One of my most pleasing discoveries this year was to learn more about the work of Mat Cult. I have now built up quite a collection of his work and all are very reasonably priced and proved real workers.

Mat has a new release and I have been privileged to see a preview. It's Vital Signs and being released by Alchemy Moon. Here's the blurb and link:

'Vital Signs' is a system of utilities for readers and mentalists - enabling star sign and birth date revelations, meaningful readings, question answering and more. Featuring full-colour astrology cards, with appealing designs that look like something straight from the shelves of a New Age store.

The kit includes:
1 Deck of Zodiac cards featuring:
2x12 Astrology Signs (marked)
1x Personality Number cards
1x Dates card
1 Elements and Qualities card
1 Double-Back card
1 Crystal Pendulum
1 Zodiac Cloth
1 Drawstring Bag

The cards can be used to help with learning the dates, elements and keywords associated with each astrological sign. The marking system is subtle, but easy to read. The additional cards enable numerology readings and exploration of aspects of the participant's personality. The system naturally provokes conversations that subtly arm the performer with warm-reading information and everything needed to divine a sitter's star sign or date of birth. The Zodiac cloth and pendulum lend themselves to creative revelations and other fascinating presentations.

The 'Vital Signs' kit is designed as a tool box - a set of utility items that each performer can take in their own direction. The 16-page PDF manual that accompanies the kit does not contain many full routines, but rather a collection of ideas and techniques that can be combined and blended to produce many different effects, experiences and outcomes. Although it is easy to use, leaving plenty of space for the performer to focus on presentation and connecting with a participant, we do not recommend the system for complete beginners. Some prior experience, knowledge and imagination is required to get the most out of this set of tools.

http://alchemy-moon.freeforums.net/threa......-toolkit

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If you click on the link you will appreciate the range of items supplied, the quality and strong visual element. It is a classy release and with the cards clear, informative and very cleverly marked.

A huge amount of effort and thought has gone into this release and, if wanting an effect with an astrological flavour, a precursor to a reading or as a conversation piece, Vital Signs is well worth considering.

Some routines are given but once you have the items in your possession, other possibilities will almost certainly suggest themselves or existing effects on similar themes enhanced by what is supplied. In addition to the cards, you also receive a cloth depicting the different signs and a pendulum which can again be used in many other ways.

Given what is supplied, Vital signs is superb value and, by its very nature, will readily engage (and entertain) assisting spectators and your audience.

Very highly recommended.

Neil

I have just noticed I wrote 'Took kit' when it should have been 'Tool kit' and was too late to change.

Neil

Thanks for your kind words Neil!

Chris Gould has just put the purchase page for "Vital Signs" live on Alchemy Moon:

http://www.alchemymoon.com/#!vital-signs/c1d04

If anyone has any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

Good stuff. I was just in the process of pulling together something like this for an idea I am working on. You've done all the hard work for me and the price is very good too. So I've taken the plunge. Thanks to NeilS for bringing it to my attention. I will report back when it arrives and I've had chance to have a play.

Mat, the finished product looks great! Quite a bargain for the price, as always.

I have this too. it's great. Also I too have been slowly collecting matcult's products.

Especially love the ZOLTAR card. A perfect, one of the best actually, way to practice your cold reading. This is one card that opens up all sorts of possibilities not to mention a built in SIMPLE routine with 5 business cards. Zero sleights and very fooling. Take it easy or make it a 10 minute event. I love it.
Every newbies and experienced pros dream card.

Highest recommendation on ALL his items.

Just ordered! This looks fantastic!

I love Matt's stuff. Ordered.

Do the cards include the element eg fire, Air, Earth and Water, if so these would be perfect for my needs.

Mark

Mark
From reading through the PDF there is an Elements and Qualities Card which allows for each star sign to be classified by one of the elements, but am not sure as this will met your requirement. Although from what I have seen in the PDF this looks really nice and at a bargain price as well.


Regards Kevin

Thanks for the support everyone!

