There is first a need to define the concepts as used in this post. For the purpose of Divination wii define Spirit as a sentient energy meaning a form of awareness. Spirit can therefore be seen to be present on all planes. This definition sets it apart from the concept of a deity.
The Spirits in a Deck
Many people “name” Spirits; thus Spirits are called by their names using sound and/or images because as intelligent entities they can respond and engage in communication with a 3 plane entity or human being.
Within any deck there are certain cards which can by their symbology work as a mnemonic for a certain Spirit or energy. These linking cards are the Spirits in a Deck discussed in the folklore of Cartomancy. Wii think of the cards in a deck as “ calling cards”. The cards are not Spirits themselves but act as a link to a Spirit.
When cards are flagged by a Reader as being important, wii say they are the result of her or him having “guidance”. This means the sentient energy “announced itself” to the Reader either indirectly or directly. What is the process of a direct introduction? Good question! One can say it is when a certain card appears either over and over, or in combination echoes as a pair, triple or cluster which repeats with variations. This is the energy reaching out or trying to get the Reader’s attention as they work with their cards. Then the Reader addresses the combination as such and such- giving an abstract energetic principle or natural law a “name” as a concrete condition.
The Spirit of the Deck
The Spirit of the Deck is the energy of a deck. Each deck or variation of a deck is unique. Therefore the Spirit of the Deck is the collective voice of all the cards in the deck which with all the Readers who use that particular deck forms an Egregore. However, the Spirit of the Deck is not personified as an actual entity. It is not the spiritual guide of the Reader, but represents the deck as a unique world within the multiverse of Cartomancy.
For example, The Tarot as a divination device is twin spirited while playing cards and oracle decks generally have a solitary driver. So in an oracle deck usually there is one card which represents or “speaks” for the entire deck. Knowing which card it is is found by the three methods mentioned above. When known the Voice of the Oracle card, the cards around it and where it appears in a layout are noted for it gives a summation message for the entire reading.
So there are at least three ways to approach the Spirit of and the Spirits in a deck. One is via tradition or the folklore, or by the report of Readers who have walked this road before you. Another method is by the intercession of the collective Spirit of the deck which is much like having a formal introduction and thirdly – the direct method which is the consequence of working with a deck closely for a period of time .
Thus divination is about named formulae only instead of naked numbers as in Mathematics one works with Mythemes or fragments of archetypal memory as shown in scenarios on the cardface or by an assemblage of two dimensional symbol codes or emblems plucked out of a quantum field and placed in a pattern by a Reader with the intention they communicate or “speak”.