How to Apply Oracle & Tarot Cards To Your Everyday Life
At first, many people start using tarot cards and oracle cards out of curiosity rather than pure utility. It can take time to learn how each deck works and if it fits your personality and life themes well. If you’re interested in diving deeper into your card reading practices, you might be wondering how you can take your readings to the next level by applying them to your daily life.
Oracle cards and tarot cards work differently for everyone, and each person has unique needs and desires for their outcomes when doing readings. It’s important to fully understand what each deck offers as a resource as well as its limitations.
Let’s talk about the difference between the two and how to apply your readings!
What’s the Difference Between Oracle Cards and Tarot Cards?
Not many people inexperienced with divination realize that oracle card decks and tarot card decks are two very different things. While tarot cards have been around for centuries — some say originating in the 1500s — oracle cards were a more recent invention that came about when tarot cards started to lose popularity. Now, both have found their revival in the Hippie and New Age Movements of the 1900s and are often used side-by-side in divination practice.
Tarot cards are much more structured and follow specific standard rules. They derive from the playing cards used as early as the 1300s that we still recognize today — the 52-card deck made of 4 suits and numbered cards that we play and gamble with. Tarot cards now have kept their structure but look different than playing cards. They have their own imagery originating in mythology and religious icons, and while they are still numbered and suited, the suits and numbers are quite different.
Oracle cards, on the other hand, are much more free-spirited. There are no real standards to the number of cards in the deck, suits, or imagery used. There are also no set rules across the board for how to interpret the cards. While any tarot card deck can be picked up and read effectively by anyone, each oracle card deck comes with its own guidebook that teaches you how to read it.
Choosing Tarot Cards, Oracle Cards, or Both
Some people involved in divination prefer one kind of deck over the other. Some choose to use both. Tarot cards have a very specific structure and standard rules, so they often help with much more detailed readings that users feel comfortable entrusting their goals with. Oracle cards can be much more interpretive, as users can soul search for the correct deck that fits their personalities and needs, and provide more big ideas and bird’s-eye-view readings than tarot cards.
For example, someone looking to have a very positive, good vibe experience with readings might choose an oracle deck that guides the user through more optimistic readings. On the other hand, someone looking for a straight-shooter-truth-type reading with detailed outlooks might choose a tarot card deck, which will not spare anyone from its strict interpretations.
The third alternative is to use oracle cards and tarot cards together! Many people involved in divination enjoy using oracle cards to start off reading because the cards chosen can set the tone and point out big ideas. Then, they’ll move on to the tarot cards to get more details.
At the end of the day, using oracle cards and tarot cards is a personal journey, so you should experiment with different decks and combinations to see what works best for you.
Everyday Use of Tarot Cards and Oracle Cards
Both for the sake of practicing reading the decks and of establishing a consistent, helpful practice, you should commit to using your decks every day. Try using your oracle cards, tarot cards, or a combination of the two during your daily ritual, whether that’s along with your meditations, prayers, yoga, or any other spiritual practices you have. It’s best to at least start off the day this way so that you can get in touch with yourself and cleanse your energy to take on the day ahead. You can also close out each day at night with a follow-up practice.
Set Your Intentions
Before you do anything, you’ll want to set your intentions. There are many different reasons why someone might feel they need to establish a daily routine of ritual and prayer, and these reasons can change over the course of one’s life. It’s possible that you are seeking healing, whether that’s emotional, psychological, or spiritual. Or maybe you have a very pressing, difficult situation in which years have been lost to frustration, stress, confusion, and even guilt. Maybe you have huge goals, whether that’s with our career, your faith, or your self-development.
No matter what your reasons are, you’ll need to make them known to your divination tools. Knock on your deck before each session to connect your energy with the cards. Keep your mental focus on your intentions as you shuffle the cards.
Decide On a Way to Read the Cards
Oracle cards have no set ways of reading, so it’s fully up to you how you use them. The guidebook that came with the deck might offer suggestions. The most popular way to read both oracle and tarot cards is to set them up into past, present, and future categories. If you are using oracle cards to set the tone for a tarot card reading, this is certainly helpful as the past, present, and future oracle cards can give you a large view of the categories while the tarot readings can give you more details into each.
Become Familiar With the Cards to Intuit Meaning
Readings are not simple. Building a relationship and connection with your decks is extremely important to interpreting what each card means as it comes up during your sessions. At first, it can be overwhelming to see all the imagery, symbols, and numbers. Over time, you’ll begin to understand each card on a deep level and more quickly understand what the deck is communicating.
At first, using the guidebook for oracle card decks can really help to get your footing, but it’s important to remember that these guides are from the author’s perspective. Ultimately, the cards will build a relationship with you and create their own meanings that specifically apply to your spiritual connection with them. That’s when you know it’s time to stop using the author’s guide as a crutch.
Applying Your Card’s Message to Your Day
If you are practicing full readings every day, then you will gain a wealth of knowledge and insight into yourself and your journey. Tarot cards and oracle cards can help you readjust the way you are handling a situation, work through emotions you’ve been struggling with, or even point out things that you hadn’t been paying attention to before.
For example, my unique card deck – The Personality Cards – comes with a guidebook that helps interpret different facets of the human personality. Each personality trait has its own card, and the user can pull cards and use the coinciding meditation in the guidebook to dive deep into themselves and evaluate how they have journeyed through life, how they can improve, and the possibilities for their future.
Some people even use oracle cards as affirmations for their day. They might pick a single card and use it as the main message to focus on, apply to themselves, and facilitate growth.
REMEMBER!
Tarot cards and oracle cards do not provide “answers” in the way we might believe or want them to. Instead, they are tools for meditation and guidance. Each card can help us see ourselves with clearer eyes, cleanse ourselves of pain we’ve been gripping onto for far too long, and help us heal and move on to bigger and better things.
Ultimately, using these divination tools can help us break out of our limited view of reality and see things for what they truly are and how expansive the Universe truly is. The cards do not make us better people — we make ourselves better people through the use of these incredible tools!
Meet Paul Wagner
Paul Wagner (Shri Krishna Kalesh) is an intuitive mystic, clairvoyant reader, and a loving life & business coach. He created “THE PERSONALITY CARDS,” a powerful Oracle-Tarot deck that’s helpful in life, love, and relationships.
He created The Shankara Oracle, a profound divination tool that includes 18 gemstones, a lavishly designed divination board, and over 300 penetrative oracle cards – all to help you heal to your core and illuminate your Being.
Paul studied with Lakota elders in the Pecos Wilderness, who nurtured his empathic abilities and taught him the sacred rituals. He has lived at ashrams with enlightened masters, including Amma, the Hugging Saint, for whom he’s delivered keynotes at Her worldwide events.
Paul tours the world lecturing on spiritual liberation. He lovingly offers intuitive readings, inspirational coaching, and illuminating courses to help others with self-discovery, decision-making, healing, and forgiveness. Book a session with Paul: HERE
