Read the angel’s signs with Chrissie Astell

With my ‘Angel Expert’ hat on I am often asked what the difference is between Angel Cards, tarot, and all the other types of Oracle cards. I thought that this month, it might be an idea to explain my take on it, and in particular, my own Angel Oracle card set. My Guardian Angel Oracle cards are designed and channelled to allow the user to tap into angelic energies, including those of the great Archangels. It’s great for allowing us to receive angelic wisdom and guidance. 

Trusting the cards

When making the Angel Oracle set, we decided to follow the lines of a normal card set with 52 cards in four suits. I was then given 48 words, of what we considered helpful human and angelic traits, and these were divided and sorted between the four major Archangels: 

• Michael for personal empowerment.
• Gabriel for wisdom.
• Raphael shows ways to heal.
• Uriel for service to others and inner peace. 

Let’s face it, the angels are all-encompassing and basically capable of expressing and demonstrating every positive quality we are working towards in our personal spiritual evolution. So I lit a candle and meditated on each word separately. Each image was shown to me vividly, and I quickly jotted down and explained in a long list of instructions for the publisher’s media department what I had seen and how it should be presented. No mean feat! My higher guidance was that these images should be used for personal spiritual growth. So that each card or reading gives advice based not necessarily on answers to specific questions (though this is always possible too) but on a way of moving forwards and upward on our individual spiritual journey. Although they are not ‘fortune telling’ cards as such, they have been extremely popular with many well-known psychics and card-readers at national Mind Body Spirit shows, and the images are used to promote many a reader’s careers. But their main purpose was to always give wisdom and positive encouragement to make changes that will enable movement forward, with ease. There are no negative messages possible from these beautiful angels.

Getting started with the cards

My advice to beginners is that you don’t need to know the names of all the angels, but you do have to ‘tune in’ by calming your own thoughts and trying to step outside your ego self before connecting with the angelic realms. When using the cards for myself, I’ve learned to trust that, even if the outcome isn’t what I hoped for, it is accurate and true. When our heart is open and we are willing to trust the guidance given we invite and allow the angels to show us a much clearer message through the cards.  Remember that angels are God’s messengers, not our servants. 

To begin…

1. I always ask permission first, before shuffling the cards for anyone. I like people to take a card from my set, and then tell me first what they think it means before giving them my interpretation. 
2. The tarot has a particular meaning with every card, and this can be affected if the card is upside down. It has to be studied and learned. If someone is a gifted clairvoyant and receives visions or messages relating to the person whose cards they are looking at, then this has to be added to the original meaning of the tarot deck carefully, and practiced frequently to ensure the interpretations are accurate and safe to share. 
3. Looking at tarot for oneself can be fun. I have a beautiful set of my own which have been based on the teachings of the great Masters, Jesus, Buddha, and Krishna and these are amazingly accurate spiritual cards with beautiful ‘biblical’ answers, but I would never use them for other people as I haven’t been trained in how to use them. They are just for me. And, importantly, I have not allowed myself to ever become obsessive about them. A friend of mine temporarily lost her sight and was told by a wise old Shaman that it was because she had become so reliant on the tarot that she wouldn’t do anything (or allow her family to either) without consulting it first. Once she let go of her obsession and used her own intuition again, her sight returned. Interesting eh?
4. At the end, it’s good practice to thank the angelic beings you’ve attracted in to help you, especially when you become a professional card reader. Angel cards are different from other kinds of oracle cards, tarot, etc., even though they all involve some kind of personal, spiritual, and psychic internal ‘tuning’ . 
5. In my opinion, professional training is definitely advisable to use healthy caution, especially if using them every day as a ‘reader’ for someone else. Whatever your choice of card set, enjoy them, and may they always enhance your life’s experience and bring positivity and light into your world. 

Chrissie Astell is an Angel author who leads popular workshops at home and abroad. For further guidance or to download a free meditation, go to angellight.co.uk. Chrissie Astell’s Angel Insight Programme is a complete package that would enable any lightworker to begin or enhance a career in card reading.