Customer Reviews

The Vertical Oracle

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought a set of these cards a couple of years ago. I use them periodically to help me unstick the stuck in my ideas and thoughts.
The art work is intriguing (sort of makes you want to create your own set), the words are clear and straight talking - although a few typos are a bit distracting. Perhaps they are cleaned up in the re-printed version.
Would I buy them again - yep. Good stuff.

This deck created by Sylvi Alli, with the book written by her partner Antero, is unlike any other "divination" deck I've had the pleasure of experiencing. The 52 cards are visually quite stunning and the entire package is perfect for those intersted in a contemporary oracular device.

In the past I've utilized various tarot decks as well as runes. This new deck is now my most loved technique. The "Vertical Oracle" gives readings that are crystal clear and easy to understand. Everyone I know who has received a reading has been impressed with the accuracy.

Even using a simple three card reading: 1)questioner/nature of question, 2)outside forces/influences, 3)direction/action to resolve problems; followed by a fourth card for an overview of the entire reading can be VERY effective and easy for the begginer. Thank you Sylvi and Antero for providing a contemporary oracle for the 21st century.

The Vertical Oracle consists of 52 cards as opposed to the 78 found in the classical tarot deck. On each card a composite image is paired with a word or a phrase. The artwork is inspiring; the colours are rich and vibrant. The booklet which describes each card is a bit disappointing in that each explanation is more of a rave than an analysis which can be fitted into an overall theory or system of divination. However, whoever's using the cards explores and invents and elaborates and that's fine. I have many tarot decks but I find this deck better able to interface with modern themes. Although the tarot adapts to any time and any circumstance it inevitably reflects lives which were more narrow and fearful and restricted than today. The Vertical Oracle is especially good for interactive work where the client is invited to choose and interpret. A five-card spread can helpfully challenge and dismantle fixed ideas and tired patterns of thought and feeling.

This isn't anything like the Tarot or those other decks that purport to tap into the future or anything New Age-y. While this deck has the term "oracle" in the title, I think it's more like a way of figuring out what you truly feel/how you are expressing yourself in the present. If you disagree with what you discover, that's equally telling, and equally important, rather than just being "wrong." It's more of a tool to better clarify your current state, for better or worse--and for that reason, Antero Alli and Sylvie Pickering deserve 5 stars for their efforts. It's often difficult to self-report.

I've used the deck for apparent divination in the past, an action I've now found rather unfulfilling, but I have never left the Vertical Oracle entirely behind because it is so much more than a fortune-telling device. The Vertical is better for surveying the present and the internal--one could say it specializes in helping to turn things around, or keep them on the right track.

I had seen the Vertical Oracle featured on Rob Breszney's brilliant Astrology web page, Real Astrology, and I had long had it on my wish list hoping that someone among my friends or family would be so kind to buy it for me. After three years of waiting I finally realized it was high time to act and get it as a gift for myself and I am sure glad did.
The sure sign of any orcle is that it cuts through the fog of our everyday lives and lets us peer into something larger outside ourselves. The Vertical Oracle does this in spades without the cliches of the tarot or the ambiguities of I Ching. I was pleased to see the other day when I could not understand what to do next, the VO simply said, "wake up." And I have.

I was so excited about these and when I finally got it the cards and booklet were all bent up, I ordered a NEW one too. NOT HAPPY.