How I Use Oracle Cards Without Giving Away Your Authority

Let me start with what I don't believe.

I don't believe a deck of cards should make your decisions for you.

I don't believe every card is predicting something that's going to happen.

And I definitely don't believe that because I'm the person holding the cards, I somehow know more about your life than you do.

So why the heck do I use oracle cards?

Because they can start some really interesting conversations.

Sometimes a Picture Gets Us Out of Our Own Way

Have you ever been thinking about something for so long that you're basically having the same conversation with yourself over and over again?

I have.

We can analyze something to death and still end up right back where we started.

Then we look at an image, read a word or hear a question we weren't expecting, and suddenly...

Huh.

Something lands differently.

That's how I like to use oracle cards.

Not as an authority.

As a prompt.

• An image might remind you of something.

• One word may jump off the card.

• You might immediately love a card.

• Or you might look at it and think, Nope. Absolutely not.

I actually love that response.

Because now I'm curious.

What's the nope about?

I'm Not Interested in Predicting Your Future

People sometimes come to oracle cards wanting an answer.

• Will this happen?

• Should I do this?

• What's going to happen next?

I understand the temptation. Wouldn't it be lovely if somebody could just hand us the answer?

Unfortunately, being human doesn't seem to work that way.

And I'm not interested in taking your authority away from you by pretending that I have the answer either.

I'd rather turn the question around a little.

Instead of:

“Tell me what's going to happen.”

• We might ask:

  “What am I being invited to notice?”

• Or:

  “What haven't I considered yet?”

  Or even:

• “What do I already know that I haven't wanted to admit to myself?”

Oof.

Sometimes that's the card.

And Sometimes You Can Tell Me I'm Completely Wrong

This is important.

I may look at a card and tell you what I'm noticing.

And you may say:

“That doesn't resonate with me at all.”

Great.

Seriously.

I'm not going to convince you that I'm right because I'm the intuitive one holding the deck.

Sometimes knowing what doesn't fit helps us recognize what does.

Your reaction is part of the information.

That's one of the reasons I see these sessions as a conversation rather than a reading where I pronounce things and you sit there taking notes.

We're exploring together.

Intuition and Common Sense Can Be Friends

I love intuition.

I also love critical thinking.

I see absolutely no reason they can't sit at the same table.

Sometimes intuition is quiet.

Sometimes fear is really loud.

So are wishful thinking, old beliefs, other people's expectations and that part of us that desperately wants a particular answer.

Sorting all of that out can take a little discernment.

For me, intuition isn't about abandoning what we already know.

It's another source of information.

I can listen inwardly and look at the facts.

I can notice what my heart is saying and have the difficult conversation.

I can pull an oracle card and decide that I'm not making a major life decision based on a piece of cardboard.

Both things can be true.

Want to Try It?

If you have an oracle deck, pull one card.

Don't ask it to tell you your future.

Instead, bring something you're curious about to mind and ask:

“What might I notice differently?”

Then look at the card before you reach for the guidebook.

• What catches your eye first?

• A color?

• A person?

• A word?

• Something in the background?

• What feeling comes up?

• What thought arrives?

• What makes absolutely no sense?

Then read the guidebook if you want to.

Keep what feels useful.

Leave what doesn't.

And finally ask yourself:

“Is there anything here I want to do differently?”

Maybe there is.

Maybe there isn't.

Either answer is okay.

The Cards Don't Get the Final Word

That's really the heart of it for me.

An oracle card might make us laugh.

It might irritate us.

It might bring something into focus.

Every once in a while, a card comes up that is so ridiculously on point that I just have to sit there for a second and think...

Well, okay then.

I love those moments.

But even then, the card doesn't get to run your life.

Neither do I.

The cards can open a door.

They can give us another lens.

They can help us get curious about something we've been looking at the same way for a very long time.

But you decide what has meaning.

You decide what fits.

And you decide whether you want to walk through the door.

That's where your authority belongs.