Rumi Oracle

[Whisper]

Today I bought one of the most beautiful oracles I have ever seen - The Rumi Oracle.

 

 

The accompanying book offers both words from Rumi and then Alan Fairchild's own writing with a sacred honouring ritual at the end of every card.

[DanielJUK]

I have this oracle and love the artwork but the book is a let down for me, it's SO wordy! It's really hard to do a reading and take some of the Rumi stuff from the book without creating a huge essay for every reading! The artwork and keywords on the cards are pretty good but I think it's one you have to read intuitively or use as meditations. Each write up for each card is like a long lecture into Rumi  :) Not easy to take into an interpretation but I am glad I own it!

 

Some people are upset in the LGBT community that the deck erases the fact that Rumi was probably gay (and had a lover called Shams), however his Wikipedia page also doesn't mention this. But a lot of his poetry about love and sensuality is from a LGBT angle and it would be nice if the book at least acknowledged this but scholars do argue this.

[Emilija]

I have her Mother Mary Oracle, but I won't get this one. I feel it is disrespectful to Islam, and that she really doesn't understand the Islamic tradition in which Sufism comes from. I don't feel that she should have written it. There's another Rumi themed oracle coming out which was done by a Persian woman, so it is more culturally appropriate.

[RavenOfSummer]

It is beautiful, Shivani! Please let us know how it is to work with. I have considered getting this deck but don't much about it. I have the Rumi Tarot which I absolutely love- it's for sure one of my favorite decks. My husband and I also had a reading from Rumi at our wedding <3

 

Some people are upset in the LGBT community that the deck erases the fact that Rumi was probably gay (and had a lover called Shams), however his Wikipedia page also doesn't mention this. But a lot of his poetry about love and sensuality is from a LGBT angle and it would be nice if the book at least acknowledged this but scholars do argue this.

 

I did not realize any of this! Thanks for sharing DanielJUK!

 

I have her Mother Mary Oracle, but I won't get this one. I feel it is disrespectful to Islam, and that she really doesn't understand the Islamic tradition in which Sufism comes from. I don't feel that she should have written it. There's another Rumi themed oracle coming out which was done by a Persian woman, so it is more culturally appropriate.

 

This is also something I wasn't aware of. I don't have any of Fairchild's decks. So is it that she takes Rumi's work out of its Sufi Islamic context? I don't know much about the Mother Mary Oracle either...is it based in the Christian/Abrahamic tradition?

 

I'm not sure of other specific examples, but I do get the sense that this has happened other times- decks are created by people who don't necessarily truly grasp the cultural context.

 

I think I did see somewhere about another Rumi Oracle coming out this year. I'll look forward to seeing more of that one! 

[Whisper]

It is beautiful, Shivani! Please let us know how it is to work with. I have considered getting this deck but don't much about it. I have the Rumi Tarot which I absolutely love- it's for sure one of my favorite decks. My husband and I also had a reading from Rumi at our wedding <3

 

Some people are upset in the LGBT community that the deck erases the fact that Rumi was probably gay (and had a lover called Shams), however his Wikipedia page also doesn't mention this. But a lot of his poetry about love and sensuality is from a LGBT angle and it would be nice if the book at least acknowledged this but scholars do argue this.

 

I did not realize any of this! Thanks for sharing DanielJUK!

 

I have her Mother Mary Oracle, but I won't get this one. I feel it is disrespectful to Islam, and that she really doesn't understand the Islamic tradition in which Sufism comes from. I don't feel that she should have written it. There's another Rumi themed oracle coming out which was done by a Persian woman, so it is more culturally appropriate.

 

This is also something I wasn't aware of. I don't have any of Fairchild's decks. So is it that she takes Rumi's work out of its Sufi Islamic context? I don't know much about the Mother Mary Oracle either...is it based in the Christian/Abrahamic tradition?

 

I'm not sure of other specific examples, but I do get the sense that this has happened other times- decks are created by people who don't necessarily truly grasp the cultural context.

 

I think I did see somewhere about another Rumi Oracle coming out this year. I'll look forward to seeing more of that one!

 

What a great gift to have a Rumi reading at your wedding, Raven!!!!!! Lovely.

 

Well, I wasn't aware of any of these controversies, either.

