Rating: 
Summary: Wow
Review: Anna Franklin and Paul Mason's first oracle deck, the Sacred Circle Tarot, was quite good. This one, the Fairy Ring, is stunning. Working again with computer-manipulated photographs, these creative British Wiccans have designed a deck that captures the wildness, beauty, and sometimes horror of the faery folk of Britain.The deck is divided into four suits: Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter, with the faeries assigned to whichever season is the closest match for their energies. There are also eight additional cards representing the major holidays of Wicca. Every last one of the cards is a visual spectacle, and none of them have that telltale blah-ness that indicates that the artist is out of ideas. I suspect that the deck will be a little difficult to learn, since it's not based on tarot, but I've never minded reading up on faeries. Each of the cards represents one of the traditional faeries of folklore. Other faery decks concentrate on the authors' personal vision of faeries (Brian Froud), or on pop psychology (Doreen Virtue), but with this deck we're in "Katherine Briggs Land". The book gives a sort of capsule bio of each faery, so that we know what its nature is and what it means in a reading. The faeries range from ethereally beautiful to earthy to creepy to "I sure hope I don't meet THAT in a dark alley". It is a credit to Franklin and Mason that they absolutely do not "sugarcoat" any of the darker faeries. They are SCARY as portrayed in the art, and the book advises not trying to contact them in meditation. My personal favorite is the "Lhiannan Shee" card. Mason portrays the traditional vampire-muse as a green sprite hovering above a bottle on the writer's desk. I love the double meaning. For the faery depicted might be the Lhiannan Shee--or she might be the "green faery" absinthe, which led 19th century artists into a more mundane sort of danger. The only gripe I can think of about this deck is that Franklin and Mason have only a handful of models for their cards. This can get a little distracting when I start recognizing the models from one card to the next, or even between the two decks. "Hey wait a second, Morgan le Fay, didn't I just see you on the BeFind card?" It is sometimes necessary to suspend disbelief a little.
Rating:
Summary: Spookily accurate
Review: I can't tell you how much I disagree with the last reviewer, I found the deck spookily and alsmost frighteningly accurate when I used it for readings. I see from the other reviews posted here that others have had the same experience. It makes you wonder! I think you have to be willing to be open to fairy energies to use this deck. If you read the excellent book that accompanies it, you find all the information you need on fairy powers, it even tells you which fairies you should not even try to work with.This could be a stand alone book on fairies and fairy powers. I found the pathworkings excellent in furthering my own magical work with fairy energies. I loved most of the artwork. It is very atmospheric and feels as though you have stepped into fairy land. Some, I felt, worked better in this respect than others, but this is being really picky in a deck with sixty cards- an almost impossible task to make them all brilliant, I would have thought. But most of them are very good indeed.
Rating:
Summary: Fairy Friends
Review: I must admit that I was first drawn to this deck by the artwork, the fairy pictures are lovely. I didn't really think it would work very well, not being a traditional tarot pack. Then I started to read the book, and it is very deep indeed and Anna Franklin has obviously done a lot of research into fairies and the book made a lot of sense to me. When I started using the cards they just blew me away! The readings cut right to the chase. I love the whole thing.After this I bought their fairy encyclopedia to learn even more.
Rating:
Summary: These Two Have the Gift of a Unique and Magical Bond!
