- A huge box. The thick, sturdy gameboard alone is 2 feet x 2 feet, and folds into quarters. I A magenta-colored circle in the center gives keywords for each of the 12 Houses of the Zodiac. For example, the 1st House is Ego/Personality, the 2nd House is Life Values, the 3rd House is Self-Expression, and so on. Outside of the inner circle containing House keywords lies the Chronos Wheel. The Chronos Wheel is made up of 12 blank 'pie' slices (just like an Astrological Natal Chart, but with Houses evenly spaced.) Outisde of this is a second blank wheel, Kairos. Finally, the outside of the Wheel has 12 blank areas for the Cosmic Wheel.
- A plastic package of 4 felt-tip, dry erase markers in red, blue, green and purple.
- A small, gray eraser (I assumed that's what it was...and I was right!)
- The entire 78-card Archetype Deck (including 6 blank cards). I haven't done a card for card comparison, but I'm familiar enough with the deck to notice that The Clown has been replaced by The Fool--but interestingly, the card retains the description of The Clown. (In Sacred Contracts, these Archetypes were differentiated.)
- A pad of 50 blank 3-Wheel templates
- An 83 page booklet almost twice the size of the one in the original Archetype Deck. However, some descriptions of the Archetypes have been shortened compared to the smaller booklet that came with the original deck.
Although the game board is sturdy, the packaging isn't. The golden matte cardboard holding the die and eraser practically folded in on itself when I tried to fish out the dice. The game cover isn't very sturdy for the size of the game, either.
The Guidebook explains that it's not necessary to read Sacred Contracts to play this exploratory "game". I'd have to say that I'd be surprised if anyone could just pick up this game, pick their Chart of Origin, and then go on to the other 2 Wheels! There are some of us that have been working with the Myss model for years and still get confused just with the Chart of Origin, let alone throwing in the Kairos and Cosmic Wheels. There's even an explanation of how 2-4 players can play this game for corporate guidance, although I'm pretty confused as to how that would work. The Guidebook explains that, after each person picks their 12 natal archetypes (that are the foundation of the rest of the other Wheels and supposedly never change), they can then contribute several of their cards each, put them on the gameboard, and then seek guidance by doing a 3 tiered corporate wheel.
Confused? So was I.
The Good Stuff
I think the huge game board can be very beneficial. You could use it as a template for Tarot readings, oracle readings, or with the Archetype cards, especially to see how archetypal energies play out in the Houses. You could use it for conscious archetypal work, as well as for divination purposes. The dry erase surface makes it easy to write in archetypes, and play around with the House system. If you find the game board too unwieldy, you can always use the paper templates. You could even use it for examining your astrological wheel, and writing in synastry chart information when examining relationships.
Those who are devoted to the Myss model or who love to examine archetypes will no doubt be intrigued and delighted with this interactive game. However, it must be said that it's possible you may end up more confused than enlightened after it's all said and done.
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