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Oracles

The Belline oracle: the 53 cards and their meanings

The Belline oracle sorts 53 cards under seven planets: each series gives a color, each card a situation to shed light on.

  • 53 cards
  • seven planets
  • reading

The 53 cards

Outside the series

Four cards stand apart from the planets: the blue card and Destiny, which widen the question, and the two Stars, which stand for people.

Draw one, three, or seven cards

A line of cards, the central card for the meaning, and the dominant planet for the tone.

Draw the cards

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The card of the day

One card a day, the same for everyone, with a question and an action for the day.

See the card of the day

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The cross spread The first-name reading

Reading the Belline cards

Each card names a simple situation: a departure, a union, a support, a delay. Its planet tells you which register it plays in, from the radiance of the Sun to the patience of Saturn.

In a reading, look first at the planet that comes up most often: it is the dominant series, and it sets the tone for the whole. Then read each card in its place, without isolating a dark card from the rest of the reading.

The seven planets

  • Sun: Radiance: success, recognition, self-confidence.
  • Moon: Sensitivity: emotions, intuitions, inner movements, what fluctuates.
  • Mercury: Exchanges: ideas, trade, news, the flow of money.
  • Venus: Bonds: affection, pleasure, harmony, family life.
  • Mars: Action: drive, disagreements, tensions to channel.
  • Jupiter: Breadth: support, wisdom, social radiance, luck.
  • Saturn: Long time: limits, trials, withdrawal, maturity.

Where the deck comes from

The deck as we know it was published in France by Grimaud in 1961, under the name of the seer Marcel Belline, whose real name was Marcel Forget. He attributed the cards to the mage Edmond, Ernest Billaudot (1829-1881), a Parisian cartomancer of the 19th century. The gouache-painted cards that Belline owned are now kept at the Mucem, in Marseille.

Marcel Belline’s texts and the illustrations of the published deck remain protected. Versana reproduces none of them: the names and numbers of the cards are given as facts, and the pictograms and all the readings in this section are written for the site.

The Belline cards help you look at a situation from another angle: they predict nothing, and the choice remains yours.

Frequently asked questions about the Belline oracle

How many cards are in the Belline oracle?

Fifty-three: forty-nine cards divided into seven planetary series of seven, Destiny, the two Stars, and the blue card, which carries no number. The 2025 edition drawn from the Mucem originals presents fifty-two.

What are the planets for?

They group the cards by register. When the same planet comes up several times in a reading, its series dominates and colors the interpretation: the Sun brings radiance forward, Saturn patience, Venus bonds.

Are the dark cards bad?

They describe a difficulty to get through, not a misfortune written in advance. A Mars or Saturn card is read together with its neighbors, and the site never draws a conclusion from a single card.

Why are the cards not reproduced?

The illustrations of the published deck and the photographs of the originals are not under a free license. Versana therefore draws its own pictograms: one simple symbol per card, with its number and its planet.