Oracle cards vs Tarot: what's more difficult?

What's more difficult, oracle cards or Tarot?

  • Tarot cards are more difficult

    Votes: 8 22.2%
  • Oracle cards are more difficult

    Votes: 9 25.0%
  • They're just different

    Votes: 17 47.2%
  • Obligatory "Other" option

    Votes: 2 5.6%

  • Total voters
    36

BeyondtheVeil

Oracles are very easy to read! :)

Oracles are super easy to read EXCEPT Lenormand Decks. Those are by far the hardest. :bugeyed:


Regular oracle decks in general are very easy to read. I think way easier than Tarot or Lenormand Decks. Tarot has more depth and symbols. Lenormand has a super high learning curve as there are so many "systems" and opinions.


You probably should have added Lenormand Decks as an option also as those, to me, are way harder to connect to/learn than regular oracles. I think Lenormand is also harder to learn than Tarot. {Maybe if I had learned those first I wouldn't think so}.


Brightest Blessings!
BeyondtheVeil
 

RiverRunsDeep

For me, oracle cards are more difficult, but maybe that is because I learned tarot first. Whereas tarot uses a system and symbolism that is at least similar, if not the same, in most decks, oracle cards are more individualized. I often have a hard time discerning which oracles I will be able to connect and read with.
 

Le Fanu

Oracles often don't help themselves by inventing cumbersome, overly-elaborate, needlessly symbolic ways of reading to try and make their creation "unique" and not-to-be-confused-with-tarot.

If the cards are clear and helpful, there's no reason why an oracle should be more difficult. I like how with the Fallen Angels Oracle says "if you read tarot cards, just read them like tarot cards." Now that's useful advice!
 

EmpyreanKnight

I think that for a pure newbie to both, the Tarot would be more difficult to master than an oracle, what with the higher number of cards, the rich esoteric systems it works with (the Kabbalah, decans, astrological correspondences, elemental analysis etc), and the sheer magnitude of ways one can interpret reversed cards, among other things. If you're intutive and just want to divine using the images alone, there are still more cards in a Tarot deck than in most oracles.
 

Barleywine

I think it comes down to how we define "difficult" in terms of our own reading style. Some of the better oracle decks remind me of the Tom Petty song title, "Into the Great Wide Open" in that they expand my horizons, while other just seem like featureless "white noise" (those of you who ever tried to listen to the Velvet Underground album "White Light/White Heat" will get my point - one reviewer called it "a relentless, screeching, thudding, scoffing assault on the pop sensibilities of its time"). I don't have the time to cram my head with a lot of new systems, so unless the images and keywords can be almost instantly assimilated and applied, I won't make the effort. It might be my loss, but life is short: I'm reminded further of an old album title by Keith Emerson's band the Nice, "Ars Longa, Vita Brevis," which was a spin on the Hippocrates quote:

"Ars longa, vita brevis, occasio praeceps, experimentum periculosum, iudicium difficile."

This can be rendered into English as 'life is short, the art (craft/skill) long, opportunity fleeting, experiment treacherous, judgement difficult'.
 

Padma

I am not overly fond of oracles. I find many to be pretentious! Or blandly pleasant, generic, and superficial, like someone saying "have a nice day".

The kinds of oracles I *do* like are the old set systems, like Lenormand, playing cards, or the Sybil type decks. Things with "bones", as Gregory said.

I think I also agree with Gregory about oracles being vague and nebulous, like cotton wool.

So yeah, oracles - well, no comparison to tarot, and also, most of them (to me) just seem pretty, but useless.
 

Glass Owl

I personally find that overall oracle decks are easier to read. Although I have to admit that certain oracle decks (such as those by Alana Fairchild) are quite meaty and can involve a lot of study.