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Jupiter Ammon of Libya, a form of the Horned Father, giving oracles at the Oasis of Siwa.

My son, the Sun,
Says to his son:
This much I can tell---
That all will go well
If you seek no fruit
From a damaged shoot.

*** Blessed be to those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father.

* Copyright to Coven Rochester

It is very likely that LeNormand, the famous french cartomante, read from cards similar to those now known as Le Grand Jeu -- the Great Game. You can buy all sorts of oracle decks these days, but Le Grand Jeu is the Grand-Mere of them all. Many of the scenes are taken from the Quest of the Golden Fleece, or the War at Troy, the art of Alchemy, and other Greek and Roman myths, and they incorporate such things as constellations, playing cards, and flowers.

If you are very knowledgeable in classical mythology and the magical language, you can read these very, very easily. They should be read, not as a Tarot or a deck of oracles cards, but as if you had seen a series of symbolic images in a crystal ball.

This is a deck for realists, though. If you are a person of delicate mind or constitution, stay away from these, and maybe get an Angel Oracle Deck. Madame LeNormand was practicing her arts in a time of great turmoil and danger in France, and she did not mince words.

In the above reading of three cards, I asked about the Fate of a woman barely known to me, whom I've met with only a single glance and handshake. Some of the great images here: The inconclusive fight between Paris and Menelaus, Zeus instructing Dionysus to drink water from a spring, Helen receiving news from Iris, Odysseus and Diomedes stealing the statue of Athena from the Palladium of Troy, Achilles receiving the weapons of Haphaestus from his mother, Thetis.

Let us pretend that a woman has come to us as a modern Pythia, and she wishes to know the trajectory of her life. What might one say?

You will be chosen among others to be raised up to preferment. It is no contest, really, for you have a powerful woman on your side. You will be unfitted, however, for the tasks that will be assigned to you. You will require leadership and counsel in even the most basic functions, and even after that, you will require the constant support of others to keep yourself afloat. In time, you will be raised even higher. Does this astonish you, as it does me? You will initially consider this further advancement a great boon, but beware what you have agreed to. The Circlet of Leadership is too heavy for your small head. You cannot lift the Sword of Justice unaided. Brazen Greaves will render you unable to walk. You will not have been given a gift, but the instruments of your self-destruction. You were fated for a quieter life, but you will foolishly succumb to others telling you what you should want and what your ambitions should be. I pity your lack of self-knowledge. Now rise, foolish woman, and get out of my house!


Well, maybe I would temper the language a bit . . .

Oracle Cards are not a new phenomenon. The French seemed to be fond of them in the 19th century. There is the famous Oracle Belline. And then there is this one, the Oracle Planetaire, which also sometimes went by the name Sorcier Tarots Parisiens, published in 1867.



Some Cards of Jupiter

( Other Planets Under the Cut )

The virtue of the old French Oracle decks is that they were based on the planets, and thus, built into them was the cosmological reality of the universe. And when you have a deck that mirrors cosmological reality, you can actually trust it to provide you accurate answers and forecasts that conform to reality. A deck of playing cards is another mirror of the universe. Tarot decks in the Marseille tradition are similar.

*** Blessed be to those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father.

* Copyright to Coven Rochester

Lord of the Sun,
Great Heaven's Eye,
What do you see
From your seat on high?

YOUR PATH IS NOT STRAIGHT.
IT ENDS PAST A CURVE.
TAKE NO STEPS AT PRESENT,
BUT WAIT, AND OBSERVE.

He means: When you are not sure what to do, the best action is inaction. Wait, observe, and gather more information before blindly forging ahead.

A Bust of the Horned Father as He appeared at His Oracular Shrine at the Siwa Oasis in Libya

The Horned Father will still give oracles.

A Seeker asked how he could improve a certain situation in his life.

This was the response (shown by the two tiles in the bowl):

( The Oracle )

*** Blessed be to those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father.

* Copyright to Coven Rochester

The Lord of the Sun

The ancient oracles were never fooled by malfeasants and cowards. Hear this account.

A young Greek man---let us call him Atticus to preserve his descendants from further shame---was out walking with two of his friends when they were suddenly ambushed and set upon by a band of thieves. The two friends were detained and menaced and both eventually died of their wounds, while Atticus managed to run away and escape unharmed. When he reached his home, he told no one what had happened, and so everyone thought that there had been no witnesses to the fates of the two unfortunate men.

Not so. The Lord of the Sun, the Great Eye of Heaven, saw it all.

Several years later, Atticus was having problems in his life and sought the advice of Apollo at Delphi by means of an oracle through the priestess.

Apollo responded, but in a wrathful voice:

YOU ABANDONED YOUR FRIENDS
AS THEY LAY DYING.
I WILL GIVE YOU NO ORACLE.
GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!

The same thing happens to Witches all the time. The Gods will give us knowledge that we could not possibly know. I will tell some of my own experiences, and I hope to differentiate them into incidents of clairvoyance (reflected into me indirectly, like the light of the Moon) and incidents of foretelling (illuminating my mind directly, like the light of the Sun).

*** Blessed be to those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father.

* Copyright to Coven Rochester