For Christmas/Yule this year, I got the Psychic Tarot Oracle by John Holland. It was a deck that I had seen many tarot readers on YouTube use, and I really resonated with so many of the cards and the style.
However, the energy of my readings with this deck really surprised me, and it is quite different from any other deck I own. Keep reading my Psychic Tarot Oracle review below to learn more about how this deck surprised me!
What Are Oracle Cards?
Oracle cards are a type of divination tool used to read energies. Unlike a tarot deck, which is more structured and follows a certain linear flow, oracle decks can have a wide range of focuses, like moon phases, spirit animals, archetypes, angels, or ascended masters.
Oracle decks can be used in conjunction with or separately from a tarot deck during a reading. They’re great for reading present energies on a situation and predicting potentialities for your future.
What is the Psychic Tarot Oracle Deck?
The Psychic Tarot Oracle is an oracle deck that is based on the Rider-Waite tarot system. Considered the standard for tarot decks, the Rider Waite has a Major Arcana, as well as four minor arcana suits, for a total of 78 cards.
However, because this deck is only loosely based on the tarot, it has a 65 cards.
(If you’re interested, the RW tarot cards missing from this deck include the court cards from all 4 suits as well as the tenth numbered card in each suit. This would leave 58 cards. Then John Holland also added 7 Chakra cards, for a total of 65 cards.)
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Unboxing The Psychic Tarot Oracle
During unboxing, the Psychic Tarot Oracle deck felt very powerful and automatically connected to the energies around me. It also comes off as having a very direct energy. It did not waver or mist around like many other decks I’ve perused.
Psychic Tarot Cards
The deck comes with the 65 cards plus a guidebook. The cards have a symmetrical, royal purple design on the back, making it easy to mix the cards to read forward and reverse, if you so choose.
The cards seem sturdy and of good cardstock quality. However, the cards are quite glossy. They have a tendency to stick to each other, making spreading the cards a bit more difficult, if you’re someone who reads this way.
The Psychic Tarot card size is approximately 3.5″ by 5″ (maybe a few mm less), making them a medium-large size compared to other decks. As someone with small hands, I do find shuffling these cards to be more difficult.
Suits in the Psychic Tarot
As mentioned previously, this oracle deck has 22 Major Arcana cards (like in the RW tarot), and it has 4 suits. But these suits are a little different. (And remember, each suit only has 9 numbered cards and no court cards.)
The suit for physical and worldly concepts has a red border (like the “Firm Foundation” card pictured below.) This suit relates to the Pentacles suit in the RW.
The suit for emotional concepts has a green border (like the “Spiritual Union” card pictured below.) This suit corresponds with the Cups suit in the RW.
The suit for mental concepts has an indigo border (such as the “Suffering in Silence” card in the picture toward the bottom of this page.) This suit is connected to the suit of Swords.
Spiritual concepts are the last suit, represented by a violet border (like the “Foundation and Achievements” card in the picture below.) This is essentially the Wands suit in the Rider-Waite.
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Psychic Tarot Booklet
The guidebook is the same size as the cards, but it’s a hefty 170 pages with fairly small print, so it’s packed with good information.
For each card in the booklet, there is a Major arcana number or suit number, main keyword, and one and a half pages of text. If the card has an association with a Rider-Waite card, it is listed at the end of the interpretation.
There are no reversed reading interpretations listed in the guidebook, so if you’re someone that does reversed readings, then you’ll either be going off your own knowledge of the Rider-Waite system, or you will have to read intuitively.
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Psychic Tarot Artwork
The artist of this deck is John Matson. I’m a little frustrated with the treatment of the artist on this deck, because he’s only mentioned once in the entire product. His name is not on the cover of the product, nor mentioned at the front of the booklet.
Even on the Amazon page for the Psychic Tarot Oracle, his name is not mentioned once… apparently not even in the reviews!
The artwork in this deck is very interesting. It has a lot of visual cues to help you, if you are someone who likes to read intuitively.
Personally, I find the coloring of this deck to be a little odd. Usually an artist will stick to a particular color-scheme for a cohesive product, but the coloring is very different from card to card. Whether you find that interesting or unfortunate is up to you!
Doing Readings with Psychic Tarot
Honestly, this deck is taking me a while to connect with. Often, I get very literal answers. For example, I said that I was in need of clarity and wondered what I can do to help myself achieve that clarity, and I drew “Mental Conflict.”
(*Insert eye roll*) No sh*t! That’s what I just told you!
In my very first reading with this deck, I pulled “Emotional Loss” for something that I’m going through in the near future. I had a bit of a panic moment, thinking that my grandmother was going to pass away, or that I’d lose something near and dear to me in my life.
However, it turned out that I was just losing emotional reactions that no longer served me… I found myself much more emotionally centered. I went through a loss of emotions.
Oh, brother.
The deck definitely taps into your energy, but I do caution you against reading too deeply into the energies that are presented here in these cards.
Using This Deck for Practical Matters
Because this deck is very surface level, you can use it to read practical things in the here and now that you don’t already know. If you want to know what a certain person thinks of you, or what decision they are going to make, these kinds of questions might be a good fit.
I’ve personally only tried this with my husband to confirm the answers I got, but they were in fact accurate.
If you try to answer practical matters with this deck, please write a comment and let me know how it went! I’d love to hear from you!
Conclusion: Psychic Tarot Oracle Review
Overall, I really love this deck and give it a 4/5 stars. It’s good quality, the paintings are lovely, and it’s a wonderful option to have in a sea of decks that offer more esoteric advice.
Just keep in mind that this deck might be quite literal for you, and that if you’re looking for something that will give you more options, possibilities, and open-ended ideas, this probably won’t be the deck for you!
Do you have the Psychic Tarot Oracle?
What do you think about it? Drop me a comment below!
Other Oracle Decks I’ve Reviewed:
Wild Kuan Yin Oracle Deck Review
Shaman’s Oracle Deck Review
Wild Woman Oracle Deck Review