Oracle Belline

[Decan]

Out of curiosity I took a glance at Colette Baron Reid's website and there I saw a welcoming woman dressed in white surrounded by candles, and at her feet what looks like a taxidermied owl (and two other taxidermied owls behind her)... HORRORS

I stopped my "magic experience" there! Fortunately I have no deck of her! 😬

[katrinka]

26 minutes ago, Decan said:

Out of curiosity I took a glance at Colette Baron Reid's website and there I saw a welcoming woman dressed in white surrounded by candles, and at her feet what looks like a taxidermied owl (and two other taxidermied owls behind her)... HORRORS

I stopped my "magic experience" there! Fortunately I have no deck of her! 😬

I know of a music video that features some taxidermy. I'm sure there was a reason they chose to include it.
Too bad it doesn't autoplay when you visit her website.  (NSFW):

Spoiler

 

 

 

Edited September 7, 2021 by katrinka

[Decan]

To enlarge a little the topic of the Oracle Belline to other oracle decks that people use the most in France (and most of them are not known at all abroad I guess), there is also the "Oracle Bleu" (below a pic).

Well, this one is very aesthetic since at the beginning the images were paintings; I don't think the artist wanted to create an oracle deck, but I don't know everything here.

I don't have it, find it interesting and strange, but not a deck for me.

 

Edited September 10, 2021 by Decan
Link update

[katrinka]

9 hours ago, Decan said:

To enlarge a little the topic of the Oracle Belline to other oracle decks that people use the most in France (and most of them are not known at all abroad I guess), there is also the "Oracle Bleu" (below a pic).

Well, this one is very aesthetic since at the beginning the images were paintings; I don't think the artist wanted to create an oracle deck, but I don't know everything here.

I don't have it, find it interesting and strange, but not a deck for me.

 

 

Your image isn't working, but it was easy enough to google:

 

The colors are lovely, I like them. But it does have a kind of 80's-90's new age vibe. And like most new age things, it seems poorly thought out. "Love" is straightforward enough, but how is a man with a shaved head a "message"? And is the next one Krishna? Why have they reduced a high god like him to a "guide"? The last one appears to be about the plant world, kind of an Etteilla rip, I guess. And those lotus backs are just more faux-Eastern McSpirituality. Contrast this with the classic French decks, with cards that focus an various people and things like gossip and treachery. The guy with the dark lantern tells me something in no uncertain terms. This doesn't.

 

This wouldn't read well for me, either.

[Decan]

Actually, you asked the good questions regarding this Oracle... 😉

I don't know when it was created; at the beginning there were new-agey paintings I think, and then they wanted to make a deck from the paintings, so... they made something! Blue is nice, I love it like many people, but it's not everything.

 

This deck has an evanescent vibe for me, vague, like if you could have evanescent answers only with it, maybe people use it as a prop to dream or something.

I would be surprised that someone would give a stunning reading with this deck, the reason I never bought it. An aesthetic oddity 😁

 

ETA: this morning my link (pic) was working, something happened 🤔

Edited September 9, 2021 by Decan

[Marina]

On 9/7/2021 at 3:09 PM, Decan said:

Out of curiosity I took a glance at Colette Baron Reid's website and there I saw a welcoming woman dressed in white surrounded by candles, and at her feet what looks like a taxidermied owl (and two other taxidermied owls behind her)... HORRORS

I stopped my "magic experience" there! Fortunately I have no deck of her! 😬

 

I'M DYING HERE READING YOUR DESCRIPTION! 🤣

 

I have one deck by her, it's called "Wisdom of the Hidden Realms". It's a nice deck, it's surprisingly not as Doreen Virtue-ish as it sounds.

I think it was one her first oracle decks, some actual thinking went into its making. Now she's just churning them out yearly, and we all know what THAT tends to do to quality...

 

 

On 9/7/2021 at 1:48 PM, katrinka said:

It looks like the new one has been redrawn - the linework is slightly different - but they respected the original and stuck very close to it! 

 

 

Yes, it's basically a redrawn version of the original, with titles in Portuguese. The book that comes with it is also surprisingly good and complete.

 

I really do enjoy the Belline, I find it to be a very straightforward, no BS deck. To be honest, I like these "traditionally cartomantic" decks that focus on things that happen in life (enemy, problems, delays, home, change, money etc.), more than what has become of many tarot & oracle deck these days. A lot of them have very vague imagery and wording... sensations, impressions... It's very easy to get carried away and forget that the cards need to give you something useful to work with, and not just tell you to “let your heart break open to the agony and the ecstasy” or be “fully immersed in your flaming wisdom bliss”. What the hell does that even mean? Not to say that the cards cannot give subjective advices, they usually do, but we need to be able to get more concrete information out of them as well.

 

Recently, I realised I was becoming this very sort of vague impressionistic reader that I dislike. MEA CULPA. But it has prompted me get my rear in gear and work more solidly on my interpretation techniques. 

