June 25, 2025 • 43 mins
Welcome to Season 10 of Every Day Tarot! This season, I’m exploring the rich, magical intersections between tarot and witchcraft.
What we explore in this episode:
The key differences between tarot and oracle cards, and how to know which might be right for you
A brief history of tarot as cartomancy
Why the Waite-Smith deck is foundational (and why I make a point to honor Pamela Coleman-Smith, the artist behind its iconic imagery)
Why some people love the structure of tarot, while others prefer the intuitive freedom of oracle
Tips for choosing a deck you actually vibe with
How tarot and oracle can complement each other in readings and reflection practices
A 3-card Calling–Doubt–Action spread using The Citadel Oracle, to explore where you're being invited to step forward, what resistance is showing up, and how to move with purpose and clarity
Decks mentioned and referenced in this episode:
I pulled one card from the Wild Kuan Yin Oracle: The Velvet Goddess Edition
I did a 3 card spread from the The Citadel: A Fantasy Oracle deck
Callings- The Captain
Doubts- The Cartographer
Actions- The Sentinel
How to do a 3-card Calling–Doubt–Action spread:
1. Ground Yourself
Take a few deep breaths. Center your body. You might place a hand over your heart or light a candle. Set an intention like: "Show me where I’m being called, what’s getting in the way, and how I can move forward with clarity."
2. Shuffle and Pull 3 Cards
Lay them out from left to right:
Card 1: (Calling) – What energy, path, or invitation is pulling you forward right now?
Card 2: (Doubt) – What fear, resistance, or story is causing hesitation?
Card 3: (Action) – What grounded next step can you take to align with your calling?
3. Reflect and Integrate
Where am I being invited to show up with more courage or clarity?
What fear or belief is clouding my momentum?
What’s one small action I can take today that honors my truth?
Today's reading with The Citadel: A Fantasy Oracle:
Calling: The Captain - You’re being called to lead—but through collaboration, not control. Share the vision and move forward together.
Doubt: The Cartographer - You may feel stuck or over-plan. Doubt here shows up as the fear of picking the “wrong” map. But the truth is, movement brings clarity.
Action: The Sentinel - Hold your ground. Protect your energy and act with integrity. Boundaries are your next move.
Oracle card pull from Wild Kuan Yin Oracle,
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to Everyday Tarot, your daily dive into the divine
wisdom of the tarot. I'm your host Camille, a
Saunders healer, tarot enthusiast, and your local witch
next door. And today I'm talking about
tarot and Oracle. Whether you're a seasoned tarot
reader or just starting to explore, this podcast offers
daily insights, intuitive messages, and practical advice
drawn from the cards. Each episode is designed to help
(00:23):
you connect with your inner wisdom, find clarity, inner
decisions, and tap into the energy of the universe.
TuneIn every day, Monday throughFriday for fresh perspectives
and empowering guidance from theTarot as interpreted by me.
Thanks so much for those of you who were able to attend my
virtual tarot card creation event last week.
If you signed up but were unableto make it to the live event,
(00:43):
you should have the replay of the event recording the PDF I
made with a step by step processand an offer to join my upcoming
series called Tarot for Transformation.
So check your emails for that. If you want to deep dive the
tarot with me with weekly calls and journaling.
I'm going to be offering a 12 week Tarot for Transformation
Live course this summer. We'll focus on one card a week,
(01:06):
learning about it, embodying it.Yeah, I'm really deep diving.
So if you're interested in that and getting a little bit more
yeah in depth about tarot or working with me in a different
capacity, I have a sign up in the show notes where you can get
more information about that. If you love the show, the best
(01:26):
way to support it is by listening daily, leaving the
review, and subscribing or following in your favorite
podcast app. I just updated the Patreon
benefits to be bigger and betterthan ever.
I will be hosting live episodes every New moon to do a New Moon
Collective Tarot reading. If you join the Lovers of the
Podcast level on the Patreon, you will get access to an
exclusive Discord to chat with me live during the stream and
(01:49):
I'll pull a card for each one ofmy patrons in addition to the
New Moon Collective spread. If you want an individual card
pulled for you once a month liveon the podcast, join the
Everyday Tarot Patreon family atthe Lovers level.
If you'd like to support the podcast even further, you can
get a one time individual 5 cardreading in addition to all the
other benefits if you join the Witch Bench level on the
(02:11):
Patreon. If you're local to the greater
Puget Sound area, check out my Let's Talk Tarot meet up group
for the latest event postings. I will be having two upcoming
events be posted on there shortly.
One will be another in person tarot card crafting event.
And then I will also be startinga monthly Women's Moon Circle on
(02:36):
the full moon with my friend Izzy in person.
So we're probably looking for 8 to 10 other folks that want to
meet every or around the full moon and do a women's circle.
And you have some, again, in person, some community together,
pull some tarot, do some other spiritual activities, share,
(02:58):
reflect on the month and look ahead.
So again, you can check out my meet up group for that for the
latest event postings. If you're interested in my free
PDF with the 2025 five Car Tarotspread I created just for you at
the beginning of this year, you can get that by joining my
newsletter list. My weekly newsletter always has
the most up to date information on upcoming events,
(03:20):
presentations, musings and more.And if you don't already know, I
am a sex and relationships therapist seeing clients
virtually all over Washington State.
I love working with queer, Pollyand witchy clients.
If you'd like to work with a therapist that doesn't judge
you, is witchy just like you, and helps you learn how to deal
with anxiety, chronic pain or illness, communication issues,
(03:40):
self advocacy, and sex, head to my website and book a free
consultation now to start your journey.
You can find the links for any of these offers in the show
notes or on my website camilleasaunders.com/everyday
Tarot, in addition to the imagesof the cards I pull on each
episode. All right, so welcome to season
10 where I'm talking all about tarot and witchcraft.
(04:01):
If you haven't listened to my other seasons yet, you can check
those out. In season 1, I talked to tarot
basics. In seasons two and three, I went
through all the Major Arcana cards and an overview of the
four suits. In season 4, I talked to tarot
and pop culture. In season 5, I went through 13
common tarot spreads. In season 678 and 9, I went
through all of the suit of wands, Pentacles, Swords and
(04:23):
Cups. So if you're gathering like,
yes, I have had an episode of mypodcast about every single tarot
card that there is, or at least,you know, the standard 78.
And so yeah, if you ever have a particular card that you're
wanting to learn more about, that maybe you have a
complicated relationship with and you want some more nuance
(04:45):
added to the conversation, you can go check out.
Yeah, any of my episodes. They should be labeled with the
card and as the title. And if it's easier, you can go
to my website and go click on the podcast tab and from there
there's a search bar at the top so you could search whatever
card you're looking for. 10 of Swords, 5 of Pentacles, 2 of
(05:09):
Cups, 3 of Wands, any of the Major Arcana cards as well.
And that will come up. All right.
So yeah, so season 10, I'm talking all about tarot and
witchcraft, but today I'm talking specifically about Tarot
and Oracle. So I did have a podcast episode
super early on in January, I think January 6th of 2025.
(05:33):
Episode 4 of the podcast was allabout tarot versus Oracle cards.
So I talked about some similarities and differences and
why you might choose one over another, so you can check that
episode out if you want to kind of know why you might choose one
over another. But today I'm going to try to
focus on like how to work with both, how to integrate them.
(05:57):
I'm probably going to do, yeah, a tarot spread, but with some
Oracle cards. Today we'll pull some Oracle
cards and also some tarot and kind of think about how they
work together. So again, if you haven't
listened to the episode 4, you can do that.
But I'll also go through a little bit briefly of what tarot
versus Oracle are. So tarot cards, they're a type
(06:17):
of cardomancy, which is, right, Using a deck of cards to
foretell the future or gain insight into events.
Divination. People who practice cardomancy
are called cardomancers, card readers or readers.
Cardomancy falls under a larger umbrella of divination, which is
using various techniques to gaininsight into a situation or
(06:37):
question, often by attempting toforetell the future.
So there's lots of different kinds of divination.
Tardomancy, or doing tarot is one of them.
Tarot is said to have started inthe 15th century in Europe as a
pack of playing cards with Italian roots.
The decks and games spread to most of Europe, but look
different in each country. In the late 18th century, French
(06:59):
occultists began creating customdecks for use in divination or
tarot reading. And this is the beginning of the
usage of the cards that we see alot of today.
And most tarot decks you will find are styled based off of the
Waite Smith duck. It's also known as the Rider
Waite Duck. This is a very popular duck.
It's easily accessible. First published in 1909, it was
(07:19):
designed by Arthur E Waite and illustrated by Pamela Coleman
Smith. So often Pamela Coleman Smith
isn't referenced in the history of who created the Tarot to be
what it is today, even though those style of decks are, so
they're usually called Rider Waite decks.
