Review The Oracle or Mirrors from Dimitri d'Alfange d'Uvril

The deck comes in a rather sturdy thick cardboard box. The cards are housed at the bottom of the box, covered by a booklet and a cloth bag.

Dimitri d'Alfange d'Uvril is the creator of the game. He is also a medium and a clairvoyant, he seems to have a solid training because he studied psychoanalysis. You can consult his official website www.dimitridalfange.com.

However, we know nothing about the illustrator Aurore Schmitt. There is no bio in the booklet and a google search gives many homonyms.

The book is in B&W. The layout is basic. There are no illustrations. At the end of the booklet, there are 22 blank pages reserved for notes. The book is therefore only 33 pages long.

The introduction mentions that the mirror is the reflection of the soul and for this reason the oracle is named as such. The text indicates that the mirror oracle is also a psychological game.

The book then proposes 3 drawing spread :

• 3-mirror method to get to know yourself better (3-card spread = 1: your state of mind, 2: what you need to work on, 3: direction to follow).
• 5-mirror method for decision support (5-card spread = 1: past, 2: present situation, 3: near future, 4: advice, 5: answer).
• First name method for a general assessment of one's life (5 to 15 cards depending on the number of letters in the first name).

The first two draws are accompanied by an example. I would have liked the third print to be explained a little better.

Each card is explained in a short paragraph of key words that enrich the original meaning of the card's name. It should be noted that each card is influenced by an astrological planet without any explanation as to why, and without a brief summary of these astrological planets in the booklet. It would have been nice if the 22 pages of notes had been partly replaced by a list and description of the astrological planets. This would save the novice from having to look for a book on astrology.

I appreciate in this card that we have a full view of the different rooms of the house, reminding us that a house is a place of life, a community where each one has his place and his role to play, that there are common rooms, but also private rooms where each one can isolate himself, and dark rooms like the cellar.

There is almost a play on words here, as the inspiration for this card is focused on the game of chess, which tends to play down the notion of failure. We see the king lying on the chessboard, but the queen is still standing. This card evokes the fact that when one loses a game, one has the right to revenge, and that all this remains only a game, or that one can be "checkmate" in many ways.

I like that the image reminds us of the existence of other cards in the game such as "Distance" and "Travel". This connects the cards, and makes the game more coherent with a broader meaning. The creator should have deepened this perspective. Because there are only a few cards that are connected in this way.

I like this card because the signs allow you to introduce keywords into the image in an elegant way without disturbing the reading or readability. The idea is quite good.

The image allows us to deepen the meaning of the word change. Indeed, the four inserts, each evoking a season, indicate that change is part of a cycle of evolution. The water wheel of the mill tells us that change is continuous and permanent. It is important in a divination game that the image complements the name of the card and enriches its meaning. Unfortunately, in many oracles, the images are the classic representation of the name of the cards without added value.

There are a few negative cards in the deck, including the "Enclosure" (Enfermement) card. For the "Change" (Changement) card above, I was talking about how the image should expand the meaning of the card. Typically, the image of the "Enclosure" card is the basic and brutal representation of this. The name is negative enough as it is, perhaps an image that evokes an allegory of confinement would have been more appropriate. The same can be said for the following cards: Fatality (Fatalité), Guilt (Culpabilité), Betrayal (Trahison), Gift (Cadeau) and Delay (Retard).