Got an oracle deck after 9 years with tarot! Baffled! Help?

Hi everyone,

I've been reading Tarot for nine years or so, on and off a bit, but never had an oracle deck since this week. A couple days ago I was feeling down, and I had a bit of extra money from work, so I went out to see if I could find a new Tarot deck I liked. Didn't find any Tarot I liked...but found a beautiful oracle deck, the Fallen Angel Oracle Cards. The cards and their background are fascinating, but...I am really having trouble learning to read them. It's like starting over again! All the cards and all the meanings are completely new to me. That's exciting, but it's still really hard.

Any tips on how I should approach this?

Thanks,
Taylor

Hi Taylor!
You might check the thread here that deals with this deck to see if there is any help there (or people you might want to connect with who have it).
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=148849&highlight=fallen+angels
Other than that, read the book that came with the deck, to get a foundation for what the cards are based on. But like tarot cards, you can also see what feelings, images, or thoughts come up with each card and apply that as well. Oracle decks can require a bit more work because unlike tarot, there are no "set" cards with traditional meanings. You can however use spreads designed for tarot with oracles. Most tarot users who try out oracles find that they become just as addictive as tarot decks! Good luck!

ETA: You may find that, like tarot, some decks you connect with more easily than others though!

Moving from Tarot to Oracles is very much like starting over again, because there are no set meanings with each deck. I love oracles, though, because they do tend to have a different tone and feel to them in readings than Tarot readings do.

Read the book, and then start a journal, much like if you were working with a Tarot deck for the first time. Record your own impressions of the cards, and compare those to the book meanings. And just relax, have fun, and let the messages flow.

The Fallen Angels Oracle is a good one to work with (even though it may not feel like that right now!) as the author does say in the book to "use it like tarot" which might be reassuring. It feels like a tarot deck in some ways but not in others.

Even if nothing else, treat using this deck as helping to demolish boundaries and turn your card reading world upside down. Even if you don't use the deck long term I do think it is important to have our world turned upside down and feel everything up in the air, rather than trundle along with the same deck, same system, same cards.

Enjoy the chaos! Just look closely, lay them out like tarot cards (however you lay tarot cards out). It's a peculiar deck the Fallen Angels, I love it but at the same time it doesn't always make sense to me either, though I do enjoy feeling like I'm having to start from the beginning and not going "yeah, Death, it's about transformation..."

It will definitely help if you draw up a list of 72 meanings which make sense to you, even if for each card you have maybe only 3 or 4 keywords. I do think this deck is a rewarding, meaty one to work with, and it has its own very particular challenges. I wouldn't say that if it were Doreen Virtue

If you learn to read an oracle, intuitively or by the companion book you'll become a better tarot reader through the process, it helps take the blinders off...

bodhran - Thanks! I looked, but couldn't find that thread before. I'll post there and see if the users there can give me some help.

aranarose - I just started a journal for this deck. I'm scribbling whatever notes or thoughts come to me for each card - not just what's written in the little book, but what I pick up on in each card individually.

Le Fanu - I'm drawing up that list of 72 meanings right now. Thanks!

AJ - Yes, it seems to me that this would help my reading in general. I've been way too "stuck" in using the standard RWS meanings for tarot cards, and I think this will be a great exercise in doing cartomancy without standard meanings.

AJ said:

If you learn to read an oracle, intuitively or by the companion book you'll become a better tarot reader through the process, it helps take the blinders off...

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This is a good point, and I have to say it did help me become more flexible in my reading skills.

There are many different kinds of "oracles" (which means any cards other than Tarot in this forum, although I believe that Tarot is an oracle too).

Some like Lenormand have "systems" like Tarot that I need to learn in order to work well with them. Most do not, and for those I simply read up the meanings in the book (I have way too many to learn them all by heart although some that appear regularly I come to know quite well. ).

You can use similar spreads to Tarot but I tend to read them either as a single card or as a bonus advice card for a Tarot or Lenormand draw. The type of oracle, specifically the amount of interpretation required by me, will determine how I use it.

IheartTarot said:

There are many different kinds of "oracles" (which means any cards other than Tarot in this forum, although I believe that Tarot is an oracle too).

Some like Lenormand have "systems" like Tarot that I need to learn in order to work well with them. Most do not, and for those I simply read up the meanings in the book (I have way too many to learn them all by heart although some that appear regularly I come to know quite well. ).

You can use similar spreads to Tarot but I tend to read them either as a single card or as a bonus advice card for a Tarot or Lenormand draw. The type of oracle, specifically the amount of interpretation required by me, will determine how I use it.

Click to expand...

The Fallen Angel Oracle has elemental and planetary attributions for each card, so I think that if I can learn those, it might help me read the cards.

I'm drawing up my own list of "my" meanings for the cards, which is really helping. Thanks for the tip, Le Fanu!

-Taylor

Le Fanu said:

It will definitely help if you draw up a list of 72 meanings which make sense to you, even if for each card you have maybe only 3 or 4 keywords. I do think this deck is a rewarding, meaty one to work with, and it has its own very particular challenges. I wouldn't say that if it were Doreen Virtue

Click to expand...

Thanks for the useful tip! My husband just surprised me with this deck and I feel lost. Some of the keywords don't seem to fit.

I really like the idea of reading through each card's description and coming up with my own keywords or meanings for each card. I think that is something that I need to do with my Ask The Kabalah cards. I bought that deck on a whim some time ago and just couldn't connect with it. It doesn't help that the imagery on the cards is so vague and simple.

taylorkiteling said:

I'm drawing up my own list of "my" meanings for the cards, which is really helping. Thanks for the tip, Le Fanu!

Click to expand...

If you feel comfortable sharing, please let us know what alternate keywords you come up with. I'm in the process of coming up with my own too.