Okay, first off, I do not claim to be an expert on Egyptology or any of its related mysteries.  That said, I must confess that I tried really really hard, with this deck-and-book-set, to learn the system and truly comprehend how it worked before doing this review.  Honestly, I have had this set in my possession for over a month now and have not managed to begin to understand it.  Every time I picked up the book to read it I fell asleep.

See, this deck presents itself as an Alchemical Oracle from Ancient Egypt.  And the book is written in what I consider to be far too technical a language for normal people to read.  Useless analogies involving Qabbalistic theory and Taoist belief are bandied about without offering any real explanation as to what their meaning is.

The names of the gods and goddesses on the cards, in this system, bear what the authors claim to be are the original ancient Egyptian names.  Keeping in mind that no one who is alive today knows how the original hieroglyphs were pronounced verbally, it is impossible for me to understand how they can claim to know the true "Egyptian" spelling of the names, especially when written in our alphabet of today.

The authors actually claim a great deal that is impossible to substantiate, calling it "the mysteries of the initates" and such, implying that if you don't understand it, you're not in the elite inner circle of the initated.  Well, frankly, I don't like the tone of the book's implications to this effect.  I like a divination system which seeks to include, not exclude.

The deck contains 64 cards, which are broken down into Families of the following:  Family of the Eight Primordials, Heaven, Fire, the Moon, the Sun, the Wind, Earth, and lastly the Family of Duat.  There is an additional card, Neter Neteru, which is outside these families, belonging to all and none.  Additionally, there is an eight-sided die which is cast at the time of consulting the oracle.

The cards are standard-sized but are made from stiff card stock which makes shuffling difficult until they are well broken in.  The cards do tend to fold and crease rather than flex when shuffling, care must be taken not to damage them.

In closing, I must say that this deck is definitely not for the beginner, and most assuredly not for anyone who is only casually interested in Egyptology.  I would be interested to know what a true Egyptian scholar thinks of them.

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Review Copyright 1998 by Gina M. Pace
 
Book of Doors Divination Deck by Athon Veggi and Alison Davidson
published by Inner Traditions/Destiny Books
ISBN 0892815124