Reading cards are great as historical art pieces, practitioner tools, and for daily devotionals.

They also make great gifts because they're so versatile.

With Oracle Cards, unlike Tarot, you don't have to learn an entire system to understand them, making them great Segway’s into reading for beginners and even for those skilled at other forms of divination who may want to start incorporating cards into either their personal or professional practice.

I like them for the art, but also find them helpful for reading family members and find them to make cool gifts, especially since there is one out there for just about every interest. 

Practitioners also often find the incorporation of Oracle Cards into their practice can help clients follow along with what they're saying better, when they use cards as a sounding board for live readings. Especially useful for spacey clients, you use the cards as simply sort of a spiritual PowerPoint presentation - not there for the text or what's on the screen per se, but there to hold the viewer's attention, and keep clients mentally engaged in the storyline as you go along. Basically, Oracle Cards can be used professionally, but they also make great gifts for art aficionados, animal lovers, and illustrators. 

So with that said, here are a few of my favorites for animal lovers - 

Oracle card decks for animal lovers

1. Spirit cats

Nicole Piar, Spirit Cats

Such a dreamy deck. Spirit Cats is a square-shaped 48-card deck with divination on both sides. The artist on this deck, Nicole Piar, works with ten year’s experience in the fine arts to create an all-in-one reading deck great for cat lovers. 

This deck is the only double-sided deck on the list, with the image on the front and the description on the back of each card, it comes complete with a heavy box, making the deck great for traveling with or for an easy pull nightstand deck/all in one devotional for the day. Rich in watercolor imagery, these cards are eye-catching and heavy-duty, making these the perfect gift for travelers, artistic types, and a cat lover's favorite. 

Inspiring messages on the backs of each card lead the reader into a new, more positive way of thinking, as this deck is all about sharing messages about which principles to embody when overcoming challenges. Comes with box, 48 cards, instructions on inside cover, no guidebook, but rather, full interpretations are placed on the backs of each card. No blank side for double-blind readings, perfect for self-readings with minimal fuss. 

Spirit Cats is currently available on the author's website where you can purchase a copy at the lowest cost I've found so far, discounts available for larger orders.

2. Creature secrets animal divination cards

Photo: Amanda Linette Meder

If Grimm's Fairy Tale brothers commissioned a deck, it would be this one. Nothing mainstream about this deck, Creature Secrets has an old world style, one of the most unusual and hands down beautiful decks on the market today, the Creature Secrets deck has recently become a cult favorite.

Designed in traditional, vertical card format, this deck is perfect for anyone who loves old fairy tales, early European art, and hand-drawn designs. It's also one of only animal oracle decks that includes the animal's scientific names, something that will melt the heart of someone metaphysical yet, still a geek at heart.  

Designer Yelizaveta Bakhtina really hits the mark on Creature Secrets in creating by far one of the most alluring, intricate and detailed animal decks ever released. This deck is great for the old world art enthusiast, the scientist and the child at heart. Creature Secrets comes with 56-scientifically illustrated creature cards in the pack, an enclosed box, and a card sized guidebook that fits inside the box itself, all in alphabetical order. Some are so beautiful, you might want to get two, and hang a few of them on the wall as art. 

Creature Secrets is currently available for purchase on Etsy. 

3. The wolf pack tarot deck

Photo: Amanda Linette Meder

This 78-card deck is labeled Tarot, but almost nothing about it follows the Tarot system except the number of cards itself, so as far as most collectors are concerned, The Wolf Pack is considered an oracle, which is how it made it to this list. 

The cards in this all wolf’s deck are also unique in that they are presented in landscape format with full horizontal scenes, most reading cards are vertically presented. 

Now, for the feel of how this deck will present information: imagine a pack of wolves in Wyoming in the winter, now think about what their life choices are like, and also, it's snowing. That's this deck. It tells it you straight, cuts right to the case and best of all, it's always real. There's no time to sugar coat it, its wolf life in the winter. Deck does include some blood scenes, but mostly, it's friendly and logical people love this deck, myself included. 

Given the naturalist imagery paired with the realist mentality this deck, The Wolf Pack is great for realist thinkers, naturalist thinkers, people who like nature, and most importantly, people into wolves. Also because the creator of the deck is now deceased, originals of this are now considered a collector's edition. Comes with a box, 78-reading cards, 3 instructional cards, no guidebook, the card descriptions are listed under the individual card headers themselves (see above). 

4. Medicine cards

The discovery of power through the way of animals. This deck is a classic and it's also an education in Native American Animal Symbolism through the eyes of the descendants of the Iroquois, Cherokee and Choctaw tribes. In other words, this deck is much more than a card deck, it's more like a history course with the bonus of there being cards involved. I love it. 

A great deck for discovering your power animals, people new to animal medicine, easy to shuffle and best of all, it's extremely educational. It has a companion deck, the Sacred Path Cards that is often paired with the Medicine Cards, though both decks can be used independently. 

Comes with: complete deck and a full-sized guidebook in a textbook-sized box. Excellent for shamans of any culture, animal whisperers, horse people, and anyone interested in animal symbolism. Highly recommend! 

5. Druid animal oracle deck

The Druid Animal Oracle is an English Deck that relies on Celtic symbolism, with enchanting, earthy imagery on large sized cards. It's one of the first and only decks I got the app for on my phone, it's that nice and easy to use. 

Great for anyone with Druid or English ancestry this deck is a great counterpart to anyone learning Native American Animal Symbolism, as this one shares the English Version, and you get to see where they overlap, share space, and complement each other. Deck includes vintage names for the animals, crisp imagery, and reversed meanings.

Comes with 33-cards, hearty box, and box-sided booklet that travels well! Also, don't forget the app. 

Okay, so these are some of my favorite oracle card decks for animal lovers that will make great personal decks, excellent gifts and most importantly, regardless of which you choose, they'll all add a little diversity to your collection.

Some are indie, some are mainstream, all are favorites, just depends on what you're looking for in a deck, who you're buying for and what art strikes your fancy most. Most deck purchases are personal choices, but if you have a vet tech, veterinarian, and wildlife biologist on your list, pick them up a pack of any of these, and you won't disappoint. 

Amanda Linette Meder

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