The Peace Oracle by Toni Salerno and Leela Williams is a 45-card oracle deck premised on divinatory guidance to help us achieve both inner and outer peace. It’s about helping you through life’s challenges. When you’re feeling most stuck, the Peace Oracle is intended to guide you through overcoming those obstacles.

The iconic art style of Toni Salerno is vibrant contemporary, neo-impressionistic fantasy. That’s present throughout the Peace Oracle, which I think works perfectly with the modern spiritual point of view expressed in the deck.

Try out an oracle card reading with the deck to see if it resonates with you. Start by defining a challenge you currently face, that you’d like some divinatory guidance on how to overcome. Then select one of the cards above: left, center, or right. The card drawn will reveal a critical key or factor you need to consider to help you overcome your challenge. Now let’s proceed with the deck review.

The book is written by Leela Williams, a writer, magazine editor, and psychic, and someone who has devote a lot of herself to the New Age spiritual community. I love the universal language of religion you’ll find in the companion guidebook. We begin on the cover page with a prayer attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi.

The guidebook is well-written. A lot of substantive content and inspiration is compiled in very few pages. I love that. Sweet, succinct, and packs a powerful spiritual punch.

It is very positivity-oriented and intended to be inspirational, so I see this deck targeted mainly at those who want to be uplifted with blissed out messages of optimism and hope. There are intentional safeguards in place within the deck that enforce that inner zen.

You’ll see some glare in the photographs here because the cards are shiny. There’s a high-gloss coating on the cards, which I honestly am not sure why 21st century deck publishers are still opting for. It’s like they’re out of touch with the Age of Instagram and Social Media Spirituality.

These cards don’t “Instagram well,” if you will. Ignoring even my own opinions on so-called Social Media Spirituality, strictly from a business perspective, you would think deck creators today are going to go with a matte finish and be considerate of how well their cards will Instagram.

Honestly. if you want your cards to sell well commercially, that has to be one of your key considerations these days as a deck publisher. You know how a basic rule for television appearances or being on film is to wear matte makeup because shimmery, glittery makeup can be distracting on camera? Same with the high-gloss finish on tarot and oracle cards: matte finish is preferred.

Nonetheless, the art is beautiful. I love the vibrancy of color and the use of color therapy that is integrated throughout the deck. I love the depiction of nature landscapes, trees, and the very gender-neutral vibe you get here, which I think makes it stand out from the majority of oracle decks. Oracle decks tend to go very “divine feminine.” I found the imagery on these cards to feel rather neutral, harmonious, and balanced.

Ooh… wouldn’t the art on the Treasure card make a fantastic Ace of Pentacles?

I’m not sure I know what neo-pagan means, which means I probably shouldn’t use the term. Nonetheless, if I can presume I know what neo-pagan means or at least assume my definition is right on, then there’s a neo-pagan point of view to the Peace Oracle.

I appreciate the very simple minimalistic design on the card backs. From both the card back and the guidebook, I get the sense these cards are not intended to be read with reversals, which I wouldn’t try to do anyway. The deck seems to be a very straightforward oracle card set where you pull a card, meditate on the card imagery to feel through your emotions, consider the keyword, then look up the card meaning in the guidebook.

The deck set is its own universe of a divinatory system, which I really like. You don’t need any prior knowledge or experience with cartomancy to read with the deck. Everything you need to know about operating the Peace Oracle is contained within its box.

Each card is given a single page entry and provided in alphabetical order for easy referencing. You get an inspirational quote to go along with each card, and all the quotes I love. Great quote selections here by the creators. You get a description of the imagery to help you enter into the emotions and creative intuition of the card. Then you get the divinatory meaning and an affirmation to use along with the card you’ve pulled.

Okay, now back to your own card reading. Hope you remember whether you went with left, center, or right.

Interesting how color-coordinated the three cards collectively turn out to be. Also, all three cards depict trees. Check out the guidebook page entries for your card below. You can click on the photographs to expand the image and read the text.

If you selected the left card, the key to overcoming your current obstacle is Forgiveness.

If you selected the center, then the key is Unity.

If you selected the card on the right, your key is Persistence.

Among beginner oracle decks or oracle decks to gift to friends who aren’t tarot readers per se, I’d definitely recommend the Peace Oracle. The keywords chosen as the caption for each card are powerful and offer extraordinary catalysts for personal reflection and further thought. The artwork for this deck has that exceptional ability to smooth over ruffled emotions and agitation. When you just need a soothing, uplifting message from The Beyond, this is one of those decks perfectly keyed for that.

The Peace Oracle by Toni Salerno and Leela Williams is an oracle deck that many of us need right now. It’s calming, can help bring some peace of mind or help us along our journey toward finding peace of mind when we’re feeling anxious. The bold, impressionistic artwork works well with the keywords and the guidebook entries. Altogether, well done.

FTC Disclosure: In accordance with Title 16 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations Part 255, “Guides Concerning Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising,” I received Peace Oracle from Llewellyn Publishing for prospective review. Everything I’ve said here is sincere and accurately reflects my opinion of the deck.