S: you're listening to episode 16 all about tarot and oracle decks. we talked about both of these as being common tools used in witchcraft, so we thought we would go a little bit more into what they are, what the differences between the two, and how that you can use them and pick one if you wanted to buy a deck.
T: Or you can use both
S: there is also something in a similar realm called angel cards, but I have absolutely no experience with Angel card because I don't work with angel spirits. I don't think Tara does either.I have no experience with angel cards we're not gonna talk about those today but I would assume that they would be kind of specifically to the angel spirits but along the same lines as like an oracle deck that we're gonna talk about.
so Tarot and oracle decks ultimately serve the same purpose, they're both tools used for divination, self discovery and spiritual growth but they are there are some differences between the two. they used to get answers from the universe and guidance about but that kind of answers and guidance differ depending on what kind of deck you're using. We will start with tarot because that's what Most people are familiar with.
T: yes they're a lot more commercially successful
S: yes so tarot decks, a lot of people think that Tarot is fortune-telling and you have to be psychic to give readings, but none of that is true. they actually date back to the 14th century Europe but we don't know exactly where they came from. but Tarot is going to be all the same. so when you get a tarot deck that they are all based around a universal structure they follow a fixed system they're always 78 cards. the most common ones are based around this single deck that's called the rider Waite tarot deck and it is the best place to start for beginners to look into the rider waite and look into getting a book about it or learning how to read that because most decks that come from that then are based on that structure and their cards will have similar meanings to that structure. so if you can read sort of that deck you'll be able to read all of the other ones that you come across.
So the 78 cards that it has, there are 22 major arcana cards and 56 minor and the 22 major are like if you pull them up in your deck they're like and exclamation point, The bigger picture , trying to get your attention, yes they are calling you to pay attention and you probably seen some of these these are like the ones like sun, moon death tower those are
T: the hangman
S: yes those are the major ones to be 56 minor ones are like a deck of cards so there's four suits in each suit has 14 cards. there and there are the four suits are wands cups swords and coins, and the ride waite is originally pentacles and so some cards use pentacles and some cards use coins just because people in Modern day don't always understand pentacles.
the suit of wands response to the element of fire which is a passion creativity and action. cups is the element of water so that's related to feelings your emotional state your imagination. swords is the air element so that's intellect mental state, things are on your mind. and pinnacle/coins is the element of earth which is material objects money your job self image and your external environment. and how those are lined up is exactly like a deck of cards in that each suit is number ace through 10 and then you have what's called the court cards which is the page the knight the queen and the king.
Tarot better suited for timeline questions so if you're like when am I going to get a raise because oracle decks generally aren't associated with like numbers where is tarot has like all those different numbers you can get like a more detailed timeline answer like five months from now because you got you pulled you know the five of pentacles/coins, which has to do with money and job in five months that's not how that works.
T: there and they're a lot better for specific questions yes very specific questions are really good with tarot.
S: now oracle cards on the other hand are for more fluid answers it's more fluid system in general. all oracle decks are completely different today and they're based on the author who created them so it's, a lot of oracle decks are out there. Now a lot of people sell them online oracle decks are more than more Indie, so they do have like a lot of popular oracle decks that you'll find in stores but I think oracle decks have risen in popularity in recent years thanks to like Instagram and YouTube and things so there are a lot of indie creators out there who have made their own oracle decks there are a lot of tarot decks too but oracle decks are individual to the creators of people who really wanted to get like their artwork out there and I think their practice out there are able to put that into oracle decks. there's so much variety out there which I think is great because I think they like look so beautiful in but each one will come with an instruction booklet, and you can read oracle cards intuitively as well, but generally you want to read the pamphlet that comes with them in order to understand what the author meant for each card. and are way more the readings are way more based on gut instinct and intuition then they are getting a definitive answer like Tarot will give you.
T: so these are good open-ended cards
S: so I have a lot of people to have both since these are used in completely different ways but they are cleansed exactly the same so we can get into how you can use them because those things are going to be the same. so you would cleanse a deck that you pick the same way that you cleanse crystals. we talked about that when we talked about crystals. so when you get a new deck you want to make sure that it is cleansed and connected with your energy so you can pass them through the smoke of sage or Palo Santo that you've lit, and you can use them, sunlight, moonlight like we talked about and you can also use crystals like we talked about. clear Quartz is one of those crystals that has a clear energy and can clear the energies of everything else around it.
