That’s right, Magdaleno advises cleaning your deck before each reading to ensure the most accurate results.
It’s always ideal to start with a cleansing to clear the cards for your reading, whether it’s for yourself or someone else, she advises.
In This Article...
How should you first clean your tarot cards?
There are occasions when you might want to perform something more particular and ritualized rather than simply shuffling the tarot deck to purify and clear the energy of the cards. Cleaning your deck could seem like a nice place to start if you’re just starting to understand tarot.
You might want to clean your tarot deck for a variety of reasons, including:
- beginning with a fresh deck
- readings for other people
- You think you need to recharge.
- Your card readings seem a touch “odd” or “disconnected”
- Your deck hasn’t been used recently.
- Your deck has been handled by others
- You think you’ve been utilizing your deck a lot. A LOT, especially for books with strong emotional content
Why should you cleanse or clear your tarot deck?
Tarot deck cleansing helps keep the energy flowing between you and your deck. To keep the link strong and clear, think of it as a little spiritual hygiene. It’s not necessary, but if you have any of the aforementioned symptoms, try a few of the energetic cleansing techniques listed below and note which ones seem to work the best for you.
How often should you cleanse your tarot deck?
This is another way of stating USE YOUR INTUITION: there are no hard and fast laws. Don’t worry about it if you don’t think your deck need it. Alternately, if you like to cleanse them once per week or once per month, that’s great. If it feels appropriate to you, you can even place your favorite crystal on the balcony each night.
If you frequently place crystals on your deck and store it on an altar while not in use, you might not feel the need to cleanse it frequently because this quick ritual will likely be sufficient to keep your deck feeling nice.
There are numerous ways to cleanse your cards, just as there are numerous reasons why you might desire to do so.
Different ways to cleanse your tarot deck
Use holy smoke. Light a dried rosemary, lavender, cedar, sage, or palo santo cleansing wand until it begins to smoke. Hold the smoke a safe distance below the deck while holding the burning herbs in one hand and the deck in the other so that the smoke drifts upward onto the cards. Turn the deck so that the smoke covers it from all angles. Next, safely put your deck to the ground and put out the fire.
On the deck, set a selenite stone (or a black tourmaline or a transparent quartz). Although an hour would suffice, I prefer to let it rest like this for the entire night.
Set them on display during a new moon. The New Moon is energy of a blank slate; you can purify the deck by setting it on a window sill on a new moon night. At this moment, you can also make a brand-new intention for your deck.
Place the cards in a salty dish. A strong and stabilizing cleaner is salt. My preferred choice for a thorough cleansing is this. Allow it to sit anywhere from one to eight hours in a dry area.
Shuffle in chaos. Spread the cards out on the ground, then shuffle them around like a child playing in dirt. This method’s freedom and randomization serve as an excellent reset.
the shuffle and sort. Set up the deck in rows of seven cards across, commencing with the Major Arcana numbers 0 to 22. (see photo above). Next, arrange the cards, Ace through King, one for each suit, as follows: Swords, Pentacles, Cups, and Wands. View the deck in this configuration, then mix everything up (like the chaotic!) and shuffle it thoroughly.
How are tarot cards maintained?
What I suggest you do to your deck is as follows:
- On your altar, keep it.
- Place crystals on the deck’s surface.
- Treat your cards with the same respect you do your clothes. To prevent dust accumulation or damage, store them in a bag or box.
How are your fresh Tarot cards blessed?
Your playing cards will inevitably take up on any unfavorable energy that gather around you as you employ them. On the other hand, the leftover energy of the people you’ve given readings to can also accumulate.
It’s a good idea to routinely cleanse your cards because of this. The goal is to realign the cards towards their receptive neutral default condition by clearing the opposing and adversarial energies surrounding them.
A full moon charge is a common technique for blessing your playing cards. You can achieve this by setting your playing cards beside your window or somewhere else where they can get a lot of moonlight on a full moon night.
Filling your cards with the sun’s radiant energy is an alternative. The procedure is the same as a full moon charge, but you should exercise caution because heat and humidity might warp and harm your cards.
You can choose to bless and purify your cards with a crystal as well. When your cards are not in use, you can continuously purge them of any lingering outside energy and concentrate the cards’ inherent power by placing a piece of clear quartz on them.
Other well-liked gems include black tourmaline, which acts as a grounding agent and can absorb bad energy, and amethyst, which can enhance psychic insight.
Questions you don’t really want answered
Even though it might seem apparent, it’s advisable to refrain from asking the tarot cards questions that you aren’t prepared to hear the answers to. That’s because answers to these questions can reveal information you’re just not quite ready to hear.
“Tarot can definitely come off as offensive if you’re not willing to hear the truth or consider an opposing point of view. Tarot reading Nicole Fortunaso
According to tarot reader and life coach Nicole Fortunaso, “tarot may truly come out as offensive if you are not willing to hear the truth of the problem or look at an alternate viewpoint.” She advises considering why you’re responding the way you are in order to reflect on the best way to address the underlying cause if you ask the question and are unsatisfied with the response.
How are fresh tarot cards charged?
