Debunking Tarot & Oracle Cards: South Asians + Intuition

In this episode of the Inner Space podcast, Nisha & Gurkiran of Chandraveda have a more open, honest and fun, conversation around tarot and oracle cards, especially through a South Asian lens. 

For many of us, these tools have been misunderstood or even feared. We’ve been told they’re “bad,” “spooky,” or something to stay away from. But what if that’s not the full picture?

In this episode, we explore how tarot and oracle cards can actually be used as tools for introspection, self-awareness, and connecting more deeply with your own intuition - not something external or to be feared.

We also make this episode interactive by pulling cards live and talking through what comes up, offering real-time insight into how you can interpret and work with them in your own life.

If you’ve ever been curious but unsure, or even hesitant, this episode will give you a more grounded, balanced perspective.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 0:00

I did one for now and she's a Capricorn and she picked a Capricorn card.

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Deisha did a reading for Louis and Stella and it was it was spot on. It was like exactly them, exactly their personalities. Um and I think it made us soften to them as well. A lot of people actually know she does know what we're trying to communicate with her. She's just working on it.

SPEAKER_03 0:24

Yeah. Let's get into the tarot first.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 0:28

Because we're here now, right? Yes. Um, because there are a couple of ways of looking at this, and I know a South Asian Punjabi woman, it's like, oh no, we shouldn't do this.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Like, there's a whole there's a there's a there's a ghost that's gonna come through the cards, yeah, and you shouldn't do this, you know.

SPEAKER_03 0:47

But um actually there are a couple of ways of looking at it, and I'm gonna ask for your heart take first.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

So, what I say is so most people that come into my clinic they've never pulled cards before or they have and they've been told it's really wrong and they shouldn't be doing it, and it's not okay. Um, my stance that I've always taken with any kind of like divination tool is um you're setting your intentions and your whatever source energy that you connect to, you're just trying to communicate with them to get some kind of guidance. Yes. And I was like, I've always believed in that since I was young, that the universe is always with you and communicating with you, and it's always gonna show you a sign or a symptom of something, and that's gonna um manifest in different ways, and one of the ways is through divination. So I think the the controversy is that like there's there's energy like negative energies attached to them, um or there's I think the biggest one for me that I hear is that there's like there's a ghost attached to them, there's energies attached to them, yes, and they don't want that in their space because then there's there's that's a whole other conversation. Um but as long as you trust that that practitioner is working from love and light, and you trust that they're holding that space in a safe way, or you trust that if you're doing that for yourself, that you're setting your intentions really strong to communicate with whoever that source energy is, whether you think that's God, whether you think that's some a a different name, um then yeah, the the cards that you choose from and the artwork that you choose from, it doesn't have to be dark and and scary.

SPEAKER_03 2:44

Yeah. And I think a big one for me when I got into them was that there is some kind of they're very prophetic, there is a prophecy attached to it, it's a divination, it's something that is gonna tell your future.

SPEAKER_02 2:58

Right.

SPEAKER_03 2:58

So if you get the card like the towel, you get the death card, it means you're gonna die and something really bad is gonna happen. And it frightens people, yeah. And I know there is a lot about this kind of really hyped up new age spirituality where it's like, oh, this is gonna happen and it's gonna be really bad for you, and stay away from this. Yeah, um, but it's not like that, like you say, it connects you back to an energy. I also like to use them in a way that is um it sort of reflects back where I'm at. I use it as a like a journey tool.

SPEAKER_02 3:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:28

Um, something that is gonna allow me to sit with, oh, this card has come up. Where is this in?

SPEAKER_00 3:33

Yeah, yeah, I think that's the biggest thing is you're using them for reflection. It's what what are your intentions for working with them to be? Yeah, are you allowing them to rule your life and it's gonna ruin it per se if it's come up with something that feels really distressing, or are you using it in a way that's gonna help you heal from what you're looking at and what your intentions are that you've set with it?

SPEAKER_03 3:56

Yeah, because if we look at the death and rebirth card, yeah, from the outside it's scary, right? And even on the on the classical tarot deck, um it's it's uh a dark cloaked figure on a horse. Yeah, it's kind of scary. But when you understand that it's about the ending of something, exactly, and when every ending has to come a new start, a new beginning, it's a journey prop might be where is something closing off in my life? Where do I give gratitude and love and appreciation for something that's now coming to an end? That maybe there is a loss there, maybe there is a period of um grieving or mourning something. But from that, a bit like seasonally where we're at now, right? If something comes, the winter comes to an end and spring starts, yeah. Where is this new beginning gonna take me?

