The Fairy Ring: An Oracle of the Fairy Folk [BOX SET] (Paperback)

The deck is divided into four suits: Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter, with the faeries assigned to whichever season is the closest match for their energies. There are also eight additional cards representing the major holidays of Wicca. Every last one of the cards is a visual spectacle, and none of them have that telltale blah-ness that indicates that the artist is out of ideas. I suspect that the deck will be a little difficult to learn, since it's not based on tarot, but I've never minded reading up on faeries.

Each of the cards represents one of the traditional faeries of folklore. Other faery decks concentrate on the authors' personal vision of faeries (Brian Froud), or on pop psychology (Doreen Virtue), but with this deck we're in "Katherine Briggs Land". The book gives a sort of capsule bio of each faery, so that we know what its nature is and what it means in a reading. The faeries range from ethereally beautiful to earthy to creepy to "I sure hope I don't meet THAT in a dark alley". It is a credit to Franklin and Mason that they absolutely do not "sugarcoat" any of the darker faeries. They are SCARY as portrayed in the art, and the book advises not trying to contact them in meditation.

My personal favorite is the "Lhiannan Shee" card. Mason portrays the traditional vampire-muse as a green sprite hovering above a bottle on the writer's desk. I love the double meaning. For the faery depicted might be the Lhiannan Shee--or she might be the "green faery" absinthe, which led 19th century artists into a more mundane sort of danger.

The only gripe I can think of about this deck is that Franklin and Mason have only a handful of models for their cards. This can get a little distracting when I start recognizing the models from one card to the next, or even between the two decks. "Hey wait a second, Morgan le Fay, didn't I just see you on the BeFind card?" It is sometimes necessary to suspend disbelief a little.

The Fairy Ring comes as a deck and book kit, like the Sacred Circle Tarot. The book has a brief introduction to the Oracle, several suggested layouts, and a detailed discussion of each of the cards, including the history and folklore of the fairy depicted on the card, suggested divinatory meanings, and a guide to working with the fairy -- and occasionally a recommendation that you do not work with a specific fairy! The deck itself consists of 60 cards, organized into four suits corresponding to the seasons. Each suit has nine cards, each belonging to a specific fairy, plus four court cards -- Lady, Knave, Queen and King. Rounding out the deck are eight "festival" cards, representing the solstices, equinoxes, and fire festivals. Four additional cards illustrate suggested layouts that are further described in the book. The cards themselves are a little smaller than the Sacred Circle, measuring 8 x 11.7mm (about 3-1/4 x 4-3/4 inches), and thus should be easier for those with smaller hands (and diminished dexterity, such as myself) to use. The cards don't seem to have the slick finish that scratches easily as do the Sacred Circle, and those who long lamented the "irreversibility" of the Sacred Circle card backs will delight in the complete upsy-downsy anonymity of the Fairy Ring.

I have long thought that the Tarot, while an excellent representation of superconscious energies and their relationship to consciousness, all but ignores the unconscious forces of nature that play a critical role in the formation of human consciousness, and in the events and thoughts of ancient and modern life. Our ancestors lived and died by the events of nature, and the forces that shaped those events determined their survival. The ancient rituals of the seasons, the practices of magic, and eventually the evolution of nature gods and goddesses all spring from this intimate connection between consciousness and nature, and the participation mystique that linked the human mind to the world around it. The Tarot all but ignores this relationship; but this is the very substance of the Fairy Ring. Whether you think that fairies originate through observation or psychological projection, the Fairy Ring brings to life the connection between mind and nature, and is thus the perfect companion and compliment to the more abstract Tarot.

It is perhaps because of the loss of connection between mind and nature that the Tarot often succumbs to endless psychobabble and chatter, completely missing its mark as a metaphysical oracle. The Fairy Ring, on the other hand, seems more closely connected to the Runes and Oghams, as a mediator between consciousness and the unseen, sometimes amusing and often perplexing forces of nature. Much could be said about the consequences of isolating human consciousness from nature, and one of the benefits of studying and using a nature-oriented oracle like the Fairy Ring might be to encourage the re-formation of the link between mind and world that enlivened and enchanted the consciousness of the ancients.

Whatever you might think of the theory, the Fairy Ring should be a welcome addition to the repertoire of the diviner and students of ancient religious beliefs and practices.