Why I love Tarot & Oracle Cards

Lot’s of us use tarot or oracle cards and lots of people offer guidance using them, but I thought it might be nice to share why it is that I love them so much and how I use them.

To me they are not fortune telling tools, you make your own luck in this life by the decisions you make, the path you take. Nothing in our future is set in stone, except the fact that we all die one day, and even that is disputed – do we live on or is there nothing? More often than not our future is dictated by our actions today, by the road we choose when we’re stood at the fork. Nobody can predict which way we’ll go, not even the cards, not even spirit. It’s rare that anything is handed to you on a plate, so why would some cards give you that with a prediction, one which sounds too good to be true and most likely is? Most of us who use divination do so with the help of spirit, they guide us and we do our best to switch off the noise and open up to them.  I think it’s important to understand this.

Sometimes we just need a little guidance, a little reassurance, and that is what the cards offer me. When life feels like an uphill struggle and my faith is waning, they help me see the way forward once more and give me the reassurance that I can do this. We all need to be careful that we are not just seeing what we want to and that’s why it’s important to not only lean into spirit, but also to really look at the cards, at the pictures, and what they mean to you. Learning the interpretations off by heart and having one meaning stuck in your head will not give you the guidance you seek.

The tarot is broken down into major and minor arcana – the minor arcana is very similar to a set of playing cards, with 4 suits - Swords, Wands, Pentacles and Cups – and 4, rather than 3, Court Cards – Page, Knight, Queen and King. The major arcana consists of 22 cards, beginning with The Fool and ending with The World. These are considered to be reflective of major events in your life, more important than the daily grind. This group of cards is often referred to as The Fools Journey, and I will pop a blog up about that soon. There are thousands of different decks to choose from, so do not let someone else tell you that you need a particular deck, rather pick something with images that grab you, and a theme you relate to. I personally like my decks to be fully illustrated and quite symbolic, because that is the way I connect with spirit and receive guidance the best – I love anything that resonates with my own creative mind.  Oracle cards, in contrast to tarot, do not follow any particular structure, but again, always pick one with a theme that you are drawn to and images you like. Those images are what helps your intuition kick in.

My favourite way of using cards is to combine both tarot oracle decks in one reading. I usually pick my tarot cards first, but don’t look at any cards until both decks have been drawn from. They blend together so well, regardless of the individual themes - at the beginning of my journey with spirit and divination, I would never have thought a ghosts and spirits tarot deck could possibly blend with a pagan goddess oracle deck, but they absolutely can.

I’ll take you through my cards today – I had no questions or topics, just any guidance spirit wanted to share with me. To add a little context, life has felt a little challenging lately and moving forward can feel like wading through treacle, so I can feel rather stuck. I used the Ghosts and Spirits Tarot by Lisa Hunt and the Goddess Love Oracle by Wendy Andrew – I highly recommend both these decks by the way.

The first tarot card to jump out whilst I was shuffling was The Hanged Man, and this is where the imagery in this deck really comes into play. There is a skeleton, but you can only see his torso, he is stood among some very grey trees and there’s a full moon behind him. In what is almost a mirror image is a man who looks to be in motion. There is lightening all around him and he’s holding a full moon in his hands, it feels as though he is breaking free from the stagnant skeleton who will simply stand there and crumble to dust from lack of movement, in any direction. This man is coming back to life! The Hanged Man often talks about seeing things from another point of view (I keep hearing songs in my head as I type these words – perhaps another blog sometime?), but in the Ghosts and Spirits Tarot it feels to me like breaking free from stagnation and actually moving toward that different point of view, never mind just looking at it. It feels like a card of action, not inaction.

Next was the 10 of Wands and at first, I couldn’t remember the traditional image for this card, but that did not matter at all, because the image spoke for itself. Skeletons plodding along in the rain, like zombies trudging aimlessly along. But there’s a face coming out of the gloomy sky behind them – is he shouting at the zombie skeletons to wake up, or is he the controller, telling them where to go, what to do? This is traditionally a card of burdens coming to an end, or at least finding another way to carry them, but in this card, once again, there felt to be a breaking away from the current path – one skeleton is being struck by lightning, which would most certainly wake him up! For me the burdens feel more like thoughts, even though this is not a swords card, there is need for movement – in the new direction the hanged man alluded to.

Following on was the King of Cups – a pesky Court Card! I rely heavily on imagery with the Court Cards, and this one does not disappoint. The King is a ghost stood in a room with walls that look like stone covered in Verdigris and a cold, hard, cracked stone floor. There is no warmth or love there. The King has both hands clutched to his chest. To me this is saying that there is need for warmth and love in my life. It also tells me not to keep all that love to myself, it should be shared, our light should always shine. This card in particular led me to write my blog and share a little of myself – it’s a brave thing for me to put myself out there like this.

We move onto The Fool – the beginning of a new journey, the first step forward. In the picture you see a young man and his dog, because we all need a companion on our journey, ready to take that first step with us. Above him on an overhang and also below him, are what look like goblins and I imagine they are whispering to him that he will fail, that the way forward is not safe, that he can’t do this. But those are the whisperings from within, our own irrational fears that stop us ever moving somewhere new, doing something new. We must not listen to them; we must step forward. I must step forward! Being a major arcana card, this is important, it relates to big changes in life, not just small ones, like redecorating the lounge, more like relocating altogether.

Lastly, I had the 9 of cups, and anyone who knows tarot knows what a lovely card this is -it is often referred to as “the wish card”. In this deck the sky is inky blue, and you see snow floating in front of a large full moon. There is what I assume is a ghost flying through the sky, but she looks very much alive and the whole card has a feeling of peace about it. She is flying high, high above all the problems, the negative thoughts and emotions we battle, there is peace and calm. She carries someone on her back, and this reminds me that there is a time to carry and a time to be carried, without feeling guilty or ashamed. It is good to accept the help of others and equally there is no reason to feel that you must display your gratitude on some huge billboard with flashing neon lights around a huge “Thank you”. I do my best to help others wherever I can and in return it is perfectly fine to accept help. With the migraines I battle and with the wobbles my back chucks in for good measure, I experience times where I cannot function properly, where I need someone to step up and help me, even if it’s just to feed the dog. Going forward I will try to push these silly feelings away and simply say thank you.

The beautiful Goddess Love Oracle cards echoed the Tarot perfectly – Awakening, Generosity, Nurturance and Hope. On the Hope card it says “out of darkness comes light” and those little words ring so true, we must always remember them.

I finished this reading telling myself I can do this, I can take a better path, create a better life, one step at a time, and those negative voices in my head must be ignored.

I think I have illustrated the beauty of both tarot and oracle cards, the way I feel they work best and why I love them – their ability to shine a light on not just the future, or the present, but also within, is beautiful and incredibly helpful. I also love how we can all see something different in a card or reading, how we all interpret images, and life itself, from different standpoints, and that’s ok, because we’ve all had different experiences and are all on different paths – allow the cards to help illuminate your own individual path and maybe you too will find a little hope x