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Get started with the Oracle Belline with this basic guide of meanings. While not comprehensive, it will be enough to help you take your first steps understanding and working with this divinatory system and develop your own way to interpret the cards.
While you will find more comprehensive guides to the Oracle Belline, the original instructions published by Grimaud in 1961 are fairly succint and stress the importance of cultivating a relationship between the deck and the reader in a way that's somewhat symbiotic. In them, Marcel Belline indicates that experience is key to develop an understanding of the deck through trial and error, that mistakes are to be expected, and that through continuous use, the reader will come to develop an understanding of the system based on the combination of the cards and their planetary influences.
The original instructions declare that the Oracle Belline is to be read in combinations and that as a rule of thumb (with few exceptions) a positive card will soften a negative card that it touches.
Oracle Belline Card Meanings with their Planetary Influences
Let's get started with the four cards that have no planetary influence in the Oracle Belline. These are cards that serve a special role in the reading, different from the rest. These are La Carte Bleu, La Destinée, L'etoile de l'homme and L'etoile de la femme.
La Carte Bleu can either be used as a beneficent card or as a replacement card, and both uses are contemplated in the original instructions.
La Destinée is considered to be a card that highlights the importance of the card that it immediately precedes and speaks about a decision that needs to be made.
L'etoile de l'homme is the equivalent to Man in Lenormand or Main Character One in Kipper, it represents a male querent or the partner of a female querent. Remember that gender is not to be taken as inammovible when dealing with these cards.
L’etoile de la femme serves the same purpose.
The rest of the cards are divided in seven groups of seven cards.
The Sun Cards of the Oracle Belline
The Sun Cards add a nuance of vitality, positivity, growth and success to the reading. These are cards of great potential, and individually are positive.
La Nativité is our card for beginnings, a project, opportunity or relationship hatching, an outbreak or something that’s new.
Réusitte is a card of results and rewards, recognition, recompense, receiving or giving what’s due.
Élévation is a card of growth and expansion, improvement, perseveration, promotion and taking things to the next level.
Honneurs has to do with one’s honor and word, as well as with success and achievement, fame and distinction.
Pensée - Amitié is a friendship and loyalty card. It speaks of a friend, amicable relationships, help and support.
Campagne - Santé is the card of health and leisure. Might refer to open spaces. It brings relaxation, time off, and easiness. It can also refer to honesty.
Présents refers attentions, gifts and favours, and the things that are obtained through favour or the intervention of someone else.
The Moon Cards of the Oracle Belline
The Moon cards refer to the querent’s inner world, what’s hidden or going on within. They are closely connected to the emotional aspect.
Trahison is considered a strong negative card that affects those around it. It speaks of betrayal, covetousness and bad luck. It can refer to something fishy happening behind the querent’s back.
Départ is a card of distance. It can refer a departure or an absence, but also abandonment.
Inconstance, like the wind, speaks of inconstancy or a changeable character that cannot be foretold. References promises unkept or much talk and little action.
Dècouverte is a discovery card that speaks about revelations. It can be positive or negative depending on what’s around it and it can even refer espionage, but it can also be a lucky find.
L’eau is a slow and passive card that can also speak of distance. It’s connected to feelings and the emotional aspect. It can refer something or someone that’s foreign or far away.
Les Pénates refers to what’s familiar and comfortable. Where we belong. The homeland or the house.
Maladie tells us that something is off. It can refer to a physical illness or disease or something that’s broken, not working as it should.
The Mercury Cards of the Oracle Belline
The cards affected by Mercury are related to how the querent interacts with the outer world and the social aspect. Communication, wit, adaptability and movement.
Changement is a card of cycles and changes, however, unlike inconstance, those cycles can be expected or it can be speaking of a transition. It’s also a card of innovation and can refer to a time period.
Argent is a bountiful card, it speaks of money, abundance, investments, capital, earnings and resources.
L’intelligence refers to knowledge and the intelectual aspects. It can be academic, but also refer to the know-how, science and understanding.
Vol - Perte refers what’s lost by theft or taken away. It can speak of theft, scams, swindling, a breach of trust or negligence.
Enterprises is a card about planning, endeavours, projects, real state or property. It can speak about schemes if ill-aspected.
Trafic is a card about communication, money, business and trading, commerce. It can refer organizations that deal with money or insurance, as well as publications or press.
