Deck of the week: The Unicorn Magic Oracle.

 If you’re happy and you know you it… buy this deck.

Pink ‘n’ fluffy : Doreen Virtue’s Magical Unicorns Oracle Cards (2006)

The Magical Unicorns Oracle Cards is a 44-card deck with guidebook set created by Doreen Virtue, published during the peak of her “angel lady” era, before her highly public conversion to fundamentalist Christianity in 2017 and her subsequent disavowal of virtually all her earlier New Age work (including publicly calling these cards “demonic” and urging people to throw them away). That context alone makes reviewing the deck in 2025 a slightly surreal exercise.

Art and Production Quality 

The illustrations are typical mid-2000s Hay House fantasy fare: pastel rainbows, sparkly manes, big-eyed unicorns prancing through cotton-candy clouds, and an abundance of glitter effects that look dated even by 2006 standards. The card stock is thin and flimsy; corners dent easily and the lamination has a sticky feel that attracts dust. The color saturation is aggressively saccharine—think Lisa Frank meets a sugar coma. If you have any sensitivity to visual overstimulation, these cards will give you an instant headache.

Theme and Messaging 

Every single card is relentlessly, oppressively positive. There is no shadow work here, no nuance, no acknowledgment that life sometimes sucks. Messages include gems like “Best Friends” (“You’re never alone!”), “You Are Loved” (complete with floating pink hearts), and “Practice, Practice!” (because apparently even magical unicorns need to do their homework). The guidebook explanations are written at roughly a third-grade reading level and consist almost entirely of affirmations such as “Say: I am safe. It’s only change.” Depth is not merely absent; it has been actively banished.

Accuracy and Usefulness as an Oracle 

What accuracy?! Because the deck contains zero cards that address difficulty, conflict, grief, anger, or consequences, it is essentially useless for any real divination or self-reflection. Need insight into a toxic relationship? You’ll pull “Trust” with a unicorn hugging a teddy bear. Struggling with addiction or depression? Here’s “Bubble Rider” telling you to “lighten up.” The deck functions less as an oracle and more as spiritual toxic positivity in cardboard form. If you are the kind of person who only wants to read nice things then you’re gonna love this oracle I guess but as a serious tool it’s a case of nice but dim.

The Irony of the Author’s Later Repudiation (pration

In 2017–2018, Doreen Virtue declared the deck (and all her angel/oracle work) to be “of the devil,” claimed the messages came from demons masquerading as unicorns, and begged people to burn or trash their copies. This puts buyers in the absurd position of owning a deck whose own creator now insists is spiritually dangerous. Some readers find this adds a delicious layer of chaotic energy to the deck; others find it disqualifying.

Who This Deck Is Actually For

•  Children under 10 who like sparkly ponies

•  Collectors of ironic/kitsch occult items

•  People who exclusively seeking feel-good affirmations and nothing else

•  Resellers on eBay who market it as “banned by the author herself!”

Should you buy it?

As a collector item maybe or you just like the cards go ahead. But avoid if you want an oracle that actually says something!

As a functional oracle deck for spiritual growth, shadow work, or honest divination, Magical Unicorns is one of the worst ever published—aggressively shallow, visually garish, and conceptually bankrupt. It is the spiritual equivalent of a bowl of marshmallows masquerading as dinner.

As a cultural artefact of early-2000s New Age excess and the later dramatic fall of its creator, however, it is fascinating in its train-wreck glory. If you can find it used for a fiver or less and you enjoy camp value, go for it. Otherwise, literally any other unicorn deck (Unicorn Tarot, Unicorn Oracle by Cordelia Brabbs, or even the much-maligned but superior “Oracle of the Unicorns” by the same publisher) is a better choice.