 

[Whisper]

I have this oracle and love the artwork but the book is a let down for me, it's SO wordy! It's really hard to do a reading and take some of the Rumi stuff from the book without creating a huge essay for every reading! The artwork and keywords on the cards are pretty good but I think it's one you have to read intuitively or use as meditations. Each write up for each card is like a long lecture into Rumi  :) Not easy to take into an interpretation but I am glad I own it!

 

Some people are upset in the LGBT community that the deck erases the fact that Rumi was probably gay (and had a lover called Shams), however his Wikipedia page also doesn't mention this. But a lot of his poetry about love and sensuality is from a LGBT angle and it would be nice if the book at least acknowledged this but scholars do argue this.

 

Yes, it is very, very wordy, so I agree that this is not a deck for reading or interpreting, but, as I see it, more for personal guidance or even meditation; meditation on the images and the words.

 

For me, love is love, and there is no doubt that Rumi, as a true Sufi, believed that surrendering to the beloved - God - was the path to true enlightenment. I understand how the LGBT community might have felt, but I think Fairchild, in creating this oracle, wanted to focus on her experience of Rumi and share that with us. I treat it like I treat any artistic creation which I consider to be the work of the divine through all of us. Maybe it should, but it doesn't matter to me what an artist was living in his or her daily experience, his or her idiosyncrasies, etc. What is created through inspiration resides, for me, on a different plane, where that entity manifests itself through us in the great beauty the most gifted of us produce.

[RavenOfSummer]

It is beautiful, Shivani! Please let us know how it is to work with. I have considered getting this deck but don't much about it. I have the Rumi Tarot which I absolutely love- it's for sure one of my favorite decks. My husband and I also had a reading from Rumi at our wedding <3

 

Some people are upset in the LGBT community that the deck erases the fact that Rumi was probably gay (and had a lover called Shams), however his Wikipedia page also doesn't mention this. But a lot of his poetry about love and sensuality is from a LGBT angle and it would be nice if the book at least acknowledged this but scholars do argue this.

 

I did not realize any of this! Thanks for sharing DanielJUK!

 

I have her Mother Mary Oracle, but I won't get this one. I feel it is disrespectful to Islam, and that she really doesn't understand the Islamic tradition in which Sufism comes from. I don't feel that she should have written it. There's another Rumi themed oracle coming out which was done by a Persian woman, so it is more culturally appropriate.

 

This is also something I wasn't aware of. I don't have any of Fairchild's decks. So is it that she takes Rumi's work out of its Sufi Islamic context? I don't know much about the Mother Mary Oracle either...is it based in the Christian/Abrahamic tradition?

 

I'm not sure of other specific examples, but I do get the sense that this has happened other times- decks are created by people who don't necessarily truly grasp the cultural context.

 

I think I did see somewhere about another Rumi Oracle coming out this year. I'll look forward to seeing more of that one!

 

What a great gift to have a Rumi reading at your wedding, Raven!!!!!! Lovely.

 

Well, I wasn't aware of any of these controversies, either.

 

I posted the reading in a thread here a couple of weeks ago in response to EmpyreanKnight's request for beautiful prayers; it's here  :D  <3

 

Re the controversies- I think these are important discussions to have. But regarding having the deck, I think if you get something deep and meaningful and beautiful out of it, that is the important thing. I hope that will be the case for you <3

[Whisper]

I have her Mother Mary Oracle, but I won't get this one. I feel it is disrespectful to Islam, and that she really doesn't understand the Islamic tradition in which Sufism comes from. I don't feel that she should have written it. There's another Rumi themed oracle coming out which was done by a Persian woman, so it is more culturally appropriate.

 

I understand you, Emilia, but haven't Sufis as the gnostic mystics of Islam always been shunned by the more traditional followers of Islam? Haven't they always been considered somewhat disrespectful of Islamic dogma? It is true that Sufism does come from Islamic tradition, but I believe that, in her Oracle, Fairchild was just trying to convey her own understanding and experience of Rumi and his epiphanies. I am not a Sufi, but have read the works of many Sufis, including that of mystic, philosopher, poet, sage, Muhammad b. 'Ali Ibn 'Arabi, born in 1165 AD, who was one of the world's great spiritual teachers. Firmly rooted in the Quran, his work is universal, accepting that each person has a unique path to the truth which unites all paths in itself. Ibn 'Arabi's writings, for example, are broadly concerned with divine reality, and the human being's experience of it; concerned with wujûd where wujûd means literally "finding" and "to be found" and highlights this side of the meaning in such expressions as ahl al-kashf wa'l-wujûd, "the folk of unveiling and finding", or ahl al-shuhud wa'l-wujûd, "the folk of witnessing and finding": the gnostics, the highest of the Folk of God, and what they find, of course, is God.

