Why Are My Tarot Cards Not Working

The third pillar I’m about to discuss is spiritual development. Spiritual development is arguably the most important factor in why most diviners struggle with their divination.

The practice of divination is not a standalone one.

The development of your precognitive, psychic, intuitive, and spiritual powers is crucial if you want to become an effective diviner; otherwise, you’ll be running around like a headless chicken not knowing what the heck you’re doing.

Tarot may no longer be effective for you if your psychic powers are being hindered in some way.

Praying to an ancestral spirit for help with your divination is one method you can do to fix this. You don’t even need to feel like you had a relationship with the ghost; it doesn’t even have to be one you can recall meeting. even if you said to yourself, “Great-grandma will do,” the first spirit that comes to mind. Ask them for assistance with your readings in prayer and watch what happens.

Why do my tarot cards seem to be disconnected from me?

The main issue that newer tarot students bring up is that they simply don’t feel like they “connect” with their tarot cards. In social media tarot groups, I encounter this issue on a daily basis. Sometimes a person has a hard time feeling linked to a certain tarot deck or card. The frustrated tarot reader will occasionally say that a week or a month ago, they were feeling really connected and getting fantastic readings from the deck, but now they are not.

This phenomenon frequently makes tarot students feel self-conscious. Sometimes they spiritualize the issue to the extent that they believe the cards are refusing to communicate with them as a form of punishment. Worse yet, students can use this perceived disconnect to downplay crucial points made by the cards because they believe the cards “don’t like” them.

The fact that tarot works on so many different levels and can be so extraordinarily strong is a big part of the problem. A meaningful reading can be given by someone who has never seen a tarot card before and has no idea what the cards’ traditional meanings are, only based on what they perceive in the images and how they feel when they see them. It’s also true that some very skilled professional psychics perform tarot readings without ever having learned the meanings of the cards.

Why does tarot have such a strong intuitive component? This, in my opinion, is due to two key factors. The brow chakra, or third eye, is the primary factor. The brow chakra helps to support our vision, which helps us to see the tarot card. Additionally, it encourages our imagination, which enables us to relate the visual to a narrative. Our psychic vision, which enables us to relate that story to a real-world event, is likewise located in the third eye.

The second factor, in my opinion, is the distinctive thing that tarot has developed into during its 600-year history. In its early stages, tarot was a game that symbolized and represented the values and traits of medieval spirituality. Over time, we discovered archetypes of the human experience in those personalities and virtues. These archetypes have the ability to speak viscerally about and to us.

The issue arises when we are unable to tune in instinctively, possibly because to illness or because we are overly invested in the issue we are trying to solve with tarot. It’s also possible that the issue we are trying to solve is really complicated. We feel cut off from the cards because we don’t have enough academic comprehension of them and because we are currently cut off from our intuition. It’s inevitable that occasionally you’ll have that intuitive disconnect. Additionally, sometimes doing a superb tarot reading requires more than just intuition.

The widespread bad advice that novice tarot students should select the first deck of cards they feel “attracted to” is one way that makes this issue worse. I myself despise this worn-out cliche a lot. What other subject instructs pupils to pick a tool because they like the way it looks? Imagine telling a carpentry apprentice that the best hammer for the job is the one that appeals to them the most!

Tarot artwork is incredibly varied and intensely emotive. However, rather than choosing the one you find most attractive, your first deck should be the one you can learn and understand the easiest. This is the benefit. You have a lifetime to amass all the exquisite decks you desire and are able to purchase if you gain a thorough understanding of tarot archetypes, traditions, systems, associations, and practices. You’ll also realize that not all of the enticing, witty, and gorgeous decks are the ones you enjoy using for readings. Additionally, you might discover that some decks whose artwork you don’t particularly like read well for you.

When we place more value on art than archetype, we begin to think that our relationship with the tarot is with certain images rather than with the entire deck.

Every deck of cards has a unique presentation of the tarot archetypes, and objects, symbols, and works of art all contain energy. Additionally, it is trueand a desirable practicethat tarot readers formally establish an energetic bond with their decks. Saying that a tarot reader’s connection (and potential dissociation from their cards) doesn’t exist would be false.

It’s also true that we develop personal relationships with particular cards, making them our stalkers, significators, magical implements, and conduits for our thoughts, aspirations, and experiences. Being a tarot reader requires us to connect with our decks in this way.

Lack of connection with your cards, however, may not be the problem when we are having trouble understanding a reading.

More than just your playing cards are involved in a superb reading.

