How I started reading Oracle Cards

Oracle cards have been a companion throughout my journey. As well as using them professionally, I have used them as a tool for clarity, self reflection and as part of my daily practice.

The word oracle comes from the latin Orare which means ‘to pray’ or ‘to speak’ and refers to communication from the divine. Oracle cards are a more modern interpretation of tarot cards. They vary greatly from deck to deck, but they don’t tend to have as detailed a structure as the Tarot, which always has 78 cards, divided into four suits: swords, cups, pentacles and wands. Some oracle decks simply share a message on each card. 

USING CARDS AS A DIVINATION TOOL

My first experience of using cards as a divination tool was with the Tarot. I was introduced to tarot cards when I was a teenager by my friend Sheila, who was the mother of the children I was babysitting, and I could not get enough of them. I remember the night I went home with them, I stayed up most of the night totally engrossed with them.

In this first year of using tarot cards I was both fascinated and a little timid about doing readings for other people, for fear of saying the wrong thing. But the more I worked with them the more I understood them and the more confident I got.

MY FIRST ORACLE DECK

I was then gifted my first oracle deck (an angel oracle) by the mother of one of my friends who passed away. She gave them to me as she had found comfort in working with the cards as a way of connecting with her son (my friend). And so I began to do the same. It was then that I fell in love with oracle cards. I loved the flexibility and the different themes that I could explore in each of the decks that were available. I had a dream then to one day create my own!

DEVELOPING MY INTUITIVE SENSES

Through my mid-twenties I then began training in the intuitive arts and refining my ability to do intuitive readings. I found that oracle cards provided a wonderful, grounded structure to begin doing readings professionally. I found I felt more confident to have something physical to organise the intuitive information I received and I found it also gave my clients something to focus on during the readings, which helped them open up.

Having the cards as a physical reading device also gave me confidence to understand and trust the information I received. I also began understanding the different intuitive senses as delivery devices for my soul to speak through me. I then began being able to differentiate between what information was mine and what was someone else’s.

After previously using the card guidebooks as my primary source of information, the more I worked with the cards, I soon began letting each of the cards act as portals for my inner wisdom to flow.

STEPPING OUT OF THE SPIRITUAL CLOSET

By the time I reached my early thirties, I had gathered up the confidence to step out of the spiritual closet and quit my day job in my previous career to focus on my intuitive work and writing full time.

I launched my website and created my first online oracle – The Instant Guidance Oracle – which was made up of the daily intuitive guidance I had received for myself each day on my morning walks. The messages from my Instant Guidance Oracle on my website actually turned into the first writings of my first book Light Is The New Black, which can be used as an oracle due to the short chapter style. You can ask it a question and open it to a random page for an instant hit of guidance.

As someone who is extremely visual and creative, after having had my first two books published, I knew that I was ready to create oracle decks for myself. I then went on to create my first oracle: The Work Your Light Oracle. Two years later I created The Starseed Oracle. And then my latest oracle The Rose Oracle.  Currently The Rose Oracle is my absolute favourite as it’s so rooted in the feminine mysteries and the cycles of nature!

FINDING YOUR OWN UNIQUE WAY OF WORKING WITH THE CARDS

I use cards everyday as part of my spiritual practice. Each morning I do a two-card spread called the Soul Whispers spread to receive clarity on 1) what my soul is calling me to do that day, and 2) a grounded action in the direction of this call. 

Trust that you will find your own unique way of working with cards. No matter where you are on your card reading journey, know that the more you work on your craft, the more of a master you will become and the more your own way of card reading will emerge and bloom.

Feel free to take the things that resonate with you as inspiration from myself and others. But above all, always trust how you are being led to work on your craft as a card reader and remember that you truly are the oracle.

Would you like a personalised oracle reading sent to you directly in the mail? I do a limited amount of them each week and send them with a lot of love from Glastonbury. You can order yours here.