What Oracles Do Elves Use? Part 5: The Elven Star Oracle

"...born of our own magic and culture....we created The Elven Star Oracle:
A System of Divination for Star Enchanters....based upon the seven pointed Elven Star"

      We, like many, perhaps most elves, love oracles and divination. We love doing them. We love experiencing them. And we even love puzzling out their meanings when the answer we have gotten to a question is truly esoteric and mysterious. They stretch our minds and imaginations. Tarot cards and the I Ching are surely our favorites and while we have a passing acquaintance with palmistry, also known as Chiromancy, it has never really intrigued us as much as the Tarot has, although like the use of cards for fortune telling, we began doing palmistry at a very early age. And unlike the tarot or other oracles, it doesn’t require one to carry around a deck. Thus we have been at parties or other gatherings and read someone’s palm on a moment’s notice.

     Because of our elven nature, and the fact that much, perhaps most of what applies to our elven culture has been lost through the ages of persecution by more dominant and dominating cultures, we have taken the tarot, runes, I Ching and other oracles and made them our own. Giving them our own interpretations with a more elven, and often in some cases, a more magical slant. And in some cases, as for instance the I Ching, we've removed the patriarchal bias that is part of their traditional formulation and is just not a part of elven culture. Our culture is based principally upon equality, but if we did have a tendency, it would be more toward a matriarchy than a patriarchy. But the strict division of male and female that have been so much a part of the cultures of man is not really a part of the elven culture and those who make it seem so are merely drawing us closer to the cultures of mankind and others and away from the true nature of Elfin. We don’t deny them their right to do so, if that is their choice, but choice is always the primary aspect of our elven life.

     There are, of course, elven tarot decks in the world today in as much as having pictures of elves or faeries or gnomes on a deck makes it elven or elfin. But most of these, like most actual decks overall, are just versions and variations of the Waite-Rider deck, and have nothing particularly elven nor even in many cases inspiring about them. Still, they can be fun and in as much as they remind us of Elfin, our elven culture and our elvish kindred, they can be quite helpful and interesting. And while these elves may not find a particular deck interesting, it is quite possible that some other elf will gain greatly from it. We don’t presume that our tastes are universally held, even among elves.

     And while our elven runes and our version of the I Ching are quite useful to us, and a great addition to any divination session, we still hungered for an oracle that was uniquely elven. Something that was completely our own, born of our own magic and culture. Thus we created The Elven Star Oracle: A System of Divination for Star Enchanters that utilizes a board that one creates (or could even draw in the sand in times of need) and that one throws stones upon (instructions for making and using the board as well as an illustration of the board and stones is included in the book). The Elven Star Oracle is our original divinatory system invoking the 88 major constellations and the blessings of the Shining Ones for guiding one through the world and ever closer to the realization of Faerie. It is called The Elven Star Oracle because it is based upon the seven pointed Elven Star, sometimes called the Faery Star, and the areas between the points, overlaid on the dimensional manifestation of Faerie and the realms that are linked to it.

     It could surely be used as one’s primary oracle, particularly when communicating with or about the Elfin and Faerie realms, although we are still inclined to use the tarot in various forms and the I Ching as our primary source of divination and to supplement them with our Runes and Star Oracle, as well as others. Doing so gives us a more complete picture and a more thorough answer and this is particularly true when the answer we first received was somewhat puzzling.

     Rather than simply doing the oracle over again with the same deck or doing the I Ching again immediately concerning the same question (something that we’ve found with the I Ching to be particularly ill advised because the answers will just get more and more painful to hear) we use these our Elven Runes and Star Oracle to give us a fuller picture, while not contradicting the original oracle we received. It is in this way our means of simply asking the oracles to say more and give a fuller picture, a more in depth explanation. Still, in the end, it is always we elfin ours’elves who must interpret the answers given according to our own experience and understanding and there is simply no way to get around this, nor would we wish to do so really.

Kyela,

The Silver Elves

Click Here to go to our introductory page on The Silver Elves  . . .  Elves in Paradise 

 The Elven Star Oracle: A System of Divination for Star Enchanters

What Oracles Do The Silver Elves Use? Part 1 —Tarot!

"....certainly the tarot, which Zardoa first learned 
when he was about eight years old...."

     If you ask what oracles the elves use, then we suppose it depends upon the elves you are talking about. Surely we Silver Elves love all sorts of oracles and are always open to using and learning more. We enjoy creating and using some of our own unique divinatory systems like The Elven Star Oracle (invoking 88 major constellations) and the The Elven Book of Dream (with 360 magical dream symbols). And certainly, and perhaps most often, we read the tarot, which Zardoa first learned when he was about eight years old, although he didn’t really get into it deeply until he was in his early twenties. It is one of our favorites, as we expect it is for many elven. Zardoa taught Silver Flame when they first got together and she proved to be a natural.

