The Ofrenda Oracle: Celebrating the Day of the Dead is a new set of divination cards that can work either like Tarot or like a Lenormand reading. Colorful, graphic, simple images based on Mexican traditional art and culture feature images such as skulls, skeletons, flowers, animals like the fox, dog, the birds, and cards such as water, liquor and salt used on the altars for Dia de los Muertos and in Mexican magic. The cards are small like a playing deck with a dark navy, almost black background and bright Mexican colors that you would expect to see on an ofrenda (offering) table or in the embroidery stitch of Mexican textiles. The foreword written by Laura Davila in English without a Spanish translation introduces readers unfamiliar with Mexico to the traditions these cards call upon.
The accompanying guide book is written in both English and Spanish, with the left side in English and the Spanish on the right side. Each card is numbered. The book has the following categories for each card: keywords, the storyteller, meaning and for some cards, an additional Lenormand reading. For example, the butterfly card's keywords are transition, journey, transformation. The storyteller is kind of a voice that weaves through every card expressing a kind of wisdom embodying joie de vivre. So the Skeletons card storyteller says:
Celebrate amigos! This is a night to dance and drink and carouse. Life is for celebration, even when it is gone to dust.
The meanings of each card sometimes ask you to draw another card to clarify an issue. See the picture of a 3 card reading and you will notice how clarifications
can expand the number of cards. The reader will be asked to consider certain questions to understand the situation better. These questions are designed to spark psychological reflection. Sometimes the meaning card will offer a piece of advice. The Stork card, for example, advises: Please, make sure you know what you want before you ask, because the stork brings movement and he cannot fly backwards.
The Lenormand reading is only on a subset of the cards and if you choose to just do a quick reading for a tangible questions, you can separate these cards out and use the short Lenormand response. The Mountain card's Lenormand reading tells us:
Hard moments in life promptly slow down your flow of life but they are only small hindrances that must be overcome by you.
This is also a card of strong enemies, insurmountable situations. Delays, stalled situations, obstacles.
I did a number of readings for myself, family and friends. For those who need a tool to process a loved one's death or make contact with their own beloved dead, and especially ancestors, this deck serves this purpose well and will address topics that affect the living and the dead. There are some spreads at the back of the book such as The Gift and the Altar that are intended for just such questions. The Altar Spread has such small letters that you might need a magnifying glass or to take a photo on your cell phone and augment it in order to understand the meaning of the positions of the cards. I found that the This or That spread, where you lay out three cards on top and three on he bottom to compare two choices, really helped clarify the options. I was a little dubious one day when I did a 3 card spread and pulled the Cat as the final outcome. It wasn't relevant to my question. Later that day, 3 different people unprompted told me three different elaborate stories about cats. I got the sense in these readings that the cards will tell you what they want to tell you, not necessarily what you want to ask about. I did a reading on the election and the cards told me about a relative who had passed away recently instead. My friends asked the deck about work situations and were pleased with the response they got. I recommend the deck for personal questions rather than for questions about society and issues that are much bigger than you.
Recommended. Especially fun for those who feel a connection to the Day of the Dead and Mexican culture but it is not necessary to have any previous connection to
this culture to use or enjoy this deck.
~review by Larissa Carlson
Authors: Nancy Hendrickson and Carrie Paris
Illustrator: Angelica Castro
Weiser Books, 2024
pp. 135 $24.95
