Review: the Everglow, A Divination System

the Everglow: A Divination System

Author/Artist: Trisha Leigh Shufelt

Red Feather/Schiffer Publishing, 2023

Description: 78 cards, 160-page guidebook, box with magnetic closure lid.

Card Size: 2 3/4 by 4

"The Everglow is a culmination of all the roads less traveled. I hope it opens gateways leading to the introspection of profound answers, and those answers lead to more questions that will provide magic along the way."

Trisha Leigh Shufelt is also the author of The Poe Tarot, another interesting deck.

The Everglow is a 78-card divination system. The deck is printed on good card stock and easy to shuffle. The guidebook is informative and gives you everything you need to know about the system and the individual cards.

Although the Everglow is not a Tarot Deck it is influenced by the Rider-Waite-Smith system. The system is also strong on animal symbolism and associations. All of this is explained in the introductory pages of the guidebook before diving into the different card divisions.

The deck has 48 image cards beginning with the Major Arcana and ending with the Minors.

In the guidebook, the Major Arcana cards are presented with a card image, number and keywords, an overview of the upright and reversed interpretations and a section on the animal symbolism.

3 - "The beekeeper woman is the embodiment of the Empress energy found in the Tarot."

Abundance - "In the upright position, she reminds you that you are surrounded by abundance and beauty."

Self-Care - Reversed - "Time to self-nurture."

Symbolism - "Crow - Transformation, change, and protection" 

The system contains four court cards, each containing a symbol of each of the four elements.

"Kings and Queens likely represent people you know or aspects of personality versus actual situations. Knights and Pages (the Messenger in The Everglow) are doers, movers, and shakers. They more likely represent situations."

The guidebook presents each card with an image, name, overview of the card, a hint, the reversed interpretation, and information on the animal symbolism.

"Elemental cards (Earth, Air, Fire, and Water) can be pulled with the Everglow Arcana or shuffled separately." The guidebook goes into detail on how to use these cards within the divination system.

There are 18 Minor Arcana cards. These cards do not contain numbering, but the keywords are on each card, upright and reverse. The guidebook contains an image of the card, the keywords, the upright interpretation, the reversed interpretation and symbolism information. The cards are listed in alphabetical order.

The deck contains 30 text cards beginning with the Houses and ending with the Time Frame Cards.

The 12 House Cards are to be used separately in this divination system, which is explained briefly in the Houses section and explained further in the reading the cards section. Each card has a two-page summary, including card image, house, explanation, hints and a question to ask yourself.

"...while the Tarot may be the "why" something is happening, the twelve houses indicate "where" you are with that particular something and how it is influencing your life."

The system includes 11 Number cards, and four Suit cards. The guidebook explains the process of combining these cards within a reading. Each Number card contains keywords. The guidebook shows the card image and questions to ask yourself.

The Suit cards contain keywords, Element, Season, Time Frame, Astrology Sign, Personality and Negative Traits. The guidebook presents the card image and a short explanation on how these cards work in the system. This is further explained in the sample readings.

The four Time Frame Cards: The Past, The Present, The Future, and What do I need to know about, contain a phrase and questions or keywords. Trisha shares her thoughts on time and briefly tells how to use them.

"Time frame cards are used in conjunction with the spreads that follow. To pick a time frame card when used with a spread, simply shuffle and draw a card."

The Sample Spreads section shows how to use the cards in the system with six different layouts and examples: the Suit Spread, Time Frame Spread, Daily Draw, Numerology Spread, Astrology Spread, and the Everglow Spread.

On my first reading with this deck and system, I chose to do the Everglow Spread. For this spread, you are pulling from five piles. The first pile is made up of the image cards. You can leave in all the image cards, or pull the court and elemental image cards into their own separate piles. I chose to leave them all together. The other piles are numerology, suit, house, and timeframe.

My Question: Where does my focus need to be?

My first card Trust/Fear revealed I need to focus on trusting my path. I need to take my time and know that I will arrive where I want to be when I'm supposed to be there. "Trust comes in many forms, but ultimately it is having faith without doubt in someone or something."

The next two cards, Numerology Card 6 and Action, revealed a need to focus on taking Action toward Restoring Balance.

Six - "Ask yourself ~ Reflect back to a time when things were out of balance and how you were able to restore equilibrium. Could anything you learned be applied to a current situation that is out of balance?"

Action - Wands - Motivational movement forward toward your goals. Enthusiasm in the process. In this case, that movement is toward a balance in your life, reflected by the six.

If you take a moment to compare this combination of two cards with the Rider-Waite card, you will see a connection. The man upon the horse has succeeded, but in all success, comes the responsibility of a balancing act between normalcy and a sort of fame.

The First House shows that my focus should be on myself at this time, my needs, my self-interests, my own truths.

"Hint - This is the house of manifestation through self-interest.

Ask Yourself - What do you want in life?"

The Past card signifies that influences from my past may be influencing my present. This could include past relationships, previous outcomes, past choices, and more.

Overview: I need to focus on trusting my path, take necessary action to restore a balance within myself, and heal any mistrust which may have developed from past experiences. I need to move forward and leave behind thoughts of what could happen, and trust that I know the steps I need to take to find my happy balance in life and succeed.

I found myself impressed by this divination system. The Everglow Spread revealed exactly what I needed to hear at the moment of the reading. Over the days, I found myself pulling from the image cards for daily reading. Each day revealed great insight and advice to help me move through my day.

Whether, you choose to use the whole deck and the system, or go with daily draws from the image cards, this is a great deck with many avenues to explore.  

I'd recommend this deck to newbies and seasoned readers.  I can't wait to dig deeper into the system and see what appears in each reading.

Grab your deck at Red Feather/Schiffer Publishing.

(Review Product supplied by Schiffer Publishing)