 

To me, this Oracle is about finding one's connection to one's higher self and to the "heart of the divine". Fairchild's self-avowed great love for Rumi is her inspiration. She quotes Rumi and only then does she reflect on the wisdom his words convey to her. What she is doing, I think, is sharing her understanding of Rumi's "teachings" and how they may benefit all of us.

 

I would love to know the name of the Oracle you mention that is coming out and whose author is Persian. It must be both sensitive, delicate and beautiful. Perhaps she has included some of Mahmoud Farshchian's beautiful art?

 

 

 

 

 

[Whisper]

It is beautiful, Shivani! Please let us know how it is to work with. I have considered getting this deck but don't much about it. I have the Rumi Tarot which I absolutely love- it's for sure one of my favorite decks. My husband and I also had a reading from Rumi at our wedding <3

 

Some people are upset in the LGBT community that the deck erases the fact that Rumi was probably gay (and had a lover called Shams), however his Wikipedia page also doesn't mention this. But a lot of his poetry about love and sensuality is from a LGBT angle and it would be nice if the book at least acknowledged this but scholars do argue this.

 

I did not realize any of this! Thanks for sharing DanielJUK!

 

I have her Mother Mary Oracle, but I won't get this one. I feel it is disrespectful to Islam, and that she really doesn't understand the Islamic tradition in which Sufism comes from. I don't feel that she should have written it. There's another Rumi themed oracle coming out which was done by a Persian woman, so it is more culturally appropriate.

 

This is also something I wasn't aware of. I don't have any of Fairchild's decks. So is it that she takes Rumi's work out of its Sufi Islamic context? I don't know much about the Mother Mary Oracle either...is it based in the Christian/Abrahamic tradition?

 

I'm not sure of other specific examples, but I do get the sense that this has happened other times- decks are created by people who don't necessarily truly grasp the cultural context.

 

I think I did see somewhere about another Rumi Oracle coming out this year. I'll look forward to seeing more of that one!

 

What a great gift to have a Rumi reading at your wedding, Raven!!!!!! Lovely.

 

Well, I wasn't aware of any of these controversies, either.

 

I posted the reading in a thread here a couple of weeks ago in response to EmpyreanKnight's request for beautiful prayers; it's here  :D  <3

 

Re the controversies- I think these are important discussions to have. But regarding having the deck, I think if you get something deep and meaningful and beautiful out of it, that is the important thing. I hope that will be the case for you <3

 

Just read it. Absolutely beautiful, Raven!

 

I agree with you re. controversies and the importance of airing them and talking about them with sensitivity.

 

As to the Oracle. Thank you.  <3 I really do believe that I will get a great deal that is meaningful and beautiful out of it. Food for thought. Perhaps a word of encouragement, or a way to see things differently.

[Page of Ghosts]

I wonder if this could be the new oracle coming out that Emilija mentioned?

 

https://www.bookdepository.com/Rumis-Gift-Oracle-Cards-Ari-Honarvar-Carmen-Costello/9780764354540?ref=grid-view&qid=1517885308932&sr=1-4

[Whisper]

I wonder if this could be the new oracle coming out that Emilija mentioned?

 

https://www.bookdepository.com/Rumis-Gift-Oracle-Cards-Ari-Honarvar-Carmen-Costello/9780764354540?ref=grid-view&qid=1517885308932&sr=1-4

 

Thank you, Page, for finding this. :D It definitely looks as though it could be. Shame that there are no images, though, or is it just my browser that won't show them?

[Page of Ghosts]

Bookdepository doesn't have any images and the Amazon page seemed devoid of them too, except the sea-green box art :( Maybe gogoling for the deck and/or creator will be more helpful?

[RavenOfSummer]

It looks like this is maybe the creator, presenting a single card? It's something, although would be nice to see more cards!

 

There's a page for the deck on Schiffer's site, but also no images.

[Page of Ghosts]

That sure looks like it, RavenOfSummer :)

[Whisper]

Could this be one of the cards?

 

http://www.pictame.com/media/1355418969443829086_2267324273

 

I found it on Ari Honarvar's page on Pictame.