Her name is often left out of itcompletely and so I'll refer to
the style as Waite Smith or Rider Waite Smith to include her
(07:44):
name in there since she was the artist and created like the
famous iconography that we see most often replicated today in
the tarot decks. So yeah, when you think about
tarot again, the structure of a wait Smith deck like most
others, it has 78 cards. It's divided into two sections.
You have the 1st 22 cards known as the Major Arcana.
(08:08):
Arcanum is a Latin word meaning secret or mystery.
So hence the Major Arcana are the great secrets and each card
in this group has a name such asthe High Priestess, the Lovers,
the moon, the sun, and begins with the full, which it doesn't
have a number or is numbered 0 and ends with the world which is
numbered 21. So the second portion of the
(08:28):
deck consists of 56 cards, whichis sort of like what's in a
standard playing deck of cards and it's called the Major
Arcana. This section is similar to a
deck of cards like I said you might use to play games with.
So it's divided into 4 suits of 14 cards each, the wands, cups,
swords and Pentacles. Each suit contains numbered one
through 10 or really Ace through10 + 4 court cards.
(08:52):
Page Night, Queen, King. And this is the basic
introduction to sort of the structure of a tarot deck.
So again, you're probably familiar with Tarot if you've
got into this episode and you'vebeen listening to me thus far.
But yeah, maybe you don't know anything about Oracle or maybe
maybe you have a preference for Oracle and you're like, finally
Camille is talking about Oracle cards.
(09:13):
Let's do so. Oracle decks there is no, I
would say like I wrote, no structure.
That's not true. Most Oracle decks do have some
structure. It's just that they don't have
the same structure as other Oracle decks or necessarily the
same structure as a tarot deck. So Oracle decks are very
(09:34):
flexible. There's lots of possibilities.
You can have varying lengths of decks.
So some are quite short, some are maybe longer.
It can be more accessible because there's kind of like no
learning required because there isn't this sort of like steeped
in history of, oh, the cards were this way and then, you
(09:54):
know, these people created them and then they illustrated them.
And then we're making decks based off of that original deck.
So right, Oracle, like you can not know anything about Tarot.
You can pick up an Oracle deck. A lot of like people use like
affirmation decks. Like those are Oracle decks in
my mind, because it's just sort of like a deck like usually like
(10:18):
of a cohesive theme, whatever that might be, usually cohesive
artwork and often having been sort of, yeah, derived from a
particular theme. They can often be very
different, like shapes than maybe traditional tarot cards.
Traditional tarot cards I would say are sort of about the size
(10:38):
of like an index card, which I think is like 3 by 6 inches.
Maybe I'm wrong about that, but that's sort of what I'm thinking
of. I've seen Oracle decks that are
circular or I have one that has kind of it's like a traditional
tarot card, but then it has kindof like the corners cut off of
it. So it actually is like a
(11:00):
12345678 sided like, you know, shape.
So I have two Oracle decks. So I'm going to be pulling cards
from those today and talking a little bit about them.
But really, yeah. So when I did my last episode
Tarot versus Oracle back in January of this year, I had only
(11:24):
recently acquired an Oracle deckand was kind of getting to know
it. I've now I had now have another
Oracle deck. So I have two now.
My first one, like I said, I purchased in November last year
in 2024 in Beacon, NY when I wasthere with some of my witchy
friends. And then my second one I bought
(11:46):
in a bookstore in Boulder, Co this past May when I was there.
And both times I didn't necessarily go into it looking
to buy an Oracle deck. The first one I went into just
sort of like a witchy store whenI was in Beacon, NY and this
deck that I have was like calling to me.
(12:07):
It's in this like really big purple box with like gold
writing. And it was very beautiful.
And they didn't have a lot of decks in general.
They had maybe like 10 differentkinds.
And that store was chock full. They had a ton of crystals and
other things. But yeah, I kept like sort of
walking around and I was lookingat some stuff.
And again, I hadn't gone in particularly looking for an
(12:30):
Oracle or tarot deck, but it just kept like jumping out at
me. And actually next episode, I'm
going to talk about tarot and intuition.
So right, like this is a way that I sort of utilize my
intuition is that like by going into spaces and kind of seeing
like, what stands out to me? Like, what can I not, like get
my mind off of? Like, why?
(12:51):
Why am I so drawn to this thing in here?
And so yeah, I bought 1 there, which is the Wild Kwan Yin
Oracle, the Velvet Goddess edition by Alana Fairchild.
Alana Fairchild has a lot of decks, so if you like the art
style in this one, you can. Or if you want to know more
(13:15):
about them, I'll put in the shownotes a link to some of their
stuff. But they've a lot of different
decks. At some of my tarot meetups,
I've seen some of the other decks that Alana Fairchild has
created, and I'm often drawn to them.
It's funny, I have a friend where we have like a lot of
crossover in the decks that we have.
Shout out to IO. And she also has, I think, at
(13:40):
least one other Alana Fairchild deck.
And I'm always like, oh, I love this.
Which one is it? And then I look at it and I'm
like, Oh yeah, same person. Like, makes sense.
But yeah. And then the recent one I bought
in May in Denver, it is called The Citadel, a Fantasy Oracle by
Fenn Inkrite. I love the artwork on this one.
(14:01):
And again, it does have similar structure, I would say to tarot.
And then it kind of has four suits.
It is sort of a like DND style deck, like it can be used with
tabletop games. It has 60 cards.
Let me see if the Alana Fairchild one says on the back
(14:23):
how many cards? There are 44 cards.
So I got in here. You already have like a wide
variety of that. And like I said, the Alana
Fairchild 1 is like a massive box.
So it's a certain edition of thedeck and it comes with like what
looks like a chapter book of like 8 to 10 pages about each of
(14:48):
the cards in the deck. It often has a ritual.
It sort of has like a whole viewof like what what's going on in
your life right now and what might you be struggling with and
all this stuff. So Oracle can also be very fun
because it can be, again, a little more free form and give
you some different ideas there. What else do I want to talk
(15:11):
about? So yeah, often when I meet
people who are into witchy things, like they have a
preference for tarot versus Oracle decks, some people have
both. And yeah, again, sometimes
you're drawn to the art of one or another or things like that.
But I feel like people kind of have strong opinions about if
they like tarot or Oracle and not necessarily that they love
(15:31):
both. Some people that maybe like say
that they don't like rules or ifthey feel overwhelmed by
learning, like, Oh my God, I have 78 cards I have to learn
1st and like sort of this history and symbolism that's
sort of like steeped in it. Like that sounds like a lot
where is like an Oracle deck. Again, you can generally like
(15:52):
pick it up. It'll have a deck guidebook
usually. And sometimes you just like get
a vibe is what I would say from Oracle decks.
And that can be very nice. Yeah.
I think often when I think aboutlike using decks in like a
therapy context, which is the thing I do sometimes I think,
again, Oracle decks can be really nice because you don't
(16:15):
have to like come in with this knowledge about it.
You can kind of look at the images and read from the book
and be like, yeah, great. OK, so I do have a therapist who
tarot tarot deck and that one I would say like is maybe a little
bit more similar to an Oracle deck.
It does have the standard like 78 cards, but the there is no
(16:41):
tarot deck guide book and on theback of each card instead of
having like the same image on the back of it has reflection
questions. So that is like 1.
So actually today in a networking meeting that I helped
lead, we pulled cards from that tarot deck and just looked at
(17:05):
the questions on the back. Or that's sort of what like I
looked at 1st and we each got one of those cards.
And then we sort of talked aboutthe reflection questions on the
back and how that applies to ourlife right now.
There's three questions on the back of each one, so you can
kind of like pick one to go off of or look at all of them.
(17:25):
And then at the end, we flipped the cards over and sort of
looked at like the tarot card onthe other side that, you know,
the more, what am I trying to say, the more standard depiction
of the card, like the art with it and sort of again, like the
vibe that we get from it. Because these are folks that
maybe have one person definitelyhas some exposure to tarot.
(17:46):
They've like paid tarot readers before, but they don't really
read for themselves or anything like that.
I think the other person like didn't really have any
familiarity necessarily with Tarot.
And so that was kind of a fun way to get to like use a deck in
a in a business setting to talk about, to use it as like a like
you would use like conversation questions or conversation
(18:10):
starter type questions. And so that deck is kind of fun
because it can get used in that way as well and kind of doesn't
have to have this, I guess like tarot specific information or
kind of can be like a a steppingstone into working with tarot.
And then yeah, I think some people really like the
(18:31):
predictability of a tarot deck or that like sort of once you
learn a bit about tarot, you cankind of pick up any deck and
pull cards and kind of know whatthat card means even without
looking at the deck guidebook because tarot ducks vary a lot.