SPEAKER_00 4:36

Yeah, in in Ayurveda, we've got different seasonal practices and regimes for every change of season. So, with that, the version of you that sat through winter is is essentially coming to an end, is dying, it's closing to open you up for a new energy, which would be spring, and that's why the energies in your body get all jumbled up, and that's why we have loads of regimes that help you balance that out. But it's yeah, that cyclical nature. So that and I was talking about death actually a lot in the clinic for the last few weeks of death is all around us all the time, it's the human death that shakes our ego so much. Yes, but um a family member of mine like years ago was like, but everything's dying around you all the time, everything's reborn all the time. Like we were at a roundabout, and he was like, The plants are there's so many of them that are dying right now or are dead, yeah, and we don't see that in the same way because it doesn't shake our human ego in the same way. But actually, death is a meditation that's around us all the time. So, how is it that we we look at it? Our cells are regenerating all the time. So we use the word regeneration, but it means actually that we've got an old part of us dying as well to bring in that new energy, yeah. So, yeah, it's um yeah, reframing the way we see the cards, like the tower card as well. My friend read for me recently and was like the tower card um also looks like the fact that you have to break down on the way that you live your life right now, and that means that the life around you, yeah, it's gonna look and feel like it's crumbling apart, yeah, but it has to do that, and the tower card isn't always as scary as I mean sometimes it feels like it in that process, but it's not as scary as it looks because the reason it's breaking down is because you've got to have a breakthrough into a new space.

SPEAKER_03 6:21

Yes, absolutely, yeah, and it is that um I suppose not being afraid of what's coming up, right? Like you said, it's that kind of that ego part that frightens us, but it's a structure that we cling to. I need everything to be perfect so that I can be perfect, and that's where we externalize our needs, right? Rather than knowing that, well, externally everything could be going off going crazy, but internally I'm gonna stay anchored and grounded. Yes. That's the shift that we have to make in order to, you know, get a pack full of the the death and rebirth cards and still be okay with everything that's gonna come up, right?

SPEAKER_00 6:54

Yeah, it's it's a really big conversation I've had for the last two weeks of like how how much do I actually show up and hold myself through things and what what tools do I have that actually allow me to do that effectively for myself? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, how much do I need to reach out for my community, but also am I reaching out for community because I lack the trust in myself? And actually, is it something that I need to do by myself?

SPEAKER_03 7:20

Yeah, yeah. So for anyone who's just started listening, I'm here with good Kieran from Jan Riveda, and we are talking about debunking the myth of tarot and oracle cards as South Asian women. It's nothing spooky, it's nothing bad is gonna happen, it's a way of understanding ourselves more, of connecting with internal and external energies and the life source that has brought us here, but also as journaling tools as well to get to know ourselves better because that is what the journey is all about. So you pulled a few cards. Yes, I pulled a few cards. Yes, would you like to go first?

SPEAKER_00 7:52

Yeah, I've not worked with this deck much, okay, so I don't don't know what's gonna come up, but um, so I've got Star Ancestor, follow the voice of your soul, guardian angel, you are not alone, and the knight, be brave and honest.

SPEAKER_03 8:07

Oh, which one speaks to you the most right now?

SPEAKER_00 8:09

I think the knight out of all of them.

SPEAKER_03 8:12

Yeah, you know, he kind of looks like some of them. The knight in shining armor.

SPEAKER_00 8:22

It's um yeah, it's interesting because he's really been like this force of just like you care about your work so much, you believe in your work so much, and you don't speak about it. Yeah, it's like I don't, I don't, I'm not mu like I don't have much on social media, I don't put myself out there very much, but I think because there's always this I think being a practitioner and a from an Indian background, there's always the fear of some kind of like backlash or judgment or cancel culture that is always like okay, so if I say this and I do really believe in it, what what are people gonna say? But I think I did a lot of work in the last two weeks to be like, but you this is your work, and you've been put here to do this, yeah. So therefore, you've got to work through these conceptions. And we were talking about actually just before we started um building up systems that you've needed, um building up spaces that weren't there, but you always needed them. So being the one to create that as well feels really big, and that I feel like falls into that being being brave and honest. Like you have to communicate what you believe in. I know that that's still like my my whole goal of my clinic is bringing you back home. So, whatever that means, whatever your interpretation of that is, to me, that's bringing me back to source energy and merging back with that again. So, all of my work and all the stuff I do for myself it evolve like revolves around that concept. So, even though I used so many divination tools, you probably name the tool and I'm I've used it before. Um, I'm always using that with the intention that I'm gonna return back. So I think yeah, being brave and honest is like just important. Yeah, speak about it, speak about it and be that place. Some I think we we undermine how much our words need to sometimes be heard by other people and the representation that we hold for other people. Absolutely. Um I know I undermine that a lot in myself. I like in the clinic space, I understand that, but in a wider space I shy away because I'm like, oh, other people are also saying things that are similar to my things, but actually um we're given this for a reason. We're given these words and these opportunities for a reason to communicate it. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:53

