Check out our Epic Metal Monster Coins on Kickstarter ending soon!
showcase backdrop
The Nidana Cards logo
The Nidana Cards logo

The Nidana Cards

The Nidana Cards is Oracle based on the teachings of the Buddha!

Requirements

<30
1-99
12+

Description

Here is a video in which Tommie Kelly and Duncan Barford, the creators of the deck, talk about the Nidana Cards, the general background and how to use them:

WHAT ARE THE NIDANA CARDS?

Every oracle offers a model of reality and a means to consult it. The Nidana Cards offers a model based on Eastern Buddhist teachings (specifically, suttas DN 15 and SN 12.23) and a means of consultation based on the Western Tarot. The design of the Nidana Cards is a collision of Western and Eastern esoteric imagery, created from a collaboration between two western magicians, Duncan Barford and Tommie Kelly.

The meaning of nidana is “cause”. The Buddha taught that reality is best understood not so much as an objective, definable “thing”, but as an experiential process by which things come to be the way that they seem. The nidanas are phases or stages in that process. They form a sequence of causes that delineates the process by which nothingness comes to seem like something, but also (moving in the opposite direction) the process by which we can liberate ourselves from the appearances of things.

What the Nidana Cards offer, therefore, is an exquisitely detailed set of symbols that lay bare the dynamics of manifestation (the way things come to appear the way they seem) and also of transcendence (the way beyond appearances towards seeing more truthfully).

On the following pages are descriptions of each card, presented in the order in which they appear in the entire sequence of nidanas, as taught by the Buddha. The fourteen cards from Death to Ignorance delineate the stages of manifestation, the means by which appearances come into being. The remaining twelve, from Suffering to Wisdom, are the transcendental nidanas, which liberate us from appearance into the true nature of reality.

It's important to remember that each of the cards represents a transition, a stage in a process, rather than a “thing” or some kind of static situation. Like the Tarot, each card has a reversed meaning, which is employed when the card appears upside-down in a reading. The reversed meaning points specifically to a mistake having been made: the false assumption that what the card represents is something static, fixed, separate, or unquestionably real. On the contrary, when we are seeing clearly, then we recognise how our experience is always in transition, always presenting appearances that are fluxing and changing within a larger process.

This is the key principle in using the Nidana Cards as a new and unique system of divination. Any Tarot spread that works well using the Major Arcana of the Tarot is likely to work well also with the Nidana Cards. Where the Nidana Cards differ from the Tarot, however, is in the way they will tend to focus upon the stages and steps by which a particular outcome is likely to present itself, and the dilemmas and potentials for misconception and misperception that will lie along the way.

Duncan Barford, March 2023

LISTEN TO DUNCAN's OEITH PODCAST EPISODES ON THE NIDANAS:

PART ONE - PART TWO

Nidana-Cards-Combined-709x1024.png

THE NIDANA CARDS

Click on name to see the card and get more information:

DEATH

BIRTH

BECOMING

GRASPING

CRAVING

SENSATION

CONTACT

SIX SENSES

NAME & FORM

BODY

PSYCHE

CONSCIOUSNESS

FORMATIONS

IGNORANCE

SUFFERING

FAITH

GLADNESS

RAPTURE

TRANQUILITY

HAPPINESS

CONCENTRATION

INSIGHT

DISENCHANTMENT

EQUANIMITY

LIBERATION

WISDOM


Components

Component Quantity Photo
{{item.name}} {{item.quantity}}

Vitals

Average Rating 1 reviews
Publish Date June 07, 2023
Edition First
Department Tarot and Oracles
Tags {{tag.properties.name}}
More Info The Nidana Cards web site

Why buy this?

  • Can be used for Divination, Contemplation, and Meditation.
  • Learn the fundamental teachings of the Buddha
  • A collision of Western and Eastern esoteric imagery.

Notes

  • This game contains a premium upgrade called UV Coating that makes the printed components more durable.

Accolades

See It In Action

Ratings and Reviews

Be the first to review this!
Posted {{review.properties.date_created|timeago}}
Own It Played It Fun Priced Well High Replay Value Well Written Rules Nice Artwork

{{review.properties.review|truncate(review.stash('truncate')||200)}}

Please Sign In to leave a review
Community Chat