But most, I would say, have a similar structure.
(18:55):
Sometimes people change like some of the names of the cards,
or sometimes like I think Justice and Judge, no Judgement
and strength. I don't remember.
There's two cards that are sometimes flipped numbers wise,
and the Major Arcana. Check out my Major Arcana
episodes in Season 2 to figure out which card it is.
(19:19):
And yeah, so that's like something that, but other than
that, they usually have 78 cards.
They usually have the Major Arcana and then the Minor Arcana
and have 4 suits and that kind of thing.
And yeah, I guess I do have another.
I do have some decks that change, like in the Desert
Illuminations Tarot deck by Lindsey D Williams, they change
(19:40):
all of the suits to be sort of desert themed suits.
So pentacles change to cactus cops changed to Mystic whiskey
jugs, swords change to daggers and wands change to I don't
(20:00):
know, I'm going to have to look it up real quick.
The ones change to, oh, chilies,like like chili pepper chilies
(20:23):
because they're spicy and they're fiery.
So yeah, that is like another sort of way that tarot structure
can be kind of played with. Also in the Goddess of Love
tarot deck, they changed some ofthe names of some of the more
(20:43):
like masculine characterized characters in the Major Arcana
and in the court cards to be like feminine ones.
So I know like they changed Kingto be Crone and I think Night to
Bewitch. Yeah, again, check out that deck
(21:07):
if you want to confirm that. And then in the therapist utero
one, they changed some of the names to I think like daughter
instead of Paige. I think that's one of them and
that kind of thing. So yeah, there's a little bit of
changes, but generally a gun like same structure, right?
(21:27):
Even in the desert Illuminationsone that change all the names of
the suits, they all still correspond to a sort of like
traditional suit. Yeah.
So if you're looking to get intoTarot or Oracle ducks and you're
like, you don't know where to start, you can find like a local
witchy store and see if they have a section for ducks.
(21:49):
Most like witchy stores have both.
They have Oracle and tarot and sometimes you can't tell just
like from the look of it. You'll have to like see what it
says, if it says Oracle or tarot.
My favorite stores have like a store copy of the deck that you
can like look through all the cards like an open, you know,
like a tester, like 1 where you'd like try the lotion out.
(22:10):
They have like an open deck thatyou can like look through all
the cards and usually even if they don't have that, they
usually have like I've seen somepeople use like a like a flash
cards or like a three ring binder ring.
And it has like a couple like 3 cards from all the decks that
they have. So you can get like a a vibe.
(22:33):
So that's how I picked the desert illuminations Terra one.
I went to my local or one of my local witchy stores, which is
Crescent Moon Gifts in like University Place area where I
am, and they have, yeah, that thing where they have like
3:00-ish cards from most of the decks they have there.
So you can look through them 'cause generally otherwise all
(22:56):
the decks are like they're in a box usually and then they're
like sealed with like plastic. And so you can't usually like
look at any of the cards. Usually they have an image on
the front and then like words onthe back of the box or whatever
the packaging is for the deck. But other than that, like you
don't really get to see any of the cards generally.
(23:19):
And so that can be just kind of,you know, challenging because
you don't really know what it looks like until you like open
it all up once you're home. All right.
And yeah, if you ever like do goto buy a deck and you really
want to know before you buy it kind of what it looks like, you
can just like search them online.
Like again, if you find a deck, you can search the name of it
online. And sometimes people have done
(23:40):
like deck walkthroughs or like they'll show you every card,
like they'll shuffle and sort oflike go every single card one at
a time. Yeah.
The other way is that like if you are interested in a deck
that I talk about, you can go tomy website
camillesaunders.com/everyday Tarot and I'll have whatever
(24:01):
cards I use in each episode on, on the, on my like blog on my
website. And I'll show images at least of
the decks that I like, the cardsthat I pull.
I won't obviously usually show the whole deck of 78 cards in
pictures, but you can kind of get a feel for it.
And I'm always like linking where those decks are found.
(24:23):
So again, if you find ones that you like the look of them, you
can go find them and purchase them from the artist usually.
And yeah, if you're local to me,you can come to one of my tarot
meetups, my Let's Talk Tarot meet up group, and you can come
see my cards in person because Iusually bring all of my ducks
(24:43):
with me when I go to those events and other people have
ducks. So it's super fun to like peruse
other people's decks or kind of see like it often like you can
do reading for yourself. Usually people are pretty chill
about it, at least in the group I attend, where we all kind of
like touch each other's decks and like go through them so you
can get a feel for ones you might like in the future.
(25:04):
And it's really nice to be able to like hold them and like
shuffle them and be like, do I like this?
Like what's the deck guidebook like?
Does it have one? And stuff like that.
So yeah, let's get into looking at some actual cards.
So I'm going to pull cards from my 2 Oracle decks that I have
(25:25):
and then I might pull like an additional tarot and an Oracle
card at the end and we'll see ifwe can kind of like wind them
together. So first let's pull from the
Wild Kwan yen Oracle Soul guidance from the Wild Divine,
The Velvet Goddess Edition by Alana Fairchild.
It's a mouthful if you can't tell, but I do really like this
(25:47):
deck. It's very loving, like it's very
nice. And yeah, I haven't pulled from
it in a while because I was doing all the seasons that have
or is going through all the suits and obviously Oracle decks
don't necessarily have the same suits and stuff like that.
(26:08):
So, and this is a deck, this oneis like a much more square card,
so it's kind of hard to shuffle,but I'm going to do my best.
I might just have to do the likemoving the cards back and forth
between my hands. All right, I'm just going to
(26:30):
pull one from here because thesecards give a lot of information.
Oh, I pulled this one like fairly recently actually.
So I got again, the slave dancesinto freedom and it kind of has
like an image of a person looking like they're like
kicking up their feet perhaps inthis freedom way.
(26:50):
We have a very interesting like perspective, like the visual
perspective. Like it looks like we are like
sitting on the ground and we seethe person kind of like above
us. And again, they have one foot in
the air. They're kind of like handing
something off to someone else. And then we see all these people
kind of like on a wall kind of along the side.
(27:11):
And then we maybe see like a bridge or flags on the left.
And then we see like a lot of the sky.
Cause again, if we're, we're sitting on the ground as we see
this person kind of dancing away.
And this is card number 21 in this deck, which is interesting.
(27:33):
There are 44 cards I believe in this one.
All right, so I'm just going to read a little bit because.
But like I said, there's like 10pages about each card.
So yeah, it says a war is over for you.
It's not a matter of it becomingless difficult or you being able
(27:57):
to handle it with more finesse. It is simply finished.
Wow, I keep getting this messageright now.
If you've listened to my recent episodes, you'll know there's a
lot of like, you should grieve this thing.
You should bury it, have a funeral for it, like say
goodbye. So I guess I'm keeping getting
that message until I do it. It might seem to have been
dragging on for so long that youcame to believe it was just the
(28:19):
way life should be. But perhaps this ending is
abrupt, as though something thatcould have developed into a
truly difficult and long term struggle has been unexpectedly
brought to a swift end. No matter what the circumstances
may be, or whether you think something should be ending now,
the higher truth is that you have been granted honorable
discharge for karmic duty Completed.
Soon you will be experiencing life in a completely different
(28:41):
way, free from the legacy of darkness that once held you
down. OK, I'm going to see.
The Oracle of the Slave Dances into Freedom speaks of a
profound shift into consciousness, A liberation from
enslavement and a state of beingbased on opposition, struggle
(29:04):
and suffering. Even if you happen to believe in
what you were fighting for, his previous way of being created
struggle and friction, allowing you to move forwards a step only
to fall back to gain ground in your journey, only to have
another try to steal it away forwith undermining behavior,
sabotage, anger or other forms of fearful resistance.
(29:28):
OK and then yeah, I do like this.
So sometimes it has a like kind of ritual thing, but it does say
we'll do it live right now. So it says sit quiet.
So this is part of the healing process, which is like the end
part of each like little chapterabout the card.
So sit quietly with one palm of your hand.
Turn upwards as if to receive around the level of the heart.
(29:52):
Use your other hand to hold the guidebook and read your prayer.
Say the following out loud threetimes.
You don't have to speak loudly, just clearly and with quiet
confidence. From your heart, I gratefully
receive unconditional release from the wars that have been
ravaging my body, mind, and soul.
From my heart, Ioffer gratitude to Kuan Yin, who loves me
(30:14):
unconditionally, and give thanksfor the unconditional karmic
grace that frees me now and allows me to experience new
life. I call on those beings who love
me unconditionally to assist in the process of healing and
adjusting my physical body, emotional body, etheric body,
mental body, and all energy fields Help me integrate the
(30:36):
blessings of liberation as swiftly and deeply as possible.
