Can I use multiple oracle decks for daily read and study? Why and why not?

[jlai1067]

Hello everyone,

 

As a beginner in the study of tarot and oracle cards, I've found oracle cards a bit "easier", therefore I've started doing daily cards read homework using oracle cards.  Here are some questions I have a hoping that members in this forum can provide some insights and opinions.  Any advise is highly appreciated.

 

I started using the Prism Oracle Card since I was immediately attracted by its color and minimalistic patterns.  I am about 2 weeks into it and have been drawing a few cards more than once.  However, I am not able to link any daily events that have any relevance to these cards.  The cards were : illuminate, fear, rejection, love, and surrender.

 

I've then started also drawing daily cards from my other oracle decks which are: The Wisdom of Tao and Oracle of the Angels.  These two decks seems to provide "more uplifting cards".  Perhaps it's because in general, the cards are more "positive" in nature?  For example from Oracle of Tao were cards such as: A New Beginning, Power, Intuition, Growth and from Oracle of the Angels were cards like: Strength, Heaven's Door.

 

I've been finding that drawing three cards from three decks seemed to provide some associations among them that can be explained. At least that was how I think, but has no one to seek as a council.

 

My questions are the following:

1. Is it ok to do daily card reads from a few different decks? if so, is this a good way to find out which deck is more suitable for me "personally" by finding out which deck's card has more significant ties related to my daily events.
2. Is there such a thing as a "beginner friendly" oracle deck?
3. In the example of pulling the same cards, it would seem that it might not be possible to go through each card in the deck, so would it be wiser to just go through each card in a methodical order?
4. A friend have suggested giving out free reads as a way of practicing, when would you recommend is a good starting point for a beginner?  I have not done so based on my lack of confidence and experience at the moment.  

 

Thanks for reading and any thoughts are welcomed.

 

 

 

 

[jlai1067]

14 minutes ago, Wildcard said:

Sure is. Like, who's gonna judge you?

Big "But": In daily draws, the meaning assigned to a card more often than not becomes minute. As an example: "Big Jackpot!" (made that up for the sake of illustration) might be you finding a dollar on the streets in a daily reading.

Also, using several decks at once - personally, I'd get confused.

 

No, not that I knew of.

Some are made with that in mind, but the only thing happening is that the amount of "positive" cards in them rises - there seems to be a missunderstanding in the industry, that transforms "beginner friendly" to "friendly only", making the whole of those decks pretty superficial.

To cope with and beeing able to read the negative cards is one of the thresholds you'll have to cross if you want to proceed on your cartomantic journey, is what I feel about that, at least.

 

"Wise", I do not know - that is some pretty high standart.

"Practical" for sure. Also, taking the deck and arranging them on a "Yay 'n Nay"-scale serves well.

Please note, if you have more positives than negatives in the deck, the negatives gain "weight" when they appear.

To illustrate: Same amount, the values could be described as positive = +1, negative = -1; if you have double the amount of positive cards to negative cards, it then would be positive +1, negative -2. If you have an amount of 24 positives to 8 negatives, it is positive +1, negative - 4.

For me, the more unbalanced the scale, the harder it gets to read with that thing.

Ideally, the amount is balanced 50/50, with neutrals in between, or at least close to that.

 

Personally, I'd recommend to first develop a grip on the cards. Those free readings tend to do more harm than they do good.

Seeing that you have an account here, and there is this oracle section, exchanges might be the way to go - because then, everybody knows that you are learning the cards, so no risk that someone places too much weight on a reading possibly off, plus:

You get that feedback! Which really helps big time in seeing how the cards you use align themselves to different questions.

Thanks for the information.  Your points well taken on multiple deck reads.  The positive vs. negative card resonate on how my mood gets affected after making the draw.  This is one aspect I will have to get used to.  Can't be all sunshine with no rainy days.  Thanks again.

Edited December 21, 2021 by jlai1067

[stephanelli]

4 hours ago, jlai1067 said:

Hello everyone,

Hi, nice to meet you! 👋

4 hours ago, jlai1067 said:

As a beginner in the study of tarot and oracle cards, I've found oracle cards a bit "easier", therefore I've started doing daily cards read homework using oracle cards.  Here are some questions I have a hoping that members in this forum can provide some insights and opinions.  Any advise is highly appreciated.

