What Are Angel Oracle Cards? — messages of comfort from above

Supervised by Usatoko WHITE
Professional fortune teller & spiritual advisor

Nyanta

What kind of card is an angel oracle card?

Nekosuke

It's a card that lets you receive messages from angels. The special thing about it is that most of the messages are warm and positive.

But when you hear "angel oracle card," you might wonder, "What exactly is this kind of card?"

Angel oracle cards are a type of oracle card.

With oracle cards, you draw a single card following your intuition, and read the meaning contained in that card as the most important message for you right now.

In particular, angel oracle card readings involve freely drawing a card to communicate with angels, receiving the message they want to give you, and interpreting it.

We'll introduce angel oracle cards like these in detail.

✦The History of Angel Oracle Cards

First, let's talk about the history of how angel oracle cards came to be.

Angel oracle cards were born in 1995, right as the 20th century was drawing to a close.

The work released at the time, called "Angel Oracle," was devised by Angela Watters, a psychologist and expert in alternative medicine, based on the idea that "messages from angels are messages from God."

This Angel Oracle is said to be the very first angel oracle card ever published.

Then, in 1999, psychologist Doreen Virtue created the Angel Oracle Cards, which later became beloved by the general public and spread throughout the world.

The angel oracle cards still used and loved in countries everywhere today are the work Doreen Virtue released.

Incidentally, angel oracle cards were first sold in Japan in 2002.

In other words, it wasn't until we entered this century that people in Japan, too, were able to enjoy divination with angel oracle cards.

☾The Meanings Contained in Angel Oracle Cards

So what kind of meanings are packed into these angel oracle cards?

Here we introduce a list of meanings for all 44 cards, in the original alphabetical order.

We created this list based on the website of Raitowaakusu, the official Japanese distribution brand, so please take a look.

• Abundance
• Answered Prayer
• Archangel Michael
• Balance
• Blessings
• Body Care
• Celebration
• Children
• Divine Guidance
• Divine Timing
• Dreams
• Emerging
• Enchantment
• Focus
• Forgiveness
• Freedom
• Friendship
• Guardian Angel
• Harmony
• Healing
• Idea & Inspiration
• Intention
• Listening
• Manifestation
• Meditation
• Miracles
• Music
• Nature
• New Beginnings
• New Love
• Playfulness
• Power
• Retreat
• Romance
• Self-Acceptance
• Serenity
• Signs
• Soulmate
• Spiritual Growth
• Study
• Support
• Surrender & Release
• Trust
• Truth & Integrity

Each of these cards has its title printed in English right on the card itself.

So even if you don't have every card's wording and meaning memorized, you can simply look up the printed English title in a guidebook.

⚖How Angel Oracle Cards Differ From Tarot Cards

Angel oracle cards are similar to tarot cards in that you draw a card to receive divine guidance.

However, there are two major differences between the two.

The first is the level of difficulty involved in doing a reading.

To use tarot cards well, you need a fair amount of practice and experience — you must thoroughly understand the meanings carried by all 78 cards, and reading them skillfully requires drawing on your imagination and a good deal of concentration.

Angel oracle cards, on the other hand, are a tool that even complete beginners unfamiliar with card reading can pick up right away — you can freely receive the message from a card in a light, enjoyable spirit without needing to deeply know the meaning of every single card.

The second difference is a feature of the cards themselves.

The wording on tarot cards includes some rather intense imagery, such as "Death" or "The Hanged Man," and reading them in a positive, forward-looking way can require considerable effort.

Tarot cards also use language that stands for specific people or things, so drawing a concrete message from that also demands imagination and mental energy.

Angel oracle cards, by contrast, use wording that directly and clearly expresses concrete events or advice, making them easy to understand.

They also avoid any language that might shock or unsettle you — the content is designed to comfort and gently encourage.

✧How to Do a Reading With Angel Oracle Cards

Now that you know all 44 meanings in the angel oracle deck and understand how it differs from tarot, let's move on to explaining the actual reading method.

Getting Ready

Before you begin a reading, there's something you should take care of first: cleansing the cards.

Use whichever method feels right to you — placing a crystal power stone next to the deck, or resting the cards near a bundle of dried herbs, are both common ways to purify them.