The visuals on the cards and the feelings they generate might help or hinder a superb intuitive reading. However, there is a link between you and a higher power. I think that tarot reading is a spiritual activity that is supported by and stimulated by art, imagery, symbolism, and the third eye, regardless of how you view that mystical connectionbe it with angels or consciousness, deity or higher self. Tarot reading involves more than just the cards and ourselves.

An ideal tarot reading, in my opinion, consists of five connections. The first three are the connections we create with the images in our deck, the tarot archetypes, and higher awareness, or whatever it is that we take it to be. The final two elementsthe phrases and associations we associate with each card and the way we relate what we observe in the cards to what is actually occurring in lifeare what many beginning readers overlook. Your tarot reading won’t be as accurate as it could be if it lacks all five connections.

Stop stressing over connecting to the cards and instead consider your connection to spirit if you aren’t experiencing the reading’s natural flow. Take a deep breath and ask your angels, ancestors, loved ones, higher self, or gods to communicate with you through the cards. Step back from your own attachments consciously, and be open to hearing the truthwhether it is the truth about you or about someone else.

Over time, become more serious about your tarot research. Acquire a working knowledge of the card’s keywords and archetypes. Work with multiple decks to discover how the archetypes are expressed in various ways, then incorporate that knowledge into your understanding of each card.

Don’t criticize yourself or your cards because there was no connection. Use that sense of disconnection as motivation for your research and meditation.

Some tarot readers will advise putting tarot on the back burner in order to alleviate this separation. Take a break if you find yourself reading endlessly on the same subject out of anxiety. Otherwise, your best bet is to dive in, increase your knowledge of the cards through practice, study, then study some more. Make an attempt to draw all five crucial connections during each reading. You can count on the outcomes to be insightful and instructive.

How are tarot cards renewed?

Here are four simple steps to purifying tarot cards.

  • Meditate. Simply unwind for a moment and get rid of all your thoughts.
  • Pass each card through the smoke after burning sage.
  • Place bay leaves within the deck of cards.
  • And for protection, place a crystal on top.

How can my tarot cards and I communicate?

Advice on connecting with your tarot cards whether it’s your first time using them or you’ve owned your deck for a while.

Connecting or reconnecting to your deck can be a helpful activity, regardless of whether you haven’t picked up your deck in a long, are hesitant to conduct a reading for yourself, feel “wrong” with the readings you’ve been conducting, or have purchased a new deck.

Check out Reading Tarot for Beginners: How to Start Reading Tarot for Yourself for advice on how to pick your deck.

Being a competent reader requires you to connect with your tarot deck. But you must invest time, effort, and attention in a good relationship.

How can I tell if I’m not meant to work with a deck or I just need to reconnect?

The connection you have with the deck has to be strengthened, or it might not be the best fit for you at this time, if you’re having trouble getting a good reading from it or feel off with it.

It’s possible that you and your tarot deck aren’t intended to be in a serious long-term relationship if you don’t feel like you connect with it or if you don’t appear to speak the same language. There is a deck available for you if you want to learn, therefore this does not imply that you are not destined to be a reader.

However, there’s also a strong chance that you can establish the connection with a little time and effort. especially if you were initially drawn to your deck.

You can utilize some decks for specific purposes and not others. The majority of your magic will probably be performed with one main deck, although you may occasionally use other decks for fun, support, or clarity. Since decks are exquisite works of art, I love collecting them. And I adore using them when I want to switch things up or am performing a certain style of reading, but I only use my original ride or die deck for all of my professional readings and lectures.

All of this is to indicate that testing out a variety of decks is a wonderful idea. For your first deck, conduct some study, examine the imagery, and choose the one that sparks your interest.

Here are some methods for getting back on your deck. I’ve listed them in the sequence I’d perform them, but you should feel free to customize this exercise according to your own preferences.

How to connect with your tarot cards

You can accomplish this in a number of ways, including by shuffling, using crystals, moonlight, salt, or sacred incense. Click here to learn more about cleaning your deck.

Hold your cards firmly in your palms while taking a few deep breaths. After that, think about the intention you want to have for your practice with them. It could be a word, a sentence, or an emotion. You can use this time to ask any guides or spirits you enjoy working with for assistance or to help you open your channel to divine advice that is in your highest and best interests.

Cleaning the energy in the deck through shuffling. Additionally, it creates the random system that allows us to access the advice we need from the deck. We can gain a completely new viewpoint from the cards because of the randomness that shuffling creates; by doing so, we are deviating from logic and embracing the unknowable. Check out this article on card shuffling.

