Oracle cards are a close cousin to tarot cards. They come in a deck and have imagery, symbology, and numerology that helps users to interpret their meaning. Beyond that, they diverge from tarot cards because they do not have a standard way of interpreting their meaning. While tarot card decks can have different styles and themes, anyone can pick up a deck and use the same technique and basic understanding of tarot cards to interpret their meaning.
What about the oracle cards meaning? Oracle card decks are all different and created to have different meanings, themes, and uses. They come with guidebooks written by the creator of the deck that function as a basic guide for interpreting that specific deck. Unlike tarot cards, someone who knows how to use an oracle cards deck would not be able to just pick up any deck and interpret it like they interpret another deck.
History of Oracle Cards
Oracle cards are a bit more recently invented than tarot cards. Tarot cards evolved from playing cards, which were first popularly used in the 1300s. Over time, people began to tie meaning to different cards within the deck according to the image and timing. Slowly, decks started to be created with new imagery, such as symbolic or popular icons from religions and myths. Cards were added and the names of the suits were changed. Over a couple of hundred years, the tarot card deck was born.
Tarot card readers began pulling cards at random from the deck and using them for fortune-telling. The oracle cards deck came about a bit later as tarot cards became less popular. Most notably, oracle cards were invented and became popular in the early 1800s in France with the Lenormand cards. These cards were similar to tarot cards in that they had numbers and images or symbols, but they differed in the number of cards per deck. Many popular fortune tellers in France used oracle cards as divination tools for their sessions or a way to help with spiritual expansion.
Tarot cards and oracle cards regained mass popularity in the 1900s during the Hippie and New Age Movements. While tarot cards retained their structure (78 cards per deck with standard interpretation rules), Oracle cards continued to evolve, and artists everywhere took to making their own unique decks.
How to Use Oracle Cards
When it comes to technique, using an oracle cards deck is very similar to tarot cards. You want to pick out a deck that speaks to you and build a relationship with it over time. You need to connect with the cards, learn to trust them, and respect them as a tool to develop and learn about yourself.
Whether you use tarot cards or oracle cards, there is a learning curve. For tarot cards, it’s time spent learning each card’s meaning, different spreads, and what it means when a certain card comes up at a specific time. For oracle cards, it’s more about using the guidebook at first to get your feet wet, then allowing the cards to speak to you and create meaning in their relationship with your journey.
To get started using an oracle cards deck, you can use this step-by-step guide:
1. Create a Sacred Place
Oracle card decks will be most helpful to you when you treat them and your spiritual practice with respect. The cards are a spiritual resource, a tool for tapping into your true self and the messages that the Universe is sending you. Some oracle card lovers say that the best way to connect with your cards when you first get them is to carry them with you and play with them throughout the day, infusing them with your energy. At home, you’ll want to pick a special place to keep them stored safely as well as create a sacred place for using them for readings.
You might decide to set up a dedicated shelf or an altar at home to store them along with your other divination tools, like your crystals and sage. When you get ready for your session, create a space that helps put your mind, heart, and soul in the right place. Make the area beautiful and peaceful. Burn some sage to clear the air. Light some candles and create a soundscape if you want. Do whatever you feel you need to do to put yourself in the right place!
2. Set Your Intentions for the Reading
If you take nothing else away from this guide, remember this: intention is everything. If you do not enter a card reading session with a set intention in mind and take the divination tools seriously, then you won’t be building the trust and energy necessary to get a good reading.
Think about why you decided to try oracle cards in the first place. Did you have a past trauma that’s been clinging to you? Is there a current situation or person that is causing you stress and pain? Are you worried about something specific in your future? Are you looking for a way to get in touch with your true self and find the right path going forward?
When it comes to oracle cards, you might want to keep your intentions a bit more general than you would for a tarot card reading. The point of an oracle card reading is to get general guidance on which you can meditate, reflect, and use as a channel to your inner self.
3. Connect With the Cards
Each person can form their own ways of connecting their energy with the cards before they begin a reading session. Some choose to knock on the cards, some choose to shuffle them while they focus on their intention. Try clearing everything out of your mind, finding a peaceful place, and falling into a deep breath.
It’s important to take your time as you do this. Shuffle and play with the cards and do whatever else feels comfortable until you feel ready to start your reading.
4. Picking Out Your Card(s)
Once you’re ready to begin the oracle card reading, spread out the cards evenly across your space. Take your time, hover your hand over the cards, and wait until you feel a magnetic pull to one or more of the cards. Pull the cards you feel especially connected to during this session.
Put the rest of the deck to the side and set the cards you’ve picked out in front of you. You don’t have to dive right into the reading, either. Spend time sitting with the cards you’ve picked and allowing them to speak to you and connect with you. Remind yourself of your intention and see if you can begin to pull meaning from the cards before you refer to any guidebook.
5. Dive Into the Guide
Your oracle deck will come with a guide by the creator who sets out a basic interpretation of each card or helpful meditations based on the card that will help you find the meanings. If you’ve already started to pull intuitions from the cards, then you might find helpful additional insights in the guide. The guide is also great if this deck is new to you or you’re completely lost on the meaning of the card you pulled.