And and you don't know who might need to hear it. There might be some women in a similar that take a similar view to you and they they use you as an inspiration. So it's stepping forward into well, I'm doing it now, I might as well just extend my voice a little bit further. I might as well put myself out there because um we're here to help people, yeah. But people have to know that we're here to help them, yeah, yeah. And that's a tricky one in terms of stepping into the light of of being visible, yeah, yeah, being visible. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:21

Uh my my friend has this thing where she finds it difficult to be perceived and she wants to step into this work, but being perceived is like I think it wraps all into self-worth, whether you solar plexus, do you think that you're worthy or meant to be doing this and saying this and being there for people? Um, but yeah, I think if you step into this world, your solar plexus gets a wake-up. Oh, it does. Um yeah, then the yeah, the guardian angel star ancestors, it feels very much like it feels very it feels very like specific to the podcast. Like this does as well. Um, but this felt more to do with me, me and you, yeah, and then this feels like podcasts, so following the voice of your soul, and you're not alone, like you're held in this space. Like before I came in, I was like, please open my thought chakra and allow me to speak the things that I need to speak and I need to say, and that let it come out in the way that it it needs to come out and needs to be heard. Yeah, um, and yeah, just remembering you're not alone whilst yeah, talking about these things. That like if you asked me um a year ago to come on a podcast and talk about tarot and oracle, I would have been terrified and it would have probably been like, yeah, I'm doing a bit, and then it gave you a date.

SPEAKER_03 12:48

I have this thing on, it's on it right now. So we know the excuses, we've used them and we've had them.

SPEAKER_00 12:55

Yeah, and it's just yeah, I think I'm just there's there's a lot of there's a lot more we need a lot more room for compassion and allowing people to just speak and be the people that they are. Um yeah, again, a whole other conversation, but yeah, holding a lot more compassion for people that look like they're doing things that aren't the norm for their healing and for their their spiritual religious journeys as well.

SPEAKER_03 13:31

Interesting. I uh I got a card that says spring, a time for renewal. Interesting that um time for renewal, step into uncharted territory, very much what we're talking about. Yeah, it's time for everything, and then I have the art of rituals 33. Interesting. Wow, they really yeah, they're really Mario. Yeah, practice rituals to re-enchant your life. Um and it's interesting because when we did the um Avery Day together, I was talking about rituals and and it's come up again now. So yeah, so interesting. So um for anyone listening, for those of you listening, we're work shopping right now, tarot cards and and well oracle cards really, but this is the reflection as we as we pull them, you sit with them, you understand them all. This is all it is, really, and I say that with the greatest of respect, but it can be as simple as this. Yeah, it doesn't need to be having 5,000 candles, it doesn't need to be like staging the whole house as part of a ritual if you'd like to do that, absolutely, but it doesn't mean that in its entirety it always has to be that way. I know friends who just pull a quick card before they wake up and that's it, and they think about that card for the rest of the day. I know people who will pull a card like once every six months, yeah, right? There are so many different ways to use this.

SPEAKER_00 14:43

It's a it's a tool, right? It's not it doesn't have to be something that you have to do every single day.

SPEAKER_03 14:50

Yeah, it's not a prescriptive way of life, right? Um and they're fun as well. I don't know about for you, but there is something that really speaks to my inner child, my younger self about like the colours of how beautiful these are, the way that they look. You have so many different types of decks. Um, yeah, they're just they're stunning. And so, like, why not? Why not just enjoy them and and use them as something fun to brighten your day up a little bit? Um, and you can take it to mean anything you want, right?

SPEAKER_00 15:17

And there's just there's so many, like you can get a tower or an oracle deck for like everything. Anything, like anything that you are into, there's a deck for it.

SPEAKER_03 15:25

I went to a shop a few weeks ago and I saw a Meryl Streep. And it was like all of Meryl Streep characters, but it was like when you're in doubt, this is what Meryl would do. Like follow a Meryl Streep's.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

Oh no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_03 15:37

You know, I think I've seen like Pokemon ones, like literally.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

Cat ones, dog ones, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:42

Just so much. And and there were some ones that are quite deep. There are some that are um more surface level, like the Meryl Streep ones, but you just go with with whatever calls to you, and I think they kind of pick you as well a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 15:52

Oh, definitely. Yeah, the all the decks that I've got, I don't think I even sought them out. I think it's been like I've been in a situation where I've seen it, um, or I've been at a circle and I've seen them then, or I've been gifted them. And I always say they I think a lot of my divination cools tools come to me. Yeah. Or like I'm seeking out something specific, and eventually I I let go of look like finding it, and then it will find me.

SPEAKER_03 16:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:20

Yeah. Absolutely. Those are the best ones, aren't they?