With naturalness and grace I honor the learning of the past
and I forgive myself and all involved in it.
I no longer need to hold on to anything I trust completely in
the new beginning that is being given to me.
What needs to carry through fromthe past into the future will do
(30:58):
so with Divine Love, and what nolonger needs to be held shall be
released freely and completely. Restoration and intervention are
given to me now through Divine decree.
I am free, I am free, I am free with peace in my heart and
gratitude in my mind. I'm thankful for this release
through my own free will. So be it.
(31:22):
And then it says you can rest for a moment, perhaps with your
eyes closed, with both palms facing upward at the heart to
receive the blessing. And then you can open your eyes,
place your hands in a prayer position if you'd like, bow your
head, and you've completed the healing process.
So, Yeah. Thank you for going through that
with me. Maybe you also needed some
(31:43):
healing around. Yeah.
This release from the war that'sbeen ravaging.
All right. See what I mean?
This, this deck is very lovely. It can be kind of intense, but
it's in a very, like, loving way.
I feel like some decks, yeah, are just more direct.
(32:06):
And some decks are very like gentle with their information.
Let's see. OK, so next I'm going to pull.
I think I'm going to do a past, present, future with the Citadel
deck because I think that would be kind of fun.
(32:29):
So let's see. I need to make space for
shuffling here for myself. So again, this is the Citadel
deck, a fantasy Oracle by Fen Ink, right?
It is beautiful. I love the colors of it.
It's like the back of the cards are black with an image of like
(32:52):
an old city on them. And then on the fronts, the
decks are mostly white in the background and then they have
like red ink with black and gold, like emphasis on the card.
So it's very pretty. And like I said earlier, this
deck is sort of like a standard tarot deck in how it looks when
(33:12):
you hold it. And it does have 4 suits sort
of, but the corners are like cutoff.
So it like I said, it's like an 8 sided card instead of having,
you know, the four sides of a standard card.
And it does make it a little biteasier to shuffle honestly.
(33:34):
So all right, so I am going to cut the deck and yeah, I'm going
to do a past, present, future spread, which is just a three
card spread. And again, you can use tarot
spreads for Oracle. You can do a daily card, you can
do whatever you want, you know, just in general, but also like
(33:57):
with Oracle in particular, you can maybe, I don't know if like
Oracle spreads are a thing. Maybe I'll have to look that up.
Maybe some, I guess I could lookin the deck guide book to see if
they have. Oh yeah, it does have spreads.
Let's look at the end and see what kind of spreads this has.
(34:19):
Oh, it has a lot, actually. Let's see.
So they have a spread in here called the court, which is like
a situation obstacle advice. Where am I now?
Where do I aspire to potential obstacles?
What are my goals? What tools do I have?
What path do I take to get there?
They have the Academy, which is more like opportunity, where to
(34:42):
focus an outcome. And again, these are sort of
like the four suits. They have the crowd and the
troop and they have the Citadel which is 36912 A 12 card.
So you like combine all of the the four suits, like 3 card
pulls into a 12 card spread. And then they also have one
(35:05):
called the sword and shield which is 678910 cards.
So maybe kind of like a Celtic cross spread.
And then they have one called the sword, which has five cards.
The shield. Oh, sorry, which also has five
cards. All right, So yeah.
(35:28):
So this one does have its own spread.
So if you have an Oracle deck, check it out to see.
So maybe I'll do one of the spreads that's in here.
One of the three card spreads. That sounds good.
Oh, I like this one. Callings, doubts and actions.
And this is part of the troop. So yeah, let's do that.
(35:50):
One Callings, actions, doubts. Or maybe it's calling doubts and
actions. Let me look.
Callings, doubts and actions. OK, here we go.
(36:14):
OK, the calling is the captain, the doubt is the cartographer,
and the action is the Sentinel. And again, in this stack,
everyone is sort of like in a city together.
They're sort of these like ringsof people, like moving from the
inside out of these four like sort of suits or like groups of
(36:36):
people again. And Oh my gosh, all of these are
from the same, like, suit. That's hilarious.
OK, fascinating. That was not intentional.
It just happened. I'm trying to see what suit
these are from. These are from the Academy suit.
(37:01):
OK, so first I pulled the Captain, which is about taking
command and teamwork. And this is the Collins part of
the spread. OK, so the Captain and all these
were upright, so we'll just readthe upright definitions.
(37:23):
It says. The Captain is a friendly call,
a grin, a warm handshake. The Captain passes in the street
with their men, the playful jostling of armored guardsmen
reminiscent of a tussling pack of litter mates.
In the center of it all, the Captain commands their followers
with ease, confident in their position, well aware of the
loyalty and love they inspire. They have earned their position
(37:45):
through hard work and camaraderie.
It may feel safer to attempt a task alone, but some things are
easier with a little teamwork. Don't ignore the talents of
those around you. You need experience and
diversity of others to accomplish your goal.
Be the driving force that's needed to get things done, but
make sure to acknowledge the value that each person brings to
(38:05):
the table. Very nice.
All right, so let's move on to the next one, which is doubts.
And this I pulled the cartographer.
So the cartographer upright, it says.
Not far from the walls of the citadel, a figure sits on a
rocky bluff, surveying the land before them.
Rocks way down the corners of a vellum sheet and a pen is wet
(38:27):
with ink, ready to map the shapes of the mountains.
Their cartographer doesn't just record the roads, they remember
every step they took to get there.
Even so, they look ahead to the excitement of discovering new
lands. You currently find yourself at a
crossroads, unsure of which direction to take.
Something within you is eager for a new journey, but doubts
make you hesitate. Which path will lead you where
(38:49):
you want to go and which will lead you to an unexpected
destination or a stray when inner conflicts top stop you
from taking the next step forward.
Overcome that uncertainty and embody the boldness that you
need. So right, this is saying don't
it's OK to have doubts, but you should try to move forward,
right? Overcome your uncertainty and
(39:11):
embody the boldness that you need.
And again, the calling was a little bit about like being a
leader, but also like collaborating with people.
The I don't have to do it all alone, kind of that was what I
was thinking of. And then finally, for the
actions part of the spread, I got the Sentinel, which is about
(39:31):
determination and certainty. And it says the Sentinel is a
representation of extreme focus,of security and knowing your
position and purpose in the world.
You may feel as though forces have been conspiring to tempt
you away from your goals, but donot let yourself be swayed.
Balance unexpected situations with rational thought, and the
(39:53):
outcome will be worth 100 times any distraction that might
befall you. Okay, so don't let yourself be
swayed, right? We're going to balance
unexpected situations with rational thought.
So we're going to let the situations happen, right?
We're going to think of them through, and then we're going to
reach our outcomes even when, right, things feel hard.
(40:14):
Or maybe you've been feeling like, oh, OK, this thing didn't
go exactly how I wanted to. Maybe that means I'm not
supposed to do it, right? This card is saying like, no,
you're supposed to do it. You know your position and
purpose in the world and even when, like, things don't go
totally right, that's OK. But right, keep moving forward
with what you want to do. And that will sort of work well
(40:36):
for you. It will be all worth 100 times
any distraction that might befall you. 100 times, guys.
OK. All right.
So we have gotten long today, soI think I'm going to stop there.
Yeah, let me, I guess I'm going to pull a tarot card for our
(41:00):
diving in and see what the cardshave to say today on this topic
of tarot versus Oracle or not orversus and tarot and Oracle
since we're mixing them. And I'm going to pull from the
Desert Illuminations deck by Lindsay D Williams.
(41:20):
These are all my newest decks that I'm talking about today and
I love them all and I'm getting to know them.
Oh, I pulled the sun in reverse.Happy Solstice.
Just kidding. OK so the sun is a Major Arcana
(41:45):
card. It is associated with the planet
of the sun. It's the element of fire and the
solar plexus chakra. It says.
The New Mexico sun rises betweena desert rainbow over a
sprouting field of blue corn. An eagle dancer spreads his
wings, helping carry hopes and dreams into the cosmic realm.
The cart the Sun card is symbolic of ultimate radiance,
(42:07):
positivity and success. Let the sunshine in.
After surviving the darkest hours of the soul.
You have found illumination. It is time to radiate your gifts
out to the universe with your whole heart.
Yeah, so we did pull it in reverse.
So either that means we're having like a challenge of
shining positivity. When I pulled this card, my
(42:30):
immediate thought was like, I need to go to bed.
But that was what he was tellingme.
It is dark for me right now. It is 10:00 PM.
And so that was sort of my firstthought.