@ Mark: There's an image of some of the cards below - the circular design in the lower half of the card is a visual representation of Earth/Air/Fire/Water:



There's also an elements/qualities card, that shows the elemental associations and the cardinal/mutable/fixed status:



Hope this helps,

Mat

Actually I placed my order within seconds of asking the question, for the price this is very good value but thanks for the answer as this means the cards will be perfect for my needs.

Mark

One of my favorite aspects of this set is that in can function as a 'zodiacal tutorial'. A primer. I am not a crackerjack at astrological signs and interpretations, yet I can use this as an advantage when working with Mat's Vital Signs. This is something I can share with my participant, something to discover together, and all in the guise of "I've been learning about star signs with these practice cards." Along the way there are birthdate reveals, personality numbers, mind reading, and shared revelations -- not to mention, I am actually learning about the Zodiac in very practical ways.

Another brilliant offering from the boundless realm of The Temple of Cult.

Perkins

These arrived today, absolutely beautiful and very good value for money.

Mark

Thank you Perkins and Mark for your kind words!

Just to update on this - the first 20 kits have sold out really fast! I have materials incoming to make up the remaining 30 kits. After that, no more complete "Vital Signs" kits will be sold. Ever. I expect to start shipping the second wave of these no later than Friday, 3rd July. Please contact me if you have any questions about availability, waiting times or the kit itself - totalcult[at]gmail[dot]com

Quick update - I have all the components back in stock and am back to shipping sets. I want to let you know less than 20 complete kits remain - a steady trickle of pre-orders came in over the past couple of weeks while the bits were on order. If last time was anything to go by, these will shift fast!

Just a heads-up for those considering getting hold of one of these.

Just received this in the post today. Very well made and just what I was looking for. If you are looking for astrology cards or thinking about adding some zodiac revelations to your set - you can't go wrong with this. I'm told limited quantities left so order quick.

Http://www.alchemymoon.com/#!vital-signs/c1d04

I have been playing with Mat’s “Vital Signs” Zodiac cards. I like that I can still do a sign and birthday reveal “interactively” with people without carrying my precious C0dex book around with me (as that is for formal shows).

This deck is used for doing mindreading, magic routines, giving readings or answering questions that the sitter may have about life in general.

The set comes with a Deck of Zodiac cards:

2 sets of 12 Astrology Signs (mar**d)
2 Personality Number cards (says 2 but I only got one no big deal)
1 Dates card
1 Elements and Qualities card
1 Double-Backer
1 Crystal Pendulum
1 Zodiac Cloth
1 Drawstring Bag

The price is very generous and you get two sets of cards. I keep one set at home as I do the basic reading it gives me a spare.

This is a great learning tool and introduction to Zodiac in general.

I really like his use of mnemonic to get the key personality trait nailed.

The “identification” on the backs is visible but not noticeable and they are one way which helps to orientate and speed the detection.
Personality number card is fun and direct, people love to know their number and look up their character and it helps the reading along the way. There is a nice out if the character is wrong.
Elements and Quality card is designed as a visual table to easily cross-reference the qualities and the elements and makes for a nice and compartmentalized cheat sheet on one card which makes this very easy to memorize and support the reading.

Date card for the participant and performer to know the exact dates especially if the sitter wishes to do a reading for a person they are thinking of and are not sure of their sign.
Included are a couple of decent ideas on how to use the cards and great references for supporting literature. It’s basically a show and reading in your pocket.

The only negative and it’s not really a big deal is the pendulum. It was very nice of him to include it but I think we all have our favorites. For the price it was basically a free throw in Same with the black bag but we can all use another black bag!

Overall this is my kind of thing. Everyone loves to talk about their birthday and character traits. It was a no brainer for me to pick this up. I know it’s extremely limited and Matcult is not getting rich so he doesn’t need me to blather on how great this is. If you are lucky to get one you will most likely use it as it’s practical and small enough to carry in your wallet if you have anymore room.

Just ordered mine, not many left apparently.

Thanks for the heads up Neil.

Just ordered my set and looking forward to receiving it.

Seeing as it's through Alchemy Moon, I already know that it will be very good!

Chris really does knows his onions.

Paul Mc.