Oracle Cards
Oracle cards as a set of divinatory cards that are used for personal exploration and ritual. They are a tool that can be used for introspection or, depending on your approach, divination.
But unlike traditional tarot decks, which come in packs of 78, oracle decks can include any number of cards. What's more, while tarot cards include a Major Arcana and a Minor Arcana arranged into suits, oracle decks don't follow this structure. There are no rules, and the possibilities are endless.
The differences
Although there are different schools of tarot and variations from deck to deck, any tarot deck you pick up will have the Major Arcana covering called ‘The Fool's Journey,’ — in other words, major archetypes or lessons we encounter in life — and the Minor Arcana, which covers the more day-to-day experiences. Oracle decks typically don't follow that setup. You may find a deck with 30-something cards or 80-something cards. One oracle deck might sort of mirror the tarot, while another could have absolutely nothing to do with tarot. But overall, the big difference is in the number of cards and whether it's split between majors and minors.
Oracle cards can be used for any kind of exploration based on whatever the artist and author of the deck decide. There's no one thing that makes an oracle deck an oracle deck, besides the fact that they're a deck of cards that are used for spiritual insight. Though it was traditionally used for predictive purposes, Jess has integrated it into ancestral work and uses it to gain clarity on specific questions. When I pull an oracle card, especially with this deck, the answer is interpreted through the lens of ancestral magic.
The variety is evident in two of these oracle decks. The Adinkra Ancestral Guidance Cards is a 44-card deck featuring Adinkra symbols and philosophies (used by the Ashantis in West Africa). The OKANA oracle deck, on the other hand, contains 25 cards, with five in each element (Earth, Water, Wind, Fire, and Spirit). It also features proverbs from the Diloggún Divination system.