So maybe you metaphorically needto go to bed right now or maybe
in reality you need to go to bedright now.
But right, like when the sun isn't there or we're having a
(42:52):
challenge with the literal sun. And I did just have summer
solstice for me. And it did mean that like, I've
been doing a lot of things. I've been awake a lot of hours,
right? So I think there is something to
base that about this, like, OK, I just need to go to bed, right?
And like sometimes that means things will be better tomorrow,
(43:12):
right? We'll feel well rested.
We'll be able to sort of see things, right?
We'll look for that radiance positivity and success.
And right, we're we're making itthrough, you know, even when
it's hard. And so, yeah, that's where I'm
going to end today. So links for the tarot decks I
talked about was being the show notes and on my website in the
show notes and on my website, ifyou'd like to look at them or
(43:34):
purchase them. And thanks for joining me today
on Everyday Tarot. Just as a reminder, the podcast
comes out daily, Monday through Friday for all of 2025 and you
can e-mail me me@camilleasaunders.com with any
thoughts, questions, ideas for future podcast episodes or
topics and more. All right, and I will see you
soon. Go to bed or I'm going to bed
(43:54):
and goodbye.
Welcome to Everyday Tarot, your daily dive into the divine
wisdom of the tarot. I'm your host Camille, a
Saunders healer, tarot enthusiast, and your local witch
next door. And today I'm talking about
tarot and Oracle. Whether you're a seasoned tarot
reader or just starting to explore, this podcast offers
daily insights, intuitive messages, and practical advice
drawn from the cards. Each episode is designed to help
(00:23):
you connect with your inner wisdom, find clarity, inner
decisions, and tap into the energy of the universe.
TuneIn every day, Monday throughFriday for fresh perspectives
and empowering guidance from theTarot as interpreted by me.
Thanks so much for those of you who were able to attend my
virtual tarot card creation event last week.
If you signed up but were unableto make it to the live event,
(00:43):
you should have the replay of the event recording the PDF I
made with a step by step processand an offer to join my upcoming
series called Tarot for Transformation.
So check your emails for that. If you want to deep dive the
tarot with me with weekly calls and journaling.
I'm going to be offering a 12 week Tarot for Transformation
Live course this summer. We'll focus on one card a week,
(01:06):
learning about it, embodying it.Yeah, I'm really deep diving.
So if you're interested in that and getting a little bit more
yeah in depth about tarot or working with me in a different
capacity, I have a sign up in the show notes where you can get
more information about that. If you love the show, the best
(01:26):
way to support it is by listening daily, leaving the
review, and subscribing or following in your favorite
podcast app. I just updated the Patreon
benefits to be bigger and betterthan ever.
I will be hosting live episodes every New moon to do a New Moon
Collective Tarot reading. If you join the Lovers of the
Podcast level on the Patreon, you will get access to an
exclusive Discord to chat with me live during the stream and
(01:49):
I'll pull a card for each one ofmy patrons in addition to the
New Moon Collective spread. If you want an individual card
pulled for you once a month liveon the podcast, join the
Everyday Tarot Patreon family atthe Lovers level.
If you'd like to support the podcast even further, you can
get a one time individual 5 cardreading in addition to all the
other benefits if you join the Witch Bench level on the
(02:11):
Patreon. If you're local to the greater
Puget Sound area, check out my Let's Talk Tarot meet up group
for the latest event postings. I will be having two upcoming
events be posted on there shortly.
One will be another in person tarot card crafting event.
And then I will also be startinga monthly Women's Moon Circle on
(02:36):
the full moon with my friend Izzy in person.
So we're probably looking for 8 to 10 other folks that want to
meet every or around the full moon and do a women's circle.
And you have some, again, in person, some community together,
pull some tarot, do some other spiritual activities, share,
(02:58):
reflect on the month and look ahead.
So again, you can check out my meet up group for that for the
latest event postings. If you're interested in my free
PDF with the 2025 five Car Tarotspread I created just for you at
the beginning of this year, you can get that by joining my
newsletter list. My weekly newsletter always has
the most up to date information on upcoming events,
(03:20):
presentations, musings and more.And if you don't already know, I
am a sex and relationships therapist seeing clients
virtually all over Washington State.
I love working with queer, Pollyand witchy clients.
If you'd like to work with a therapist that doesn't judge
you, is witchy just like you, and helps you learn how to deal
with anxiety, chronic pain or illness, communication issues,
(03:40):
self advocacy, and sex, head to my website and book a free
consultation now to start your journey.
You can find the links for any of these offers in the show
notes or on my website camilleasaunders.com/everyday
Tarot, in addition to the imagesof the cards I pull on each
episode. All right, so welcome to season
10 where I'm talking all about tarot and witchcraft.
(04:01):
If you haven't listened to my other seasons yet, you can check
those out. In season 1, I talked to tarot
basics. In seasons two and three, I went
through all the Major Arcana cards and an overview of the
four suits. In season 4, I talked to tarot
and pop culture. In season 5, I went through 13
common tarot spreads. In season 678 and 9, I went
through all of the suit of wands, Pentacles, Swords and
(04:23):
Cups. So if you're gathering like,
yes, I have had an episode of mypodcast about every single tarot
card that there is, or at least,you know, the standard 78.
And so yeah, if you ever have a particular card that you're
wanting to learn more about, that maybe you have a
complicated relationship with and you want some more nuance
(04:45):
added to the conversation, you can go check out.
Yeah, any of my episodes. They should be labeled with the
card and as the title. And if it's easier, you can go
to my website and go click on the podcast tab and from there
there's a search bar at the top so you could search whatever
card you're looking for. 10 of Swords, 5 of Pentacles, 2 of
(05:09):
Cups, 3 of Wands, any of the Major Arcana cards as well.
And that will come up. All right.
So yeah, so season 10, I'm talking all about tarot and
witchcraft, but today I'm talking specifically about Tarot
and Oracle. So I did have a podcast episode
super early on in January, I think January 6th of 2025.
(05:33):
Episode 4 of the podcast was allabout tarot versus Oracle cards.
So I talked about some similarities and differences and
why you might choose one over another, so you can check that
episode out if you want to kind of know why you might choose one
over another. But today I'm going to try to
focus on like how to work with both, how to integrate them.
(05:57):
I'm probably going to do, yeah, a tarot spread, but with some
Oracle cards. Today we'll pull some Oracle
cards and also some tarot and kind of think about how they
work together. So again, if you haven't
listened to the episode 4, you can do that.
But I'll also go through a little bit briefly of what tarot
versus Oracle are. So tarot cards, they're a type
(06:17):
of cardomancy, which is, right, Using a deck of cards to
foretell the future or gain insight into events.
Divination. People who practice cardomancy
are called cardomancers, card readers or readers.
Cardomancy falls under a larger umbrella of divination, which is
using various techniques to gaininsight into a situation or
(06:37):
question, often by attempting toforetell the future.
So there's lots of different kinds of divination.
Tardomancy, or doing tarot is one of them.
Tarot is said to have started inthe 15th century in Europe as a
pack of playing cards with Italian roots.
The decks and games spread to most of Europe, but look
different in each country. In the late 18th century, French
(06:59):
occultists began creating customdecks for use in divination or
tarot reading. And this is the beginning of the
usage of the cards that we see alot of today.
And most tarot decks you will find are styled based off of the
Waite Smith duck. It's also known as the Rider
Waite Duck. This is a very popular duck.
It's easily accessible. First published in 1909, it was
(07:19):
designed by Arthur E Waite and illustrated by Pamela Coleman
Smith. So often Pamela Coleman Smith
isn't referenced in the history of who created the Tarot to be
what it is today, even though those style of decks are, so
they're usually called Rider Waite decks.
Her name is often left out of itcompletely and so I'll refer to
the style as Waite Smith or Rider Waite Smith to include her
(07:44):
name in there since she was the artist and created like the
famous iconography that we see most often replicated today in
the tarot decks. So yeah, when you think about
tarot again, the structure of a wait Smith deck like most
others, it has 78 cards. It's divided into two sections.
You have the 1st 22 cards known as the Major Arcana.
(08:08):
Arcanum is a Latin word meaning secret or mystery.
So hence the Major Arcana are the great secrets and each card
in this group has a name such asthe High Priestess, the Lovers,
the moon, the sun, and begins with the full, which it doesn't
have a number or is numbered 0 and ends with the world which is
numbered 21. So the second portion of the
(08:28):
deck consists of 56 cards, whichis sort of like what's in a
standard playing deck of cards and it's called the Major
Arcana. This section is similar to a
deck of cards like I said you might use to play games with.
So it's divided into 4 suits of 14 cards each, the wands, cups,
swords and Pentacles. Each suit contains numbered one
through 10 or really Ace through10 + 4 court cards.
