The Clow Cards Divination Overview

The Clow Cards come from a Japanese manga and anime series called Cardcaptor Sakura, illustrated by a group known as CLAMP. There are two versions of the cards. One version is a red and yellow one called the Clow Cards. The second version is a pink and white version called the Sakura Cards or the Star Cards. In most of these posts, I'll be using the Clow Card version, but feel free to use the Sakura/Star Card version if you'd like.

I consider Clow Cards more of an oracle deck than a tarot deck. The Clow Cards follow it's own structure and system that differs from the traditional tarot deck.

A traditional tarot deck has a more specific guideline. Generally, they contain 78 cards in total. They have 22 Majors and 56 Minors. The Minors are almost like a regular playing card deck. The suits are wands (clubs), swords (spades), cups (hearts), and pentacles (diamonds). Each suit also has it's own element as well: wands is fire, swords is air, cups is water, and pentacles is earth. The Jack is swapped for a Page and Knight as well. This is the general guideline for a tarot deck.

An oracle deck can basically have any number of cards, and it can have it's own structure, and also used for divination purposes. The Clow Cards have 52 cards in total, and seem to follow it's own structure and system that greatly differs from the tarot cards, so that is why they are considered more of an oracle deck. The Clow Cards can be assigned to playing cards, or grouped by element, which I'll write about more in detail in future posts.

I enjoy using the Clow Cards, yet I find that sometimes it's difficult to extract meaning from the symbolism in the card, since each of them are like reading for a different persona rather than reading for a particular incident. But at the same time, this makes it very simple if you're reading about a certain personality trait of someone. The names on each card sometimes give away a big clue as well.

In future posts I'll write about the method, and the groups, and other things that I can think of. I'll also find a way to put the meanings here somehow as well.