[Whisper]

It looks like this is maybe the creator, presenting a single card? It's something, although would be nice to see more cards!

 

There's a page for the deck on Schiffer's site, but also no images.

 

I've added the Death one and I can see the Youtube segment is definitely talking about the same deck.

[Emilija]

I have her Mother Mary Oracle, but I won't get this one. I feel it is disrespectful to Islam, and that she really doesn't understand the Islamic tradition in which Sufism comes from. I don't feel that she should have written it. There's another Rumi themed oracle coming out which was done by a Persian woman, so it is more culturally appropriate.

 

This is also something I wasn't aware of. I don't have any of Fairchild's decks. So is it that she takes Rumi's work out of its Sufi Islamic context? I don't know much about the Mother Mary Oracle either...is it based in the Christian/Abrahamic tradition?

 

I'm not sure of other specific examples, but I do get the sense that this has happened other times- decks are created by people who don't necessarily truly grasp the cultural context.

 

I think I did see somewhere about another Rumi Oracle coming out this year. I'll look forward to seeing more of that one!

 

That's basically what happened. she doesn't have an understanding of Muslim beliefs, values, and hadith historiography, and these things are SO important! Sufism belongs to the Islamic belief system, so printing something contradictory to that and then marketing it to the New Age community misrepresents our faith. It frustrates me.

[Emilija]

 

I understand you, Emilia, but haven't Sufis as the gnostic mystics of Islam always been shunned by the more traditional followers of Islam? Haven't they always been considered somewhat disrespectful of Islamic dogma? It is true that Sufism does come from Islamic tradition, but I believe that, in her Oracle, Fairchild was just trying to convey her own understanding and experience of Rumi and his epiphanies. I am not a Sufi, but have read the works of many Sufis, including that of mystic, philosopher, poet, sage, Muhammad b. 'Ali Ibn 'Arabi, born in 1165 AD, who was one of the world's great spiritual teachers. Firmly rooted in the Quran, his work is universal, accepting that each person has a unique path to the truth which unites all paths in itself. Ibn 'Arabi's writings, for example, are broadly concerned with divine reality, and the human being's experience of it; concerned with wujûd where wujûd means literally "finding" and "to be found" and highlights this side of the meaning in such expressions as ahl al-kashf wa'l-wujûd, "the folk of unveiling and finding", or ahl al-shuhud wa'l-wujûd, "the folk of witnessing and finding": the gnostics, the highest of the Folk of God, and what they find, of course, is God.

 

To me, this Oracle is about finding one's connection to one's higher self and to the "heart of the divine". Fairchild's self-avowed great love for Rumi is her inspiration. She quotes Rumi and only then does she reflect on the wisdom his words convey to her. What she is doing, I think, is sharing her understanding of Rumi's "teachings" and how they may benefit all of us.

 

I would love to know the name of the Oracle you mention that is coming out and whose author is Persian. It must be both sensitive, delicate and beautiful. Perhaps she has included some of Mahmoud Farshchian's beautiful art?

 

Sufism is a part of Islam. They can be mainstream Sunni or Shiite. They've contributed greatly to our scholarship and history. Their legacy is a part of our legacy as Muslims. Rumi was Rumi, at the end of the day, because he was a Muslim. It was his Muslim faith that inspired him and offered a framework for his worldview. You cannot remove him or separate him from that.

 

With that in mind, there are some very crucial errors on her part. She misrepresents our faith in some critical ways, and  then markets it to a New age base where is hardly resembles the culture she took it from. First, she takes a card and calls it Al-Uzza, which is a critical sin in Islam. Al-Uzza doesn't exist. She was a pagan idol that Arabs used to worship before Islam. In Islam, Muhammad came to correct  that and to guide us to monotheism. He received revelations telling us not to worship those idols, Al-Uzza in particular. To us, that is a part of what we call the Jahiliya, or the ignorance. By printing those, she missing a key point in Islam's history.

 

She then has cards called Venus and the Divine Feminine, all which are major sins in Islam. Islam does not have a concept of Venus, nor of a separate entity known as the Divine Feminine. We also wouldn't have published such an image, as that is idolatry. In fact, in Islam, that is the most major sin and it is called shirk. It's the only sin in the Quran that is not forgiven. We don't have a Divine Feminine. God doesn't have a gender is Islam.  A culturally sensitive deck wouldn't have printed those things.