(08:52):
Page Night, Queen, King. And this is the basic
introduction to sort of the structure of a tarot deck.
So again, you're probably familiar with Tarot if you've
got into this episode and you'vebeen listening to me thus far.
But yeah, maybe you don't know anything about Oracle or maybe
maybe you have a preference for Oracle and you're like, finally
Camille is talking about Oracle cards.
(09:13):
Let's do so. Oracle decks there is no, I
would say like I wrote, no structure.
That's not true. Most Oracle decks do have some
structure. It's just that they don't have
the same structure as other Oracle decks or necessarily the
same structure as a tarot deck. So Oracle decks are very
(09:34):
flexible. There's lots of possibilities.
You can have varying lengths of decks.
So some are quite short, some are maybe longer.
It can be more accessible because there's kind of like no
learning required because there isn't this sort of like steeped
in history of, oh, the cards were this way and then, you
(09:54):
know, these people created them and then they illustrated them.
And then we're making decks based off of that original deck.
So right, Oracle, like you can not know anything about Tarot.
You can pick up an Oracle deck. A lot of like people use like
affirmation decks. Like those are Oracle decks in
my mind, because it's just sort of like a deck like usually like
(10:18):
of a cohesive theme, whatever that might be, usually cohesive
artwork and often having been sort of, yeah, derived from a
particular theme. They can often be very
different, like shapes than maybe traditional tarot cards.
Traditional tarot cards I would say are sort of about the size
(10:38):
of like an index card, which I think is like 3 by 6 inches.
Maybe I'm wrong about that, but that's sort of what I'm thinking
of. I've seen Oracle decks that are
circular or I have one that has kind of it's like a traditional
tarot card, but then it has kindof like the corners cut off of
it. So it actually is like a
(11:00):
12345678 sided like, you know, shape.
So I have two Oracle decks. So I'm going to be pulling cards
from those today and talking a little bit about them.
But really, yeah. So when I did my last episode
Tarot versus Oracle back in January of this year, I had only
(11:24):
recently acquired an Oracle deckand was kind of getting to know
it. I've now I had now have another
Oracle deck. So I have two now.
My first one, like I said, I purchased in November last year
in 2024 in Beacon, NY when I wasthere with some of my witchy
friends. And then my second one I bought
(11:46):
in a bookstore in Boulder, Co this past May when I was there.
And both times I didn't necessarily go into it looking
to buy an Oracle deck. The first one I went into just
sort of like a witchy store whenI was in Beacon, NY and this
deck that I have was like calling to me.
(12:07):
It's in this like really big purple box with like gold
writing. And it was very beautiful.
And they didn't have a lot of decks in general.
They had maybe like 10 differentkinds.
And that store was chock full. They had a ton of crystals and
other things. But yeah, I kept like sort of
walking around and I was lookingat some stuff.
And again, I hadn't gone in particularly looking for an
(12:30):
Oracle or tarot deck, but it just kept like jumping out at
me. And actually next episode, I'm
going to talk about tarot and intuition.
So right, like this is a way that I sort of utilize my
intuition is that like by going into spaces and kind of seeing
like, what stands out to me? Like, what can I not, like get
my mind off of? Like, why?
(12:51):
Why am I so drawn to this thing in here?
And so yeah, I bought 1 there, which is the Wild Kwan Yin
Oracle, the Velvet Goddess edition by Alana Fairchild.
Alana Fairchild has a lot of decks, so if you like the art
style in this one, you can. Or if you want to know more
(13:15):
about them, I'll put in the shownotes a link to some of their
stuff. But they've a lot of different
decks. At some of my tarot meetups,
I've seen some of the other decks that Alana Fairchild has
created, and I'm often drawn to them.
It's funny, I have a friend where we have like a lot of
crossover in the decks that we have.
Shout out to IO. And she also has, I think, at
(13:40):
least one other Alana Fairchild deck.
And I'm always like, oh, I love this.
Which one is it? And then I look at it and I'm
like, Oh yeah, same person. Like, makes sense.
But yeah. And then the recent one I bought
in May in Denver, it is called The Citadel, a Fantasy Oracle by
Fenn Inkrite. I love the artwork on this one.
(14:01):
And again, it does have similar structure, I would say to tarot.
And then it kind of has four suits.
It is sort of a like DND style deck, like it can be used with
tabletop games. It has 60 cards.
Let me see if the Alana Fairchild one says on the back
(14:23):
how many cards? There are 44 cards.
So I got in here. You already have like a wide
variety of that. And like I said, the Alana
Fairchild 1 is like a massive box.
So it's a certain edition of thedeck and it comes with like what
looks like a chapter book of like 8 to 10 pages about each of
(14:48):
the cards in the deck. It often has a ritual.
It sort of has like a whole viewof like what what's going on in
your life right now and what might you be struggling with and
all this stuff. So Oracle can also be very fun
because it can be, again, a little more free form and give
you some different ideas there. What else do I want to talk
(15:11):
about? So yeah, often when I meet
people who are into witchy things, like they have a
preference for tarot versus Oracle decks, some people have
both. And yeah, again, sometimes
you're drawn to the art of one or another or things like that.
But I feel like people kind of have strong opinions about if
they like tarot or Oracle and not necessarily that they love
(15:31):
both. Some people that maybe like say
that they don't like rules or ifthey feel overwhelmed by
learning, like, Oh my God, I have 78 cards I have to learn
1st and like sort of this history and symbolism that's
sort of like steeped in it. Like that sounds like a lot
where is like an Oracle deck. Again, you can generally like
(15:52):
pick it up. It'll have a deck guidebook
usually. And sometimes you just like get
a vibe is what I would say from Oracle decks.
And that can be very nice. Yeah.
I think often when I think aboutlike using decks in like a
therapy context, which is the thing I do sometimes I think,
again, Oracle decks can be really nice because you don't
(16:15):
have to like come in with this knowledge about it.
You can kind of look at the images and read from the book
and be like, yeah, great. OK, so I do have a therapist who
tarot tarot deck and that one I would say like is maybe a little
bit more similar to an Oracle deck.
It does have the standard like 78 cards, but the there is no
(16:41):
tarot deck guide book and on theback of each card instead of
having like the same image on the back of it has reflection
questions. So that is like 1.
So actually today in a networking meeting that I helped
lead, we pulled cards from that tarot deck and just looked at
(17:05):
the questions on the back. Or that's sort of what like I
looked at 1st and we each got one of those cards.
And then we sort of talked aboutthe reflection questions on the
back and how that applies to ourlife right now.
There's three questions on the back of each one, so you can
kind of like pick one to go off of or look at all of them.
(17:25):
And then at the end, we flipped the cards over and sort of
looked at like the tarot card onthe other side that, you know,
the more, what am I trying to say, the more standard depiction
of the card, like the art with it and sort of again, like the
vibe that we get from it. Because these are folks that
maybe have one person definitelyhas some exposure to tarot.
(17:46):
They've like paid tarot readers before, but they don't really
read for themselves or anything like that.
I think the other person like didn't really have any
familiarity necessarily with Tarot.
And so that was kind of a fun way to get to like use a deck in
a in a business setting to talk about, to use it as like a like
you would use like conversation questions or conversation
(18:10):
starter type questions. And so that deck is kind of fun
because it can get used in that way as well and kind of doesn't
have to have this, I guess like tarot specific information or
kind of can be like a a steppingstone into working with tarot.
And then yeah, I think some people really like the
(18:31):
predictability of a tarot deck or that like sort of once you
learn a bit about tarot, you cankind of pick up any deck and
pull cards and kind of know whatthat card means even without
looking at the deck guidebook because tarot ducks vary a lot.
But most, I would say, have a similar structure.
(18:55):
Sometimes people change like some of the names of the cards,
or sometimes like I think Justice and Judge, no Judgement
and strength. I don't remember.
There's two cards that are sometimes flipped numbers wise,
and the Major Arcana. Check out my Major Arcana
episodes in Season 2 to figure out which card it is.
(19:19):
And yeah, so that's like something that, but other than
that, they usually have 78 cards.
They usually have the Major Arcana and then the Minor Arcana
and have 4 suits and that kind of thing.
And yeah, I guess I do have another.
I do have some decks that change, like in the Desert
Illuminations Tarot deck by Lindsey D Williams, they change
(19:40):
all of the suits to be sort of desert themed suits.
So pentacles change to cactus cops changed to Mystic whiskey
jugs, swords change to daggers and wands change to I don't
(20:00):
know, I'm going to have to look it up real quick.
The ones change to, oh, chilies,like like chili pepper chilies
(20:23):
because they're spicy and they're fiery.