 

[katrinka]

2 minutes ago, marinaoracles said:

I really do enjoy the Belline, I find it to be a very straightforward, no BS deck. To be honest, I like these "traditionally cartomantic" decks that focus on things that happen in life (enemy, problems, delays, home, change, money etc.), more than what has become of many tarot & oracle deck these days.

 

Same here.
And I'm constantly de-gunking my Tarot reading trying to keep the modern new age stuff out. It's work.
 

2 minutes ago, marinaoracles said:

A lot of them have very vague imagery and wording... sensations, impressions... It's very easy to get carried away and forget that the cards need to give you something useful to work with, and not just tell you to “let your heart break open to the agony and the ecstasy” or be “fully immersed in your flaming wisdom bliss”. What the hell does that even mean?

I think it's something high Lamas can do. I can't. And the people who make those decks can't, either.

Lets not forget cards with messages like "BREATHE." Are people so far gone that they need to be reminded to do that? I know, it means "slow down" or something. But it's still boneheaded.

[Decan]

8 hours ago, marinaoracles said:

Yes, it's basically a redrawn version of the original, with titles in Portuguese. The book that comes with it is also surprisingly good and complete.

 

I really do enjoy the Belline, I find it to be a very straightforward, no BS deck. To be honest, I like these "traditionally cartomantic" decks that focus on things that happen in life (enemy, problems, delays, home, change, money etc.), more than what has become of many tarot & oracle deck these days. A lot of them have very vague imagery and wording... sensations, impressions... It's very easy to get carried away and forget that the cards need to give you something useful to work with, and not just tell you to “let your heart break open to the agony and the ecstasy” or be “fully immersed in your flaming wisdom bliss”. What the hell does that even mean? Not to say that the cards cannot give subjective advices, they usually do, but we need to be able to get more concrete information out of them as well.

That's nice that you have a good resource for it in Brazil!

We have many books on the Oracle Belline in France, I don't know all of them of course and I just took a glance at a preview on Amazon for some books. Its reputation is to read well and to be straightforward, indeed.

I think we aren't as methodical as German people, so rules are less strict here. Often people use positional spreads (Star pattern or Horseshoe etc.), the Astrological Wheel too, or Pyramids.

For a line, it is read of course from left to right, but oddly, I saw that intuition can take the upper hand over the rules for French readers (often); maybe because of our reputation to be "a little unruly" (cultural difference) 🙂

But I'm searching, I'm not aware about everything here, far from it!

Edited September 10, 2021 by Decan

[Decan]

8 hours ago, katrinka said:

I think it's something high Lamas can do.

And at times high Lamas are down-to-earth people, particularly those in the West (I have examples, lol)!

Okay Milarepa was different, but no card was needed for him; otherwise alone in a cave in mountains with animals for neighbours (and eating nettle soups), no interest to read cards (no more to gaze a crystal ball)! 😁

Edited September 10, 2021 by Decan

[Decan]

I'll talk a bit here of the Oracle of the Triad that I received recently; it's not the Oracle Belline of course, but since we were talking about the main oracle decks used in France in this thread...

So it is an Oracle deck of 57 cards. The art is nice, it has a "style", graphic and mysterious with many references to spirituality, there is also an Egytian side regarding many cards. The cards are not that little (but not too big); for the card stock it is just okay (a bit too thin IMO).

The LWB is in French-English and looks well done, very usable!

There is a book on it, in French only for all I know which seems to go in depth.

 

My first impressions are good. It can probably be used for predictive readings, but it's possible that it could be a good Oracle for advises, or questions regarding spirituality, possibly magic too. Actually, it looks polyvalent.

 

2 pics below

 

 

 

Edited October 21, 2021 by Decan

[bastetly]

Those are beautifully staged pictures Decan, are you in marketing by any chance? 

I wonder what the "Triad" is referring to?

Looks very mystical.  I like the art much better than the older Belline (I sold mine), and maybe more than the Ge, though that one IS a bit tempting for me as I do like it's simplicity.  

Anyway, I believe andy bc uses the Triad, as you may have read on his blog.  

I do enjoy seeing your posts on the new decks you acquire bc you make them look so attractive. So I have to be careful when I view your posts.  Same w katrinka's  😜

[Decan]

2 minutes ago, bastetly said:

Those are beautifully staged pictures Decan, are you in marketing by any chance? 

I wonder what the "Triad" is referring to?

Looks very mystical.  I like the art much better than the older Belline (I sold mine), and maybe more than the Ge, though that one IS a bit tempting for me as I do like it's simplicity.  

Anyway, I believe andy bc uses the Triad, as you may have read on his blog.  

I do enjoy seeing your posts on the new decks you acquire bc you make them look so attractive. So I have to be careful when I view your posts.  Same w katrinka's  😜

Thanks for your interest dear Bastetly! But what did I read, you sold your older Belline! Oh My God!...

 

Yes, this one has something "mystical" I agree, and the art is more much elaborated than the Oracle Gé. There are as well pretty bad cards in this one, even "malefic", which gives an occult and mysterious side.

