I’ve been meaning to work with and try to understand angel oracle cards and what better introduction to the phenomenon than through Doreen Virtue’s Daily Guidance from Your Angels oracle cards!

There is also a related sister book that was published one year after the deck, Daily Guidance from Your Angels: 365 Angelic Messages to Soothe, Heal, and Open Your Heart (Hay House, 2007), which can be used as an oracle tool in the form of bibliomancy or for daily guided meditations. In this post I will only be reviewing the 44-card deck, Daily Guidance from Your Angels (Hay House, 2006).

It’s a 44-card deck, 3.375″ x 4.875″ in dimension, with a semi-gloss finish, good, heavy cardstock, and gold gilded edges. The box is just as sturdy, again with a semi-gloss finish. As with most Hay House oracle card publications, Daily Guidance comes with a perfect-bound companion Guidebook and the package is a complete system that you can start using as soon as you get it, no learning curve required.

The deck is grounded in the gnosis of angelic beings, in particular guardian angels. The guidebook begins: “Your guardian angels are always with you, even when you’re unaware of their presence. These angels want to help you with every aspect of your life.”

The Guidebook also explains that “oracle cards are an ancient, time-honored way to connect with angels and spirit guides,” further assuring you that they are “completely safe.” After going through this deck, however, I didn’t find it safe. I found it quite dangerous. Sugarcoating reality and pretending that everything is fine is a pretty dangerous way to live.

For instance, one of the cards, “There’s Nothing to Worry About,” worries me. There are very, very few scenarios I can think of where “There’s Nothing to Worry About” would be appropriate advice. Also, the picky editor in me wants to change that line to “There is Nothing to Worry About.”

Clearing and consecrating your deck are also instructed in the Guidebook, as well as other cartomancy basics, like shuffling and spreads. The three card past, present, and future spread is taught.

The art is gentle, calming, and reminds me of children’s bedroom wall art, the kind of art that loving, religiously devout parents might choose to frame up and hang in the baby room.

Also, there is multiculturalism depicted in the deck, which I definitely appreciate. One of the things I’ve seen Doreen Virtue do very well that other New Age spiritualists seem to have neglected is multi-ethnic inclusion.

Authorship for the deck is focused on Doreen Virtue as the creator, and only on the copyright page will you find in size 7 font the artist credits. The works come from fantasy illustrator Lisa Iris, though it’s not clear to me whether all of the art in this deck is by Iris or just some of it, and only Iris is getting credited.

Looking through the deck, it does not feel like all the art is coming from the easel of one artist. It must be a collaborative work.

About two-fifths of the card is occupied by a solid colored background with a key word or phrase and then a quote in italics. The quote is intended to be the message transmitted directly to you from the angelic realm. The writing here is well done and it does convey the sense that you are being spoken to by a higher force.

The messages are inspirational, uplifting, and presumptive of a monotheistic religious view. I almost wonder why Daily Guidance doesn’t just come right out and say that it’s a Christian or Abrahamic based oracle deck. Maybe that was a given from the mention of angels? I don’t know.

Some of the cards are calls to action, such as the above. Drawing such a card can be that gentle nudge you needed to initiate a project you’ve been meaning to start on. I see great merits in this deck and definitely understand its mass appeal.

Oh, okay, heart chakra isn’t very Christian or Abrahamic-faith-ish. Neither is Law of Attraction I don’t think. If there is a cohesive structure or system to the messages for this deck, I couldn’t pinpoint it. You’ve got cards like “Acceptance” and “Assertiveness” to “Ask” or “Focus” to “Daydream,” “Heart Chakra,” “Law of Attraction,” and “Ground Yourself.” Some feel predictive, like “New Partner.” It felt a bit haphazard and scattered, but then I suppose another way to put it would be that the messages flow like the stream of consciousness.

The premise behind the deck is that these 44 messages were channeled by Doreen Virtue and therefore represent the 44 messages for the deck that the angels have decided upon for the Daily Guidance deck, in which case I am certainly in no position to question the structure, system, or logic of the angels.

This deck is very much for someone who is softer in disposition, creative, and who seeks comfort in believing that guardian angels will reach out and communicate through oracle cards that have been mass produced in a factory in China. (These cards are made in China.)

The artwork and the verbiage kind of sort of go together and then kind of sort of not. In the above card sample, you see a beautiful angel in a slinky dress, a bouquet of daisies in her hair, playing a Native American style flute (maybe, I’m not sure). Yet the message is “Assertiveness.” You want a picture that conveys assertiveness? Look no further than the Queen of Swords. Even the tarot Strength card, in its gentleness, is more assertive.

I do appreciate the layout of the Guidebook, however. You’ll find all the cards in alphabetical order, for easy referencing. An image of the card is reproduced in the Guidebook, again, for easy referencing. The directly-communicated message from the angels in quotations is reproduced, and then you have a paragraph or two that further explains the meaning of the card. Then there is a final section (not shown in any of these photographs) called “Additional meanings for this card” where additional phrases and keywords are given, often in second person, giving a sense of intimacy and personal connection between reader/seeker and the cards/angels.

In terms of my study of angel oracle decks, I will need more than this deck to work with before I can formulate an informed conclusion. I confess that I did not connect with Daily Guidance. It was too feminine for me and the messages didn’t resonate. I’ve never really been a fairies, unicorns, and bombshell-angels-in-flowy-dresses kind of gal.

Yet I see this deck resonating with anyone who may have at some point in their young lives dressed up and pretended to be a princess, or who collects guardian angel figurines and believes very deeply in them, or one who finds gentle, inspirational messages to be the most effective way to get motivated. This is the deck I would give as a gift to a feminine (irrespective of gender or sex) monotheist friend who might be intrigued by the idea of oracle cards.

The Daily Guidance from Your Angels oracle cards by Doreen Virtue is incredibly well-crafted, well-written, and highly appealing. The cards succeed at conveying a sense of direct communication with angels or a higher power that is watching over us. The use of first person plural, i.e., “we” when the angels are speaking to the seeker and second person, i.e., “you” paired with religious imagery (combined with imaginative fantasy art) does transport the seeker to a higher vibrational consciousness.