Of course, you should also tidy and refresh the energy of the space where you'll be doing the reading.

Wash your hands thoroughly and take a few slow, deep breaths to settle your own state of mind.

The Reading Itself

Once you've finished preparing, it's time to move on to the reading itself.

First, shuffle the cards.

If the cards are too large to riffle-shuffle like a deck of playing cards, it's fine to spread them out on a flat surface, like a table, the way you would with tarot cards, and mix them up that way.

When shuffling, as with tarot, it's best to use your non-dominant hand.

Doing so is said to help prevent stray, unwanted energy from mixing in, letting you receive the message you truly need directly from your heart.

Once you feel you've shuffled enough, try freely choosing and drawing whichever card catches your attention.

It's fine to take the card on top, or to decide on a number and count down from the top before drawing — either way works.

You might also find that a card jumps out unexpectedly while you're shuffling — this is called a "jumper card," and it's a precious card that's letting you know it carries an especially strong message for you.

It's a good idea to choose a card like that as well.

Once you've chosen a card, look at it slowly and carefully. If any detail in the artwork lingers in your impression, sharpen your intuition around it and wait to see what it communicates.

If you don't feel anything in particular, it's perfectly fine to simply read the explanation in the Japanese guidebook.

As you practice this a number of times and start to get a feel for readings, try challenging yourself to draw not just one card, but three.

If you choose to draw three cards, you can, for example, read the flow of the message across the whole spread as representing "past, present, and future."

You could also decide on other themes, such as "current situation, the challenge to overcome, and the direction to aim for," and read the cards that way.

As you increase the number of cards you draw, you should gradually be able to do deeper and deeper readings.

Various Spreads

As you continue doing sessions like this and get used to handling the cards, try increasing the number of cards you draw and experimenting with different spreads (layouts) to enable even more detailed readings.

For example, if you draw four cards, imagine a rhombus shape in your mind and place the cards counterclockwise, as in "left, bottom, right, top."

When reading these four cards laid out this way:

Left represents "your own purpose or current situation"

Bottom represents "what is becoming an obstacle"

Right represents "advice for overcoming the obstacle"

Top represents "the future that awaits you if you follow the advice"

Keep these meanings in mind and do the reading following your intuition.

If you want to go further and try a seven-card draw, we recommend trying either a single-row layout, or arranging the cards in the shape of a "V" — give it a try.

Nyanta

Some of the cards are even out of print now! That's pretty rare and special.

Nekosuke

Treasure whichever deck you happen to find. Doreen Virtue's cards are especially known for how warm and comforting their messages feel.

To Receive an Accurate Message

If you're finding a reading hard to interpret, it can help to change how you phrase your question. Vague questions are difficult to read clearly. Rather than asking "Will I succeed at work?", a question like "What should I do to succeed in my current job?" makes the advice you receive much easier to understand.

In other words, sharpening the precision of your questions is essential to improving the accuracy of your readings.

Even framing questions well can feel a little difficult at first, but the important thing is to keep asking, gain experience, and gradually get used to it.

☀Summary

Here we've explained oracle cards mainly through the lens of Doreen Virtue's work, but there are many other oracle decks out there too — ones themed around Japanese deities, dragon gods, Hindu gods, or cute animals and characters, and much more besides.

With so many different types of decks available, there's sure to be one that's right for you.

Whatever your reason — "I like the theme," "I like the artwork" — any reason is a good one. If you choose a deck that sparks your inspiration, your readings will flow more easily.

Offering guidance for the path ahead from a different angle than traditional fortune telling, oracle cards can be used on their own, or alongside tarot cards — either approach works well.

Oracle cards can offer answers to a wavering heart, but relying on them too heavily isn't a good idea. This is likely one of the very concerns behind Doreen Virtue's own decision to step back from the spiritual world and turn toward Christianity.

Rather than depending too much on oracle cards, hold firmly to your own convictions, and use oracle cards wisely alongside them.

Reviewed by

Usatoko WHITE

Professional fortune teller specialising in tarot, oracle and Lenormand reading. Usatoko supervises every divination guide at Luna Factory to keep them accurate and beginner-friendly.

Written by the Luna Factory Editorial Team