 

I started using the Prism Oracle Card since I was immediately attracted by its color and minimalistic patterns.  I am about 2 weeks into it and have been drawing a few cards more than once.  However, I am not able to link any daily events that have any relevance to these cards.  The cards were : illuminate, fear, rejection, love, and surrender.

 

I've then started also drawing daily cards from my other oracle decks which are: The Wisdom of Tao and Oracle of the Angels.  These two decks seems to provide "more uplifting cards".  Perhaps it's because in general, the cards are more "positive" in nature?  For example from Oracle of Tao were cards such as: A New Beginning, Power, Intuition, Growth and from Oracle of the Angels were cards like: Strength, Heaven's Door.

 

I've been finding that drawing three cards from three decks seemed to provide some associations among them that can be explained. At least that was how I think, but has no one to seek as a council.

 

My questions are the following:

1. Is it ok to do daily card reads from a few different decks? if so, is this a good way to find out which deck is more suitable for me "personally" by finding out which deck's card has more significant ties related to my daily events.

It's your own practise, if you find it helpful, then sure thing, good ahead!

It may not be a good way to find out which deck reads better for you because it depends what your ultimate goal with reading the cards is.

I have some oracle decks which I find are perfect for daily draws, but awful for using in a spread out with a question.  Equally I have some which are great for answering questions but not so great in daily draws!

4 hours ago, jlai1067 said:

1. Is there such a thing as a "beginner friendly" oracle deck?

Not really, because they are all their own individual system you have to learn them each separately.

But, ones that helped me get started more easily were those with either artwork I could read by intuition or a very detailed guidebook, (preferably both those things.)

4 hours ago, jlai1067 said:

1. In the example of pulling the same cards, it would seem that it might not be possible to go through each card in the deck, so would it be wiser to just go through each card in a methodical order?

This is down to personal preference.  I've been using one deck all year for daily draws and logging down which cards I get and have made some interesting findings through logging it all - I have drawn every card at least one now, and the repeating cards I've come to realise have more meaning more me as I've seen them more and I can more easily relate them to my day!

That said, if you prefer to work through them in order to study them, then do!  I'm going to be doing this with a different deck this year, probably alongside shuffled daily draws.

4 hours ago, jlai1067 said:

1. A friend have suggested giving out free reads as a way of practicing, when would you recommend is a good starting point for a beginner?  I have not done so based on my lack of confidence and experience at the moment.  

I think this is a great idea, it's one of the ways I learnt.  If you do them on-line, say on this forum then you can take your time with writing up the interpretation, look in the guidebooks and get a nice interpretation together.

You could also join in the reading circles on the forum, most of them are tarot based, but there is an oracles one you might enjoy. They restart at the start of each month so you can look out for the starting posts towards the end of this month, beginning of next.

4 hours ago, jlai1067 said:

Thanks for reading and any thoughts are welcomed.

Hope my thoughts are helpful 😊

[jlai1067]

53 minutes ago, stephanelli said:

Hi, nice to meet you! 👋

It's your own practise, if you find it helpful, then sure thing, good ahead!

It may not be a good way to find out which deck reads better for you because it depends what your ultimate goal with reading the cards is.

I have some oracle decks which I find are perfect for daily draws, but awful for using in a spread out with a question.  Equally I have some which are great for answering questions but not so great in daily draws!

Not really, because they are all their own individual system you have to learn them each separately.

But, ones that helped me get started more easily were those with either artwork I could read by intuition or a very detailed guidebook, (preferably both those things.)

This is down to personal preference.  I've been using one deck all year for daily draws and logging down which cards I get and have made some interesting findings through logging it all - I have drawn every card at least one now, and the repeating cards I've come to realise have more meaning more me as I've seen them more and I can more easily relate them to my day!

That said, if you prefer to work through them in order to study them, then do!  I'm going to be doing this with a different deck this year, probably alongside shuffled daily draws.

I think this is a great idea, it's one of the ways I learnt.  If you do them on-line, say on this forum then you can take your time with writing up the interpretation, look in the guidebooks and get a nice interpretation together.

