"True Divine guidance is always repetitive and consistent. Once you have followed the angels' guidance, or learned the lesson, then the angels move on to another message." - From the booklet
The Messages from Your Angels Oracle Cards is a 44-card deck by Doreen Virtue dedicated to receiving guidance from angels. In addition to Archangels Raphael, Michael, Gabrielle, and Uriel, there are 40 other beings conveying messages of hope, joy, empowerment and guidance. One side of the card features colorful images created by various artists with an encouragement at the bottom. Most of these illustrations are quite lovely. The back of the cards feature a beautiful motif of angel wings crowned with a glistening pearl, suspended in space amidst the stars while hovering over the Earth.
Some of the angelic beings and their messages include:
Azure - "Your desired outcome will occur in the very near future. Have patience and faith, and don't try to force it to happen."
Serena - "I am the Angel of Abundance. You will receive the money that you need, and God is in charge of how that will happen. Have faith."
Desiree - "No, conditions aren't favorable right now. Wait, or look into other options; and ask the angels to help, guide, and comfort you."
Isaiah - "It's a good time to give birth to new ideas and situations in your life. I am watching over you, guiding you, and protecting you during these changes."
Sonya - "I bring you a message from your deceased loved one: `I am happy, at peace, and I love you very much. Please don't worry about me.'"
A 69-page booklet accompanies the Messages from Your Angels Oracle Cards and the author provides additional messages for each angel; the names of the angels are arranged alphabetically, which makes it easy to locate the appropriate card meaning. What is confusing, however, is that I've never heard of these other "angel" names! Chantall, Indriel, Omega, Zanna, Caressa, Mystique...who are these beings? Unfortunately, Dr. Virtue doesn't explain the names of these angels. Because the additional messages are in quotes-as are the encouragements on the card fronts-I assume she's "channeling" angelic beings. There is no information on this subject, either, which could prove confusing to those familiar with only well-known angelic figures from various religions and spiritual traditions (Metatron, Tzadkiel, Sandalphon, etc.)
Dr. Virtue includes eight different angel-reading spreads for this oracle, which is more than any other booklet that accompanies her decks. While the spreads themselves are quite good, the advice on phrasing questions is NOT. For example, for each spread, the author provides a yes/no question such as "Is ____ my soulmate?", "When will I meet my soulmate?", "Will I make money soon?", "Will I heal from this health condition?" and so on. As a professional Tarot reader, I can tell you that most of us discourage yes/no questions and encouraging re-phrasing that is open ended. Why, you may ask?
Well, these kinds of questions are disempowering. Individuals who want quickie yes/no answers usually don't want to invent the time honing their intuition and growing up spiritually. Not only that, even a specific tool like Tarot (which is far more comprehensive than any Virtue deck) can only reflect the CURRENT energy of the querent. Should the querent (the one asking the question) change his/her mind, then the outcome changes. Empowering questions are ones that ask, "What can I do to _____?" and "How can I best _____?" These kind of questions encourage action and decision, rather than seeing fate as something that "just happens" outside of our control. Dr. Virtue should know better and does a great disservice by including such amateurish questions and phrasing.
I've tried consulting the Messages from Your Angels Oracle several times, but each time I receive cards with an irrelevant or vague message that just don't resonate. I've had far more success with the Archangel Oracle Cards (although my personal favorite is the Goddess Guidance Oracle Cards). Although the cards are attractive and the angelic channeled messages are encouraging, this deck doesn't work well for me.
(To see 6 images from this deck, visit the Reviews--Decks section at [...])
Janet Boyer, author of The Back in Time Tarot Book: Picture the Past, Experience the Cards, Understand the Present (coming Fall 2008 from Hampton Roads Publishing)
