Starting my Oracle journey!

danieljuk

Take a card a day from one oracle at at time! That has helped me learn my decks. You can meditate on the image and meaning or see how it could apply to your daily life.

You can do a tarot reading and take one oracle card to go with it. If you have more time to spend and not learning tarot, you can use an oracle card with each tarot card in a reading for a great reading from two systems. I like to experiment with both but you might not want to do that just yet.

Using them really gets you used to the decks the best, there is a monthly oracle circle here if you want to get involved in that or some people get a new oracle deck and do readings in the oracle exchange area. I think using them for me is better than reading the book that comes with them which I usually dislike and only use it for a quick reference.
 

Shushu

No, I've never leaned a deck in a week. I can't sit that long.

That's alright! I was just wanting to see how long people usually take..I hope I'm not slow..

Take a card a day from one oracle at at time! That has helped me learn my decks. You can meditate on the image and meaning or see how it could apply to your daily life.

You can do a tarot reading and take one oracle card to go with it. If you have more time to spend and not learning tarot, you can use an oracle card with each tarot card in a reading for a great reading from two systems. I like to experiment with both but you might not want to do that just yet.

Using them really gets you used to the decks the best, there is a monthly oracle circle here if you want to get involved in that or some people get a new oracle deck and do readings in the oracle exchange area. I think using them for me is better than reading the book that comes with them which I usually dislike and only use it for a quick reference.

Yes I have tried to do that now! I have been mixing the oracle cards with my tarot cards and they harmonise quite well. I think I might do that in the oracle exchange area once I'm a little more confident!

Have you actually gone through the books yourself (studied them page after page in order) or used more of intuition (and lookup)?
 

Citrin

So how did people here get involved with the Oracle cards and what steps did they take to practise? I am still studying Advanced Tarot alongside so I don't want to overwhelm myself too much and take it slow.
Do people usually follow the guidebooks or just use pure intuition? How did you try and memorise the meanings, if so?

I had used tarot cards for 10 years before I got interested in oracle decks. :D I think I was drawn to Psychic Tarot for the Heart (which is an oracle deck despite its title...) and after that I just felt like oh well, might as well check out other oracle decks! ;)

To me oracles are more soft, affirmative, spiritual and come with a lot of comforting advice and sometimes more psychic/intuitive messages. While I find tarot to be more practical, right on, raw and clear when it comes to direct questions.

When I use oracle decks I go mainly by intuition but it depends on the deck! To me some of Alanah Fairchild's oracle decks (love her decks!) feel like a "kit" to me. :) When I use the Mother Mary Oracle I always sit with the card for a while and then always read the guidebook on that card. They go together so well. But with other decks, say Wisdom of the Oracle, the guidebook just annoys me so I ignore it now. ;)
 

Shushu

I had used tarot cards for 10 years before I got interested in oracle decks. :D I think I was drawn to Psychic Tarot for the Heart (which is an oracle deck despite its title...) and after that I just felt like oh well, might as well check out other oracle decks! ;)

To me oracles are more soft, affirmative, spiritual and come with a lot of comforting advice and sometimes more psychic/intuitive messages. While I find tarot to be more practical, right on, raw and clear when it comes to direct questions.

When I use oracle decks I go mainly by intuition but it depends on the deck! To me some of Alanah Fairchild's oracle decks (love her decks!) feel like a "kit" to me. :) When I use the Mother Mary Oracle I always sit with the card for a while and then always read the guidebook on that card. They go together so well. But with other decks, say Wisdom of the Oracle, the guidebook just annoys me so I ignore it now. ;)

That's quite a while before engaging in it-I haven't been doing tarot for too long. I go to others when it comes to reading for me and their oracle cards really caught my curiosity!

I did see that air in the oracles as well and I was mainly wanting to get inspirational or unifying thoughts for readings. I thought the oracles were great for that.

