So what is the difference between Tarot cards and Oracle cards?
Tarot cards originate from the mid 15th century in Northern Italy and were basically a trick taking card game. Very similar to a deck of playing cards that we would be familiar with nowadays, the tarot back then consisted of 56 cards – values of 1 – 10 with four face cards (the knave, knight, queen and king) with an additional 21 trump cards and one wildcard (the fool). These were separated into the 4 suits of cups, swords, batons and coins.
The association between tarot and fortune-telling only came about sometime during the 19th century and the original medieval cards had nothing to do with the occult.
The tarot we use today still consists of a 78 card deck, which we separate into the Major Arcana and Minor Arcana. The Major Arcana are the 22 cards (starting with The Fool and ending with The World) and the Minor Arcana consist of the remaining 56 cards of the four suits, which we usually call Cups, Swords, Wands and Pentacles (though there are variations for these names).
The Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck is probably the most widely recognised deck and is the one with which I first learned the basics. It’s the deck I use the majority of the time, probably because it was my first, but tarot decks available now are never ending and I have many in my collection – they are hard to resist!
Oracle cards are not so structured as tarot. They can sometimes be called Angel cards too and are usually decks of between 30 – 60 cards where each card holds a ‘message’. Great tools for guidance, positive affirmations, self reflection, inspiration – basically all the same things as tarot but perhaps without the straight-talking of a tarot deck! Oracle cards are perhaps more positive and have a more gentle approach.
So which to use? Both! There are no rules. You could stick to one or the other or use both in tandem. I like to pull one tarot and one oracle card for daily readings, or sometimes a quick 3 card tarot reading with one oracle card for additional guidance. It really is up to you and which cards you are drawn to at the particular time. Just have fun with them!