So yeah, that is like another sort of way that tarot structure
can be kind of played with. Also in the Goddess of Love
tarot deck, they changed some ofthe names of some of the more
(20:43):
like masculine characterized characters in the Major Arcana
and in the court cards to be like feminine ones.
So I know like they changed Kingto be Crone and I think Night to
Bewitch. Yeah, again, check out that deck
(21:07):
if you want to confirm that. And then in the therapist utero
one, they changed some of the names to I think like daughter
instead of Paige. I think that's one of them and
that kind of thing. So yeah, there's a little bit of
changes, but generally a gun like same structure, right?
(21:27):
Even in the desert Illuminationsone that change all the names of
the suits, they all still correspond to a sort of like
traditional suit. Yeah.
So if you're looking to get intoTarot or Oracle ducks and you're
like, you don't know where to start, you can find like a local
witchy store and see if they have a section for ducks.
(21:49):
Most like witchy stores have both.
They have Oracle and tarot and sometimes you can't tell just
like from the look of it. You'll have to like see what it
says, if it says Oracle or tarot.
My favorite stores have like a store copy of the deck that you
can like look through all the cards like an open, you know,
like a tester, like 1 where you'd like try the lotion out.
(22:10):
They have like an open deck thatyou can like look through all
the cards and usually even if they don't have that, they
usually have like I've seen somepeople use like a like a flash
cards or like a three ring binder ring.
And it has like a couple like 3 cards from all the decks that
they have. So you can get like a a vibe.
(22:33):
So that's how I picked the desert illuminations Terra one.
I went to my local or one of my local witchy stores, which is
Crescent Moon Gifts in like University Place area where I
am, and they have, yeah, that thing where they have like
3:00-ish cards from most of the decks they have there.
So you can look through them 'cause generally otherwise all
(22:56):
the decks are like they're in a box usually and then they're
like sealed with like plastic. And so you can't usually like
look at any of the cards. Usually they have an image on
the front and then like words onthe back of the box or whatever
the packaging is for the deck. But other than that, like you
don't really get to see any of the cards generally.
(23:19):
And so that can be just kind of,you know, challenging because
you don't really know what it looks like until you like open
it all up once you're home. All right.
And yeah, if you ever like do goto buy a deck and you really
want to know before you buy it kind of what it looks like, you
can just like search them online.
Like again, if you find a deck, you can search the name of it
online. And sometimes people have done
(23:40):
like deck walkthroughs or like they'll show you every card,
like they'll shuffle and sort oflike go every single card one at
a time. Yeah.
The other way is that like if you are interested in a deck
that I talk about, you can go tomy website
camillesaunders.com/everyday Tarot and I'll have whatever
(24:01):
cards I use in each episode on, on the, on my like blog on my
website. And I'll show images at least of
the decks that I like, the cardsthat I pull.
I won't obviously usually show the whole deck of 78 cards in
pictures, but you can kind of get a feel for it.
And I'm always like linking where those decks are found.
(24:23):
So again, if you find ones that you like the look of them, you
can go find them and purchase them from the artist usually.
And yeah, if you're local to me,you can come to one of my tarot
meetups, my Let's Talk Tarot meet up group, and you can come
see my cards in person because Iusually bring all of my ducks
(24:43):
with me when I go to those events and other people have
ducks. So it's super fun to like peruse
other people's decks or kind of see like it often like you can
do reading for yourself. Usually people are pretty chill
about it, at least in the group I attend, where we all kind of
like touch each other's decks and like go through them so you
can get a feel for ones you might like in the future.
(25:04):
And it's really nice to be able to like hold them and like
shuffle them and be like, do I like this?
Like what's the deck guidebook like?
Does it have one? And stuff like that.
So yeah, let's get into looking at some actual cards.
So I'm going to pull cards from my 2 Oracle decks that I have
(25:25):
and then I might pull like an additional tarot and an Oracle
card at the end and we'll see ifwe can kind of like wind them
together. So first let's pull from the
Wild Kwan yen Oracle Soul guidance from the Wild Divine,
The Velvet Goddess Edition by Alana Fairchild.
It's a mouthful if you can't tell, but I do really like this
(25:47):
deck. It's very loving, like it's very
nice. And yeah, I haven't pulled from
it in a while because I was doing all the seasons that have
or is going through all the suits and obviously Oracle decks
don't necessarily have the same suits and stuff like that.
(26:08):
So, and this is a deck, this oneis like a much more square card,
so it's kind of hard to shuffle,but I'm going to do my best.
I might just have to do the likemoving the cards back and forth
between my hands. All right, I'm just going to
(26:30):
pull one from here because thesecards give a lot of information.
Oh, I pulled this one like fairly recently actually.
So I got again, the slave dancesinto freedom and it kind of has
like an image of a person looking like they're like
kicking up their feet perhaps inthis freedom way.
(26:50):
We have a very interesting like perspective, like the visual
perspective. Like it looks like we are like
sitting on the ground and we seethe person kind of like above
us. And again, they have one foot in
the air. They're kind of like handing
something off to someone else. And then we see all these people
kind of like on a wall kind of along the side.
(27:11):
And then we maybe see like a bridge or flags on the left.
And then we see like a lot of the sky.
Cause again, if we're, we're sitting on the ground as we see
this person kind of dancing away.
And this is card number 21 in this deck, which is interesting.
(27:33):
There are 44 cards I believe in this one.
All right, so I'm just going to read a little bit because.
But like I said, there's like 10pages about each card.
So yeah, it says a war is over for you.
It's not a matter of it becomingless difficult or you being able
(27:57):
to handle it with more finesse. It is simply finished.
Wow, I keep getting this messageright now.
If you've listened to my recent episodes, you'll know there's a
lot of like, you should grieve this thing.
You should bury it, have a funeral for it, like say
goodbye. So I guess I'm keeping getting
that message until I do it. It might seem to have been
dragging on for so long that youcame to believe it was just the
(28:19):
way life should be. But perhaps this ending is
abrupt, as though something thatcould have developed into a
truly difficult and long term struggle has been unexpectedly
brought to a swift end. No matter what the circumstances
may be, or whether you think something should be ending now,
the higher truth is that you have been granted honorable
discharge for karmic duty Completed.
Soon you will be experiencing life in a completely different
(28:41):
way, free from the legacy of darkness that once held you
down. OK, I'm going to see.
The Oracle of the Slave Dances into Freedom speaks of a
profound shift into consciousness, A liberation from
enslavement and a state of beingbased on opposition, struggle
(29:04):
and suffering. Even if you happen to believe in
what you were fighting for, his previous way of being created
struggle and friction, allowing you to move forwards a step only
to fall back to gain ground in your journey, only to have
another try to steal it away forwith undermining behavior,
sabotage, anger or other forms of fearful resistance.
(29:28):
OK and then yeah, I do like this.
So sometimes it has a like kind of ritual thing, but it does say
we'll do it live right now. So it says sit quiet.
So this is part of the healing process, which is like the end
part of each like little chapterabout the card.
So sit quietly with one palm of your hand.
Turn upwards as if to receive around the level of the heart.
(29:52):
Use your other hand to hold the guidebook and read your prayer.
Say the following out loud threetimes.
You don't have to speak loudly, just clearly and with quiet
confidence. From your heart, I gratefully
receive unconditional release from the wars that have been
ravaging my body, mind, and soul.
From my heart, Ioffer gratitude to Kuan Yin, who loves me
(30:14):
unconditionally, and give thanksfor the unconditional karmic
grace that frees me now and allows me to experience new
life. I call on those beings who love
me unconditionally to assist in the process of healing and
adjusting my physical body, emotional body, etheric body,
mental body, and all energy fields Help me integrate the
(30:36):
blessings of liberation as swiftly and deeply as possible.
With naturalness and grace I honor the learning of the past
and I forgive myself and all involved in it.
I no longer need to hold on to anything I trust completely in
the new beginning that is being given to me.
What needs to carry through fromthe past into the future will do
(30:58):
so with Divine Love, and what nolonger needs to be held shall be
released freely and completely. Restoration and intervention are
given to me now through Divine decree.
I am free, I am free, I am free with peace in my heart and
gratitude in my mind. I'm thankful for this release
through my own free will. So be it.
(31:22):
And then it says you can rest for a moment, perhaps with your
eyes closed, with both palms facing upward at the heart to
receive the blessing. And then you can open your eyes,
place your hands in a prayer position if you'd like, bow your
head, and you've completed the healing process.
So, Yeah. Thank you for going through that
with me. Maybe you also needed some
(31:43):
healing around. Yeah.
This release from the war that'sbeen ravaging.
All right. See what I mean?
This, this deck is very lovely. It can be kind of intense, but
it's in a very, like, loving way.