Do you have the Isis Oracle? I love the imagery and symbolism but the guidebook is so confusing and sounds a little clouded? I did study ancient Egypt as my major in university and a lot of the narratives seemed a little cloudy for me and hard to grasp. I couldn't get through to the main idea and message of the card without scanning several paragraphs first..
On the opposite I like the Wisdom of the Oracle and the guidebook is very direct with its message :)
 

MaeWasteland

Do you have the Isis Oracle? I love the imagery and symbolism but the guidebook is so confusing and sounds a little clouded? I did study ancient Egypt as my major in university and a lot of the narratives seemed a little cloudy for me and hard to grasp. I couldn't get through to the main idea and message of the card without scanning several paragraphs first..

I do wish Amazon had previews of oracle/tarot companion books like they do for most books. I've got the Isis deck coming and I'd managed to find a couple of pages displayed fairly legibly in a youtube review (the reviewer was saying 'yeah, this is... needlessly wordy?' or sthg to that effect) and yes, if that was anything to go by, it's going to probably take a lot of annotating and figuring out what the heck she's on about (er, maybe in the opposite order!) Doesn't help that I have constant fibro fog, of course!
 

Shushu

I do wish Amazon had previews of oracle/tarot companion books like they do for most books. I've got the Isis deck coming and I'd managed to find a couple of pages displayed fairly legibly in a youtube review (the reviewer was saying 'yeah, this is... needlessly wordy?' or sthg to that effect) and yes, if that was anything to go by, it's going to probably take a lot of annotating and figuring out what the heck she's on about (er, maybe in the opposite order!) Doesn't help that I have constant fibro fog, of course!

Yes, I felt that too! You are the only one I have heard say that, everyone else seems to not mention it, so I thought I was the only one?
Oh that would be difficult, what about highlighting the core sentences and meanings amongst the pages? I think I might do that.
 

danieljuk

Have you actually gone through the books yourself (studied them page after page in order) or used more of intuition (and lookup)?

Glad you are having success at mixing them up!

I sometimes read the book to try to understand the Author's intention with the deck and each card, and sometimes I do look up the cards. But I largely find the books as being not very good and a lot of waffle. Some of the mass market Oracles are very bad at that. Colette Baron-Reid who has made lot's of Oracles has really annoying writings in the books (literally just spiel!) but often nice art. There is other artists and publishers like that too. I don't think I have ever really read the first part of the book, apart from on the A'ha Oracle who is made by Linnie on AT. I really needed to understand her intention of the deck.

There is no wrong way of doing this, if reading the whole book helps you with understanding an Oracle deck that is cool or just looking at the art or whatever message you get when looking at the cards! But some people have posted on AT that they are giving up on a deck because they don't understand the book, it's not everything of a deck! Some people on AT don't use the book ever, what you see in the cards is always the most important :) I tend to get a new deck and look at the images first.
 

Shushu

Glad you are having success at mixing them up!

I sometimes read the book to try to understand the Author's intention with the deck and each card, and sometimes I do look up the cards. But I largely find the books as being not very good and a lot of waffle. Some of the mass market Oracles are very bad at that. Colette Baron-Reid who has made lot's of Oracles has really annoying writings in the books (literally just spiel!) but often nice art. There is other artists and publishers like that too. I don't think I have ever really read the first part of the book, apart from on the A'ha Oracle who is made by Linnie on AT. I really needed to understand her intention of the deck.

There is no wrong way of doing this, if reading the whole book helps you with understanding an Oracle deck that is cool or just looking at the art or whatever message you get when looking at the cards! But some people have posted on AT that they are giving up on a deck because they don't understand the book, it's not everything of a deck! Some people on AT don't use the book ever, what you see in the cards is always the most important :) I tend to get a new deck and look at the images first.

I've only mixed one Oracle card with every reading as a uniting thought- I'm a little daunted at the prospect of using several at once!

I did find that as well, though I wondered if that was just me as I hear so many praises for many oracle decks. I've been wondering if I could just judge from the card and intuition and read from the book if I need more information. I definitely will make a point to read the author's intention, thank you for bringing that up!

With the Isis deck, I find the guide book really thick and cloudy! The symbolism is strong but as a historian myself, I find it doesn't collate much at all. I think I will take the time to just look at the images, I am excited to have three new decks but at the same time feeling overwhelmed because I know I'll have to learn them all! Haha, what have I gotten myself into!