The Crystal Wisdom Healing Oracle: 50 Oracle Cards for Healing, Self Understanding and Divination, by Judy Hall
Watkins Publishing, 978-1-78028-940-3, 50 cards, 120 pp. (incl. resources, glossary, and index), 2016
Crystals, like all stones, hold their wisdom on a deep, complex level. They can be deceptively simple on the surface — as is the black and silver design of The Crystal Wisdom Healing Oracle cards and box — yet if you really look and feel into them, they can open unimagined doors. Judy Hall, a leading crystal expert and author of The Crystal Bible I and II, has created a two-in-one tool with this deck. The cards can be used as substitutes for actual crystals in personal healing, as well as for traditional divination.
The deck’s premise is that we hold ancient patterns in our various bodies, accumulated by “soul plans” over many lifetimes. Before we incarnate, we plan our current life’s path:
However, there may be older soul plans, which may once have been positive but are now outdated. It causes confusion — which may lead to dis-ease — in your life if outdated soul intentions are not switched off or renegotiated into something appropriate for the present. As our lives are changing so fast, it may be that a soul plan that was appropriate before incarnation has become superceded, so that a new plan is called for — which [the Oracle] reveals.1
Indeed. Stones and crystals have been used in some shamanic cultures, even to this day, to erase or re-program old patterns in body, mind and soul that are no longer useful. When this premise popped up in this oracle deck, I was surprised, delighted, and eager to get to know the cards.
One of 50 crystals, some common, some rare, is displayed on each card, photographed on a plain black background. Hall suggests sitting with each card and meditating on it upon first acquiring the deck. I did so and felt each stone’s personality — some were regal, some light and even funny, some were loving and comforting. That the crystal cards can transmit these qualities is key to their function. Hall writes, “The… cards perfectly embody the energy of each crystal and can be laid on your body to bring about therapeutic balance and emotional transformation.”2
The first chapter of the guidebook explains the correspondences between crystals, chakras, and the bodily, emotional, and spiritual systems they can help heal. The cards are divided into five Vibrations, each a set of 10 cards denoted by the same coloured border that have a specific similar affinity: Earthy, Healing, Cosmic, Integration, and Interactive. You can use one set, two sets, or the whole deck in healing or divinatory work. The guidebook depicts healing lattices you can form on and around your body, by placing the cards in certain positions. Some were quite complex and, I would think, difficult to accomplish alone without disturbing cards you had already placed.
Although each card can be used alone for divination, the next chapter displays spreads based on crystal lattices — square, orthorhombic, hexagonal, triclinic — with a suggested use to retrieve specific types of information. For instance, it’s recommended to use a square lattice spread for questions of a material nature. The crystal lattice is likened to one’s “subtle energetic field created by your previous experiences” — your own internal lattice.3 Hall suggests it is the interaction of these two lattices that reveals the insights that you must interpret to derive an answer to your question.
The third chapter explains the five crystal vibrations and the characteristics of the individual crystals. Each summary contains a message for self-understanding, divination, and healing, along with its frequency, chakra, timing, and soul path correspondences. A resource section, glossary, and index complete the guidebook.
I love the look and feel of the deck itself. It is small, easily shuffled, and because of the cards’ silver backing, glittery and elegant. It reminds me of holding a crystal in my hand — no doubt the effect Hall and the publisher were going for! And yet, when I look beyond that, or if I look in a certain way, I can find layers of meaning — and sometimes the crystals speak from the cards. If you are someone who has an affinity for crystals, you’ll understand. If you’ve never worked with them, playing with The Crystal Wisdom Healing Oracle might be a good way to find out if you should.