I just received it so I haven't all the answer on it yet, but oddly it could work too for predictive readings.

Otherwise, no I'm not in marketing but you likely picked up at something since I was dealing with images at some point in the past, well 🙂

[Decan]

8 hours ago, bastetly said:

I wonder what the "Triad" is referring to?

Looks very mystical. 

It seems that "Triad" is referring to the number 3 which is a sacred number in many religions.

Numerology was important for the creator of this deck and, for example, there are 57 cards because 5 + 7 = 12 > 1 + 2 = 3!

[bastetly]

OH, NOOOO     Mon Dieu!.   I just meant that the Belline is an older style deck.    Mine was a new one, and in Spanish.  So I sell it for what I paid.  It just wasn't for me "in person".  That did surprise me tbh.  

 

The number 3 of course!  I myself use that number a bit superstitiously, left over fm my time in a guru tantric bhakti cult.  Three was the important number.  I still often do things in multiples of 3s.  Like knock 3x on my deck to clear it, but that may be more of a witchy thing that I got off of here somewhere awhile back.  Thanks for your additional info Decan.  I look forward to hearing about the deck a little more IF you decide to work w it.  I have some decks I just buy and put away, just bc I HAD to have them lol.  But it would be much more fun to try and actually use them....all.   That would mean clearing a table of paperwork.  And keeping it that way.  lol.  

 

[katrinka]

2 minutes ago, bastetly said:

Like knock 3x

 

Thanks for the earworm, lol.
 

 

[bastetly]

1 minute ago, katrinka said:

 

Thanks for the earworm, lol.
 

 

NO I WILL NOT play that thing!  It will never leave my brain.  You are Welcome btw lol 😜

[katrinka]

Just now, bastetly said:

NO I WILL NOT play that thing!  It will never leave my brain.  You are Welcome btw lol 😜

It's too late. You know you're hearing it in your brain already. I did as soon as I saw those three words.

I have to hand it to Tony Orlando. He did schlock, but it was catchy schlock.

[Decan]

7 hours ago, bastetly said:

OH, NOOOO     Mon Dieu!.   I just meant that the Belline is an older style deck.    Mine was a new one, and in Spanish.  So I sell it for what I paid.  It just wasn't for me "in person".  That did surprise me tbh.  

Don't worry Bastetly, it's perfectly fine, I understand and am with you 🙂

 

Spoiler

 

[Decan]

I remember that Andy does a cut when he receives a new deck, so it's what I did yesterday evening with the Oracle of the Triad, no particular question.

 

Science + Wisdom (below a pic)

We can use this Oracle deck very simply by pulling combos if we want, but it's not the only way of course! In this case the sequence is important.

Science is knowledge in general, not particularly esoteric, things that we learn or study. Wisdom is beyond knowledge and can be intuition. Here this combo is speaking about a learning that will lead to intuition. It's nice for an opening; my interpretation here is that my connection with this deck could be strong.

 

[Decan]

I tried this Triad, and it reads very well. Or it's because of the deck itself or because it resonates with me for some reasons that I don't know.

I thought that the religious or esoteric symbols would be a bit a problem, I mean that they would guide the reading towards this topic in particular but not be that good for every matter I want to ask, but actually no. It just tends to be "blunt".

In comparison I find that the Oracle Gé "lacks a bit of vigour" if I can say this that way; I tried it for weekly readings for me and wasn't particularly stunned.

Edited October 28, 2021 by Decan

[gregory]

Reviving this thread to ask if anyone here has bought the new printing of the Oracle Belline - Grimaud has been revived by CartaMundi, and has put one out.  It looks very different, and I would like to know how the LWB holds up, as the one with the original is fascinating. I hope the new one's LWB is basically unchanged, but I see it is by Laetitia Barbier - she's very good, so I HOPE she's kept the spirit of it.

 

https://cartamundi.com/en/press/cartier-grimaud-the-renaissance-of-a-french-icon/

 

https://grimaudparis.com/FR/fr/shop/n500-belline-oracle-fr

 

Actually it may not be quite out yet...

[Ferrea]

I do love the classic Oracle Belline. The new design is as unappealing to me as it could possibly be.

But thanks for the heads up!

[DanielJUK]

Thanks for the heads up @gregory 

I have a real soft spot for this oracle but that is a lot of €€€ for an "artisanal excellence experience from Paris" and the deck is gold gilded and a luxury deck but I do prefer the original artwork of the regular deck.

[gregory]

DANIEL ! Hey - YOU could get to Watkins when they have it and look at the booklet....

[Hermanubis]

There is a recent new version of the Oracle Belline by Gabriel Sanchez, and I find it much more pleasing then the new Grimaud edition. It was quickly sold out when it first came out, a few years ago, but now it's back. It's also much more affordable at € 25. I'm not allowed to post a link, so you have to google "oracle belline gabriel sanchez" to see it (there are even a few videos on YT).