For most of us who use the Tarot regularly, the more you use it, the more you feel like you are have a talk with the Divine. As you learn the nuances of meanings of whatever deck you use, as you become more comfortable working with each card, the work becomes more like a conversation than an announcement. However, even with the degree of knowledge and comfort, there will be times that the message gets lost in the translation or is just not there for you to see. It is kind of running head long into a train wreck.
Sometimes you can ask the question in a different way, turn over another card to get a better meaning; unfortunately, this tends to muddy the waters even more. I would suggest bringing in an oracle to help with the situation.
Now oracles can come in different forms. There are oracle decks like Celtic Tree, Medicine Animals, Osho Zen, and the Cat & Dog Wisdom decks. (Some would include a regular playing deck but I tend to think that as Tarot Deck, but I will get into that another time.) Others can use items like a pendulum or I Ching coins. The most important thing is that this would have to form of oracle you are familiar with. If you just bought a new deck of animal or tree cards, you don’t want to experiment. Things get easier once you have worked with and gotten comfortable with your oracle deck. Working with the Tarot and Oracle deck individually first – then work on using them together.
So what oracle tool is best for working with the tarot? I found myself working with several oracle decks, tools that I had acquired and gotten familiar with. I had worked with my main deck (The Witches Tarot) in conjunction with a scrying mirror, I Ching coins, Robin Wood Tarot, several different oracle decks with varying outcomes. In the end, I found that main deck works well with my I Ching coins.
You can ask several questions when finding an oracle to work with. Does one particular oracle draw you strongly? Does an oracle deck’s artwork seem to compliment or contrast against your working deck in some way? I tend to use the same questions you would use when determining a tarot deck to work with. Once the choice has been made, how do you use tarot with another oracle?
For instance, let’s start off with you using the Robin Wood Tarot (my backup deck) in a standard Celtic Cross spread. The read is not making any sense whatsoever. Say you have a rather unpleasant card in the near future / hope spot, such as the 3 of swords. Why would anyone want wish to have pain and loss in their future? Adding more cards or using the card in question as a foundation for another Celtic Cross reading doesn’t pan out.
What you do next with your oracle depends on the type of oracle you pick. Say you decide to use the animal oracle deck (i.e. Medicine Animal, Druid Animal), you would only need to pull one card for each card in question in the read. Perhaps you pull the dolphin, a card of loving and overcoming strong emotions. Matching this up with the 3 of Swords you can come up some questions. Are you sabotaging the relationship on some unconscious level? Are you making things harder than it should be? Is hardship connected to your idea of love? Now things more defined.
When using entity oracles (animals, angels, plants), experience has taught me that the simpler, the better. Usually drawing a single card lifts the fog off your reading. The more you pull and you’ll find yourself back in muddy waters again. It’s like asking an opinion from a group of people. You will get many answers that might be right in their own way, but you are no closer to finding a solution.
Again, going back to 3 of Swords when I decide to use the I Ching and throw the coins. I get Nourishing to Brilliance Injured (Yi to Ming Yi). Going from a state satisfying ones needs to a point you should be careful what you put in your mouth. When you bring this to 3 of Swords you would get the bliss of young relationship but when that initial euphoria dims a bit you realize on some level that the relationship needs to change but you are not sure in what way. The resting state (Ming Yi) tells you to hold back, take stock, and proceed when it’s safe to do so. It would suggest that you have jumped into a relationship with very little foundation. So, you must slow things down and see if you can develop one. On the surface, you may not wish to make the changes, but on a subconscious level, you know that changes are needed. The clarity that can both delight you and cause a sense of loss – which be the spark of action.
You can do this with runes or any sort of oracle that you feel comfortable using. A friend of mine pairs her Fae Tarot with The Faeries’ Oracle. She finds that synergy these two decks have overcome any difficulty she comes up with in a reading.
Experiment, play with the tools you are comfortable with. While there is a school of thought that tarot should only be used on very specific conditions; and you don’t want to abuse your relationship with the Divine with mundane or petty issues, it is important to know that the Divine is there and paying attention to small details that make a life. It’s also important to know your tarot decks and oracles and listen to how they speak to you. Develop it as you would with a friend. If you only pull these tools out infrequently, you can’t go forward. You need time with your cards, both practical and play. The Divine is intelligent enough to know the difference between working to learn and sitting down with authentic question for a reading. Also I have found my most profound lessons that have come out during playing.
