Everything to enhance readings is optional! Not needed at all! I am putting these hear for anyone who is interested in pursuing tarot reading more deeply or just needs an excuse to play with their cards!

Oracle Cards

Oracle cards are a great way to smooth out the edges in a tarot reading. Pulling a few oracle cards can wrap everything together nicely. You can also just use oracle cards if you want to do a quick read or just want some encouraging words.

How to Use Oracle Cards

Each deck will have it’s own directions written by the author/artist on the best way to use the deck. But I am talking about a basic use for any oracle decks you have.

You can draw a card or two before you start a tarot reading. I use an oracle deck I have to do a “vibe check” before I deal out my spread. I don’t give it much mind until later in the reading. The oracle cards are simply additional information and I often find useful tidbits and tie up loose ends from having these cards on the table.

If I am puzzled by the oracle card I will then look at the book and its meaning according to the creator. If I still don’t get it I move on. That does happen sometimes.

Playing Cards

I like to use playing cards during and at the end of my readings. If I am stuck on a card or a grouping I will often draw a single playing card and lay it adjacent to the confusing card(s).

I look at the card and note it’s rank and the keyword for that rank. I also look at the suit to determine more information - noting colors too. I find that it triggers my intuition and an idea will pop up shortly. The rank can quite literally be pointing to a specific number that has to do with your tarot reading.

For example the two of hearts, on face value alone looks like love between a couple. If you were doing a love reading that would be one of the best cards you could draw for clarity!

Yet the two of hearts does not literally mean a happy loving relationship. Context is key, always. But this is how you can use playing cards to enhance your reading.

Learning Correspondances

The more you learn about the cards the deeper and more useful your readings will become. The tarot is like a book, a book of symbols with randomly ordered pages. It is genius as a thinking tool.

The first Correspondances that you learned were the basic meanings / keywords. One (1) corresponds with new, beginning, seed, January, leader, winner, the boss, singles, etc. etc. Next there are other more universal correspondances that you can use to improve your readings. Plus learning these things is fun and brings a little advanture into your life.

There are a lot of different ideas and systems that people use and devise for cartomancy. I suggest you pursue any one that you feel drawn to. Even if you move on to something else, which you probably will at some point, you will gain knowledge and understanding that will be useful later on.

To start learning correspondances you can read a tarot reference book, learn western hermeticism correspondances, watch tarot videos on youtube, take a class, or even use a thesaurus or dictionary to look up words.

Right now you could start by looking up the elemental correspondances to the pip suits, and then noting that information in your readings. For example, “there is a lot of fire in this spread, things are very heated”.

You will have to decide which correspondances jibe with your reading methods. There is no right or wrong, only “Is this working for my reading?”. There are many interesting rabbit holes to get lost in.

Astrology Correspondances

Ritual Enahncements

Finally, you can use different rituals to get yourself in a more receptive state, to get in the zone, to heighten intuition. The simplest being reordering your cards. You can also burn some incense, say a prayer, chant a mantra or take a moment of silence.

A simple walk outside may put you in the right frame of mind, or taking in some art. There are also elaborate magickal and mystical rituals you can learn about with further study.

None of this is needed, but can add to the atmosphere and enhance your creative thinking, aka intuition.

Use whatever resonates with you and brings you joy. If a method causes too much stress, leave it aside. Tarot is a tool for you to use, it should be empowering you. ♣