Last month I shared about the very long journey of Tarot and Oracle cards dating back to the 1300’s. I’m not that old, but they are things I have learnt over my years of interest in the Tarot and Oracle cards. This month I want to share with you my Intuitive Card Reading Journey.
I bought my first Tarot deck when I was around 18, sometime in the late 1980’s, so not as far back as the 1300’s but I do date back to last century. I don’t remember exactly what prompted me to do so, but I do remember being in a little book shop in a side street in Auckland City. I found different types of cards in a glass cabinet by the register. There wasn’t the variety there is today and they were mostly Tarot cards. The person behind the counter asked what I was looking for and of course I had no idea. They pointed me towards the mini Rider Tarot deck I still have in my bedside table today, saying it was the one most people started with.
It wasn’t long before I decided I didn’t like the accompanying guide book which is an excerpt from The Key to the Tarot written by A.E. Waite. If you read last months blog you will recall he was the author of the 1909 accompanying guide book and he employed Pamela Colman Smith to illustrate the Tarot cards for what is now the most well known and used Tarot deck. Waite’s divination meanings for a lot of the cards were quite dark and negative, not my cup of tea! As card reading had started to grow in popularity and became more acceptable in the 1970’s, by the late 1980’s there were many Tarot books available to learn from and over the next few years I collected a few to help me find meaning in the Tarot cards that I could relate to.
I don’t think I shared my readings with anyone for many years. It was just something I did for myself. I would bring them out at New Years and my birthday to do yearly reading spreads. I played with the most common spread the Celtic Cross. I liked doing little 1,2 or 3 card drops when I had questions about something going on in my life. This when I first discovered that cards would jump from the deck as I was shuffling them. To me it seemed obvious that they were the cards needed for whatever spread I was doing at the time. Over these years I also had card readings from professional card readers as I thought I may not be “doing it right”. What I soon found was that I may get a little information when someone else was reading for me but in the end the message would be that I already knew the answers. I now realise that this was Universe’s subtle way of teaching me to trust my intuition and not to look for answers through someone else. I had already intuited the answers I was looking for, but was not yet believing in myself.
It was on a holiday in 2008 that I bought my next deck of cards, my first Oracle deck, “Messages From Your Angels” by Doreen Virtue. After years of only using the Tarot cards, I found the new Oracle deck much quicker to learn and easier to read. Over the next few years I bought a few more Oracle decks to play with and enjoyed the different themes, although sometimes similar guidance, from the different decks. I found I was referring to the cards more often to help me gain some insight into my life’s path. It was in 2010 that I bought my second Tarot deck “The Psychic Tarot Oracle” deck by John Holland. (This was also when I bought my daughter her first deck “Magical Messages From The Fairies” Oracle deck by Doreen Virtue).
The Psychic Tarot was the first deck that really spoke to me from the moment I opened it. Previously I had always looked at the guide books to find the meaning of the cards and a reading. The first time I played with “The Psychic Tarot” I did not look at the guide book at all, this was also the first time I had read for complete strangers. I was amazed at the response I got to the readings because everyone resonated well with what I was intuiting. While I have since spent time reading the guide book for the “Psychic Tarot Oracle” deck, I intuitively knew the meanings of cards when doing readings from the very beginning.
Over the next 10+ years I bought many decks, some Tarot, but mostly Oracle. Some I found easy to read with and others I would only read using their guide books. I started to acknowledge how wonderful it was that there was a growing number of authors and artists publishing Tarot and Oracle cards and that they all had different ways of communicating messages from Universe. I love that these days there is a card deck to suit just about everyone’s way of reading, appealing to their individual intuition. During this time though the “Psychic Tarot” continued to be my go-to deck, the one that spoke to me the easiest and the only one I would read without the guide book. I was mainly reading for myself and occasionally for friends throughout these years. Each time I bought a new deck it would become my deck of choice for a while as I connected with and learnt about it. I would usually continue to use the guide books to find meaning in the reading though, because I was still second guessing what I intuited the cards, and the reading, to be about.
This is also when my 11 card spread was born. By now I was a little over the traditional Celtic Cross spread and tended to ask for cards in a past, present, future manner. Because I still didn’t trust myself I would then ask for clarifying cards to go with the first three. I soon noticed a pattern that I was putting them in and the number of cards would be the same each time. This 11 card spread became the spread I used for many years. It was when I did the Card Readers Certification that I really found enjoyment in using and making different spreads or just simply asking Universe for a card or cards to do with ‘X’. While I now have a few spreads I use regularly, I also enjoy building a spread around the reading and questions that come up rather than a structured spread.
When the world changed in 2020, my personal world also changed as I became a carer for my mother in her cancer journey, (that is another long story). I found myself reevaluating my life and what was important. I started looking for things I enjoyed doing, not just things I had to do. I wanted to be doing things that put a smile on other peoples faces. Towards the end of 2021 I started to share a card drop on Facebook which is where I first met some of you. The feedback and response was so amazing and I soon had people asking me to do full readings for them. Before doing the Facebook card drop, I always second guessed what I was intuiting in readings and would turn to the guide books to make sure I was ‘getting it right’. Up until then, I was reading for myself or people I knew, so I thought what I was intuiting was actually because I knew things about our lives. When I started doing the card drop for people I didn’t know, I was getting responses saying how well people were resonating with their readings. The more this happened, the more I started to trust my intuition and let go of the need check the guide book.
