New
Age Retailer -
In
the Spring 2005 issue of New Age Retailer, Skye Alexander reviewed Ocean
Oracle. Here are her statements: For more than 30 years I have
been using oracles, and I even have created a couple of oracles
myself. Ocean Oracle: What Seashells Reveal About Our True Nature
(1-58270-113-X) by Michelle Hanson is one of the most unique and
accurate divination tools I ever have used. This fascinating oracle,
which uses seashells as links to the unconscious, operates on the
premise that shells possess their own special language.
The
5.5-X-8-inch boxed kit retails for $26.95 and includes 200 full-color
cards depicting shells from around the world. On the flip side of each
card, users will find the shell's name and the message it brings when it
turns up in a reading. For instance, the familiar Quahog Clam shell is
associated with blood pressure and heart health. The rare Torr's Whelk
indicates that something is increasing in value. Querents begin a shell
reading by contemplating a question or issue. They select cards from the
deck that seem attractive, repulsive, or both. They arrange the cards in
whatever order they choose and then turn the cards over and read their
messages.
Ocean
Oracle comes with two full-color charts that show all the cards in the
deck. A companion book explains the history and characteristics of each
shell and the behaviors of the creatures that inhabit them. Hanson has
devoted her life to studying seashells, and she unveils a rich tapestry
of information that will intrigue readers. She explains how the shells'
physical attributes and uses led her to discover the shells' mystical
meanings. For example, the heart cockle is shaped like a heart, and
sailors used to give these pretty tokens as valentines. The cards can
point to personality issues and highlight readers' emotional situations.
Your customers will be amazed at the insights they achieve using the
Ocean Oracle.
Springfield
Republican by Kathleen E. Moore - 10/13/2004
Biologist
believes seashells reveal our “true nature.”
Like a
Tarot card reading, Hanson allows the subject to choose the shells that
will guide the reading. Each choice is like a unique brush stroke
in an evolving portrait of that person. It
is Hanson’s hope that the subject will use that new found perspective
to make more conscious life decisions. In “Ocean Oracle”
Hanson shows readers how science, history, intuition and physical
appearance blend together to create a language of shells.
Captiva
Chronicle by Emilie
Alfino - August
2006
Listening
to the language of seashells. What can they teach us about ourselves?
She looks
to her science background to find what she considers “demonstrable
proof” for every meaning she ascribes to a seashell. Many times
after she has assigned a meaning to a shell based only on its name, or
her own intuition, that meaning will be validated by something she
learns about the mollusk or by the result of readings.
Under one
of the pictures in the article, it states:
Author,
scientist and shell reader Michelle “Shelley”Hanson also teaches
about seashells. She says she loves her name, because it makes her
one of the shells (Shell-ey), the one with the vocal cords, to serve as
an ambassador on their behalf.
From Raymond
Buckland:“
Conchomancy
is the art of divination using seashells. Most books on the subject
follow the traditional
diloggun
form which utilizes cowry shells, associated with the Afro-Cuban
religion of Santeria and tied-in to worship of the Orishas. But in Ocean Oracle
,
Michelle “Shelley” Ziff Hanson opens up conchomancy to a whole new
dimension. Rather than adopting and adapting the old cowry divination,
she draws upon an army of two hundred different shells and has devised
an entirely new system based on their four major characteristics. This
is a whole new world, rich in oracular language that is accurate,
scientific, and downright fascinating!
All two hundred shells are detailed, with picture, description, meaning
and explanation. The four overview plates make it relatively easy to
tell one shell from another and to find the appropriate associations.
But the test of a divination system is its accuracy. The
Ocean Oracle easily passes the test. I expect to see it being used a great deal by
Readers across the country.”
From One Spirit Book Club:
“ A
beautiful, unique toolkit to decode the wisdom of the deep...the Ocean
Oracle…puts the wisdom of the sea within your reach and translates its
timeless language…one of the most unusual—and unusually
revealing—divination tools we’ve seen.”