SPEAKER_03 16:22

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear and ready. Oh, wonderful. Any any closing words in? Because I like this to be a real um a moment for anybody who's not sure about getting into tarot and oracle cards. That it's it's okay. It you do it however you want to, you create the meaning behind it. Um, but also like with the cards that we've pulled, there is a a certain kind of special magic to it as well. That that we you know, I didn't meditate on these, we just we sat together, grounded, and the this is what came up. Yeah, right. So there is there's something very special in them as well.

SPEAKER_00 17:00

Yeah, it's like I find that they weave together with your what whatever's going on for you. Yeah, there's gonna there's gonna be a way that they will tie themselves in. Absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:10

And some of them as well, they come with on well, I think most of them actually come with really wonderful yeah, really lovely guidebooks.

SPEAKER_00 17:15

Yeah, yeah. So if you're not like comfortable or like confident in knowing what the card means, yeah, um, yeah, the guidebooks are really good.

SPEAKER_03 17:23

Absolutely, yeah. There's guidance in here, awaken your gift, there's a message, um, and the artwork as well, I think, can be really telling. If you stick with the cards for long enough, something will come up. I mean, my age is on one of these, and then we have spring and um like the colours, and it's just there's some there's always something little in there that catches your eye and just oh wow, like I can see my work logo in this, I can see the lotus flower, like it's it's really special, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 17:46

Yeah, they'll speak to you in the way that like and I think this is this come I think reading cards helps you with your self-trust as well, yeah. Of like trusting your intuition that um what's coming up for you in the card is meant for you. Because I think a lot of people, and like myself included, can talk yourself out of it and be like, oh no, no, like that's just random. Yes. But I think I've like I think I've been in clinic for a long enough time to realize that there's not a randomness to it and there's not a coincidence in there, like there's something that's looking for you and it will find you that way.

SPEAKER_03 18:20

Yeah, and I think even when you're shuffling the cards, I don't know about you, but I just hear a this one. I just get a little pull to okay, stop shuffling now. This is the card that you need. Um sometimes I'll take it from the top, sometimes it'll be one from the bottom, but you just you just kind of know what whichever one it is. Um like you say, they're they're never wrong.

SPEAKER_00 18:35

No, I don't I think I've I've I've read a a reading for myself or anyone else where I've been like, yeah, that doesn't make sense. Yeah, yeah. And even I think as well, sometimes it puts you off because you read one card and you think I don't understand that or that doesn't resonate. And I've pulled cards for people in clinic and they'll be like, absolutely not, that's not for me. And then by the time you've read the whole spread, um they're like, Oh, actually, yeah, that's all tied together. Yeah, and that all makes sense now.

SPEAKER_03 19:01

And it often doesn't make sense because there is a resistance there, almost that I don't want this card, so this can't be my card. Give me a better card that I want to have, right?

SPEAKER_00 19:09

Yeah, I've spent many, many times by myself being like, That's not no, that's I'm not doing that. Let me get another one.

SPEAKER_03 19:18

Yeah, yeah, I want that card, special abundance, and everything is gonna be magical and rainbows and unicorn card.

SPEAKER_00 19:23

And I've had people like weeks and they're like, I'm talking like five, six weeks in a row, they'll come in and they'll like everyone gets a reading before they they get um a Mamra puncture session. And um, I I had this one person like five, six weeks in a row, he had the same card, and I was like, I'm like you're shuffling it, you're picking it, yeah, I'm not making this up. Like there is something that again, whatever source energy you're connecting to is saying, um, yeah, it that's there's something that there's something there that you're not looking at, and it's not it's not being sat with or it's not awakened yet. Um and yeah, you can see sometimes then as well the cards get a bit stubborn.

SPEAKER_03 20:03

Yes, yeah, yeah, absolutely. So for anyone who's curious to try, we definitely recommend giving it a go, seeing how it feels, and going with it, I think, right? Just yeah, try to try to not resist um when any cards that you're that you don't want come up, but just use it as a gentle tool for internal inquiries is probably the best way that uh that I'd be able to recommend it.

SPEAKER_00 20:29

Yeah, you've got different decks that will be somewhere more harsh than others as well. Yeah. And Oracle's really nice and soft way, I think, to start with cards.

SPEAKER_03 20:36

Yes, absolutely. Yeah. So for anybody who does have Oracle cards who wants to get them out again, or anybody who's going off to buy a new deck, let them speak to you, sit with them, be with them, and get in touch. I'd love to hear.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

Yeah, that would be really fun.

SPEAKER_03 20:54

Yeah, any anyone's stories, any cards that they've picked, perhaps you'd like to yeah, pull a few cards now that you've uh you've heard this episode. Yeah, bounce it off someone. Yeah, absolutely. Wonderful, good stuff. Amazing.