I feel like some decks, yeah, are just more direct.
(32:06):
And some decks are very like gentle with their information.
Let's see. OK, so next I'm going to pull.
I think I'm going to do a past, present, future with the Citadel
deck because I think that would be kind of fun.
(32:29):
So let's see. I need to make space for
shuffling here for myself. So again, this is the Citadel
deck, a fantasy Oracle by Fen Ink, right?
It is beautiful. I love the colors of it.
It's like the back of the cards are black with an image of like
(32:52):
an old city on them. And then on the fronts, the
decks are mostly white in the background and then they have
like red ink with black and gold, like emphasis on the card.
So it's very pretty. And like I said earlier, this
deck is sort of like a standard tarot deck in how it looks when
(33:12):
you hold it. And it does have 4 suits sort
of, but the corners are like cutoff.
So it like I said, it's like an 8 sided card instead of having,
you know, the four sides of a standard card.
And it does make it a little biteasier to shuffle honestly.
(33:34):
So all right, so I am going to cut the deck and yeah, I'm going
to do a past, present, future spread, which is just a three
card spread. And again, you can use tarot
spreads for Oracle. You can do a daily card, you can
do whatever you want, you know, just in general, but also like
(33:57):
with Oracle in particular, you can maybe, I don't know if like
Oracle spreads are a thing. Maybe I'll have to look that up.
Maybe some, I guess I could lookin the deck guide book to see if
they have. Oh yeah, it does have spreads.
Let's look at the end and see what kind of spreads this has.
(34:19):
Oh, it has a lot, actually. Let's see.
So they have a spread in here called the court, which is like
a situation obstacle advice. Where am I now?
Where do I aspire to potential obstacles?
What are my goals? What tools do I have?
What path do I take to get there?
They have the Academy, which is more like opportunity, where to
(34:42):
focus an outcome. And again, these are sort of
like the four suits. They have the crowd and the
troop and they have the Citadel which is 36912 A 12 card.
So you like combine all of the the four suits, like 3 card
pulls into a 12 card spread. And then they also have one
(35:05):
called the sword and shield which is 678910 cards.
So maybe kind of like a Celtic cross spread.
And then they have one called the sword, which has five cards.
The shield. Oh, sorry, which also has five
cards. All right, So yeah.
(35:28):
So this one does have its own spread.
So if you have an Oracle deck, check it out to see.
So maybe I'll do one of the spreads that's in here.
One of the three card spreads. That sounds good.
Oh, I like this one. Callings, doubts and actions.
And this is part of the troop. So yeah, let's do that.
(35:50):
One Callings, actions, doubts. Or maybe it's calling doubts and
actions. Let me look.
Callings, doubts and actions. OK, here we go.
(36:14):
OK, the calling is the captain, the doubt is the cartographer,
and the action is the Sentinel. And again, in this stack,
everyone is sort of like in a city together.
They're sort of these like ringsof people, like moving from the
inside out of these four like sort of suits or like groups of
(36:36):
people again. And Oh my gosh, all of these are
from the same, like, suit. That's hilarious.
OK, fascinating. That was not intentional.
It just happened. I'm trying to see what suit
these are from. These are from the Academy suit.
(37:01):
OK, so first I pulled the Captain, which is about taking
command and teamwork. And this is the Collins part of
the spread. OK, so the Captain and all these
were upright, so we'll just readthe upright definitions.
(37:23):
It says. The Captain is a friendly call,
a grin, a warm handshake. The Captain passes in the street
with their men, the playful jostling of armored guardsmen
reminiscent of a tussling pack of litter mates.
In the center of it all, the Captain commands their followers
with ease, confident in their position, well aware of the
loyalty and love they inspire. They have earned their position
(37:45):
through hard work and camaraderie.
It may feel safer to attempt a task alone, but some things are
easier with a little teamwork. Don't ignore the talents of
those around you. You need experience and
diversity of others to accomplish your goal.
Be the driving force that's needed to get things done, but
make sure to acknowledge the value that each person brings to
(38:05):
the table. Very nice.
All right, so let's move on to the next one, which is doubts.
And this I pulled the cartographer.
So the cartographer upright, it says.
Not far from the walls of the citadel, a figure sits on a
rocky bluff, surveying the land before them.
Rocks way down the corners of a vellum sheet and a pen is wet
(38:27):
with ink, ready to map the shapes of the mountains.
Their cartographer doesn't just record the roads, they remember
every step they took to get there.
Even so, they look ahead to the excitement of discovering new
lands. You currently find yourself at a
crossroads, unsure of which direction to take.
Something within you is eager for a new journey, but doubts
make you hesitate. Which path will lead you where
(38:49):
you want to go and which will lead you to an unexpected
destination or a stray when inner conflicts top stop you
from taking the next step forward.
Overcome that uncertainty and embody the boldness that you
need. So right, this is saying don't
it's OK to have doubts, but you should try to move forward,
right? Overcome your uncertainty and
(39:11):
embody the boldness that you need.
And again, the calling was a little bit about like being a
leader, but also like collaborating with people.
The I don't have to do it all alone, kind of that was what I
was thinking of. And then finally, for the
actions part of the spread, I got the Sentinel, which is about
(39:31):
determination and certainty. And it says the Sentinel is a
representation of extreme focus,of security and knowing your
position and purpose in the world.
You may feel as though forces have been conspiring to tempt
you away from your goals, but donot let yourself be swayed.
Balance unexpected situations with rational thought, and the
(39:53):
outcome will be worth 100 times any distraction that might
befall you. Okay, so don't let yourself be
swayed, right? We're going to balance
unexpected situations with rational thought.
So we're going to let the situations happen, right?
We're going to think of them through, and then we're going to
reach our outcomes even when, right, things feel hard.
(40:14):
Or maybe you've been feeling like, oh, OK, this thing didn't
go exactly how I wanted to. Maybe that means I'm not
supposed to do it, right? This card is saying like, no,
you're supposed to do it. You know your position and
purpose in the world and even when, like, things don't go
totally right, that's OK. But right, keep moving forward
with what you want to do. And that will sort of work well
(40:36):
for you. It will be all worth 100 times
any distraction that might befall you. 100 times, guys.
OK. All right.
So we have gotten long today, soI think I'm going to stop there.
Yeah, let me, I guess I'm going to pull a tarot card for our
(41:00):
diving in and see what the cardshave to say today on this topic
of tarot versus Oracle or not orversus and tarot and Oracle
since we're mixing them. And I'm going to pull from the
Desert Illuminations deck by Lindsay D Williams.
(41:20):
These are all my newest decks that I'm talking about today and
I love them all and I'm getting to know them.
Oh, I pulled the sun in reverse.Happy Solstice.
Just kidding. OK so the sun is a Major Arcana
(41:45):
card. It is associated with the planet
of the sun. It's the element of fire and the
solar plexus chakra. It says.
The New Mexico sun rises betweena desert rainbow over a
sprouting field of blue corn. An eagle dancer spreads his
wings, helping carry hopes and dreams into the cosmic realm.
The cart the Sun card is symbolic of ultimate radiance,
(42:07):
positivity and success. Let the sunshine in.
After surviving the darkest hours of the soul.
You have found illumination. It is time to radiate your gifts
out to the universe with your whole heart.
Yeah, so we did pull it in reverse.
So either that means we're having like a challenge of
shining positivity. When I pulled this card, my
(42:30):
immediate thought was like, I need to go to bed.
But that was what he was tellingme.
It is dark for me right now. It is 10:00 PM.
And so that was sort of my firstthought.
So maybe you metaphorically needto go to bed right now or maybe
in reality you need to go to bedright now.
But right, like when the sun isn't there or we're having a
(42:52):
challenge with the literal sun. And I did just have summer
solstice for me. And it did mean that like, I've
been doing a lot of things. I've been awake a lot of hours,
right? So I think there is something to
base that about this, like, OK, I just need to go to bed, right?
And like sometimes that means things will be better tomorrow,
(43:12):
right? We'll feel well rested.
We'll be able to sort of see things, right?
We'll look for that radiance positivity and success.
And right, we're we're making itthrough, you know, even when
it's hard. And so, yeah, that's where I'm
going to end today. So links for the tarot decks I
talked about was being the show notes and on my website in the
show notes and on my website, ifyou'd like to look at them or
(43:34):
purchase them. And thanks for joining me today
on Everyday Tarot. Just as a reminder, the podcast
comes out daily, Monday through Friday for all of 2025 and you
can e-mail me me@camilleasaunders.com with any
thoughts, questions, ideas for future podcast episodes or
topics and more. All right, and I will see you
soon. Go to bed or I'm going to bed
(43:54):
and goodbye.
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