What Are Tarot & Oracle Cards? How Do They Help Us During Difficult Times?

Let’s face it. The date on the calendar might be different, but for many of us, life continues to be about facemasks, social distancing, overzealous handwashing and working from home.

These changing and challenging times have put a lot of undue strain on people. Many of us have turned to religion, to books, to art and to music. But there’s one tool — make that two — which have given quite a few people — myself included — immense solace during 2020.

These tools are tarot cards and oracle cards.

 

What are Tarot cards?

Cartomancy is the process of using playing cards to divine the future. But divination has for long — almost 400 years long — been just a party game. Something fun to do with a set of cards while you wait for the drinks or food to be served. In reality, tarot and oracle cards have a deeper and more practical purpose.

Tarot cards are a set of 78 cards that originated from the ancient European game of Tarotti. A deck of tarot cards is made up of 22 Major Arcana cards and 56 Minor Arcana cards.

The Majors, also called Trump cards, represent the big events, great learnings and major emotions/archetypes of life. They often take on the cultural significance of the reader (i.e., card reader) and give context to the overall energy/direction of the reading.

The Minors are the meat of the deck. These represent those individual situations that every person experiences some time in their lives. These minor arcana are divided into four suits/houses, representing various aspects of our lives. Wands represent the spiritual realm — of ideas and motivations. Swords represent action and movement. Cups represent emotions. Pentacles represent our material wealth like money, home, vehicles, family.

The thing about tarot cards is that each card has a base or fundamental meaning. What this means is that all tarot cards have a specific meaning that remains the same, irrespective of the artwork or theme of the deck.

You can even consider this meaning as the “seed” of the card. When reading your card, you’ll use your intuition, life experiences and tarot study to nurture and grow this “seed” into a full-fledged tree that has meaning to you.

 

What are oracle cards?

Unlike tarot cards, oracle cards differ in meaning with deck. The meaning of the oracle deck is derived from the creative vision, cultural/religious beliefs and emotions of the deck creator.

Let me illustrate with an example:

So, a people-based tarot deck, an animal-based tarot deck and a plant-based tarot deck might have different imagery. But the fundamental meaning of the cards in each deck will be the same. However, an oracle deck that focuses on plants will use cultural symbolism, herb magic and plant-based healing practices to provide meaning to each card. Similarly, an animal-based oracle deck will focus on that specific animal’s cultural symbolism or sometimes, what the animal means or represents to the creator of the deck.

 

How are Oracle cards different from tarot cards?

The primary difference has to do with meaning/symbolism. Tarot cards function on specific rules which are common across all decks. But Oracle cards are completely unique, with each deck representing the creative vision of their creator.

The second difference between the two is that all tarot decks come with 78 cards. This is standard. However, oracle card decks are usually smaller in size, typically numbering between 33 and 52 cards. Of course, there are a few oracle decks available today, which do offer up to 70 cards in the deck. But these are the exception.

The third difference between oracle and tarot cards is — tarot decks have 22 trumps/majors and 4 suits (wands, cups, swords & pentacles). But no oracle decks have trumps. And most oracle decks aren’t divided into suits. Instead, oracle cards represent either stand-alone energies or are grouped based on factors such as chakras or deities or intentions etc.

 

Can Tarot and Oracle cards be used together?

Yes, they can. Most readers use Oracle cards at the start of the reading to set an intention or to get a sense of the energy that will be at work during the reading. Then they pull a single tarot card or do a spread of tarot cards. A spread refers to a group/cluster of cards that are read together. Finally, they end the reading with another oracle card to encapsulate the message and set future intentions. This is a practice that I follow too.

But beyond this, Oracle cards can also be incorporated within a tarot spread as well. If say, you’re doing a 5 card tarot spread. You can replace two of the tarot cards with oracle cards. Similarly, if you are doing an oracle card reading with 5 cards, you can replace a few of the cards with tarot cards.

Of course, while we talk about substituting one type of cards for another, we do have to consider this — to be honest, all tarot cards can be used as oracle cards, because of the way in which they have been created.

Tarot card meanings go beyond that fundamental “seed” meaning. Tarot cards basically represent various aspects of humanity. They represent various major and minor life events that we all experience at some point in our lives. Oracle cards are also built on the same concept, but they’re less structured.