Leave your deck in a sacred location where you can “knead (shuffle) it each hour, giving it your magical power with your hands, for one waking day, much as you would a loaf of rising bread.” The greatest time to use this charge is when you’re taking a day off at home or in a retreat.
Without sage, how can a tarot card be blessed?
Tips for Purifying and Blessing Your Tarot Cards
- Incense/Smudging. Palo Santo Incense for Tarot Card Purification.
- During a full moon. Tarot cards are purified using the moon.
- Sun bathing. Using the Sun to Cleanse Your Tarot Deck.
- bowl that sings. Try it out if you have one.
- I rap on the deck.
If someone touches your tarot cards, what should you do?
If you have been reading Tarot for years without allowing anybody else to touch your cards and this is how you prefer it to be done, maintain reading in this manner. Do it if it works.
However, if you are new to tarot and unsure about whether you should allow others to touch your cards when reading for them, REST! Others are welcome to touch freely. In fact, I believe that doing this makes a reading seem more genuine. You simply need to believe in the strength of your intention to afterwards purge any negative energy from your Tarot deck.
What are your thoughts on this? I’m interested to know! Therefore, please share your thoughts regarding individuals touching your cards in the comments section below. Do you agree with it? Or do you strictly enforce a no-touch policy?
How are Tarot cards smudged?
White sage is the most popular smudging plant, but others like desert sage, cedar, sweetgrass, or a combination of them, may also be employed. Even though sage is the traditional smudging substance, you are free to use your chosen incense. To draw in good or protective energy, lavender, copal, and other herbs are occasionally included.
These herbs are offered for sale in dried bundles known as “smudge sticks,” which when burnt smolder like incense. The object you want to cleanse is then covered with the smoke rising from the smudge stick.
How to Do It
The cleaning procedure is really straightforward. You can purify your entire house, just your tarot cards, your reading space, or any combination of these, as well as your entire household. If at all possible, the cleaning should occur during the daytime in both scenarios. Alternatively, simply the ones in the space where you are smearing can be opened. This will provide the bad energy a quick way out.
There are only five steps to smudging:
- Open all windows and doors
- Activate the smudge stick.
- Waft the smoke over your object or environment as you focus on cleansing and rebirth.
- Shut off the smudge stick.
- By (carefully) clinking a spoon against a glass, you can ring a bell or create a chiming sound.
Home Smudging Walkthrough
- Start with the front door of your house. Although not often the front door, this entrance gets the greatest traffic.
- Holding your smudge stick over a flame will light it; blow softly on the lit end to make it smolder. Keep a lighter nearby so you can restart the stick if needed.
- Concentrate your will on the notion of purification and rejuvenation. Some people like to say a quick prayer of appreciation or thank the herb for aiding them.
- To clear negative energy, smudge the door by sweeping smoke counterclockwise around the doorframe.
- Smudge the entrances just like you did at the front door, going counterclockwise through your home and each room. Many individuals only smear windows and doorways. Mirrors, reflective surfaces, and even electrical outlets are examples of additional objects that act as thresholds and, as a result, as energy entry sites.
- After you’ve completed your circuit, go back to your primary entry and re-smudge it. You might make an affirmation or a prayer here, or you can ask for good energy to enter your house.
- Put your smudge stick out in a heat-safe container like an ashtray or ceramic dish. The lit end should simply be stubbed out like a cigarette. The majority of smudge sticks naturally burn out, so you might opt to do the same.
- The last step is to chime a bell or click a spoon against a glass to create a sound. This harmonizes everything by spreading a vibration of sound energy throughout the area.
You may reset the energy in your house or your tarot cards using smudging, and you can do it as frequently as you wish. Smudging helps remove any negative energy from readings before you read them again because readings might disclose some truly unpleasant things. Between each reading, some tarot readers smudge their equipment and workspace, while others do it on a weekly or monthly basis.
My tarot deck needs to be charged.
Cleaning decks with certain crystals can be very effective. If the crystal is huge and flat, you may either sit your deck on top of it to charge it or you can put a little crystal on top of your deck.
Since selenite is a purifying crystal that is also excellent for communicating with spirit guides, Vanderveldt particularly enjoys utilizing it. She continues, “It can aid in keeping the deck’s energy connected and clear.
In addition, you can choose a crystal that matches the kind of reading you’re doing, says Magdaleno, who also likes selenite and transparent quartz. Magdaleno suggests using loving rose quartz when conducting a relationship reading, for instance.
Tarot cards are they shuffled?
Because the left side is connected to intuitive and receptive energy, traditional tarot readers used their left hand to shuffle the cards. For similar reasons, some people think you should deal and shuffle tarot cards with your nondominant hand. I’ve never done this, though, because I can’t shuffle with one hand!
Apparently, it takes seven precise shuffles to get a completely random tarot deck, although in all honesty, you don’t have to follow that rule. As they focus on their query, some people prefer to shuffle their tarot deck a few times, while others prefer to shuffle for at least a minute. Use a non-traditional shuffling technique if it works for you. The most crucial step is to simply shuffle the cards.
