by Sheri Harshberger
The Goddess Inspiration Oracle is the latest work from Kris Waldherr, who also brought us The Goddess Tarot. The oracle is actually a kit, containing the 80-card deck, a gold organza bag and a 120-page guide book. The kit is offered by Llewellyn Worldwide.
Kris Waldherr is well known for her artwork. I recently came into possession of her Goddess Tarot in a trade. It is stunningly beautiful. This deck carries on that fine precedent for those who wish to expand their reading and work with Goddesses to an oracle deck, or, for those people who prefer to work with oracles exclusively.
In this deck, we have Goddesses from A to Z, and from every possible culture. The front of each card consists of the Goddess' name at the top, what she is known for at the bottom, a "framed" illustration and a statement. The card fronts are darkly colored and set off the gold, white and colors in the writing and in her illustrations - which are used to depict each of the Goddesses and meaning of the card. The backs of the cards are light gold and not reversible. I would say my only complaint with this deck is that the square areas of the cards that contain the "framed" images of the Goddesses are too small. I would have liked to see the images cover more of the card - almost more so than having the statement that is included - but not enough to not like or use this deck.
The deck is roughly the size of a standard Tarot deck. There are 80-cards in the deck. The card stock is good quality and there is just enough flexibility to make it as easy to shuffle as a deck of playing cards.
This deck can be used in place of a Tarot deck in spreads for readings and it is also well suited to fulfilling the function of an affirmations deck. While all statements are positive, they don't all deal with good things. Using these cards for a daily affirmation is a great way to learn to properly and positively frame an affirmation. I've had occasion to use these cards for readings in the same way I would use a Tarot deck and this deck is easy to read and stunningly accurate.
As I mentioned earlier, the kit comes with a 120-page guide book. It is well done. There is a discussion of inspiration and the divine feminine, as well as an example spread and suggestions for reading with the cards as a card-of-the-day affirmation or reflection. Each of the cards is included with a detailed, yet concise description. The front of the book has each Goddess listed with page number so they are easy to find when needed. There is a bibliography included as well so anyone who is inspired to learn more about all or some of the Goddesses and their stories can do additional research.
This would be an especially great deck to give to young and teenage girls as well as women who are fans of Kris Waldherr's work or enjoy working with Goddesses and the divine feminine.