Daily guidance from your angels

Doreen Virtue is mostly known for her oracle decks and especially ones that have a link to angels and other benevolent creatures and spirits. The 44-card counting oracle deck Daily Guidance from your Angels is no exception. But is it truly an oracle you could use for divination and advice or is it -since we are talking about daily messages – more suitable for affirmations, mediation or when you’re in dire need of an uplifting Angel whisper?

Let me first start by saying I have had this oracle deck for several years now. While I haven’t used it daily – like you’re supposed to if you take the title literally – they still look like new. I don’t have a cupboard full of Doreen/Hay House’ work, but judging from the ones I do have I can honestly say that when it comes to quality of the card stock and boxes they are serious frontrunners. For some reason I keep dropping this box and the cards almost every time I come in contact with them and not a scratch! Like always, cards of Doreen’s making are on the larger side, but with ‘only’ 44 of them you can still shuffle them quite easily with smaller hands. Although that glossy laminated feel gives a stickiness I would prefer not to have.

Divination tool
The cards and a little bound guidebook come in a purple box that functions like a drawer. The top-part has a ‘card altar’ built in, so you can put up your meditation card for the day. The guidebook provides small black and white images and a few extra meanings besides the ones written on the cards. The deck is meant to give comforting and uplifting messages. While they are very encouraging, from my personal experience (maybe that’s different for you) I can’t fully agree with Doreen’s own marketing message that “they are super accurate in pin-pointing the underlying issues and also pointing to future events”.

My personal experience with the cards is, that they are much better suited for meditation or drawing ‘resonant’ cards (a card to resonates with the situation you’re in, providing some wisdom) than to be used as a straight up divining tool. I mean, if I ask this deck what the outcome of a relationship is and I receive cards like “Creativity” and “Ocean”* that is pretty ambiguous, however figuratively you apply them. So far none one of my querents have ended up living near the ocean painting blue skies with those love interests. Sure, this is a little over-acted, but no exception. And the booklet isn’t of help in that case either. An oracular construct (what is the challenge, what can I learn) works better, but I am still not convinced of its divining purposes. I’d say you would have a 50/50 chance of getting a clear answer and for me that isn’t enough.

Expressive art
The art on the card is very fitting to the idea behind the deck. It’s colorful, expressive and uplifting. But I did wonder if different artists worked on different cards, since the style is very diverse. Some cards are very ethereal and beautiful, others would fit excellent in a nice children’s book. The art ranges from lookalike pre-raphaelite, impressionism or modern realism. I picked out the most beautiful, more elegant ones to showcase. Personally I don’t mind this lack of cohesion, since the look & feel binds them, but I can imagine that might be disruptive to some.

Since it’s an oracle having keywords or even extra text on them is quite normal – although there is quite a lot of it with this deck. Luckily the way both picture and text are positioned does not take away from the art in this deck. That’s why it is such a shame that in some cards the drawing gives me a completely different meaning or feeling than the provided keyword and information. That’s the case with around 15-20% of the cards and that leaves you with either ignoring the image or the text. And especially if you’re a beginner that might not be in your best interest. Because what are those Angels telling you then?

Conclusion
So all in all it is a pretty deck despite some discrepancies between art and keywords, it has excellent card stock, but -at least with me -only works within a rigid oracular structure or as an affirmation tool. For this review (blog) I pulled ‘The right timing’ by the way, telling me I should do what inspires me. Doors are wide open, having angels on my side while walking right through them. Don’t hesitate, don’t postpone because the time is right to have success and everything and everyone is on my side to support a positive outcome. Ironically that’s about the first time I get such a clear answer. And if it’s true… Well, I promise to update this article then.

^{*As is visible from the pictures, I have the Dutch edition of this deck. That means I ‘re-translated’ the keywords on the cards. It could be that the English edition deviates slightly from those words, but that does not negate the validity of this review.}