Review Belline’s Oracle from Edmond / Belline

The 7 series of the Belline oracle refer to the 7 astrological planets, whose associated themes you will find below :

• THE SUN : The Sun is the center of life. It is like a nucleus, a seed, a heart necessary for the life and development of man. It is the symbol of individuality, of the strength of the spirit. An essential star for life, the sun is also a sign of fertility, vital energy, radiation and personal fulfillment. However by all these omnipotent aspects, the Sun can lead to self-sufficiency, megalomania, narcissism or even authoritarianism.
• THE MOON : The Moon inspires the secret and deep motivations of the individual, it is perceived as a spiritual guide (through the many goddesses associated with this satellite), as a lighthouse in the night. The Moon speaks of receptivity and refers to working on one's buried, repressed fears, primitive phobias, and everything that touches the unconscious. The lunar cycle and its different phases also evoke daily life, our changing moods and our behavior in the face of routine. Unstructured, the Moon's energy can become moody and lead the individual towards anxiety, hyperemotivity.
• MERCURY : The planet Mercury is associated with the spirit. It speaks to us of the intellect and communication that manifest themselves in the fields of art, work, and society. Mercury promotes reason, understanding, learning, curiosity, adaptation, social integration, exchanges. When stifled, Mercury's energy conveys an internalization, delays in learning, reserves to communicate, or brings dizziness, secrets or leads to a devaluation of oneself.
• VENUS : Venus, associated with love, represents beauty and aesthetics. It speaks to us of femininity, sensuality and seduction of women. Venus stimulates the voluptuousness of these women lovers, and in a broader sense, the attraction and magnetism of individuals. This planet also evokes sensitivity and feeling towards one's emotions, contemplation and Art. Venus tells us about a harmonious world where everyone shows sensitivity and love towards others. Retrograde Venus means that the individual is less demonstrative, it nourishes an introversion of affect, an inhibition of creativity, an interest in non-material beauty (i.e. inner and abstract).
• MARS : The planet Mars represents desire in action, it conveys a masculine and dynamic energy full of courage, bravery, even warrior. With Mars, the individual nurtures a spirit of enterprise and conquest, he aspires to surpass himself. His desire to live is driven by his deep survival instinct, he asserts himself in his individuality, does not hesitate in the face of confrontation and conflict. His strength is combative, impulsive, even animal and sexual.
• JUPITER : Jupiter is the planet of sociability and spirituality. It diffuses an expansive energy that allows the individual to develop his leadership, his charisma in his social environment. Thanks to Jupiter, acquiring maturity, humanism and spirituality, the individual gains his place and influence in society. He better understands the limits of society and what mutual cooperation is. Unchannelled, Jupiter's energy leads to a form of humility, of withdrawal leading to isolation, a difficulty to collaborate.
• SATURN : The planet Saturn brings wisdom leading to better structuring and mastery. Saturn develops logic, concentration, discipline, patience and stability allowing constructive actions. Thus Saturn allows to find one's limits, to give a meaning and a framework to one's evolution. In this, the planet is also the cause of our fears of the unknown future and other people. Retrograde Saturn brings impatience and a lack of maturity, a difficulty to find balance. The individual can become rigid, impassive, focused on mastery and self-control.

• URANUS : Uranus is the planet of revolution and freedom. It carries an anarchic and radical energy. The planet brings sudden, unforeseen, violent changes that challenge our convictions and our foundations, in order to progress in our evolution towards more independence and free will. Uranus is therefore the planet of visionary ideas, creative inspirations, inventions and modern discoveries.
• NEPTUNE : Neptune is the planet of intuition and communion. Neptune represents the extreme sensitivity of the perceptions, the imagination and the dream, but also the 6th sense, the connection to our unconscious. The planet then leads the individual towards a more global perception of his environment, to develop the sense of family, community and collectivity. Neptune thus conveys an idealistic energy, utopian but also disinterested, altruistic or even romantic. Uncontrolled, this energy can become confused, illusory, obsessive, hysterical.
• PLUTO : The planet Pluto represents mystery, mysticism, metamorphosis. Pluto invites us to work underground, deep in the subconscious, even in our dark and shadowy part. This breakthrough into the abysses of our being leads to regeneration, the metamorphosis of ourselves. The planet stirs up a mystical energy, full of mystery and turmoil, testing the individual in a process of introspection and mutation. Acceptance and letting go allow the individual to be reborn from the ashes, to get rid of his shadow, and to find himself unified and transformed.

First of all we could reproach the author for not having taken into account all 10 celestial and astrological objects to structure and create his oracle. However, we must admit that Uranus, Neptune and Pluto were discovered only in 1781, 1846 and 1930 respectively. The oracle would have been conceived between 1845 and 1865. At the time of its creation, Pluto was still unknown to us, Uranus and Neptune were not part of the astrological tradition. Moreover the names of the 7 days of the week are directly inspired by the 2 stars (Sun and Moon) and the 5 planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn) known since antiquity. It seems to me that the magician Edmond drew his inspiration from ancient astrology, disregarding the discovery of the new planets.

About the structuring of the oracle, we can still notice that within the series, there is no organization between the 7 cards. Within each series, the magician Edmond could have attributed a precise role to each card, for example: a "light" card, a "dark" card, a "retrograde" card (astrologically speaking), a "creation" card, a "change" card, a "channelling" card, etc. This double structure (series + role) would certainly have improved the cohesion of his card game. But I do not want to criticize Edmond's work, because at the time, he was indeed the first and only one to have structured an oracle game. Jean-Baptiste Alliette, known as Etteilla, who died in 1791, was content to randomly place divinatory keywords on card games and tarot cards to make oracles. And Marie-Anne-Adélaïde Lenormand, usually called Mademoiselle Lenormand, did the same with her famous 32-card deck passed on to posterity. Edmond can therefore be considered a genius for his time. Moreover, it seems that nowadays the Belline oracle is much more popular than the Lenormand, while the tarot of Eteilla is totally forgotten. So, even for pure prediction, the seers and the public seem to find themselves more with an oracle created and organized around a proven divinatory tradition, than with oracles created in a cookie-cutter fashion.

The only three real criticisms I can make of the author are:

• A net imbalance between the planets, either perceived as positive (the Sun), negative (Mars, the Moon) or neutral. I would have liked the Sun not to be that positive, or Mars not to be that negative.
• There are many inconsistencies between the meaning of the card and the theme of the planet to which the card is attached. Below, I examine this point in detail with the cards review.
• A very (too!) present reference to ancient Egypt. However it is necessary to bring this aspect of the deck back to the context of the time. Napoleon's Egyptian campaign at the beginning of the 19th century had made ancient Egypt and all its mysteries known to the general public in France and the West. Then from 1821, Champollion had begun to decipher the first Egyptian hieroglyphics. At the time of the creation of the oracle (presumed between 1845 and 1865), a real craze for ancient egypt had taken over France.