The Resonance Oracle by Dara Caplan is a deck of 40 cards, 40 exquisite works of art with accompanying messages that were said to have been channeled through the deck’s creator, Ms. Caplan. The deck is “created with the magic and energy of intent,” or as the book also describes it, the power of attraction.
Lately I’ve been curious about channeling, so I am intrigued by the premise of this deck. The cards come in a high-gloss, sturdy box with a magnetic top flap. I’m surprised at how few Schiffer decks I have, so it’s nice to get to work with this one. The deck set is made in China, though overall I have few complaints about the quality.
The card backs are not reversible with a naturalist feel to the art, and based on the Guidebook, it doesn’t appear to be a deck intended for reading with reversals, though one card in the deck got me scratching my head about the reversals. We’ll get to that later on.
One really neat attribute to this deck you’ll notice right away is that all the cards are horizontal, in landscape, and not the typical vertical setting we’re used to. I really like that. I also like the modern sensitivity, for example in the “Communication” card, seeing the Blackberry.
I can’t tell if it’s the printing quality or if it’s the artwork itself, but this is a very dark deck, as in very dark, saturated colors in the paintings and dark borders on the cards. The art is done on black backgrounds, and so given the style of art, as a publisher I might have opted for a matte finish, instead of the super-high-glossy finish that this deck comes in. These cards are so shiny, I had trouble taking photos. There was a glare in every pictures and you could see the reflection of my camera on the cards.
* Note: I looked up Caplan’s artwork online and it really is the print quality. Her art has a much more balanced quality between light and dark when you see the works on a computer screen, but in these cards, all the colors muddle together a bit and look dark. However, the dark muddle look ultimately works for the deck’s purposes, so I like it. It really sets the right mood.
Let’s try something a bit different from my usual deck reviews. Here’s a one minute video offering you a substantial sampling of the card images. Set to public domain Edvard Grieg’s Sonata in A Minor for Cello, Opus 36, the second movement. Something about the vibe of this deck just said Grieg to me. So here we go (promise it’s short–just 1 minute!):
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