Enchanted Blossoms Empowerment Oracle Review
The Enchanted Blossoms Empowerment Oracle is a 44-card inspirational deck written and illustrated by Carla Morrow. The deck is published by Blue Angel Publishing. The cards measure 5.5 x 3.25 inches.
Quality:
This deck conforms to the publication style and standards of other Blue Angel decks. The cards are packaged in a sturdy box with a lift off lid and the guidebook is a miniature bound book. The cardstock is thick and boasts a pleasing matte finish. It feels sturdy and substantial for regular use.
Extra Materials (mini guidebook):
The guidebook is informative, well-edited, and direct. Morrow provides a bit of background information and an introduction to the deck, a few basic spreads, and then devotes the remainder of the book to the descriptions of each card. An image of the card, the name of the flower and butterfly depicted, information about the flower, and introspective questions are included with each entry.
Artwork:
The artwork for this deck is consistent, whimsical, and attractive. I love the style of the dragons and their beautiful patterns. The flowers are also carefully rendered and exquisite. I am a huge fan of dragons and the depictions of these little butterfly dragons did not disappoint! As you can see from the samples, the artwork consists of the flower and the dragon, and there are no background details. This deck relies more on the associations with the flowers than on illustration-based interpretations. It is worth noting that the art style of this deck does lead to a certain degree of repetition in the imagery, most specifically with similar poses among the dragons. This does not bother me since I adore the style so much and I enjoy getting a lot of a good thing, but I can see where this might be a bit of a disappointment for some users. I will admit that I wish the card backs had a different design as I am not really a fan of text and/or titles on card backs and I think this deck could have had a fantastic dragon themed backing.
Content:
This deck is the sort of empowerment deck that I can get on board with because of its practical and realistic approach. For example, the card may prompt the user to recall a moment where they exhibited courage, or to invite them to savor the good things in the present moment. In my opinion, reflecting on times of success and tangible personal strengths are useful approaches to empowerment. A deck that provokes a user to think about times when they accomplished their goals or faced something challenging helps to bolster confidence and a sense of capability in a personal way. This deck does not veer into inflating one’s ego with assurances that the user is a special deity or an old soul or any other metaphysical claims that don’t offer much in the way of practicality and instead just spout some fluff about how you should feel good about what a divine goddess you are.
The card descriptions offer a variety of interesting facts and history about the flower being depicted, and I appreciate the research that went into choosing flowers and their corresponding themes. The only thing I would have liked to see more of in this deck was information about the butterflies that were chosen. An occasional nod to the butterfly choice is made, but I would have liked a little bit more information about the different species and the connections they have with the flower.
Conclusion:
I am very pleased with both the deck and the companion materials. The artwork is endearing and the thoughtful research adds an extra dimension that many oracle decks are lacking. I highly recommend this deck to anyone who enjoys working with plants and herbs as well as lovers of dragons.
More like this… Druid Plant Oracle, Botanical Inspirations, Hedgewitch Botanical Oracle, Flowers of the Night Oracle, Herbcrafter’s Tarot
Quality: *****
Extra Materials: ****
Artwork: ****
Content: ****
Overall Score: 4.25 out of 5
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