Review: It seems the more Anna Franklin and Paul Mason (Sacred Circle Tarot) work together the more we are rewarded! "The Fairy Ring" is a mastered oracle set of classical beauty for all of us diviners who feel the connection to the Fairy folk. Ms. Franklin, a practicing pagan and high priestess, has spent more than twenty years collecting and exploring fairy lore and legends. Her time at this pleasurable occupation has been spent commendably, for she offers us a deck where each card has its legend or lore, divinatory and reversed meanings, ways to work with each fairy - or whether it is wiser not to work with them. The cards are split into the four seasons called the courts, which I find a huge plus for not only those of the fae path but also for hedgewitches whose day to day lives are also lived by the seasons and elements. Along with the four suits of court cards, there are also the eight major fairy festival cards. This I have not seen before and I enjoy working with these as well. There are nine spreads, a sample reading and a guide for meditations for the cards. All in all, the book was written for the basic reader and is very user friendly. Mr. Mason is truly a visionary. Using photography and artistry together, he blends the cards into a beautiful masterpiece that is his own signature. Bringing fantasy, imagination, illusion and desire into the cards, he has managed to create symmetry of grand proportions! The Fairy Ring is one of grandeur, from the beautiful fairies to the distorted ogres, and all in between. You will want to work with the oracle on a daily basis to give you the divine inner wisdom that you seek! Anna Franklin and Paul Mason, together, have created a treasure in The Fairy Ring. M.L. Benton, Publisher, Echoed Voices
Copyright © October 2002
Rating:
Summary: Classical Beauty!
Review: It seems the more Anna Franklin and Paul Mason (Sacred Circle Tarot) work together the more we are rewarded! These two have the gift of a unique and magical bond! "The Fairy Ring" is a mastered oracle set of classical beauty for all of us diviners who feel the connection to the Fairy folk. Ms. Franklin, a practicing pagan and high priestess, has spent more than twenty years collecting and exploring fairy lore and legends. Her time at this pleasurable occupation has been spent commendably, for she offers us a deck where each card has its legend or lore, divinatory and reversed meanings, ways to work with each fairy - or whether it is wiser not to work with them. The cards are split into the four seasons called the courts, which I find a huge plus for not only those of the fae path but also for hedgewitches whose day to day lives are also lived by the seasons and elements. Along with the four suits of court cards, there are also the eight major fairy festival cards. This I have not seen before and I enjoy working with these as well. There are nine spreads, a sample reading and a guide for meditations for the cards. All in all, the book was written for the basic reader and is very user friendly. Mr. Mason is truly a visionary. Using photography and artistry together, he blends the cards into a beautiful masterpiece that is his own signature. Bringing fantasy, imagination, illusion and desire into the cards, he has managed to create symmetry of grand proportions! The Fairy Ring is one of grandeur, from the beautiful fairies to the distorted ogres, and all in between. You will want to work with the oracle on a daily basis to give you the divine inner wisdom that you seek! Anna Franklin and Paul Mason, together, have created a treasure in The Fairy Ring. M.L. Benton, Publisher, Echoed Voices
Copyright © October 2002
Rating: 
Summary: Not Quite worth it.
Review: My personal experience with this book is very bad. The artwork is good, but the deck is about as accurate as a 90 year old blind man with cancer, on dope, spinning in circles, throwing a dart, and trying to hit a bee at one hundred yards. In short: not at all. Although it does get points for artwork, that isn't enough to save it by ANY means. If I wanted art, I would buy... an ARTBOOK... when I pay nearly thirty bucks for a 'tarot deck'... I expect something that can divine for me. However, I haven't yet got around to working the pathworkings in the book, and those may be great... whoooo knows? That is the only saving grace here, though. Really, I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt by giving it an extra star. In conclusion: for collectors, it's great... for actual freaking people who like to USE these things... I can't reccomend it at all; go buy a more useful deck (Amazon, the great provider, has several!).... (they didn't pay me to say that!).... (but I'd certainly like them to! ;)
Rating:
Summary: Not Quite worth it.
