Nature-Speak

Ted Andrews wrote the books a generation of nature-readers learned from, Animal Speak above all, and this sixty-card oracle extends that teaching from animals to the rest of the living world. Anyone who knows his Animal Wise Tarot recognizes the method immediately: natural imagery treated as a symbolic vocabulary, each card a lesson drawn from his published work rather than a freestanding pretty picture. Issued through his own Dragonhawk imprint in 2006, it is the oracle arm of a coherent curriculum. The deck reads as applied naturalism: landscapes, plants and seasonal signs presented as things that speak if you have learned to listen, which is precisely the skill Andrews's books teach. It suits his large readership first, nature-based practitioners who want their divination continuous with field observation, and readers who prefer a deck with a library behind it. Those who never connected with Andrews's books will find the deck assumes their company.