How to Use Tarot and Oracle Cards Together
While tarot card decks have a strict structure to them, oracle cards are much more free-spirited. Tarot cards lend themselves to very detailed readings, while an oracle cards deck can be much more interpretive and big picture. You might prefer one over the other, but you can also use both. Further, you can even use them both in the same session to make a reading even more intuitive and helpful.
For example, many people involved in divination might choose to open their reading session first with an oracle cards deck. They might pull cards for past, present, and future and use them as an overall guide or tone-setter for the rest of the reading. Once the oracle cards have established the topic and tone, a further tarot card reading can help interpret the messages in more detail because of their structure.
Another way to use them in combination is to limit your oracle card reading to a single card. You could pull one card that would be your message for the day and then follow with a tarot card reading that could help further explain that message.
Other users might choose to start with a tarot card reading and pull an oracle card if the message is still foggy. They might pull a few tarot cards and try to put together a narrative but not fully understand exactly what they’re referring to. By pulling an oracle card, you might be able to put more context to the narrative and make better use of your reading.
Expanding Your Mind, Heart, and Soul During Your Session
Oracle card decks come with fewer cards than tarot card decks do because the cards are meant to be much more universal. While tarot cards refer to very specific things, an oracle card reading can be interpreted for much more general guidance. Many users of divination tools love oracle cards because they can expand the mind—they don’t keep one within the box of the strict formations and interpretations of tools like tarot cards. Instead, they encourage you to think big picture and outside the box, working to find the meaning of the card in relation to your life’s journey.
With oracle decks, you’ll also have the guidebook that can act as your jumping-off point—you can use the author’s interpretation for the card as a starting point before you meditate on it and start to apply that message to your own situation.
If you choose to use oracle cards on their own, there are many different ways to utilize them and interpret them. As a beginner, you might prefer to start with one card. Some users choose to use the card they pick that day like an affirmation. They might carry it with them throughout the day, use it as a reminder, and constantly reflect on the message that the card deck is trying to communicate to them. This can be a great way to continue building a connection with the cards, and the card’s meaning might change or become more clear as the day goes on.
If you’re looking for more, you might start adding more cards to your daily session. Maybe you choose to pick three cards – one to stand for the past, for the present, and for the future. Or you might choose to use them to stand for your conscious and subconscious worries and to identify what could be holding you back and what you should do to move forward. You could even pull a card for the heart, mind, and soul.
Oracle cards are extremely flexible. If you’d like to apply more tarot card-like rules, you could try pulling from the card deck and assembling the cards into a formation.
Some people like to use the Celtic Cross, which is a line of three vertical cards with a card on each side of the middle card. In this formation, the middle card acts as the card that identifies what you should know in the present moment. Then, the top card stands for what’s been on your mind. The bottom card stands for what’s been worrying your subconscious. The card on the left stands for what has brought you to this moment, and the right card stands for what you could achieve in the future.
Or, you could set one card at the top as a guidance card and then pull several cards to line up for a more detailed narrative. In this formation, the top card would help you set the overall theme or message for the reading. Then, you would set down cards in order of the past, present, your bridge, the future, and the block. The past card shows how you got to this moment, the present card shows you where you are, the bridge card shows what led you from past to present, the future card talks about what is possible for you, and the block card helps you identify what might be holding you back from your potential.
Tips On Applying Oracle Card Readings to Everyday Life
As you use the formations and guidebook as a way to interpret the cards, you’ll want to use the message for your everyday life. Oracle cards are meant to help you analyze your life and get in touch with yourself, but then you need to take it a step forward and work on self-development. Use the message the cards are communicating to you to better yourself!
During your oracle card reading, you might find it helpful to keep a journal. Over time, you might see patterns and be able to learn even more from the cards. You can identify which events in your past are truly significant to you and work on forgiving and letting go. If your past is holding you back, you can work on learning lessons and growing from the hurt. If the cards keep pointing out something significant coming down the pike or an opportunity you should take advantage of, this is a great time to identify what might be holding you back or what could get in the way of you achieving your full potential.
My Personality Cards: A Channelled Oracle Deck for Personal Growth
Because oracle cards are so flexible, creators everywhere are making their own unique decks with one-of-a-kind interpretations. Finding the right decks for you and your situation will make your sessions even more helpful to your growth.
For example, I created my own deck called the Personality Cards, where each card has a personality trait or identity that can help the user identify their own strengths, tendencies, and weaknesses. I took a lot of time to create a guidebook in which each card is named, described, and paired with meditations that can help you dive deep into your true self and pinpoint where you are on your life’s journey.
You can learn more about how to use my Personality Cards and see if they’re helpful to your spiritual and self-development routine.
REMEMBER!
You are a beautiful Living Being filled with light and love, born from stardust. You are unlimited potential in every direction. With a focus on discipline, virtue, and your own goodness, you can become as expanded and liberated as you desire.
Pray for others and the Universe prays for us.
LOTS OF BLESSINGS TO YOU!
There is no “Other.” There is only you experiencing yourself.
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.
