Konxari Cards
IRM Foundation, 2009
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Konxari (pronounced kon-zar-ee) Cards is a new spirit-focused divination deck, created by the IRM Foundation and featuring the photography of Paul Michael Kane. The idea is that you take the deck with you to a spooky location, shuffle and let the spirits relay messages to you through the cards. An updated version of the ouija board, the cards use photographs, words, and symbols to give you many ways to connect with spirits. The publishers of the deck claim that Konxari has roots in ancient Egypt and that it, along with tarot cards, have come from this era. Erroneous information aside (as far as the tarot goes), my curiosity got the best of me and I had to check this deck out.
The deck of 88 cards comes in a long rectangular box. The whole package of box, book and 44-cards sitting next to one another, gives the impression that this deck is more entertainment designed than to be used as a true spiritual tool. The cards themselves measure two by three inches and are printed on a light-weight card-stock with a semi-glossy coating. Their size, along with the glossy coating, makes the cards hard to shuffle when stacked together. Each card features a image, a title, a symbol (or color spot), and a letter (or number). Some cars are printed in a landscape rotation. The instruction booklet has 32 pages and contains “Quick” and “Expanded” rules for using the cards. It also provides meanings to some of the cards; symbol definitions; and includes two alternative spreads to use with the cards when you are not out searching for ghosts.
My partner and I put the Konxari Cards to the test at Samhain. We followed the rules of the booklet (“never play Konxari cards alone”) and we sat in a darkened room of our home. We hoped that the cards would connect with something and relay a message that we’d understand. We shuffled the cards and laid them out according to the main layout found inside the booklet. We removed four cards and were left with eight remaining cards: hiding, attic, door, prophesy, thermal, suffering, aura and shadow. The images and words caught our eyes and from this we figured that the impressions came from something we call “the house fae”. There is a closet on our first floor that tends to be popular with our cats. They’re always running in and out, as if they’re chasing something into that space. We also tend to use the space as our “attic” in that we store boxes, and decorations in it. Therefore the first few cards seemed to align with our experiences. Since the booklet also recommends playing with the cards and rearranging them to spell out words (remember, each card has letters on it) we shifted the cards around so they spelled words or phrases. We came up with Requim B6 (or 6B), and Be Quirm 6. Neither seemed important or seemed meaningful.
As I do with my tarot decks, I asked the Konxari Cards if they had anything to share about themselves. I drew the moon card for my first question, “What can I learn from you?” This card suggests using Konxari Cards could help expose or draw us closer to the mysteries we commonly associate with the moon: magick, death, and nature itself. I drew the Mirror card for my second question, “What is your speciality?” Here, the card represents the deck’s desire to show us reflections of the spirit world as they mirror or our lives and pasts. It is also said that mirrors are a portal to other realms and that this deck could be seen as a portal for contacting those realms. Finally, I drew the Hallway card for my final question of, “How does your personality differ from other decks?” The Eye of Horus drawn on this card suggests that the deck give “the dead the ability to see again”— a trait that other decks do not address.
Konxari Cards offer a new and portable tool to reach out and connect with the dead. If you’re a ghost hunter looking for a compact spirit communication tool to add to your arsenal then give these cards a shot. I also recommend Konxari Cards to the divination curious and would like to uncover a new type of cartomancy. To learn more about Konxari cards, visit www.konxari.com. The site contains the deck’s history, descriptions of the cards, and some videos of the cards in use and creative direction.
