Hello Beautiful Souls,
Today I’d like to share with you some of the Tarot card decks I use regularly and tell you how they are different from Oracle card decks. If you follow our Instagram, you’ll have seen these featured in the Tea and Cards Tuesday posts, where I do a weekly reading. I turned into a deck collector over the last 4 years. Before that, I only had about 10 decks. Now, I have around 80 decks between Tarot and Oracle decks. I support a lot of independent artists, and they have created some really beautiful decks with amazing messages. I took an art course that focused on using cards as prompts for journaling and creating artwork, and it really inspired me to learn to use the decks in more versatile ways. I’ll include some tips for you today on how to better read with your deck. First, let’s learn a bit about what the decks are if you are not familiar with them.
Today, I will only be focusing on Tarot decks, and I’ll do another blog in the future featuring Oracle decks. I just have so many beautiful decks that I’ll keep the different types of decks separate for now.
Tarot vs Oracle Decks
So, what’s the difference between a Tarot and an Oracle deck? A Tarot deck has a specific system and an Oracle deck is looser. Tarot has a 78 card system with 22 major arcana and 56 minor arcana. The majors are just that, bigger events. The minors consist of 4 categories, Cups, Wands, Pentacles, and Staffs/Rods. The minors are going to consist of some people, emotions, challenges, career and learning experiences, etc. Oracle decks can consist of any number of cards large or small. It is up to the creator what messages they want to convey, and it can feel more like affirmations in a sense with some decks.
I always describe the Tarot cards like this: They are your cool Aunt that rides a motorcycle and wears leather jackets. She tells you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. Oracle is like your Grandmother, nurturing and kind, who will tell you the positive side to everything and sometimes shelter you from the harsh realities of the world. Now, that analogy doesn’t apply to every Tarot and Oracle deck, it’s just how I perceive them to be at times. There are plenty of gentle Tarot decks and plenty of Oracle decks that will kick your butt.
Both hold immense wisdom but sometimes you receive one message better than the other. Know what you need, or pull from both and see what the cards tell you together. I often combine 2 or more decks together for a reading.
These decks can be used for the purpose of gaining insights into questions you may have. A tool for divination and introspection. It can be used for daily insights, a positive message or as a reminder of constructive personal work that needs to be done. Its purpose is not to tell you your future laid out but more often on inspiring self-analysis. Tarot helps me stay mindful and encourages me to take dedicated time to sit with my thoughts and feelings. It helps me analyze them and make sense of them in order to release or learn from my everyday experiences. Each card tells a story with its many symbols and detailed imagery.
BiddyTarot.com says it well here, “Tarot is the storybook of our life, the mirror to our soul, and the key to our inner wisdom. Every spiritual lesson we meet in our lives can be found in the seventy-eight Tarot cards.”
The Children of Lithia Tarot
The first deck I want to talk about is The Children of Lithia Tarot. I found Alexandria Huntington’s Kickstarter, and I supported it right away. It’s visually stunning. I was one of the first people to have my hands on this gorgeous deck. It has been my favorite deck to read with since. The artwork is done with beautiful colors and a fantasy feel. I love that the different sections of the deck represent different cultures. The majors are fantasy creatures while the other suites represent many different cultures and animals, and the color themes match the feel. Each card feels well-considered and thought out to bring this deck to life. For me, it’s so much easier to read a deck intuitively when all the cards have had so much love put into the artwork. For me, some decks give me the impression that they have a kind of personality about them. This deck is one of those decks. It really doesn’t pull any punches when I do a reading with them. It’s always been extremely accurate for me. I really reflect deeply on the messages I receive when I pull cards from this deck.
The Brady Tarot
The second deck is The Brady Tarot by Rachel Pollack has a rooted and earthy feel with more muted earth tone colors. It has a beautiful color palette but not as vibrant as the Children of Litha Tarot for instance. It has a stronger, bold artwork style. This deck consists of all animals, and I love this style of deck. Not everyone can relate to male/female or people in general, and an animal deck will help with that aspect. I feel more connected to nature when I read with a deck like this. I’ve always received clear messages from animal medicine, and I love it when a deck can really convey the messages through the animals. The cards have a keyword on them as well, and I love it when decks do this. It’s another aspect that helps me read it more intuitively.
I highly recommend both decks. Let’s get into some of the practices I do with my decks.
Tips for reading with your decks:
Keep a journal – On every card you pull or card spread you do. Write down your impression of the reading, colors, symbols, nature, people, animals, food etc., that stands out to you. Take some notes from the meaning out of the book. Write down the date and come back at a later time and see how it applied to your life. What insights did you gain?
Pull a card daily – See how it applies to what happened in your day.
Study your Tarot deck – Take notes on your impression of each card. Don’t always rely on what the book meaning is. This will help you learn to trust your own intuition.
Create art or write a story inspired by your card pull. – Pick 1 to 3 cards, choose 3 or 4 things from the cards that stand out to you, and create your art or story from that.
I hope this has given you some inspiration.
Be well on your journey.
~Shara
