HoroscopoDiario
Creator: Etan Ilfeld
Published by: Watkins Publishing
Date of publication: Nov 2021
Country of origin: UK
RRP: £18.99
ISBN 9781786785930
Etan Ilfeld is a Stanford University alumni, majoring in Physics, and is a US Chess master. He is the author of Duchamp Versus Einstein and Beyond Contemporary Art. He is also credited with inventing Diving Chess.
The deck is hexagonal, with eight symbols on each card. There are 57 symbols in total, each symbol appears only once on a card, and the method of divination involves matching up symbols on at least two cards. There will always be a match in each pair of cards.
The card stock is good quality; pliable enough for different methods of shuffling straight out of the box, but not too thin that you would worry about them falling apart anytime soon. The hexagonal shape makes overhand shuffling quite difficult, as corners inevitably get in the way and I ended up with most of the cards falling out. Riffle shuffling is the easiest, and of course smooshing is always an option.
The deck comes in a pleasantly designed box, with an accompanying book. The book provides spread examples, and includes the necessary symbol meanings. Each symbol definition includes Keywords, Symbolism, Reflection and Meditation.
A ‘classic’ 7-card spread is recommended, in the provided book, for Past/Present/Future questions, where two cards are used in each time period, with the last card intended to help decide a dominant symbol for the reading. There are also two example of this spread provided, with detailed explanations.
I found the numbering system in the book a little confusing; each symbol is numbered and each page is too; for example a Spider web symbol is numbered 47 but on page 64. Trying to read the symbols quickly, often meant I mixed up the numbers and went to the wrong page. Neurodivergent individuals like myself, with choppy working memories, could find this frustrating. Why not just use page numbers?
The author’s love of chess certainly comes through in the Synchronicity Oracle deck, with the colour usage on the back of the cards; the inclusion of a chess king piece as one of the symbols; and the distinct method of divination, whereby the symbols chosen to answer a question are dependent on their relationship to each other in a spread.
As the deck is game influenced, it could make for a beginner’s oracle as it is quite simplistic. However, those that look for beautiful artwork in their oracle cards might be disappointed. Each card has a plain white background, and the symbols appear to be Shutterstock images (this is credited in the accompanying book). This can make the deck seem low effort in design, compared with other oracles, as a unique and cohesive image could have been created on each card. I say this as a fan of surrealist artwork; it can be done and would have made for a fascinating project.
When practicing with the aforementioned 7-card spread, I had trouble with some of the symbol meanings. These can be rather vague and abstract; when asking a business question the dominant symbol in the ‘future’ cards was the Lovers’ Kiss. It is not clear if this was trying to tell me the business would stagnate, or succeed through partnership, or if there was a need to release negative emotions. There ended up four ‘dominant’ symbols out of all seven cards, rather than one, which made the reading even more confusing.
The oracle is advertised as “ground breaking” as it is claimed to be “the first-ever oracle to draw on the power of synchronicity”. However, all oracle and Tarot decks use the power of synchronicity. In Tarot, there are repeated symbols, suits, numbers. These are always noted as significant in a good reading. It is my personal belief that all oracle and Tarot cards work on the very basis of synchronicity; this is how we can read the current and projected influences around us. By advertising itself in this way, the Synchronicity Oracle appears to be trying to reinvent the wheel.
I was initially interested in this deck as a strong believer in the power of synchronicity, but the use of Shutterstock images, confusing elements of the guidebook and lack of clarity in my test readings do not exactly enamour me to this deck. I have not felt encouraged to return to it after my initial tests, when there are many other options for divination that combine beautiful art and clear answers.
Reviewed by: Helen Diamond
