Review by Sally Ann
This is another wonderful deck by well known artist and author Susan Seddon Boulet - she will be missed greatly - born in Brazil to English parents in 1947 and migrated to America, she passed away in her Oakland, California home in 1997.
These forty-eight cards are from a collection of her paintings of animal spirit beings. They are magickal, mystifying creatures often part animal and part human. To the ancients, all things in nature had spiritual and sacred meaning. In dream like images you can feel the power of their magick. These fantastical creatures were exceedingly powerful, they are beings that are the spirit guides who lead the departed to the next life, they restore balance and harmony to a troubled world, they heal the sick. Tribal leaders knew the animal spirits very well, and they would journey beyond the ordinary reality to invoke their power.
The deck is designed for meditations and learning rather than divination. Susan Seddon Boulet is also the artist for the Ancient Egyptian deck, and the Goddesses Knowledge Cards which are part of the Knowledge card series, though the Animal Spirits Knowledge Cards were published posthumously. These cards follow the same organizational structure as the Goddess Knowledge Cards, the image on one side and the title, symbology, keywords and a short description of the animal in myth and nature on the other side. (The Eagle, as an example, keywords listed are power, creation, illumination, and exploration, can't you just see it soaring above?)
The art is of course outstanding, and with sad thought there will be no more except what is out there of Susan Seddon Boulets work. The cards are an excellent tool to work with your power animals. The animals have mythical qualities which there are two cards that I find interesting and like very much. Totem, it is a comforting image of huge winged animal totem, large and protective, it embraces a Native American and Animal Deities which shows a pantheon of animal spirits. The other is the image of the Sea Horse, shapeshifting with a pregnant sylph to form a beautiful image of water magick. Among others I like the shapeshifting of the Horse and Butterfly and Coyote that are similarly merged.
Boulet has the myths and gods, as in the Goddess Knowledge Cards, from the myriad of cultures. Cat: the history goes from the Egyptian Goddess Bast to Greek Artemis and Roman Diana. The Elephant: Hindu God and Ganesha. All the well known totem animals from Native America are present, like the Eagle, Bear, Coyote, Spider, and Wolf. There is also the Monkey and Crocodile
from other cultures.
A list of the forty-eight animal cards as follows:
Animal Deities
Bear
Birds
Bull
Butterfly
Caribou
Cat
Cow
Coyote
Crocodile
Crow
Deer
Dog
Dolphin
Dove
Eagle
Elephant
Fish
Fox
Frog
Goat
Gull
Hawk
Heron
Horse
Insect
Jaguar
Kingfisher
Leopard
Lion
Monkey
Owl
Panther
Parrot
Peacock
Polar Bear
Puma
Rabbit
Ram
Raven
Sea Horse
Scarab
Snake
Spider
Swan
Tiger
Totem
Wolf
These cards are powerful, and again is one to have for your collection of Susan Seddon Boulet beautiful painting made into a useful tool for all to use.
Sally Ann is a Professional Tarot Reader and Clairvoyant, who has been doing readings for the past 20 years.
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