T: that's what I like to use.
S: Me too, and clear quartz works fast, so when you are giving doing readings for yourself or giving readings to someone else it's really easy to just put a clear quartz on top of the deck between each reading and every time you come back to it, in order to cleanse the energy and get a clear reading, so that's what you want to do to start with.
T: that's what we do when we're doing reading that steph's house
S: after that is very important that you connect with your deck it's good to be you know in a quiet place similar to you when you are grounding and centering in order to do some sort of magical ritual, you connect with your deck in the same way in order to get a more clear reading. And then you can either do a Question reading. so a question reading would be asking the deck a particular question that's on your mind or asking and generally like about the day, week or month ahead of you. asking the deck what you need to know what's coming or ask me a specific question you know like is my coworker going to be a pain in the ass today. or you can do just a general reading so general readings are good for a year overview or like we talked about in the Sabbat ones that you can generally do you like from sabbat to sabbat get a general reading of what's going to be coming in that timeframe which is a good way to get an overview and get an idea of what you are going to be facing coming up in the things that you need to know the things you need to work on in yourself.
so where are these answers comes from is that they come from you, from things You already know. so we've already talked about everything having an energy and spirit and everything in this universe keep connected, that's part of it. so the cards provide an evolved awareness of what you already know deep with in they just bring it to the surface. so that is where your answer is coming from. which is why it's not fortune-telling and it's not you don't have to be psychic in order to do it it's things that you already know that's what you're getting your answers, you already know.
and we are going to hopefully, we are going to have, we started a YouTube channel but we do upload every podcast to it just like as another platform for people to find us on but we would like to start offering Stuff that we aren't talking about in the podcast. one of those things like to do is showing different tarot spread, some different Oracle card spreads, to give you an idea of how you go about this. because there are different, different spreads to use for you know a yearly overview or how like it, spreads for different things relating to your life, there's like a different spread for love or for physical health, like things like that and we want to show you kind of how you could do each of those, what you do those would look like so hopefully we are going to get that together. but a good place to start if you're learning how to do spreads and want to see different options and there is a really great website called Biddy Tarot, which is a Good place to learn how to read, and learn the different suits, really commit those to memory. and learn the difference spreads, and it's just like any other subject of something that you study in order to get better at. you do have to trust your instinct when you're reading it but if you need guidance on you know learning and memorizing and trusting your instincts that's a really good website to use.
so if you do not have one, how do you pick one when you're going into a store looking around online? so obviously with everything else that we've talked about as far as witchcraft tools, you want to use your gut instinct. you want to find something that you are drawn to, which can be easier to do in a person because you can feel like the decks energy and feel like that's going to work for you like other witchcraft tools but you also do it online with oracle decks because what's really going to pull you in is the imagery. That's very important because you're going to be looking at these images and doing readings so you want to find something that you connect with and I think the fun thing is that there's like so many different kinds. there's a there's a gummy bears tarot deck. there's also a little pony one and a lord of the rings so something for everyone.
as far as, you don't have to go with that traditional rider Waite with that traditional imagery, you can learn something new so if you're only looking at them online, you still use your gut instinct to find the imagery that speaks with you that you feel like you want to work with. another important thing I think to consider is price. because you can't this is one of those places that I think that you can't just go with the cheapest option. because it has to speak to you and I feel like there's there's a lot of work and energy that goes into a tarot deck especially if you're getting one that's not the traditional rider waite, that's something more modern like the gummy bears one or some thing else because there is a lot of spiritual work that the author put into the deck and a lot of physical work a lot of you know artwork being drawn and things like that and that should be reflected in the price yeah and if it's not that deck may not be accurate. you might not get good readings from it because if they just threw together something cheaply just to get it out on the market and they're not like passionate about it they're just trying to make money, then that's not going to be a very effective deck for anyone.
another way to decide if you really can't pick is to take your pendulum into the store. we do have an episode coming up next week all about pendulums, but we did talk about them already in traditional witchcraft tools and pendulums are another form of divination that you can ask a question and your pendulum will swing in an answer and a good way to choose in a store is to bring your pendulum with you and hold it over the decks you're considering and it will swing in the direction of which one will work for you.
