Oracle Cards - Intuition vs. Booklet Meaning

[AuburnTree]

Hello there!

I had a question about whether to go with my intuition or not. I'm really enjoying the Wild Wisdom of the Faery Oracle by Lucy Cavendish! I have noticed that the initial "feeling" I get from the cards I pull do not match up with the description she provides in her booklet. Some cards do match up or provide some good feedback regarding the card and things I may be missing, but others totally miss the mark.

So my question is - do I go with my initial feeling (which could be biased - most likely is) or do I use her description and divinatory meaning?

I'm relatively new to using Oracle cards and right now - I'm mainly just doing readings for myself. My gracious friend also lets me practise on him, but that's mainly just for practise and nothing serious.


TIA! <3

[Charlie Brown]

My take on oracle cards is that it's just as good or probably even better to go with your own sense rather than the book. Tarot and Lenormand are both highly developed systems in which all the parts balance each other out. They're "objective" in the sense that you can have many different artistic interpretations of the cards but the basic use and meaning of the deck stays the same. I don't see a way to really artistically reinterpret most of these oracle decks. They're "subjective" in the sense that they tend to be based on one person's artistic/spiritual inspiration. To be slavish about following the LWB of one of these decks is to be slavish to one artist's subjectivity, which seems like a quest in futility.

[stronglove]

my use of oracle decks is mainly intuitive, i give absolute preference to what the cards evoke in me, what i think they might mean. and of course i am ‘biased’, as in: i interpret them according to what i need to know. but that is perfectly ok, since the descriptions in the guidebooks are similarly tied to the person who created the deck.
my ‘procedure’ is to first ‘feel’ the card, meditate on it, extract several possible meanings, then afterwards look at the guidebook to see it adds extra depth, extra layers to what i have already figured out for myself. sometimes the text in the guidebook makes me change my interpretation, but that doesn’t happen very often and it happens mostly because i have missed or misinterpreted a detail in the image.

i have a number of french oracle decks that i really like and connect with, but some of the guidebooks are complete crap. so i don’t use them. with my oracle lumière i even hate the keywords that go with the (beautiful and evocative) images, so i have covered them with washi tape and wrote my own keywords on them.....

so i would say: trust your own intuition and connection with the images and keywords! and enjoy your oracle decks!

[Libra]

I think it's important to trust your intuition with both tarot and oracle decks. The order your doing it in - going with your understanding of the card first, then going to the book - is the way I recommend to everyone! If there is a vast discrepancy, that's a good time to look into stuff. If they have a postive outlook where you see a struggle, that can be telling, right? Sometimes, though, it's just an extra bit of info to put in your pocket. You read it as x, but someone else sees y from it. Later, you might come to understand that point of view, you might not, or maybe it'll make sense in a reading for someone else, but your own readings stay true to your first instinct.

[Divine]

I concur! I’ve been using more intuitive readings

[BlueStar]

I'd agree with Libra, go with your intuition first. And a card can have shades of meaning from one context to the next, so even though your interpretation may appear to differ from the given meaning now, you might find in future there is something in that meaning that does work for that context and that you naturally pick up on.

[Nemia]

I totally agree. There are pictures, and there's your unconscious. Let them meet.

In the tarot, there are pictures, archetypes and your unconscious. The archetypes come from a tradition which is worthwhile knowing, and they may change the way you see a card. But even in the tarot - if your interpretation and a book interpretation don't fit exactly, go with your instinct. There is a reason for what you see in the card - go and uncover that reason - it may be the key to the reading for you.

And in oracles? The artist has no monopoly on her or his art. The great thing about art is that it's not only a formula for the intentions of the author. Otherwise, there'd be no need for art. Why not simply write down: don't be so possessive next time etc?

Images invite you to find where they fit YOUR questions, feelings, pains, ideas.

[BlueStar]

I haven't used Oracle cards yet and this question had crossed my mind also. But I think Nemia says it well. It's your mind interpreting the imagery and symbols you see, so I do believe that you can see other interpretations intuitively than what the artist may have intended. And there can be so many layers in just one image. I started a thread somewhere else here about that. It's something I've noticed myself recently with Tarot, seeing something very different than what is the given meaning for the card but fits with the reading or context. It quite surprised me at first, and I think in the past I've doubted myself thinking I have to stick to the prescribed meaning. But it makes sense. I'd say allow your mind to be free to consciously convey what your intuition may be telling you:)

[BreathingSince72]

I haven't used Oracle cards yet and this question had crossed my mind also. But I think Nemia says it well. It's your mind interpreting the imagery and symbols you see, so I do believe that you can see other interpretations intuitively than what the artist may have intended. And there can be so many layers in just one image. I started a thread somewhere else here about that. It's something I've noticed myself recently with Tarot, seeing something very different than what is the given meaning for the card but fits with the reading or context. It quite surprised me at first, and I think in the past I've doubted myself thinking I have to stick to the prescribed meaning. But it makes sense. I'd say allow your mind to be free to consciously convey what your intuition may be telling you:)

I concur with you and Nemia. When I first started learning tarot in my teens, I always understood that the images were designed to tap in to your subconscious, to awaken a message, if you will. Some of these images are very common sense...the RWS 3 of Swords comes to mind, there’s some heartache going on. The TdM, 2 of Deniers...maybe that doesn’t feel as easy to interpret. Where there was one implement, perfect, whole and complete...now there are two. Where would you take that?

On the same vein, some oracle decks are very easy to understand but then there are those you couldn’t understand without a background in the culture or without an interp from the artist. But even with the more difficult-to-interp cards, once you have the general thrust, your intuition can add so much more.

[CharlotteK]

Not much different to add to the discussion so far really. The accompanying books or LWBs can be helpful in explaining the creators intent or highlighting key features or symbols, and sometimes this really enhances a deck. I particularly like how Barbara Moore does this for the decks she writes books for. But sometimes the booklet descriptions and the images you are looking at don't stack up at all. I would say just like everyone else that if you are getting a strong feeling that is different to the book, ignore the book! Trying to force a meaning on a card that you just don't see in it or feel from it will make that deck unusable.

[Amoroso]

I use the book meanings at first. This has served me well.

Over time I develop personal meanings that in some cases even diverge from the book. As I develop a closer affinity with my deck, my readings do become more accurate.