My thoughts on a Brighid related oracle deck.
(Image description: A photo of The Way of Brighid Oracle. The deck is partially spread out, with a couple of the cards flipped to show the back design. The right side up cards are beige with writing on them, with a tiny Brighid’s cross seen on the first one. The back design is of blueberries and the associated flowers. They are on a cloth featuring two blue shades of Celtic knotwork.) Credit: My own work.
I have been using The Way of Brighid Oracle for a few years, and I have yet to see a review for this lovely deck. This is my first oracle deck review, and I will give my honest thoughts on it.
It was created by Tonja Reichley of Dancing With the Wild, who teaches herbalism and offers pilgrimages in Western Ireland.
The deck I received included thirty-two cards, one being a duplicate related to Danu. Each card has a short contemplative or meditative prompt, giving the user a daily focus in their path with Brighid. The side with the messages are reminiscent of aged parchment with a four-armed Brighid’s cross at the top. The backs of the cards have a scene of blackberries and their flowers with a similarly antiqued paper look to them. The cards came in a white, organza bag and are small enough to fit in a pocket, which is really convenient for travel.
As mentioned previously, I received an extra Danu card and asked the creator about it. She suggested that it was perhaps a message I needed to hear. The main message of it is finding the sacred in the mundane, in all things. It goes on to express that offering reverence and gratitude will create this quality as you go about your day.
Now, I didn’t take this is an actual message from Danu. I tend to perhaps see Her as one of the Morrigan goddesses or maybe a scribe’s efforts to create an overarching matriarchal figure for the Irish deities. I prefer to interpret it as Dana, referring to the Three Gods of Skill, a more obscure reference to Brighid’s sons, Brian, Luchar, and Uar.
In any regard, sometimes finding the holy in the everyday can mean working on an art project. Other times it’s just a quiet but comforting look out the window at nature.
There are a few other cards that I particularly enjoy or that amuse me.
There’s the Sleep card, and there isn’t a great amount of depth to its meaning. To me, it’s typically a signal from Brighid to not do anything else and simply rest. It’s probably the most blunt card in the deck.
The Ireland card relates to pilgrimage and sacred travel; it also pops up fairly frequently. In a world that severely limits travel due to the pandemic, I have to think outside the box for this one. It’s also about going to a “place” that spiritually rejuvenates and connects me with the divine and my inner self. It’s a card that has inspired poetry.
The Flame card is tied to faith. Faith is a subject that crosses religions and cultures. It has its highs and lows, as I’ve mentioned in previous posts. Sometimes, all we can do is ask something greater than ourselves and trust that things will work out, our actions being a rudder toward whatever it happens to be. It’s both an insightful yet frustrating card in the deck.
The deck isn’t perfect. Some of the associations Reichley suggests make me raise an eyebrow at them.
One of them is the Danu card, but I explained my reasoning behind that one. The other is The Tuatha de Danaan card, which is linked with the ancestors. It’s a bit of an odd combination I don’t quite understand.
The Fair Folk can be worked with, but only with a great amount of caution and protection, but there are mythological figures with mentioned descendants. There are exceptions like Áine Clí, a Munster goddess who had a son with the Earl of Desmond, and selkies. However, this article at The Cailleach’s Herbarium expands on the idea of the Fair Folk possibly being ancestral figures. I suppose it comes down to experience or even preference.
Decks can still be highly subjective, depending on the reader, and The Way of Brighid Oracle is no different. I think I will be able to learn even more from this deck in the years to come. I give it 4.5 stars out of 5.
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