The Medicine Woman Oracle
by: Catherine Maillard | Illustration by: Caroline Maniere
Publisher: Rockpool Publishing
______________________________________________
RECONNECT WITH THE ANCESTRAL WISDOM OF POWERFUL WOMEN
SO.. here's a deck that feels right at home in its 2022 release by French author Catherine Maillard and Illustrator Caroline Maniere. A beautifully finished deck of shamanic wisdom and principles that is presented in a timeless fashion. Not one bit of text in the guidebook or cards themselves references the current year or forms of technology, allowing you to fully immerse yourself in its potent messages delivered with a soft yet grounded tone of voice.
The Medicine Woman Oracle is offered as an oracle deck into the shamanic realm, presented in four sections: Archetypal Medicine Woman Cards, Gifts of the Feminine Cards, Totems/Allied Spirit Cards and Medicine Action Cards.
Catherine leans on the shamanic medicine wheel and her own experiences in women's ritual circles to express the deck's theme of the divine feminine within the earth and ourselves (even the tag is written inside the back box "can you hear her song?").
While at first glance it seems as a deck specific only to the feminine gender -and yes, there are bits of text that refers to the menstrual cycle, womanhood and birth- for the most part it actually embraces the concept of the feminine as a spiritual energy of nature than that of something restricted to female sexuality or expression (body or otherwise). This is refreshing to read, for as a male, I was able to grasp and contemplate Catherine's shared wisdom and digest them into grounded use for my own world and work.
Catherine's tone throughout the deck is a subtle yet strong voice of compassion, motivation and care for the reader. The Medicine Woman Oracle as a deck for psychic/intuitive use feels deeply akin to stepping inside a shamanic elder's ritual tent and diving into its own beautiful cosmic wormhole. The use of colour is also just as carefully thought-out as the deck's structure with earthy red, brown, beige, orange and yellow tones balancing seamlessly with pops of pink, blues, green, maroon, indigo and white across the cards. The only exception would be the Totems/Allied Spirit cards offering brighter hues of green with earthy yellow/beige as backdrops to the illustrations of the animal/elemental guides. These don't jarr with the other cards, rather, they create an enjoyable flexibility in readings whether you decide to split the totem/ally cards against the remaining or use the full deck at once. Speaking of, the card backs all have the same pattern but are in different colours of their own collective "suits", so this may potentially distract one from a completely pure intuitive card spread than if they were all in one uniform colour.
Nevertheless, in summary The Medicine Woman Oracle is a beautifully created divination deck for healing and ritual use that fully embraces archetypes and cosmic wisdom into direction of embracing the divine feminine into your life. Who can argue with that?
______________________________________________
Shuffle ease: 8/10
Easy/Intermediate/Experienced Rating: Easy-Intermediate 7/10
BIPOC Representation: Yes (while not naming specific culture or race, the people depicted within the deck have either brown or white skin)
Queer Representation: No
Pros: Beautiful array of artwork and writing that fits the deck's theme on point
Cons: No representation of male gender or non-binary
Available: Haus of Oracles, Rockpool Publishing, Barnes & Noble, Waterstones, Booktopia, Amazon and where all good books are sold.
Original blog review by hausoforacles.com: HERE
Haus of Oracles – 18 September, 2022