Divine Feather Messenger Review

The Divine Feather Messenger deck is a 44-card inspirational deck written by Alison DeNicola and illustrated by David Scheirer. The deck is published by U.S. Games Systems, Inc. The cards measure 2.5 x 5 inches.

Quality:
Continuing with their current trend, U.S. Games Systems has released another high-quality deck. These borderless cards have the low gloss finish and robust cardstock of USG’s other recent decks, and it is both flattering to the artwork and comfortable to shuffle. The box is the “lift off lid” style, and its size matches the cards and guidebook for safe storage.

Extra Materials (mini guidebook):
The 80- page mini book is well-edited, succinct, and useful. A brief introduction is followed by descriptions of the elemental, seasonal, and color correspondences used in the deck. A basic past, present, future spread is also included. Each individual card entry provides information about the bird, its messages, correspondences, and an affirmation. I appreciate that the card entries appear one after another instead of on a new page, as this makes full use of the space instead of leaving large blank areas. One thing I found unusual is that a table of contents listing the page number for each card entry appears after the introductory information and spread.

Artwork:
Scheirer’s watercolor images are a treat for bird lovers like me. I was thrilled to see many of my common and favorite (white breasted nuthatch!) bird feeder visitors included. There is also a general “parrot” card that pictures a blue and gold macaw, but that is the only representative from the parrot family in the deck. This isn’t a complaint, I just had my fingers crossed as a “parront” that maybe one of the hookbill species that I own would also appear. But I digress. If soft, lifelike animal portraits are your cup of tea, this deck delivers. I was very impressed with the representation of the birds. Additionally, each card back features an illustration of one of the corresponding bird’s feathers, which means you get two unique and studied images on each card.

Content:
As an affirmation deck, the meanings for the cards have a positive and encouraging spin. Themes of peace, healing, growth, communication, and forging a new path are often reiterated. Although the card messages can be a bit broad and similar to one another, the tidbits about the individual birds, their associations within different pantheons, and the inclusion of color, elemental, and seasonal correspondences provides some other ideas to explore for the creation of additional associations and meanings for each bird in the deck. I think this is especially useful if you want to “branch out” (if you’ll pardon the pun) and take this deck beyond the affirmation realm and into use as a more standard oracle as well. That’s not to say that there is anything wrong with it as an affirmation deck, it just contains enough information and versatility to be used in other manners if one chooses to embark on some additional study and research with the guidebook as springboard.

I loved that the parrot in this deck didn’t have a message focusing exclusively on communication, noise, or vocalization related matters. In my experience with animal decks that is kind of the fall back meaning for the parrot card. Although my birds have their vocally expressive moments, there is so much more to them than “noise.” I felt this card dug a little deeper as it discusses expressing individuality and personal talents visually and vocally – and doing so with ease and confidence. I think almost any parrot owner would agree that their birds love to express themselves in myriad ways.

As mentioned previously, this deck is double-sided. The fronts have the bird’s illustration, and the backs feature one of that bird’s feathers. This means that you can, as suggested by the guidebook, select your cards based on the feathers that you are the most drawn to at that time. I see this method as a kind of bridge between blind and deliberate draws. You aren’t choosing your cards face up as you would in a true deliberate draw, but you are still making a more deliberate choice than you would be when selecting cards face down from a standard deck. It will be interesting to experiment with this technique, though I do wonder if I will find myself consistently wanting to draw the same “feathers” that I find attractive, or if my knowledge of birds will lead me to consciously choose a bird that I can recognize based on the card’s feather.

(This is not mentioned in the guidebook, but I thought it was worth noting. To perform “blind” draws with this deck one could mix up the cards, determine how many additional times they will shuffle and cut, and then draw their cards once those predetermined shuffling numbers have been reached. This way the cards aren’t deliberately chosen by their backs or fronts.)

Conclusion:
As someone who is passionate about birds, I knew that this deck would be a treat. Cat (and more recently dog) owners have several decks to choose from that feature their companions, and while I still don’t know of a companion bird deck, this oracle comes the closest of any deck that I am currently aware of. If you are a bird lover, someone looking for a new animal-themed deck, or you’re seeking a new affirmation deck, this one is an attractive and innovative choice. I highly recommend it!

More like this… Ancient Animal Wisdom Cards, Raven’s Prophecy Tarot, Secret Language of Animals Oracle, Animal Spirits Knowledge Cards, Animal Wisdom Tarot

Quality: *****
Extra Materials: ****
Artwork: ****
Content: ****
Overall Score: 4.25 out of 5

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