Karma Cards

Karma Cards is a 36-card astrology oracle devised by Monte Farber and illustrated by Linda Garland. The 2017 Sterling Ethos edition divides the cards into Planets, Signs and Houses, and uses one card from each group to form a reading.

Above: The box front identifies Monte Farber and lists the 36 Planet, Sign and House cards with a guidebook.

The box describes the set as astrology cards for reading your future and names its three card groups.

Farber says he devised the pack in the late 1980s to make astrology easier to use. The 2017 guidebook credits the illustrations to Linda Garland; its text and artwork date to 1988.

The guidebook says to shuffle the three groups separately, draw one Planet, one Sign and one House, then read across. The blue panels answer an outcome question and the red panels an action question. Each response is divided into spiritual, mental and physical levels.

The Planet cards include the Sun, Moon, Mercury and Venus, along with the North and South Nodes, the two points where the Moon’s orbit crosses the Sun’s path through the zodiac. The Sign cards cover the twelve zodiac signs, while the House cards run from the First House to the Twelfth, the numbered areas of an astrology chart. Each card has a central image with short text at both ends.

Gold scrollwork frames colourful circular images. The Sun card reads “Demonstrate”, “Realize” and “Act Like a Leader”. The three back designs show the same blue celestial face, labelled PLANETS, SIGNS or HOUSES.