“Soul Guidance”: A Review of The Cosmic Deck of Initiation and How to Use the Cosmic Deck of Initiation, by Barbara M. DeLong

(Dimensionfold Publishing, 2023). ISBN: 978-1-989940-77-8

As a spiritual practitioner, I believe in using a wide variety of tools in the quest for a fulfilling experience as I walk the “good red road.” Over the past two decades, I have collected a variety of Tarot and other guidance decks for my toolbox. Ranging from the traditional Tarot, to thematic versions (from baseball to pirates), to pathmaking, oracle, angel, archetype, and dream decks, I have used them with varying degrees of satisfaction. Some decks are akin to fortune cookie messages and horoscopes—too general to be of any use. Some get by solely on their images and themes.

Several months ago, Barbara M. DeLong, podcast host, author, artist, ordained minister, and “seeker of the mysteries of spirituality,” after being a guest on my podcast to talk about the book she cowrote with Ken Goudsward, Before Roswell (based on the extensive research of her deceased husband), asked me to work with her Cosmic Deck of Initiation. I readily agreed.

The birth and history of the deck are fascinating. Barbara (who is not a trained artist) channeled the exquisite mandalas used for most of the cards. She tells us in the introduction to the book—which she recently wrote to accompany the deck (prior, there was a small booklet enclosed with the cards)—that she “painted for 12 or more hours a day for 9 months while teaching full time, being a single parent and never missing one little league game.”

The deck itself did not come to her all at once, but in different-sized sets. Sometimes 11 at a time, sometimes 12 (the astrological signs), sometimes less. As the deck built itself, Barbara saw symmetry and order. The first two sets equaled 22 cards, the master builder’s number. A third set of 11 brought the total to 33, the number of the master teacher.

The deck comprises the following cards: Seven for the chakras; evolution, commitment, laughter, and intuition; 11 Major Cosmic Laws; 11 Universal Energies; 12 astrological signs; and seven Wild Cards.

All spiritual practitioners can relate to something in this deck. It would not be a misuse to concentrate on the chakra mandalas, or the astrological signs, using only those sets of cards. Although the accompanying book is robust, and offers several spreads, DeLong says numerous times that the spreads are mere suggestions and that intuition should take you where you need to go.

As to the spreads: I spent several weeks with them. They range from a single card to 37. There are multiple ways to employ the single-card spread. You can ask a simple question and glean some guidance; you can put a card under your pillow and ask to dream about it (I use this technique with a variety of decks); you can meditate upon a card’s mandala; you can focus on an astrological sign, chakra, cosmic law, or universal energy on which you wish to work.

The next suggested layout is the Pyramid 6-Card Spread. I found this to be one of the most instantly useful spreads with which I have ever worked. I meditated on a different question each time, also asking family and friends if they had anything on which they wanted to work.

This is a good time to mention that these are not your typical rectangular cards. They are hexagonal. You can fit them together to make interesting visual shapes. As I shuffled them before drawing the requisite number of cards, they naturally formed beautiful shapes in my hands, with dozens of layered edges releasing palpable visual and psychic energies.

The next suggested spread is the Astrological. Twelve cards (representing Houses) ring a central “Divine” one, for 13 cards in all. You could use this spread for a yearlong meditation, working with each sign/time period as appropriate.

Before I share the most elaborate of the spreads, I want to mention that DeLong provides several layers of detail to aid in interpreting the cards. Some users/readers will want to make their own interpretations. For those who want some guidance, there are brief descriptions in the book’s introductory pages. There are also longer, but still succinct, descriptions in the booklet that accompanies the Cosmic Deck. Then there are very detailed descriptions for each card under the headings Body/Health, Future, Career/Finances, Mind, Love, and Spirit. That means you can use each card for six unique foci. These foci also add depth to the spreads; based on position (for instance, in the Astrological Spread) you can zero in on a particular area of interest.

The final spread comprises 37 cards. It is the Foundation Spread, useful in numerous ways. Using the Astrological Spread as its center, you add two cards to each sign/month, radiating outward. You can use the three cards in each row for guidance on Body, Mind, and Spirit or Past, Present, and Future. This spread can be the basis for a yearlong exploration with plenty of monthly guidance regarding on what you should be focusing.

There are 15 cards remaining after the Foundation Spread is complete. In an abundant Universe, nothing goes to waste. DeLong honors this universal truth by suggesting that these 15 cards can be examined as aspects of our spiritual growth that we are avoiding. Sure enough… about 75% of the remaining cards after I laid out my Foundation Spread were cards that had not come up in previous spreads. Looking them over, it struck me how accurate the avoidance aspect was. For this reason, this selection of cards might be the most useful for us to work with if we wish to keep growing into our brightest expression of Who We Are and Who We Are Becoming.

It seems fitting to circle back. Over the past twenty-plus years, I have used myriad decks. I can honestly say that the Cosmic Deck of Initiation is certainly the most comprehensive and useful I have found.

Given these increasingly complex and trying times, we all can use additional guidance and tools in our toolbox.

Barbara DeLong’s Cosmic Deck of Initiation and the accompanying handbook are as indispensable as we navigate the spiritual forest of Now as are the solitary hiker’s Swiss Army knife and compass.