Review: My personal experience with this book is very bad. The artwork is good, but the deck is about as accurate as a 90 year old blind man with cancer, on dope, spinning in circles, throwing a dart, and trying to hit a bee at one hundred yards. In short: not at all. Although it does get points for artwork, that isn't enough to save it by ANY means. If I wanted art, I would buy... an ARTBOOK... when I pay nearly thirty bucks for a 'tarot deck'... I expect something that can divine for me. However, I haven't yet got around to working the pathworkings in the book, and those may be great... whoooo knows? That is the only saving grace here, though. Really, I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt by giving it an extra star. In conclusion: for collectors, it's great... for actual freaking people who like to USE these things... I can't reccomend it at all; go buy a more useful deck (Amazon, the great provider, has several!).... (they didn't pay me to say that!).... (but I'd certainly like them to! ;)
Rating:
Summary: Ask the Fairies for Personal Guidance & Advice
Review: THE FAIRY RING consists of a gorgeous book and deck of divination cards that are similar to Tarot cards, and are divided into four seasonal suits of Spring, Summer, Autumn, & Winter. The beautifully designed cards give one an immediate sense of the wonder of entering the fairy realm, and are truly stunning to behold. THE FAIRY RING book provides enchanting stories of each character that explain the divinatory message imparted in every card reading. I particularly enjoyed reading the story about Queen Oonaugh, where she cleverly helps Fin MacCool avoid a fight with a giant called Cucullin by recommending that Fin pretend to be his own baby when the giant shows up at his home. In addition to a court of thirteen fairies representing each season (with a Lady, Knave, King, Queen, and Ace), there are eight fairy festival cards (Imbolc, Ostara, Beltane, Midsummer, Lughnasa, Herfest, Samhain, and Yule). It's easy to sense at a glance which fairies are good to work with and which are not, since each card conveys through use of color, expression, and lighting the feelings being described. THE FAIRY RING book further clarifies which fairies are helpful and provides advice regarding how best to obtain help from them (such as Habetrot, Asrai, the Sea Mither, Brownies and Leprechauns), and which fairies are best avoided because they are known for being treacherous, illusory, or inaccessible (such as the Changeling, Will o' the Wisp, or Jenny Greenteeth). For those who need a little help asking the fairies for guidance, nine different divinatory spreads are provided, along with a sample reading for the Fairy Market spread. If you already feel an affinity for fairies and are willing to read through the stories and divinatory meanings for each card, this deck will quickly become an invaluable aid. I received meaningful guidance and advice from THE FAIRY RING deck after using it twice!
Rating:
Summary: Ask the Fairies for Personal Guidance & Advice
Review: THE FAIRY RING consists of a gorgeous book and deck of divination cards that are similar to Tarot cards, and are divided into four seasonal suits of Spring, Summer, Autumn, & Winter. The beautifully designed cards give one an immediate sense of the wonder of entering the fairy realm, and are truly stunning to behold. THE FAIRY RING book provides enchanting stories of each character that explain the divinatory message imparted in every card reading. I particularly enjoyed reading the story about Queen Oonaugh, where she cleverly helps Fin MacCool avoid a fight with a giant called Cucullin by recommending that Fin pretend to be his own baby when the giant shows up at his home. In addition to a court of thirteen fairies representing each season (with a Lady, Knave, King, Queen, and Ace), there are eight fairy festival cards (Imbolc, Ostara, Beltane, Midsummer, Lughnasa, Herfest, Samhain, and Yule). It's easy to sense at a glance which fairies are good to work with and which are not, since each card conveys through use of color, expression, and lighting the feelings being described. THE FAIRY RING book further clarifies which fairies are helpful and provides advice regarding how best to obtain help from them (such as Habetrot, Asrai, the Sea Mither, Brownies and Leprechauns), and which fairies are best avoided because they are known for being treacherous, illusory, or inaccessible (such as the Changeling, Will o' the Wisp, or Jenny Greenteeth). For those who need a little help asking the fairies for guidance, nine different divinatory spreads are provided, along with a sample reading for the Fairy Market spread. If you already feel an affinity for fairies and are willing to read through the stories and divinatory meanings for each card, this deck will quickly become an invaluable aid. I received meaningful guidance and advice from THE FAIRY RING deck after using it twice!
Rating:
Summary: The Fairy Ring- a great card set
Review: The Fairy Ring is a wonderful set of tarot-like cards. They are beatifully illustrated and the book is written so it is easy to understand. It's really quite fun to do. I really enjoy this set and know that you will, too.
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