A Mystic’s Guide on Tarot vs Oracle by Jacqueline Fiol of Moon Soul Collective
“Divination is the quest to understand more about the past, present, and future. In other words, Tarot and Oracle readings are an attempt to understand ourselves better and discover how we might live better in the future.”
When people first hear Tarot or Oracle, they get intimidated or immediately think it’s “woo woo.” When Tarot and Oracle in actuality are great tools for self-development and growth. The cards are simply a guideline to help others level up to their highest self. From the early 14th century, playing cards were the preferred tool for divination. Divination means the practice of seeking knowledge of the future or the unknown by supernatural means. In the late 18th century, decks were created in iconic divinatory symbols associated with each playing card. Today, cards are available to purchase in hundreds of different designs. Mystics say that if it’s meant to be, the cards find you.
I was first called to cards while I was on a trip to Colorado back in 2018. It was my first trip completely alone. A friend of mine who lived there invited me to go hiking and, on our way, back we stopped at a random small town. My friend parked directly in front of this cool-looking shop; I immediately commented on checking it out. During this time of my life, I was beginning my journey to awakening and understanding the true meaning of life. I was starting to understand a thing called divine timing. I walked around the store for a bit, and as I looked at a shelf in front of me, I saw this card deck with a beautiful blue butterfly.
Blue butterflies, for me, symbolized someone special who passed in my life. Butterflies, in general, represent evolvement and rebirth. I felt called and attracted to this deck, so I decided to purchase it. I was curious to know what oracle was about; I had no idea how to use the cards and had zero education on anything card related. That moment changed my life because I unlocked pure magic. It was organic my relationship with the cards. I began doing readings for myself than others. I soon developed my unique way of pulling cards. I started to unconsciously, without any education, understand my intuition. Three years later, I began to get a calling towards the Tarot. It was all self-taught my practice; I just went with whatever I felt called and honored it. I started to educate myself more on cards and how others practiced. I found out the way I practiced was the correct way all along, making me laugh since it came naturally to me. I feel a powerful connection to cards, which led me to have four years of practice with Oracle and one year with Tarot.
Tarot is a set of 78 cards, each card representing a phase of the journey one may be going through. Tarot is represented by the Major Arcana and the four suits: Wands, Pentacles, Swords, and Cups. Tarot is known to be cutthroat, straight to the point even if it may hurt one’s feelings. Tarot is meant to shine a light on what we may be keeping in the dark. It is intended to be a tool we can use as self-reflection, especially, let’s say, when diving into our shadow selves or healing wounds, including both the ones we’re aware of and ones we’re not. Tarot also speaks about an individual’s path offering them a guideline almost. For example, Tarot can say where they have been, where they are, and where they are going. Tarot provides specific advice to a situation one may be going through, but it’s up to the individual always to take the guidance at the end of the day. Using the Tarot, we can learn which areas of ourselves we need to work on and live our lives accordingly.
On the other hand, Oracle is meant to offer grand messages you may need to hear at that moment from guides, spirit, source, or in other words, the universe. Oracle cards hold big energy; they offer insight into what it means to be part of the collective human consciousness. In contrast, Tarot provides more specific details. In an oracle deck, there’s no set universal number of cards. There can be as many as the deck’s creator decides are needed and different card shapes.
Tarot and Oracle have been known to shine a light on an individual’s life purpose and bring into awareness the true meaning of life.
My way of practicing Tarot and Oracle is through meditation.
First, find a sacred space in your home, one that is quiet with no interfering energy. I like to light sage and palo santo together before, and while I do my reading. I let my cards embrace the smoke as a cleanse and begin to shuffle. Each person has their way in how they pull cards and do readings, whether that’s picking the one card sticking out, laying out the cards and choosing one, or having a card pop out of the deck, it is genuinely whatever way you feel most called to at that time. I always recommend the little book that comes with each deck while reading Oracle. Tarot has a little book also with each deck, but I always recommend especially as a beginner who is learning to read detailed online sources where you can look up the meaning of each card. Please always take into consideration whether your card was upright or reversed. The website I highly recommend using is Biddy Tarot.
Anyone has the power to read Oracle and Tarot. The real power comes from how tapped into consciousness and awareness you are. We are all humans connected to the divine source that is life.
My current favorite deck for Tarot is Ethereal Visions, and my go-to Oracle deck will always be Universal Wisdom.