Nouvelle is the news card, it speaks of messages, letters and other communications as well as an unexpected arrival or surprise.
The Venus Cards of the Oracle Belline
Venus cards are related to the querent’s feelings and perception of love, pleasure, beauty, art and enjoyment, as well as feelings, seduction and persuasion.
Plaisirs has to do with everything that we find pleasant and pleasure itself, amusement, art and beauty.
La Paix is a card of harmony and getting along, as well as getting together to achieve goals and understanding one another.
Union is a card of associations, marriage, intimacy, coming togeher, reunions and devotion.
Famille can refer to a group, an association or one’s own family. Blood ties and spiritual ties are included in this card.
Amor is the card of love and affection, bonds and harmony.
La Table is a card for meetings, reunions, what happens around a table, celebration, parties, banquets, invitations and social life.
Passions alludes to passions of every kind, enthusiasm, high energy, infatuation. It can refer to a short lived success.
The Mars Cards of the Oracle Belline
Mars cards are related to the most combative side and are connected to willpower, resolution, challenges, impulses and activity in general.
Méchanceté is a card of envy and backstabbing, wickedness and evil. A hidden agenda or a danger that goes unnoticed.
Procés is the duel card, it refers a confrontation or a dispute, it can speak of litigations, discussion, arguments, antagonism or opposition.
Déspotisme is a strong card that indicates circumstances beyond the querent’s control. Being victim of arbitrary decisions, despotism, being bound by the decisions of others or having blind faith.
Enemis is the most aggressive card of the deck and is reserved to open hostilities, an attack or aggression physical or not or an act of violence.
Pouparlers refers negotiations and conversations when positively aspected, but negatively aspected can be a card of gossip and hearsay, as well as someone speaking behind your back.
Feu is the fire card and refers all that fire symbolizes as well as intensity, ardour and spontaneity.
Accident is a strong warning card that speaks about accidents, upheavals and literal or figurative destruction.
The Jupiter Cards of the Oracle Belline
Jupiter cards bring a sense of good fortune, development, dominion and success. It is a slow planetbut a stable one and it brings luck.
Appui is a card of support, help and protection. It can indicate gaining the favour of someone that’s perceived as above the querent or a superior.
Beauté is the card of beauty, youth, hope and expectations that will be fulfilled. Héritage connects us with our lineage and our ancestors. Refers things from the past, lasting things, what’s made to remain there. It can refer to inheritance and legacy.
Sagesse is a card of wisdom and it encourages an analytic behaviour. Act with discernment. It speaks of carefulness, moderation and reflection.
La Renommée is the fame and celebrity card. It speaks of a high status, being well known or recognized, and appreciating ones talents. It refers to the opinion that others have of the querent too.
Le Hazard is an opportunity card, it speaks of chances, luck, gambling, quick wins and sometimes speculation.
Bonheur is a card of accomplishments and fulfilment, vocation and satisfaction, as well as a good disposition, giving or receiving kindness.
The Saturn Cards of the Oracle Belline
The cards affected by Saturn are related to situations that require perseverance, delays, complications and even sadness. Saturn is related to time and specially slows things down or brings delays and obstacles.
Infortune is an indicator of misfortune, afflictions, infirmities, aging and bad luck.
Stérilité indicates futility, sterility, useless attempts and utopic thinking. It brings a nuance of pointlessness to the card it precedes.
Fatalité is a strong card that speaks of fate. It as well speaks of endings, something that cannot be avoided, limits and bounds.
La Grâce is the most favourable Saturn card and it represents divine intervention, a fulfilled prayer, gracefulness, a sudden but favourable turn of events, an “against all odds” card. It can represent mystic inclinations and spirituality.
Ruine speaks of decay, decline, weak foundations, a house of cards or an outdated approach or method. It can speak of defeat and failure and is also tied to superstition.
Retard is an obstacle card the represents delays, complications, inconveniences and tergiversations.
Cloitre is the card of isolation and retreat, it speaks of cloistering, retiring from society, hibernating, mourning or sadness and renounciation or containment.
Additional resources:
Here are a few other resources that you can consult.
Mastering the Oracle Belline by Serge Pirotte.
The Secrets of the Oracle Belline by Sylvie Steinbach.
Introduction to the Oracle Belline by Maria Alviz Hernando.