So, as you use your intuition, cultural references, life experiences and previous spiritual education to guide your reading, you’ll find that the tarot card opens up amazingly fresh perspectives. You may find that your tarot card reading has given you more insights than what the fundamental meaning is supposed to be and you might feel that the tarot reads like an oracle.

 

How does tarot card reading and oracle card reading help you during difficult times?

Let’s get one thing cleared up immediately.

Tarot cards & oracle cards DO NOT predict the future. They might be used for divination, but they’re not magical tools that can somehow tell you who you’re going to get married to or how rich you’ll be in the future. There are no tools that can do this. Otherwise, we’d all never make mistakes and be insanely rich.

 

So, what do tarot & oracle cards do then?

I’ll direct you to this wonderful article titled “How to Use Oracle and Tarot Cards For Deep Inner Work” by LonerWolf. Here, they’ve given such an amazing explanation of what tarot and oracle cards do for us and how to use them the right way.

“….our minds are like deep lakes. We tend to live on the surface of this lake in everyday life, but tarot and oracle cards are like fishing lines that we throw into the deep to draw up the wisdom we need.”

So, here you go. This is exactly what tarot and oracle cards are for and what they do. They don’t divine your future life, they help you create it.

Tarot and oracle cards use visual imagery in the form of colors, shapes, artwork — all of which we are wired to recognize and respond to, from primal times. In fact, so powerful are visual images, that they were the first form of communication that early humans had. Not words and language, but images.

The images and artwork on tarot & oracle cards reach deep into our minds and stir our hidden thoughts — thoughts we didn’t know we had. They bring these subconscious perceptions and beliefs about ourselves and the world, to the surface of our conscious mind; where we can break them down and study them in detail.

Once you understand and recognize that you have these thoughts/beliefs, you’ll be better equipped to recognize any negative habits or limiting actions that you normally do in your day-to-day life. You’ll recognize each time you’re about to do something that’s not good for you and stop yourself from repeating the same mistake. Through this, you’ll grow physically, emotionally and spiritually. When you’re in a great place, you’ll be more confident and sure of your own ability to succeed. You’ll be more willing to open yourself up to life’s opportunities and take chances on love, career, personal growth etc. Through this, you’ll create the beautiful life that you had envisioned for yourself.

So, by looking closely at a simple image on a card, you can unearth so much wisdom that’s hidden deep in your mind, underneath years of social conditioning and limiting beliefs. By reflecting on the imagery and symbolism of tarot and oracle cards, you can find meaning in your life and re-shape your life to be what you truly want it to be.

 

Grab a tarot or oracle deck today and get started

Now that you know how wonderfully healing the practice of tarot and oracle cards reading is, get your own deck and get started. In my blog, Stories So Wild, I will regularly publish about tarot, oracle, cartomancy and other self help tools. So be sure to subscribe to my blog, to get notified about every new post that I publish.

 

Which should you start first — tarot or oracle?

The choice is yours. If you prefer structure and rules to guide your reading, then tarot cards are better. But if you want a deck that follows a specific theme and you’re not particular about finding structure, then oracle cards are ideal.

Also, remember that tarot decks have certain cards that are considered to be negative/bad (more on that in another post). But Oracle decks for the most part are positive and affirmative in their entirety. So, if you’re sensitive to negative imagery or have experienced trauma and need gentle guidance, oracle cards can be very cathartic.

You can find multiple types of tarot decks and many types of oracle decks online. When vetting the decks, check:

• ·        Their imagery — Does it speak to you and resonate with you?
• ·        Ease of use — Can you understand what the images say or does it look too confusing or overwhelming?
• ·        Guidebook — Is it available or not (must for beginners).
• ·        Cardstock — Good quality card stock (preferably 250–400GSM).
• ·        Price — As you prefer.

If you don’t find a deck that you absolutely adore, then find a theme that you enjoy and do a deep-dive search for cards of that deck. For example, “animal tarot decks” or “tree oracle decks” or “angel/fairy tarot decks” or “affirmations oracle cards”.

Practice with the cards each day — one card daily pull is great for beginners. Write your reflections in a journal/planner. Soon you’ll see yourself changing and transforming into someone better, happier and more loving.

Tarot and oracle cards will open you up to immense wisdom, self-love and self-acceptance. You’ll never be the same again. You’ll be the better version of yourself.

 

May you have great success on your inner quest!

 

-Nisha Prakash