- The John Dee Oracle: Wisdom from Queen Elizabeth’s Magician
- Author: John Matthews
- Artist: Wil Kinghan
- Published by: RedFeather MBS
- Publication Date: 2025 (Originally released 2013)
- RRP: US $34.99 / GB £ 31.99
- ISBN: 978-0-7643-6976-6
- Reviewed by: Gwen Enstam @goldenpomt (IG)
The John Dee Oracle is a wonderful introduction to the life and works of one of the world’s most famous scholar-magicians. The set includes a guidebook, which familiarises us with John Dee’s life and accomplishments and teaches us how to work with the Oracle; a set of beautifully illustrated cards; and a map that we use to bring everything together… but read the guidebook carefully and with intention. Not only is it a masterpiece in itself – it is where the magic of the Oracle originates. Then, when you lay out the map, with your cards in hand, you will find a new connection between you and John Dee and all the historical seekers whose images you find on the cards. It is this connection that inspires a new world of magic within the world we usually know.
John Matthews has created dozens of decks, including another of my favourites – the Byzantine Tarot, illustrated by the phenomenal Cilla Conway – and many brilliant books as well. When you see his name on either, you know you are looking at something special, and The John Dee Oracle is no different. I also want to mention that the guidebook starts with a beautiful poem about John Dee by Caitlín Matthews, whose work has been dear to my heart for many years. The poem sets the tone for the Oracle – a preparatory meditation for our work with the deck.
John Dee (13 July 1527—March 1609) is most famous now for his sessions with the medium Edward Kelly, during which they communicated with spirits. If you are familiar with the history of magic, you will know that these sessions gave us the Enochian alphabet – still used in ceremonial magick today (there is a page on the alphabet and its powers at the end of the guidebook). In one session, Kelly envisioned a map that expressed the cosmos as a system of four castles. Dee manifested Kelly’s vision into this world, engraving the map onto a plate of gold (now housed in the British Museum) – and it is this golden vision that Matthews uses for The John Dee Oracle’s foldout gold map.
Every practitioner of magic today will be familiar with the system of four elemental directions and the archangels associated with them. In The John Dee Oracle, each element and archangel is assigned to one of the four ‘castles’ on the map. There is a fifth position in the centre of the map, which all four ‘castles’ face, and this is for the magician – in this case, it is for us. This is the basic structure of the map, all fully explained in the guidebook.
The twenty-eight cards are gorgeously illustrated by Wil Kinghan in a Renaissance style, with the portraits of famous historical scientists, philosophers, astronomers, historians, astrologers … all fields in which John Dee himself excelled. Alchemists will be delighted to see that they are categorised by colours representing four stages of the alchemical process, and that the card backs are illustrated with the famous Hieroglyphic Monad, Dee’s glyph that symbolises the unity of all of creation.
In this new edition of The John Dee Oracle, Matthews has added one extra card: Gloriana, Queen Elizabeth I, John Dee’s patron. In the deck, the card has the power – like the Queen herself – to change things, to upend what we humans have put together. If drawn, she gives us the opportunity to re-interpret our reading … if we choose to.
There is more to say about how the deck works, but I hesitate to give it all away because, for me, the enchantment happened as I explored the set myself, having no expectations. I will say again that the artwork on the box, cards, guidebook, and map is stunning. The card stock is perfect – you can riffle shuffle without doing any damage to the cards – and the gilded edges are such a natural choice for this deck that they become part of the design, rather than an added bit of bling (which can also be nice, of course). The guidebook is in colour – something that I know is expensive to do, but which I especially love – and on lovely, glossy paper. The flip-lid box is sturdy and looks wonderful on my bookshelf.
The John Dee Oracle is perfect for beginners because everything is so well explained, and experienced readers will also enjoy it because it offers so much to explore that is new. But it will be especially appreciated by magicians, and magicians-to-be. After you’ve read the book, looked at the cards, shuffled and drawn yours and placed them on the map, you find that you have manifested something, almost without realising it … a doorway is open to another world where magic was part of everyday life, and that doorway shows us how to bring magic to life, again, in ours.
About the Author & Illustrator:
John Matthews is a professional independent scholar, specialising in Arthurian traditions, and has authored over 100 publications. He offers workshops and participates in various conferences. He lives in Oxford, UK, with his wife, fellow writer and deck creator, Caitlín Matthews. For more information, please visit their website here: https://hallowquest.org.uk/index.php
Wil Kinghan is an artist, writer, and a shamanic practitioner who has worked on a number of Tarot projects with the Matthews, and is also based in Oxford, England. For more on Wil, please visit https://www.facebook.com/artissonart/?locale=en_GB; https://uk.linkedin.com/in/wil-kinghan-0b1a7381
To purchase The John Dee Oracle deck, please visit:
https://schifferbooks.com/products/the-john-dee-oracle-deck-and-guidebook-box-set
REDFeather is an imprint of Schiffer Publishing.
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