The Oracle Travels Light: Principles of Magic with Cards (Divination)

Also given as a birthday gift. The receipient loves it. Thanks!

A mysterious, ancient, and at the same time “right now” recipe of riches bubble and brew in this new offering from Camelia Elias. The Oracle Travels Light is an earthy, evocative poetics of spellcrafting with cards in particular and magic in general. The magical path has been presented as an art-form, as well as a powerful action-form before, but rarely, in my experience, to such telling effect. Other books I have read about magic are written in prose and, while I am “in” them, feel prosaic even while being informative. This one also is written in prose, but while I was “in” it I felt as if I was wandering within a poem, not trying to follow some articulate but sterile explication or set of instructions. This one feels scholarly, yes, but, also muddy and sticky, like the shaman as she imparts the secret knowledge as she is rising from the swamp. The book itself is a potent spell well crafted.

This book is a wonderful tool to learn how to work with magic, use magic with the tarot cards, manifest your desires, claim your personal power, and so much more. The book has many colourful examples with the cards and other tools of magic in action. Camelia demonstrates how to work and align with the power that is all around us, inside us, and elsewhere. This is not just a "how to" spell book. Instead "The Oracle Travels Light" is something more sacred and meant to empower and connect us with a source in a profound and unique way. The book has fascinating and has personal stories from Camelia's life and experiences. The book gives us permission to identify and ask us what we want and how to manifest it. I enjoyed the rituals and how to magically connect with nature, animals, people, my soul, and the departed. What I like best about this book is that Camelia demonstrates how magic can be crafted and performed to benefit our lives. However, Camelia implores the reader of the book to think for herself and use her own brain when working with cards and magic. Again, this book is not a spell recipe book. Although, there are useful ideas and tools suggested. Instead, "The Oracle Travels Light" demonstrates and guides you in your unique connection with magic and power. The book gives you the information and then leaves it for you to create your own magic with the universe. There is so much to learn from Camelia Elias and she teaches through this book in a giving and straight forward "in your hands" manner. There is no ego with Camelia with her teachings in this book or on her Tarot Page: Tarotflexions. After you are finished reading this book you will want more! Camelia Elias is a magical lady, down to earth, and has a lot of heart. I highly recommend this book.

I've had this book for 2 years and have put it down and picked it up several times. Her arrogance is so annoying. Her free association approach is so deliberate it doesn't allow The cards to say anything. The cards answer the question not the fortune teller! She is a classic example of another know it all academic who thinks she knows everything. Just pitiful!

If you are looking for clear directions on how to get from A to B this book isn't it. If what you are hoping to find is something that spells out making magic with tarot cards in much the way that a recipe books spells out how to turn tomatoes and onions into pasta sauce this is not the right book for you. But if you are seeking the Oracle, if you are the Oracle, then this might be exactly the book you need. The Oracle Travels Light reads exactly like it was written by the academic, literary, divination focused poet that it was written by. Elias's prose reads like poetry; dense with layers of meaning and the promise of nutrients if you are willing to chew it out. I often had to re-read sections over and over again to chase the meaning and cohesion out of it or I'd have to stop and walk away from the book coming back after I'd had the chance to digest what I'd been reading. When I told Camelia that I was reading this book she congratulated me and then told me that a lot of people who read the book tell her that they struggled to understand it. I could totally see why that was. This may sound like a criticism, and maybe for some people it is, but I never found it to be a deterrent and every time I came away from the book it was with depth of insight and more to sift through. Even now I feel like this is one of those books that I will re-read in five years and find that the meaning opens itself like a flower - ripening in exactly the right time. In truth I'd say that The Oracle Travels Light reads like an oracle itself. This time I read it cover to cover, but I think that from now I'll flip through it following the rules of bibliomancy - trusting that where I land will be the exact piece of prose that I need to read in that moment to enhance both my divining and my magic. This is definitely not a book for someone brand new to magic or divination, but anyone else willing to delve into it for what it is is guaranteed to find treasure in its caves. <b>"I am come today, I am come. I am come to see and sing. I am come. I am come to see the omen. I am come to see the sign. Come sign, come omen. Come. I am come. I'm the sign, the omen. I am come."</b> pg. 150-151

Brilliant!