Supra Oracle + Book | Uusi Studios

Published by Alison Cross on

I am a huge fan of the Pagan Otherworlds Tarot, by Peter Dunham and Linnea Gits at Uusi Studios. So, when they announced a new Oracle deck, to be funded via kickstarter,I thrust my little paw into the air as quickly as possible!

I signed up for the Supra Oracle deck and the accompanying book, both for sale separately.

The tuck box has a lovely little gold foil feature which shows my deck is from the first edition and is numbered 1770/5000. Despite this being a large ‘limited’ print run, I want to keep my seal intact, so I opened my box from the bottom! The inside of the box is red and coupled with the gilding and colours on the outer of the box, gives you a luxe-looking object.

The gold seal from the Supra Oracle box
Supra Oracle | Edition details
The box from the Supra Oracle, showing red interior.
Supra Oracle | Box

The cards themselves are nice quality card-stock which is beautifully slippy to shuffle with, and the smooth satin finish is unobtrusive and lets you see the card detail in all light.

All cards from Supra Oracle in array.
Supra Oracle | Hidden Path cards detail

It’s a 56 card deck (artwork by Peter Dunham) rendered in black ink against a toned background (with the addition of the odd colour pop in some cards). Each card is named, but not numbered. Each image is set inside a little grid frame – which I love for its simplicity and effectiveness.

There is no LWB with the deck, although there is a large accompanying book available to buy separately. Do I feel that a LWB would be useful? Yes, I do. Because even if it was just two keywords per card, it would be a huge help to those who can’t afford the book too.

The theme of the Supra Oracle is a fusion of Jungian psychology, myth and gnosticism and the melting pot generates some interesting cards. But before we look at the cards in detail, I want to start with the book.

Supra Oracle Book

The book is written by Linnea Gits and as you might expect from a design house, it’s a really lovely little publication that echos the deck’s colouring and the shape of the guide book for their Pagan Otherworlds Tarot.

Image of Book from Supra Oracle, from Uusi website
Β© Uusi Studios

It’s 6″ x 6″ in old money, and is 146 pages long. Each card is depicted on the left page with the facing page devoted to a paragraph or two about the card and a handful of possible interpretations.

The writings about each card are poetic, for example: Here is the entry for Synchronicity

“Synchronicity is the great, creative, polyphonic dream we share with Nature. It is our imagination tapping into and mimicking this ingenious dream, and in a sublime, reciprocal act of spontaneous inner creation, parallel phenomena is formed, an inspired, communal act that appears as if it were all by design.”

p 47, Supra Oracle Guide Book

While these descriptions will help you enter the head-space or zone for working with the Supra Oracle, for me, the little keywords are more useful in interpreting the cards.

The book does not contain any spreads or ‘how to use this deck’ information, it is purely for the card descriptions.

The unnumbered cards are not listed in alphabetical order in the book, which makes locating things in the index (at least at the beginning, when you are relying on the book!) slightly tricky.

The Supra Oracle Cards

The 56 cards are divided into three Arcana – the Materia Prima, The Hidden Path and Sacred Geometry.

The Materia Prima arcana consists of five cards: Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Aether.

Supra Oracle, the Marteria Prima.
Supra Oracle | Materia Prima cards
Air, Water, Fire, Earth and Aether

The Sacred Geometry arcana consists of six cards: Unfathomable, Heavens, Terra Firma, Being and Destiny.

Supra Oracle | The Sacred Geometry cards
Supra Oracle | Sacred Geometry Cards
hmmm – I have tried rotating these images and it’s not working – sorry!

The bulk of the Supra is in the Hidden Paths section where there are 45 cards.

These include cards that have clear up-ticks to Jung: Psyche, Unconscious, Anima, Animus, Synchronicity and Ego while Magic, Mysticism, Daemon, Gnosis and a slew of others descend from a more gnostic lineage.

I love the way that Thinking, Feeling, Sensation and Intuition are created to form a labyrinth when laid out together! There is a plate of the single image, in the book. It is entitled ‘The Secret’. I also love the blank card, Nothing – I think that’s inspired!

Supra Oracle, The four cards that make up The Secret
Supra Oracle| The Secret
The Nothing card from The Supra Oracle, above the Anima and Animus cards.
Supra Oracle | Nothing | Anima/Animus

Working with any deck that does not have a LWB is tricky, but to work with a specially designed Oracle, I find it difficult. Would I interpret Phenomena (from the Sacred Geometry cards) as Action, Magic, Conception, Form, Matter without the book? If I’m being honest, probably not.

If you can’t stretch to the guide book, I would recommend sitting with each card quietly, perhaps even a guided meditation into each card, to see how the imagery speaks to YOU so that you can create your own associations.

There are some cards that you can, of course, work with straight away because the imagery and the card title are familiar symbols. For example – Potential, with its rearing horse over the foaming waves or Impasse with its coils of barbs and berries that completely fills the card space.

Summary

I find the Supra attractive and well-designed, but it is not something that you can just pick up and read with. Especially if you do not have the Supra’s guide book too. The Supra demands your time and your focus and if you are prepared – regardless of your Tarot experience – to start with the beginner mind for this deck, you will be rewarded.

The pen and ink style of imagery is captivating, especially against the unusual tone of the card stock and the little bursts of colour in the Sacred Geometry cards really sing out unexpectedly!

You can buy the Supra directly from Uusi Studios for $46.00 with the accompanying book at $32.00.

Curious about the Pagan Otherworlds Tarot? You can read the Tarot Thrones review HERE and you can also purchase it from their website for $58.00

P&P will be over and above these prices.


Alison Cross

The Tarot's Court Cards are my specialist area.Β  They talk to me. Not LITERALLY though ....

1 Comment

Saricchiella · 10th August 2019 at 5:14 pm

I really like this oracle, but it IS intimidating. I got it with the book, and it has been a huge help for me to get into it, although I like to try to read the cards first and then complement the reading with the meanings from the book. The cards work well alone and as clarifiers of tarot cards (this also helped me, since I’m more comfortable with tarot, and the readings with a tarot deck and the Supra Oracle combined were juicy and very interesting).

Thanks for the review!!

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