Tarot spreads and Oracle cards

[EvieLee]

Hullo all,
I was browsing through the "favourite spreads" thread and was intrigued by all the wonderful spreads. Unfortunately, me and the tarot aren't on the friendliest of terms, but I am quite taken with oracle cards. So my question is, can the spreads designed for the tarot be used for oracle cards as well?
Thanks.
Evie.

[LisaT4P]

Absolutely they can, and vice versa! A spread is a spread, it doesn't matter if you use tarot, oracles, runes, chicken bones... ;)

[EvieLee]

Ah I see. Thanks for clearing that up. :)

[MysticMoggie]

It depends. I have adapted a lot of tarot spreads for oracles e.g. the Moon Oracle where different cards are taken from different decks to complete the oracle...which card sets are you using? Tarot spreads tend to work better with more detailed oracles rather than, say, Doreen Virtue cards, which I prefer to use singly or in "past-present-future" spreads. She includes spreads in her books which work better with tarot cards.

[EvieLee]

Ah I see. I'm using Virtue's Goddess Oracle (which was the only goddess deck available to me unfortunately, although it has proved very accurate). I'm thinking of sticking to the simpler spreads like the SWOT spread mentioned here recently. Those kinds of spreads seem to work ok.

[MysticMoggie]

Ah I see. I'm using Virtue's Goddess Oracle (which was the only goddess deck available to me unfortunately, although it has proved very accurate). I'm thinking of sticking to the simpler spreads like the SWOT spread mentioned here recently. Those kinds of spreads seem to work ok.

I like that deck. It approaches the Major Arcana in terms of depth, and whilst I want honesty and perception in a tarot/oracle deck rather than a certain "feel-good-factor", I appreciate the breadth in it which is missing from some of her other decks.

There is a star spread in Sharman-Caselli's workbook which she suggests to use only with the Major Arcana; it's seven cards...hang on. I used it to great effect with the Goddess cards over the holidays to chart the progress of my political party's efforts to gain power (a running soap opera in the UK and much more entertaining than Everybody Loves Raymond).

(using Aeclectic Tarot's notation method)

--------7--------
--6-----------5--
--------4--------
--3-----------2--
--------1--------

1 - Root of the matter; present
2 - Matters of heart and relationships
3 - Matters of mind and career
4 - Heart of the matter
5 - Unconscious desires
6 - Conscious desires
7 - Top of the matter; conclusion

Also the "Goddess Oracle": I usually use Kris Waldherr's Goddess tarot (try Amazon for availability, I've got most of my stuff online because the markdown is quite considerable, particularly from the marketplace) for this but I guess it would work OK with Major Arcana or Oracle decks, plus you could probably do away with one card in each section and just make it a 4-card reading instead of seven.

1-2-3-4-5-6
-----7------

1, 2 - Artemis, Athena - Goddesses of sisterhood and feminine energy
3, 4 - Hestia, Hera - Goddesses of home and hearth
5, 6 - Demeter, Persephone - Goddesses of psychic/magickal energy
7 - Aphrodite - Love, and/or (what usually happens for me) a general summary of the reading or your overall situation.