January 10, 2015
Ana Cortez is the author of "The Playing Card Oracles, A Source Book for Divination" and "Oracle Alchemy." Daughter of Oracle creator and illustrator C.J. Freeman, she is a self-described misfit, truth seeker, rule breaker, and freak for the supernatural.
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