     Although, if you ask what tarot deck we elven like best that again depends upon the individual. We’ve known elfin who loved decks that didn’t move us at all but which they found to be wondrous. For instance, a friend of ours loves the Xultun Tarot deck by Peter Balin based upon the Mayan World View but this has, for some reason, never spoken to us at all (although we still own the deck).

     For our own part, we like decks that are beautiful, that have a truly different picture or symbolic representation for each card (which is essentially the primary contribution of the Waite-Rider deck to tarot cards) and which tells us something unique or different that we can learn from or which evokes our psyche and challenges us, like dreams do, to understand their meaning. Most decks are actually a variation of the Waite-Rider deck, but there are some very good ones out there.

     One of the decks we love, even though it isn’t strictly a tarot deck, and there are more and more of these types of decks becoming available, is the Fortune Teller’s Mah Jongg by Derek Walters, which is an interesting oracle. We also love and use periodically John Matthews' the Celtic Shamans Pack, Phillip and Stepanie Carr-Gomm’s the Druid Animal Oracle, Liz and Colin Murray’s The Celtic Tree Oracle, Jamie Sams and David Carson’s Medicine Cards, Caroline Smith and John Astrop’s Elemental Tarot, Nik Douglas and Penny Slinger’s the Secret Dakini Oracle (one of our favorites), and James Wanless and Ken Knutson’s Voyager Tarot. And there is a deck we only use when the shit hits the fan and we don’t know exactly where we are going next or what to do and that is the Tele-Psychic Power Cards, which were printed in Singapore, but whose author is unknown. This deck is a set of affirmation cards that help us keep our heads together in difficult times, although they do tend to be a bit traditional at times, referring to “god”, etc. But that is no problem for these elves who simply say Divine Magic instead, making the deck suit our own needs and elven philosophy, as we do all things. And these are just some of our favorites.

     We even created our own tarot deck but because it is handmade it is a bit cumbersome to use. Instead, we wrote a book in which you could take any tarot deck or even a regular playing card deck and turn it into an elven oracle. In fact, we entitled it the Voice of Faerie: Making Any Tarot Deck into an Elven Oracle. And because we spent a number of years burning candles and drawing cards each day for magic (most of the decks we used for this were given to us by our daughter), we wrote The Elven Book of Powers: Using the Tarot for Magical Wish Fulfillment to help those elfin who wished to do the same thing.

     At one time we owned over 100 tarot and tarot-like decks, but when we migrated to Hawaii we reduced that number quite a bit. Most of those decks we had purchased used (or we suppose these days we should call them pre-owned) at a local Swap Meet where we sold used (pre-owned) hippie-gypsy-elfin-costume clothes for cheap, along with incense, oils and some imports, and did tarot readings for one dollar a reading (full Celtic Spread) for over 15 years. The photo above, "Tarot Readings $1," is of our actual sign (hand painted on wood) that we used for all those years.

     Our point is, however, that we love tarot, as do many other elves and are always open to new and interesting decks. And also that the deck that is best for a person, is the one or ones that speak to you. But there are other oracles besides tarot that these elves regularly use and we will get into that next time in Part 2.

Kyela,
The Silver Elves

Click Here to go to our introductory page on The Silver Elves  . . .  Elves in Paradise 

"For the elven, the tarot cards represent magical powers and can not only be used as symbolic communication with the spirits but can also be combined to create various spells and formulas and cantrips."

—from Elf Quotes by The Silver Elves 

The Elven Book of Powers: Using the Tarot for Magical Wish Fulfillment  by The Silver Elves is a book for those who wish to use the Tarot for visualization and wish fulfillment. It describes the powers of each particular card in a traditional Tarot deck and how to use its powers to fulfill one's vision and achieve one's will, drawing to one the energies needed for success so all one's dreams will come true. There are also evocations, invocations and rhyming spells for each card to aid one in visualization.

The Voice of Faerie: Making Any Tarot DeckInto an Elven Oracle is designed to allow the user to communicate with the Realms and Spirits of Faerie/Elfin/Elfland, the spirits of the Nether Realms, sentient and intelligent beings of this and other planets, this and other dimensions, this world and the parallel worlds connected to it, using any tarot deck. The authors channeled it from those very spirits who are searching for their kindred on the planet.
    This is a Living Book. It is designed to be used in concert with any tarot deck so that their meanings and concepts can be easily and readily accessible to anyone interested in communicating with the elven and faerie spirits of other realms and dimensions. This book can be read from cover to cover; however, we think it best if you read bit by bit as the cards speak to you.

    While this book can be used with any tarot deck, you will note that there are additional and alternative cards beyond traditional tarots deck, which have 78 cards. Thus this deck can also be used with other decks that exceed the traditional card set up or you can create your own deck using it.