An exquisite bestiary oracle that combines vintage photographs with animal spirit paintings, imbued with surreal whimsy. This oracle calls upon our imaginations in the service of creation and healing. The 44 cards in this oracle present universal animal archetypes and the symbolic qualities they represent. The full-color guidebook explores each of the card's meanings in depth and offers a variety of ways to consult them. Alexandra Eldridge’s paintings employ glass-plate negatives from 1880–1920. The selection of that time frame is not an accident. It represents an era when scientific discoveries and a craze for peeing into the beyond created the primal soup from which the idea of an active “unconscious” was born. Eldridge’s art reminds us that the world of imagination is at one with nature. The guidebook by Sherry Salman encompasses stories, symbols, fairy tales, poetry, and myth—all of which serve to enhance an altered state of mind that fosters a kinship with all things.
