Tarot, Oracle and Meditation card readings from Divination Decks.
Self Knowledge. Self Knowledge in Context. Expanding one’s playground. Talking to yourself in another way. Connecting beyond your familiar world. Connecting to Wisdoms, Callings, Archetypes and Guides. Recognition. Revelation. Expanding Consciousness. Expanding opportunities. Expanding Reality.
Divination decks are sets of images with accompanying texts of intention and interpretation. They are a combination of symbolism and wisdom curated within specific frames of reference. They are deeply rooted in culture and belief systems. They can follow esoteric lineages, systems of spirituality, intuition, ways of relating to plants and animals and minerals and places, ways of relating to processes, ways of relating to the pantheons of Spirits, radical ecology, sacred geometry, science, psychology, history, art and more.
The purpose of drawing and reading cards is generally to bring something into conscious awareness, to experience something beyond the ordinary methods of navigating and questing. Often there is an intent to inform a future action or decision based on insight and guidance provided. Other times it’s more about introspection. Assessing a self or situation from another perspective. There are many other purposes as well. I use them for ceremonies too. It’s up to the players.
Card readings are a way of accessing “magical” non-Newtonian creativity and communication. I like to think of it as accessing the Akashik Records, Quantum level reality co-creation, and giving Beings another way to connect with us in our 3D psyche realm. Our superconscious minds are linked to the field of information that the cards reside in. Taking that idea further, everything and every Being is in the one big field of information/energy/potential/beingness, and we are bringing unusual non-ordinary parts of it into our present human awareness. Going behind the scenes. Card reading is a technology that has been created and invoked to materialize the cards that are appropriate for the querent, the seeker, at the time.
The querent is on a quest. A quest for clarity, insight, revelation, healing, something. The querent is interested in what is unknown and unconscious, in what is helpful and what is problematic, in what else is possible. All we have to do is hold the question and the cards together in our minds and hearts and hands, then allow our non-rational, imaginative and receptive faculties run the show. Our fingers will reach for particular cards, other cards will fall onto the table; we will just want a particular card, a card will want us; or we can even rely on simply shuffling the deck and drawing from the top. Remaining in the question throughout the entire reading is essential. A sense of curiosity for the way each card does or doesn’t resonate with you, and how they fit together to create a cohesive transmission opens pathways of realization.
Different decks have different attributes and cover different sets of information. I enjoy using multiple decks in a reading in order to access these differences for a richer reading.
I sometimes use layouts suggested by other people, and often layout intuitively. Both methods have their benefits. The structures of the layouts are part of the reading. What is next to what. What crosses what. What themes repeat. What themes are missing. What is in which direction. I once intuitively layed out a reading in the shape of my sailboat. The cards that landed on port and starboard, forward and aft, helm and mast, etc, were exquisitely apropos, expressing the depth, the breadth and the navigation of the processes in my adventure into the nature of reality and relating. That’s where my sailboat took me.
I use the decks for insight, blind spots, guidance, witnesses, companionship, exploration, ceremony, ritual, offerings, beauty, creativity, sharing and connectivity.
Tarot decks tend to be oriented to processes in archetypal and soul level journeys.
Oracle decks tend to be more personal.
Meditative decks tend to give a single point of focus, inquiry or frequency to marinate in.
They are all deeply symbolic, and portals to fields of information and Helpful Beings.
I currently have 9 decks to choose from. Here is a brief description of the decks. If you would like a reading, please contact me at aravel@thinningtheveil.info
Thoth is a Tarot deck that is very multi-lineage yet still very European and Near Eastern and Egyptian for the most part. It goes into huge buckets of transpersonal human experience and soul development, and Creation of the World. The text is eons deep and educational about esoteric matters. It can be transduced into personal practical next move information and insight of one’s circumstances.
The Faeries’ Oracle deck, brought through by Brian Froud and the Faeries working together, is very much about the personal and about connecting with Faerie energies, characters, and understandings of existence. They encourage imagination and intuition and improvisation. And fun! The faeries encourage going beyond the text of the book. The first reading I ever had was from this deck!
The Wildwood Tarot, pictured at the top of this page, is very animistic and practical to modern life in returning to the woods and the call of The Ancestor. There is often too much psychology and environmental shaming in there for my preference. But I LOVE the cards themselves, the Beings who come through them.
The Wild Harmonic deck is for deeeep introspection through the use of carefully crafted questions and symbolism to meditate with and journal with. This can open up blind spots really well. 
The Ogham Celtic Oracle deck was my first deck and facilitated one of my biggest early consciousness openings. It is 22 cards, mostly trees. Thus my attraction! It has multiple layers of symbolism, and interesting information of the old ways and medicinal uses of the plants. Lots of portals in this one.
The Faery Forest deck has spectacular images of Faeries. The text, in my opinion, is pretty simplistic, shallow and unkind/overdramatic. Yet it can still be exactly what someone needs to hear for the guidance they seek. Personally, I relate more to the Beings in the images than to the text the author attached them to.
The Flowers Oracle deck is straight up assistance and probably a lot more I haven’t yet tapped into. It’s based on Bach’s Flower Essences. The way plants assist with healing. Totally nailed my need from the first time I used it.
The Water Crystal Oracle meditation deck (not pictured) is great for pure frequencies and their potential embodiment.
The Celtic Tarot has interesting and beautiful imagery. I bought it to connect with the artist’s work when I met him, and to Celtic lore. It follows the tarot structure of major and minor arcana. I find the author to be not so wise but offers some information. I stay focused on the characters and symbolism in the cards and take the text under advisement for further study.
The Wild Unknown Animal Spirit Oracle deck. This is structured around the 5 elements of Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Spirit, and yogic principles, and the author’s personal reflections on the characteristics of animals. I like the variety of animals in this deck that you often don’t find in others. I’m not always in agreement with the author’s animal descriptions but that’s OK, the deck works miracles anyway!
