Some of us like to know that which is unknown. Doing so creates a sense of predictability and with it, stability, and an easing of anxiety. Since before the Middle Ages, folks have used all kinds of methods to foresee the future and / or gain certain knowledge about their current situations and / or seek guidance and inspiration. Whether it is through casting dice, beans, bones or runes, or reading patterns of tea leaves at the bottom of a cup, we want to know what’s ahead and one way to do is through divination.

There are innumerable methods of divination, some centuries old. Consider a few examples:

• scrying: consisting of gazing into reflective objects, such as mirrors, crystals or water.
• somatomancy: reading features of parts of the human form such as skulls, hands, soles of the feet, or faces.
• chartomancy: reading things on paper including the subsets of
  • cartomancy – card readings
  • stichomancy – reading books or lines from books
  • bibliomancy – reading random passages of the Bible

Reading Tarot and Oracle cards is a form of cartomancy or card reading. And the reading of tarot cards has its own category called taromancy or tarotmancy.

What’s the Difference?

Consider this simple chart showing some differences between the two types of card decks and readings:

Your Strong Suit

If you wish to become a reader, let your selection of card type come by intuition. Some readers only read one type of deck: either Tarot or Oracle cards. Some readers do both kinds of readings or even creatively combine the cards. Many of today’s readers say these cards are not for fortune telling, rather they are meant only to nudge the querent toward behavior or choices based on their own intuition and guidance as given by a reading of the cards. Much like a pendulum, some readers believe that the Tarot cards will not give guidance if one is asking the wrong question. And sometimes the cards present an answer to the real question that should have been asked. In any case, if you feel called to work with this type of cartomancy, again let your intuition guide you to one or more decks that resonate with you.