What’s the difference between and oracle deck and a tarot deck?
The difference between and oracle deck and a tarot deck are the structure behind the cards. A tarot deck is normally made up of 78 cards, 22 of those cards we name the major arcana and 56 of them we name the minor arcana.
The minor arcana comes in four suits, cups, wands, swords and coins and include a page, knight, queen and king. I say normally because there are always the exceptions where some tarot decks have more or fewer cards and the suits are named differently. However, the general structure of most tarot decks is 78 cards.
If you learn the tarot through meanings and keywords you can most likely pick up any one of the thousands of decks from around the world and give a reading. For example, the fool card will have the same meaning throughout decks. The three of swords will give the same message no matter the image on the card. Tarot decks come in many different themes but generally the structure is the same throughout decks.
Many tarot readers will learn the meanings of each card and/ or use their intuition to give a reading.
Oracle decks differ because they are different in the structure behind each deck. There can be as many cards as the artist prefers. There may not be any suits in an oracle deck, no fool card, no three of swords, no cards that are familiar in a tarot deck.
I have a large collection of tarot decks and I can grab any one and use it to read when I choose, however, I also have a small collection of oracle decks that I use less frequently.
If I wanted to read for myself or others with an oracle deck I would have several ways to do so.
- I could read the book that often comes with an oracle deck and learn the system for that deck, something my timetable does not allow for me to do.
- I could look at the images of the cards and allow my imagination to fuse with my intuition and read what I see.
- I could use solely my intuition and read what I feel.
- Many oracle decks come with a title on each card and some come with small quotes on the cards where I could allow these quotes to guide me.
I find oracle cards can be nice when I want a card of the day, however, I prefer not to read for others with an oracle deck because I personally prefer the structure of tarot. (With the exception of the symbolon oracle deck that has 78 cards and some years ago I created my own system to convert each card into a tarot card, and although this is not the way this incredible deck was intended to be used, it works perfectly for me.)
My mother reads Doreen virtues fairy and angel oracle cards and her readings are incredible accurate.
You can be a good reader no matter if you prefer oracle or tarot, I feel it is about choosing a deck you connect with.
The difference between an oracle deck and a tarot deck it is down to the structure behind the deck.