Belline Oracle: definition

The Belline Oracle is a French divinatory deck of fifty-three cards, distinct from the Marseille Tarot and organised according to its own symbolic structure.

It is an oracle, not a tarot in the strict sense: it has its own logic, its own distribution of symbols and its own reading system, without major and minor arcana like tarot.

Today the deck is closely associated with the clairvoyant Belline, but its history is also linked to the Mage Edmond, to whom tradition attributes the origin of the symbolic material.

That material is said to have been rediscovered and published in the twentieth century, which explains why the oracle, despite its older roots, was widely spread only in recent times.

Its cards combine astrological, allegorical and esoteric symbols, with a system of correspondences that clearly sets it apart from the iconography and reading of the Marseille Tarot.

In a serious glossary it is essential not to confuse the Belline Oracle with the Marseille Tarot or with the Great Belline Tarot, which belong to different structures and reading logics.

Because of its singular structure, the Belline Oracle calls for its own learning: whoever practises it must become familiar with its system of cards and correspondences, distinct from that of any tarot, rather than applying Marseille reading keys to it without further thought.