How to interpret oracles.
It’s an art, not a science.
I’ve been a bit too grumpy lately. I thought I should write something fun. But coming from me, you should also expect it to be practical.
Let’s talk about making sense of oracular messages. Do you like oracles? If so, read on. If not, what are you doing on my blog? (Kidding! Enjoy getting lost here. It can be entertaining, so I’ve been told).
Below is a step-by-step guide, and it should work for every oracular scenario — whether you’re the channel (because we must interpret too! We don’t just repeat verbatim) or you’re simply consulting someone else’s oracle. Also, I recommend taking a look at my article about kinds of oracle, just in case you think I’m talking about something fancy when in fact I’m not. Seriously. Tarot cards are a kind of oracle. Ever had a set? There you go.
Step 1: receive the message “as is”.
There are two layers to this. Namely:
- the original message (from your spiritual source) received by you if you’re practising oracle yourself, or received by the service provider you’re consulting.
- the symbolic or verbal message collected from #1, which makes it coherent and easier to relate back to the question.
Layers 1 and 2 appear combined into one thing, especially if you’re a beginner, but make no mistake, they’re different things. You should receive BOTH as is.
What do I mean by that? Well, don’t let your fearful or wishful thinking get in the way. So, for example, if your oracle is a tarot deck and you drew “the Tower” for a question like “how do I start X”, what’s your impulse? To overthink and go like, “well, the tower makes no sense here because it’s about endings, not beginnings, so should I reshuffle or draw more cards already?” — No. No, you shouldn’t. Take it as is. Don’t worry, we’ll get to the making sense part. But you must collaborate with your source. They sent you what they sent you. Don’t twist it.
This is kind of like talking to someone in your second language. Let’s say you’re learning Spanish, and what you heard was “perro”, but you haven’t learned that word yet, so your go-to instinct is to assume it’s “pero” — a simple preposition you learn at basic level — because you just want to be done with the deciphering instead of listening to your intuition, which tells you, “wait a second, this word sounds slightly different. It ain’t it”. And in fact, it ain’t it. You’re just not making sense of it yet. But don’t be so impatient! Take it as is. We’ll clarify in a minute.
Step 2: contextualise.
So, you saw / someone saw and told you about an image and it doesn’t immediately make sense. Ok. What’s around it? What’s the background? Could it be a metaphor (considering the question)? Could it be referring to the bringer of the answer, instead of the answer itself? Etc.
In tarot or similar systems, contextualising means drawing more cards and/or looking back at the ones already drawn. You get the idea. But this is done to provide you a more detailed picture, instead of invalidating or changing the picture altogether.
This can even be fateful. For example, if you ask about your health or someone else’s health, and you receive “death” — don’t be digging for figurative meanings. The literal can very well be true! In that case, check what else will come, as it can show you “here’s how to avoid death”, translation, “there’s a very serious issue you need to check with a doctor. And by the way, here’s one extra measure to make sure you/they recover well. But if you neglect all of this… yikes”. (Let’s be clear — you wouldn’t be asking about health if you were on top of it. I’m not talking about big surprises, what I mean is more like denial. Valid for any other topic too).
Do you see why #1 is [annoying BUT] important? Without #1, what you’re doing here is dismissing what came first… And then you’ll get an inaccurate reading, because when the situation you’re asking about unfolds, it will include the first thing that didn’t initially make sense, but you’ll no longer be paying attention to it and will blame the oracle when in fact you have yourself to blame. Don’t be that person.
Step 3: hold space for events to unfold.
Does interpretation end the minute you leave the ritual space/consultation? Most people think so, but that’s wrong.
Holding space for events to unfold is very important, even if you think you understand your oracle perfectly — because in the end of the day, maybe it doesn’t mean what you “perfectly” gathered from it. Also, this is the best way to eventually tell if an oracle giver is competent or just putting on an act to fool you (but I’ll get into that in a future article).
What do I mean by holding space for events to unfold?
Let’s say someone asks the tarot about business prospects, and receives the Hierophant. On a very literal sense, the person might think, “oh, does that mean I have a religious calling? Even if I have never felt drawn to religion?” — but let’s suppose they’re not that naive, they already know oracles can be metaphors, so they start analysing the figurative meanings of the Hierophant: order, structure, institutions. Maybe they need to give up on their small business and go for a more traditional career?
But once again, let’s suppose this person knows about step 2 as well. They know contextualising can impact the meaning of an oracle — and they do that — and receive other cards pointing to religion.
This seeker is left utterly confused, and decides to just go about their day. What happens next? Well, imagine a scenario where they happen to meet a Christian priest on the street, do some small talk, and the priest mentions a community event that will happen soon. Perhaps this is the time and place where it will be possible to meet with/network with a great potential business partner.
…And the random encounter with a Christian priest coming home from mass was the catalyst to that. The Hierophant.
Another example: you ask an oracle a question about a specific relationship (family, love, friend, whatever, insert here) of yours, and the answer you receive is, “you’ll find out if you talk to this person immediately”. So you give thanks, leave a bit confused, and do what you were told — except… that person is at work, or busy in some other way now. It will be hours before you talk. You decide to reach out via text, and do so. They don’t reply just yet (because obviously), but you notice the person was online at, say, 13:13. You google the “angel number”, and the first result that comes up is a weirdly accurate answer to your original doubt or question.
In that case, does it matter if “angel numbers” are a real thing? I don’t believe in them myself, lol. But I totally would do the above, because it’s not about something being “objectively real”. It’s about random things, people, and events aligning in a unique way that deliver the answer you were waiting for. Whether or not they have an “established” spiritual meaning.
Life gets surprising. Oracular messages don’t always mean what you want them to mean. Above all else, keep an open mind.
Happy consulting.