 

I think at a certain point, if people want to take something from another group and market it, they need to acknowledge where it comes from and respect the values of that group.

 

[Whisper]

Thank you, Emilija, for your elucidation. :D

[Page of Ghosts]

 

I understand you, Emilia, but haven't Sufis as the gnostic mystics of Islam always been shunned by the more traditional followers of Islam? Haven't they always been considered somewhat disrespectful of Islamic dogma? It is true that Sufism does come from Islamic tradition, but I believe that, in her Oracle, Fairchild was just trying to convey her own understanding and experience of Rumi and his epiphanies. I am not a Sufi, but have read the works of many Sufis, including that of mystic, philosopher, poet, sage, Muhammad b. 'Ali Ibn 'Arabi, born in 1165 AD, who was one of the world's great spiritual teachers. Firmly rooted in the Quran, his work is universal, accepting that each person has a unique path to the truth which unites all paths in itself. Ibn 'Arabi's writings, for example, are broadly concerned with divine reality, and the human being's experience of it; concerned with wujûd where wujûd means literally "finding" and "to be found" and highlights this side of the meaning in such expressions as ahl al-kashf wa'l-wujûd, "the folk of unveiling and finding", or ahl al-shuhud wa'l-wujûd, "the folk of witnessing and finding": the gnostics, the highest of the Folk of God, and what they find, of course, is God.

 

To me, this Oracle is about finding one's connection to one's higher self and to the "heart of the divine". Fairchild's self-avowed great love for Rumi is her inspiration. She quotes Rumi and only then does she reflect on the wisdom his words convey to her. What she is doing, I think, is sharing her understanding of Rumi's "teachings" and how they may benefit all of us.

 

I would love to know the name of the Oracle you mention that is coming out and whose author is Persian. It must be both sensitive, delicate and beautiful. Perhaps she has included some of Mahmoud Farshchian's beautiful art?

 

Sufism is a part of Islam. They can be mainstream Sunni or Shiite. They've contributed greatly to our scholarship and history. Their legacy is a part of our legacy as Muslims. Rumi was Rumi, at the end of the day, because he was a Muslim. It was his Muslim faith that inspired him and offered a framework for his worldview. You cannot remove him or separate him from that.

 

With that in mind, there are some very crucial errors on her part. She misrepresents our faith in some critical ways, and  then markets it to a New age base where is hardly resembles the culture she took it from. First, she takes a card and calls it Al-Uzza, which is a critical sin in Islam. Al-Uzza doesn't exist. She was a pagan idol that Arabs used to worship before Islam. In Islam, Muhammad came to correct  that and to guide us to monotheism. He received revelations telling us not to worship those idols, Al-Uzza in particular. To us, that is a part of what we call the Jahiliya, or the ignorance. By printing those, she missing a key point in Islam's history.

 

She then has cards called Venus and the Divine Feminine, all which are major sins in Islam. Islam does not have a concept of Venus, nor of a separate entity known as the Divine Feminine. We also wouldn't have published such an image, as that is idolatry. In fact, in Islam, that is the most major sin and it is called shirk. It's the only sin in the Quran that is not forgiven. We don't have a Divine Feminine. God doesn't have a gender is Islam.  A culturally sensitive deck wouldn't have printed those things.

 

I think at a certain point, if people want to take something from another group and market it, they need to acknowledge where it comes from and respect the values of that group.

 

Thank you for your explanation Emilija, very interesting! It surely can end up looking insensitive and/or misleading when you focus on a limited aspect of a person like Rumi (I assume she focused on Rumi the poet or something to that effect) and you don't include the full context of it all. I have a deck called The Goddess Oracle (not the Doreen Virtue deck) and since it has so many different goddesses, mythical creatures and important women in different religions across the world I don't expect it to include everything about them - boiling it all down to something easily digestible in oracle card form usually means to omit a lot of interesting details. So if I use that oracle I usually end up googling what I get and try to make sense of what I find out in addition to the guidebook, usually with the keyword as a focal point as I read up on mythology. With a deck like the Rumi Oracle the scope of it all is not very wide so I'm disappointed to hear she didn't do a better job with represting Rumi in a more accurate way, even if the artwork is very beautiful.

[Jewel]

The Rumi Oracle looks lovely!

[Whisper]

The Rumi Oracle looks lovely!

 

The more I consult it, the more I think it is lovely, especially if one is looking for encouragement.