You could also join in the reading circles on the forum, most of them are tarot based, but there is an oracles one you might enjoy. They restart at the start of each month so you can look out for the starting posts towards the end of this month, beginning of next.

Hope my thoughts are helpful 😊

100% helpful. I especially agree on visual story the cards invoke. Thanks.

[DanielJUK]

You are welcome of course to use multiple decks however you want 🙂 But why give yourself the extra work and time? That is my argument here. A Daily card is not worth spending that much time over and you want to make it a regular routine, keep it quick and simple! The biggest lesson for me as a beginner was to keep it simple, you can get good readings like that, you don't need to add anything else.

 

You can make your daily card method however you like. Commonly people will pick one deck and shuffle it and use it for like 6 months or so, so they have explored fully every card. However I pick a random card from a random tarot deck each month as the theme for that month for me. Try it out and see what works best for you.

 

Some Oracle decks verge into positive affirmation decks, especially if the cards are all positive. I would suggest that is their purpose but if you want to do readings with them, you need dark and light to get a nice balanced reading.

I have had times in my life where I badly needed a daily positive message and they are fine for that. Angel Cards are often examples of this as a genre, often they are made for uplifting messages but with no negatives. When you do readings you need to have cards for the difficult times in life or they are weighted badly.

 

When you use the oracle cards, you are going to be shuffling them to randomise them, so I wouldn't do a daily card in order. You might want to look through a deck first when you get it in order but I would always use the cards shuffled up. The randomness of the cards is important in readings, unless you are studying the cards one by one.

 

It's really hard to say what beginners oracle deck because there are so many factors. Firstly I suggest buying oracles on themes you like and are interested in anyway. Secondly read / watch the reviews, I have bought far more oracles I regret than tarot decks. The mass market decks by Colette Baron-Reid tend to be good. She has made so many and so pick one on a theme you can relate to. She tends to make good structure and pleasing artwork. One of my faves is the Earth Magic Oracle by Steven Farmer. I must have read for hundreds over the years with my copy and it gives constantly good readings and easy to read the cards. It has a loose pagan / wiccan message and nature events with the wheel of the year but it's made for anyone to use it.

 

Adding to what @stephanelli said, when you get to 5 posts on the forum, the exchange areas will reveal themselves to you. We have monthly circles, look out for them in the first week of every month to sign up to them for the rest of the month. There is an oracle one called ROC (it's in the oracle exchange area) and you are paired with someone randomly and it's fun and safe to learn in 🙂 . Also there is an exchange area in this oracle section, you are welcome when you get to 5 posts to start a thread there as something like "beginner oracle readings" or something and read for people who sign up to it. This forum is all about practising and if you read for someone, they should give you feedback, what works, what doesn't. The exchanges are a wonderful way of learning in a practical way and your friend is right about that.

[jlai1067]

14 hours ago, DanielJUK said:

You can make your daily card method however you like. Commonly people will pick one deck and shuffle it and use it for like 6 months or so, so they have explored fully every card. However I pick a random card from a random tarot deck each month as the theme for that month for me. Try it out and see what works best for you.

Good recommendation.

14 hours ago, DanielJUK said:

Some Oracle decks verge into positive affirmation decks, especially if the cards are all positive. I would suggest that is their purpose but if you want to do readings with them, you need dark and light to get a nice balanced reading.

I see your point.  Otherwise, it would be too biased as if I am simply ignoring certain situations at hand (problems).

14 hours ago, DanielJUK said:

Adding to what @stephanelli said, when you get to 5 posts on the forum, the exchange areas will reveal themselves to you. We have monthly circles, look out for them in the first week of every month to sign up to them for the rest of the month. There is an oracle one called ROC (it's in the oracle exchange area) and you are paired with someone randomly and it's fun and safe to learn in 🙂 . Also there is an exchange area in this oracle section, you are welcome when you get to 5 posts to start a thread there as something like "beginner oracle readings" or something and read for people who sign up to it. This forum is all about practising and if you read for someone, they should give you feedback, what works, what doesn't. The exchanges are a wonderful way of learning in a practical way and your friend is right about that.

This I am definitely looking forward to.  Does the 5 posts include all the replies? or new posts only?

 

Thanks again.