T: This can also work When picking crystals or runes in the same way.
S: so the last thing we have in our list to talk about is to let you know which decks we have if any in those categories
T: I have a tarot deck and Ibelieve I've already mentioned the fact that I may have hurt myself on it so I don't use that one anymore I am looking for a new Tarot deck. I know that oracle decks can be very helpful but my mind is not, in the same way that I had trouble grounding and centering, my mind just does not like to make leaps into the abyss. I like the fact that tarot is you ask a question you get an answer. I like that there are maybe rules is the wrong word but they're more guidelines on how to read them how to lay them all of that. the fuzzy nature of the oracle cards drive me bonkers. Which is strange I know, we talked about books of shadows, That where I really do have just a hodgepodge not a logical thing, but I can't understand oracle cards. it's just too big for me, I don't think my mind can grasp out how big the universes maybe maybe that's what it is but Tarot is what I'm looking for the one, that just speaks to me. I don't have either right now.
S: yes that is about tarot when you go for a tarot reading or something like that the cards everybody the general pull like the first time someone pulls the card and looks at things, everyone who reads Tarot is going to have the same initial reaction to the card. It follows the rules. between different tarot decks that have different imagery, you could get like a deeper meaning, and it all depends you know the particular type of question that you asked, to get a deeper meaning to each card but in general that initial gut reaction, all card meanings are the same across the board. I mean it's it's tough in the beginning to learn 78 different cards and what each one means, but that is a really good basis then of being able to read any deck because all of those cards have the same meaning. I like of course you need to look at additional imagery and go deeper into it based on the person and question but in general you get the same answer from the same card.
so I have one of each, if you follow us on Instagram you have probably seen mine. mine are both from a online company called the threads of fate. and I have an oracle deck and I have their weaver tarot deck. the Tarot deck is called the journeyer deck and the oracle deck that I have I think it's called the shadow so I love both of them. they are gorgeous and I've talked about this in other episode that a lot of people, particularly based on their astrological sign like Tara and I are Scorpios, well I'm a scorpio, Tara is a libra, we are very aesthetically driven so I picked both of these cards because they're pretty. they have really pretty imagery that speaks to me, they're glitter gold around the edges like the glitter in the sunlight.
So I really like both of my decks because I find them incredibly accurate. I just posted the other day to our Instagram in stories that I asked the same question of the oracle deck and the tarot deck and I got basically the same answer from each. so I find both of these very accurate and I really enjoy both of them. the way that a use them. so the oracle deck I actually use every single day, in the morning and pull a card for that day. my general question that I ask is you know what is the day going to look like? what do I need to know going into it? so I can get a feel for like how the day is going to For the tarot deck I generally use it at the start of a month to get, to do like a bigger spread just of what's coming kind of in each area of my life that I'm focusing on in terms of goals for this year. just to kind of see how like that month is going to go, pull a card for each of those. I also use it from sabbat to sabbat, that's how, one of the ways I celebrate each sabbat is to do a reading of what's coming in the longer-term. so depends on what I'm feeling when I do that but I do usually do like a year ahead spread.
I know a lot of people have huge collections of different kinds of decks and they work with because there are a lot of different types for different imagery and questions, so there are just specifically related to love, so if you know do a lot of readings related to love or do readings for other people related to love there is a deck specifically for that and there's one specifically for money and things like. Some people generally have like iF this is like their chosen tool with witchcraft and really work with them a lot, it's their preferred method of divination, people do have a Large collection of these but those are the only two that I have.
T: the person I know that has a huge collection of these she actually does readings for other people she loves it and she will bring out a collection that she feels might be suited to them and then they actually choose the deck that she has a reading on and she thinks that gives her a clear reading on their situation and the question.
S: That is all we have for you this week on tarot and oracle deck if you have any questions for us please leave us a voicemail listen to the end to find out how to do that or ask us on Instagram and we will tell you anything that we know the answer to. and if you do have a Tarot or oracle deck or angel cards and please share those pictures and tag us we would love to see what you have. we will see you next week four episode 17 pendulums.
No comments: