The Labyrinth Oracle

The Labyrinth Oracle: Cards for the Spiritual Path is a divination system for people interested in personal growth, seeking a tool to assist them on their spiritual path. The word "path" in "Cards for the Spiritual Path" is meant to have a double meaning, representing both the spiritual Path as well as the path through a Labyrinth or Maze. Most cards are named after and picture a thing, activity, or person from mythology that's related to Mazes or Labyrinths. They use that image to represent an archetype or facet of the spiritual Path and the labyrinthine depths within.

"The Labyrinth Oracle" is authored by Walter D. Pullen with card art by Kathy Pullen. It contains 109 cards, with about 30,000 words of interpretations, spreads, and background information.

"The Labyrinth Oracle" is available at the following locations:

• The Labyrinth Oracle: Buy it here at TheGameCrafter.
• The Labyrinth Oracle (Cards Only): If you only want the cards themselves, and don't need a box or interpretation booklets, a less expensive version is available here.
• Kathy Pullen Designs: The Labyrinth Oracle is also available on Etsy, and comes with special custom pouches handcrafted by the deck artist.
• Kathy Pullen Fine Art: Prints and other products of the artwork used in the Labyrinth Oracle.

"The Labyrinth Oracle" is a unique and effective divination system for the following reasons:

• Easy to use: The Labyrinth Oracle is designed to be an easy to use tool for the spiritual seeker. Few standard decks are able to give a concise meaning and clear energy for each card. Often with other decks, people need to consult a book to decipher whatever card. Labyrinth Oracle cards have a single keyword on them that enables one to get a good idea of what the card is all about from just a glance. One can do quality readings from just picking up energy from the title, keyword, and card art. For the actual card descriptions in the interpretation booklets, the goal is to describe enough so the reader can pick up on all the various facets of the card, but not have so much text that it becomes distracting.
• Effective readings: The Labyrinth Oracle is designed to answer questions people commonly ask in readings. Frequently, the seeker has a decision to make and wants guidance on the consequences of each choice, they want to know their compatibility with a partner, or they want to know about their purpose in life. Hence the specially designed Labyrinth Oracle decision, relationship, and elemental spreads. The Labyrinth Oracle also has spreads similar to those in other divination systems that just analyze a situation.
• Empowering cards: There are no “good” or “bad” cards in the Labyrinth Oracle, and there's no concept of “reversed” cards in the system either. The purpose isn't to answer what fate holds in the future, as much as it is to consider the questions about the energies in play at the present. Each card has its positive and negative potentials, with the goal being to make one aware of both the challenges and opportunities and how to best deal with them.
• Similarity to Tarot: The Labyrinth Oracle is a new and unique divination system, designed with the spiritual seeker in mind. Although the Labyrinth Oracle is different from Tarot, they do have similar structure, and so will seem familiar to Tarot users. For example, one feature of the Labyrinth Oracle is its three suits, which are similar to the four suits in Tarot that represent the states of being in the four elements. Labyrinth Oracle suits represent actions and motivations, and cover the fundamental trinities of experiencing/doing/being, beginning/middle/end, birth/existence/death, maiden/mother/crone, or cardinal/fixed/mutable.

There are 109 cards in the Labyrinth Oracle. This isn't an arbitrary number, because the number 109 has special energetic properties:

• 109 represents Labyrinths: If we define A=1, B=2, and so on until Z=26, then the word "Labyrinth" adds up to 109.
• 109 represents life's journey: 109 starts with first digit “1”, ends with the last digit “9”, and has the empty digit “0” in the middle. That represents the spiritual Path from beginning to end, that each soul fills in with their own unique journey.
• 109 represents the spiritual Path: 109 starts with the digit "1", which being a straight line represents the ordinary physical or intellectual state of being. The evolving person then discovers intuition or spirituality, represented by the circle or digit "0". Finally one blends the two aspects of life together, with spirit controlling on top, represented by the "0" over the "1", or the digit "9".
• 109 is important in religion: A mala (Sanskrit for “garland”) is a beaded string commonly used by Buddhists and Hindus when repeating mantras. It has 108 beads total, or 109 when including the head bead.
• 109 covers heptominoes: There are 108 heptominoes, or different ways of connecting seven squares together orthogonally to compose a figure. Each Labyrinth Oracle card is associated with one of the heptominoes, and uses it as a glyph. Combined with the special final Labyrinth Oracle card that doesn't have a glyph, that results in 109 cards total.
• 109 is the number of love: 109 is similar in shape to a heart! The digit “9” looks like the right half of a heart, while the digits “1” and “0” if pushed together can make a backwards “9”, or the other half of a heart. <3

The back of Labyrinth Oracle cards is a unique nine ring Labyrinth, with circuit sequence 349852167. This Labyrinth is called "The Perfect Labyrinth", because it's the smallest standard full circuit Labyrinth (with the least number of circuits) without any limitations or blemishes. More specifically, it has all of the following properties:

• Symmetric: A symmetric Labyrinth has the same circuit sequence when navigating the Labyrinth in reverse from exit to entrance. In other words, turning the Labyrinth inside out results in the same Labyrinth.
• Non-trivial circuits: A Labyrinth has trivial circuits if there are three or more circuits in consecutive sequence, like fanfold paper. Such circuits are redundant and adjacent circuits could be removed to make a simpler Labyrinth that's still fundamentally the same.
• Non-partitionable circuitwise: A Labyrinth is circuit partitionable if it's possible to divide the Labyrinth into two or more smaller Labyrinths. In other words, there exists a wall between circuits through which there's only one passage. Even the classic seven circuit Labyrinth (with circuit sequence 3214765) is partitionable, because it's really twin three circuit Labyrinths with a one circuit Labyrinth between them.
• Non-partitionable radiuswise: A Labyrinth is radius partitionable if there exists a wall running from outside to center (perpendicular to the circuits) through which there's only one passage. In such a scenario, one could remove that radius along with the innermost or outermost circuit it connects to, and have a simpler Labyrinth that's still fundamentally the same.
• Mergeable: A mergeable Labyrinth allows the entrance and exit passages to be aligned on the same axis. That requires the first circuit from the entrance to be closer to the entrance than the last circuit is from the exit.

"The Perfect Labyrinth" is also visually aesthetic. When the entrance and exit passages are merged to be aligned on the same radius, there's an enclosed middle area three passages long, which nicely divides the nine circuit Labyrinth into 3 groups of three circuits. If the center area is three passages wide (as seen above) then the entire Labyrinth is 21 passage units in diameter, or 7 groups of three. The four wall endpoints where passages make U-Turns compose a square, with each vertex (5, 2) passage units away from adjacent vertices (5 + 2 = 7). The Labyrinth Oracle has 109 cards, or 12 groups of 9 cards each + one extra card, which aligns with the zodiac (12 signs) and this Labyrinth (9 circuits).

Interact with "The Labyrinth Oracle" in the following ways::

• Facebook: Visit the Facebook group for "The Labyrinth Oracle". Post comments and "Like" it if so inspired. See also general Facebook page for the author and the artist.
• Blog: The author's blog, "Labyrinth of Life", further considers the spiritual Path.
• Twitter: Follow the author's Twitter account for latest news.
• E-Mail: Contact the author at this address.