Did you know that using oracle and tarot decks can be a profound spiritual tool and practice? It is for us and for a growing number of holistic-minded people.
Oracle card decks can be used for guidance, insight and inspiration. A tarot deck is a particular kind of oracle, with a certain number of cards and suits. It has been around for centuries, since ancient Egyptian times.
Oracle decks differ from the tarot cards in their themes, number of cards and purposes. There are hundreds of different oracle decks, focusing on areas like healing, nature, inner child, sacred sites and symbols.
There are also many variations on the classic tarot deck, with its major arcana (big picture) and minor arcana (details) cards. Whether you use an oracle or tarot deck, there is a wide array of choices and focuses. There is also a range of spiritual depth the deck embodies.
On the shallower end, say a teddy bear or cupid deck, it may be more like an entertaining game, a fortune cookie or even a superstitious experience.
But with the right decks, you have a versatile, intuitive tool. Using the deck’s pictures, words and interpretations can be eye- and heart-opening. The cards can spark your intuition and creative thought, revealing hidden meaning and profound insights. This can confirm your hunches and thinking.
We will explore how oracle and tarot decks can deepen your life’s experience — and we’ll include an oracle card reading that we did for this article.
1. Gaining inner wisdom.
An oracle card reading starts with a focus, posing an open-ended statement or question. For example, you can ask “How can I optimize my day?” This question will connect the card’s message to your current situation and the big picture. Such an approach triggers deeper awareness and meaning.
2. Developing your intuition.
When you focus on the oracle card — with its words, images and guidebook interpretation — it makes connections in your creative mind.
Tuning into the card bypasses linear, analytical thinking. It catapults you out of your default thinking patterns. You then naturally think outside the box. This means your intuition is active.
Let us shed some light here by way of analogy. Weightlifting will use your muscles and build them as well. With oracles, you use your intuition, as well as build your intuitive strength in the process.
3. Connect with important archetypal patterns and universal themes.
The cards reveal patterns that have been a part of humanity since its beginning. For example, the collective mind has an image like the “fool” or “dreamer”, or the “sun” or the “moon.” These all have gathered meaning throughout time and human experience. It’s part of both our individual and collective experience.
Here’s an important to note that we have access to a collective mind as well as our own individual mind. They are both integrally linked. When we draw an oracle card, it connects with universal archetypal meanings, as well as what is going on in our individual situation now.
Special Oracle Card Reading for this Article
To gain insight on our topic, Phillip did an oracle card reading. The reading’s focus was “how to have a spiritual approach to oracles and tarot.”
He drew a card from The Sacred Destiny Oracle Deck by Denise Linn. The card was “Solitude,” showing a person canoeing around an island that was backlit by the full moon.
Here was a portion of the reading focusing on the solitude card that he drew. Phillip used voice to text in Microsoft Word to render it:
“You can consider your individual space a sacred space for the reading. This can be in a meditative space or anywhere where you are alone. Being in nature is a good choice as well. The idea is just to be with you and your spirit and let the cards be an interface. It is a living medium to illuminate your mind with soulful connections during the reading.
A spiritual approach to a reading is aligned with spiritual drives and purposes. This means your life purpose, deeper meaning, spiritual relationships and big-picture understanding of your life and the world at large.
When you are in a pure, solitary place, free of distractions, your mind and heart can open without agendas or filters. In this open-hearted space, you can find deeper meanings from your reading. Let the meaning unfold naturally, organically. It may start slowly in pieces, and then over time, form a fuller, complete picture for your understanding.
In the process, you can free your mind to go to different places that have truth and direction that you might not be able to perceive in your everyday life with an analytical mind. It takes the filters and caps off your reality. Then you are freer to understand things in their own way. Then it becomes right for you in your situation, in the now of this reading.”
Final Thoughts on Using Oracles and Tarot as a Spiritual Tool
Using oracles and tarot is a great way of bringing spirit into form. In the process, you will develop your intuition and wisdom. Your life will be enriched with more guidance, direction and clarity.
As more people open to oracles for spiritual development, there will be more awakening lighting up the planet. This may be gradual until a tipping point occurs and oracles become more mainstream. In the meantime, you have a great opportunity to use oracles and tarot as a spiritual tool and practice to help you in your daily life.
Going Further
If you’d like to learn how to use oracles and the tarot and much more, we have a Spiritual Guide Certification Program that explores many practical and transformational perspectives.
Also for a group experience and to receive a mini-reading on your most important spiritual questions, find out about our Spiritual Coaching Oracle Mini-Reading Group Experience