In 2022 the Card Readers Certification with Hay House came across my path. It included classes with 12 Tarot and Oracle card authors, some of which had written decks I owned which was rather exciting. And it seemed like a good idea to do it since I was now doing paid reading sessions. I thoroughly enjoyed the course, not because I learnt a lot about reading, but because everything I knew intuitively about reading (some of which I was still doubting) was confirmed by people who knew what they were talking about. After all they did write the decks! All of a sudden, my little wellness business that I had started took a different direction I wasn’t expecting. People were coming to me more for a card reading than my other offerings. I recalled having a reading myself in my early 20’s where I was told one day I would be reading for others. At the time I laughed and thought “no way I could ever do that!”. Interesting how life’s journey can take a turn down a path that you once thought you would never go down.
Once I had finished the course I decided to take some time to re-read and re-learn each of the decks I owned. Some of you may recall I shared this on Facebook and I would work with a deck a week. At the beginning of the week I would introduce the deck. Then over the week I would read the guide book and study the cards and each day I would also share a single ‘card of the day’ from the deck I was learning. Again, I thoroughly enjoyed this process and found my intuition becoming stronger as I connected with each deck. I still found some decks easier to connect with than others, but as I said before, there are many different Tarot and Oracle card decks these days and they are definitely not one size fits all. Anyone who plays with Tarot and Oracle cards will have their favourite deck(s). And, if you haven’t found one you connect with yet, don’t give up! There is one out there somewhere, waiting for you to find it.
As interest in my readings grew, I started sharing short readings at local businesses, markets and expos, as well as the full readings in my business space or email and online (chat) readings. Once I let go of the need to ‘get it right’ according to the guide books and the doubt in my intuition, reading cards came much more naturally to me.
Now when I am doing a reading, I have my favourite decks of course. The ones that speak to me clearly and I feel most connected with, I use for clients personal readings. The others I am not as connected with (and still find I want to check the guide book sometimes) are the ones I like to use for my weekly card drops or even my own personal readings as a way to connect better with them. I have had decks that make no sense to me when I first get them, then years later I understand and connect with them all of a sudden. Sometimes it just takes a little longer to get to know what they are trying to say.
If you have had a reading with me, you will know all my decks are kept in pouches I make for them. At the start of a day that I have client readings, I will ask the Universe which decks I will need for my clients today. I usually find I am shown 3 or 4 decks to help me deliver the messages that are needed. Then at the beginning of each session, I ask the client which pouch they are drawn to and those are the cards we use during the reading. The decks all have different themes and the client can not see which deck they are choosing, just the pouch it is in. Some people say they choose because of the colour, some because they like the crystal on top of the pouch and some because of where the pouch is placed. The why, however, is not important. I very much believe that you, as the client, will be drawn to the deck you need, to receive the messages the Universe has for you. I have had clients choose the “Travellers” Oracle cards who are about to go on a big holiday, or the “Map” Oracle cards when they are struggling with which path to take, and the “Gratitude” Oracle cards when they are looking for some positivity in their life. Each of these decks had the right cards to relay the messages for the client at the time. It never ceases to amaze me how blunt the Universe can be when we are open to receiving what is being gifted to us.
There are many different types of divination or readings you can have these days. Some people are Tarot readers, Oracle Card readers, Psychics, Clairvoyants, and then there are Runes, Tea Leaves or Palmistry to name a few. I call myself an Intuitive Card Reader as I use both Tarot cards and Oracle cards as well as Angel cards. I have also been known to pull out my pendulum to help with some clarification. Most importantly though, these days when I am doing a reading, the cards are merely the tool in front of me to prompt me for the message I am receiving intuitively from the Universe. I now understand that I am not really ‘reading’ the cards, as I don’t memorise the guide books for each deck. I am looking at the pictures that usually have the most intricate details that I can pick up on that others won’t always notice. Using my intuition, the messages I receive are prompted by what I notice about the cards and sometimes by what you, the client, notices about the cards. This is why I don’t call myself just a ‘card reader’ but an ‘Intuitive Card Reader’, it’s all about what I intuit during the reading.
Those of you who have experienced an Intuitive Card Reading with me may have noticed I can get a little excited with the way the Universe can communicate. Sometimes its like “slap me in the face cause I’m not listening” type blunt. I have had people saying to me “I have so much going on” as a card that literally says “exhaustion” jumps out of the deck. As one of my teachers always says you can’t make this sh#t up! It amazes and amuses me when the cards say exactly what they want to say or what my clients need to hear. I know by now I should expect it, but I love that I can put a smile on someone’s face, give them some clarity, or help them release some stress or grief so that they can move forward on their journey. It can be about the simplest things, but sometimes we don’t notice or acknowledge them until someone else says it.
I have to say that this has been one of the most awesome parts of my life’s journey. When I started, it was just a fun little thing I did by myself to perhaps give me some ideas and guidance on my path. It took many many years before it became a regular part of my life. Longer for me to talk to others about it and even longer before I would read for anyone else. You know when you have something that you think “if someone had told me 30 years ago that I would be doing this, I would have laughed”…. well I literally did! Wow! In no way do I think that this is the end of this path either, I feel like its just the beginning and I’m very excited to see what is coming for me next (apart from what the next deck I will buy is). When you have something in your life that brings you and others great joy and peace, it’s something to cherish and grow and that’s what I intend to do. If this blog has you curious and you would like to experience an Intuitive Card Reading for yourself, feel free to check out my offerings page and contact me to book a session.
Enjoy your journey
💜 Donna