To get to know one another, gain some fresh perspectives, and, yes, bond, spend some time completing a tarot spread that is tailored to your deck.

  • What details about you do you want me to know?
  • Your restrictions?
  • What type of partnership are we capable of having?
  • What task are we supposed to complete jointly?
  • Which card can currently be my teacher?
  • How can I use this card to explore deeper?

Make putting your deck away a ceremony. You might keep it in a box, cover it in a special scarf, place a crystal on top of it, or place it on an altar while not in use. Choosing to follow this quick procedure at the conclusion of each session or day is a way to show your deck some love, gratitude, and appreciation.

Bonus Tarot bonding exercises:

the whole picture The Major Arcana numbers 0 to 22 should be arranged in lines of seven cards across. Next, arrange the Ace through King cards for each suit in the following order: Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles. Take a good look at the deck in this format. Then thoroughly jumble everything together.

Select a map. To serve as your anchor and guide for connecting with your deck and intuition, choose a card based on its look and/or its meaning. Write down all the thoughts, emotions, and queries this card triggers for you in a journal. Use it to meditate. Keep track of how it manifests in your daily life and tarot practice (and keep a notebook of your observations!). When not using your deck, place this card on your altar. You can carry out this for a week or a lunar cycle before selecting another.

Put your deck beneath your pillow while you sleep. You can connect with the cards in your unconscious time if you can make it comfy.

Also keep in mind that it takes time to establish a connection and relationship with your deck. Like any relationship, it evolves as you develop and gain new knowledge.

More about reading Tarot:

  • Materials for Learning Understanding Tarot
  • 44 Tarot Questions for Free Download
  • How is tarot used?
  • Books & Resources for Tarot
  • Tarot Reading for Novices
  • How to Purify Tarot Cards
  • Free Enhanced Intuition Challenge for 3 Days
  • Tarot Foundations: A training program for more intuitive, linked reading

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 opinion. 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 analyzing why you’re reacting the way you are in order to reflect on how to effectively address the underlying problem if you ask the question and aren’t satisfied with the response.

How are tarot cards activated?

What to Do First:

  • Get out your tarot deck.
  • The cards are in your hand.
  • “Knock or tap the pile of cards numerous times while holding them in your palm to disseminate your energy throughout the deck.
  • Shuffle the cards completely.
  • The cards are divided into three heaps, which are subsequently reassembled into one pile.

Can I go to bed with my tarot deck?

It’s crucial to have a deck you identify with because tarot reading is such a very personal experience for each reader.”

Find the deck that resonates with you. Avoid looking at the most well-liked decks. Even if you’re purchasing online, Katelan advises taking a closer look at each deck to see which one appeals to you.” To discover a deck that speaks to you, consider how they are drawn and how they are arranged. She claims that several times she purchased or was given a deck that was lovely but didn’t exactly fit her needs. If you want accurate tarot readings, according to Katelan, you can’t force it.” Finding the deck that works for you is worthwhile.

Make sure you’re attuned to your new tarot deck when you first obtain it. Tarot cards contain a lot of energy, so while you’re getting used to them, you should be sure to clear them of any outside energy. When you receive a fresh deck, Katelan advises taking some time to browse the cards and take in the imagery. “Make careful to thoroughly mix them up, and you can use some incense to clear any energy. I wrap all of my playing cards in scarves and put them under my pillow for three nights. During that period, you’ll have some incredibly bizarre dreams, but it will also attune your energy to the cards.

Katelan advises choosing a location for your tarot card reading based on where you feel most at ease. Her home arrangement is less formal than when she reads cards professionally. She used to practice at the Bronx Botanica, which had a table set up in an altar room. “I frequently sit on the ground. If I’m performing a three-card spread, I prefer to pull cards on these old trays I have. I will either do a big spread on the couch or the floor.

In order to feel more rooted and engaged to the practice, Katelan also advises reading up on the background of tarot reading. She cites its antecedents in Jewish New York tenements throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as in Romani society. “When wars broke out or other significant events occurred, there were frequently spikes in interest in fortune telling, card reading, tea reading, and other related practices. People are looking for explanations and purpose in their own life now because of the pandemic.

Do I need to allow people to handle my tarot cards?

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?

Do tarot cards need to be purified?

That’s correct

Magdaleno really suggests cleaning your deck before each reading to achieve the most accurate results. She advises starting with a cleansing to make the cards clear for your reading, whether it’s for yourself or someone else.

You *Just* Had a Tarot Reading

Unless the reading is about a completely new and specific subject, I suggest waiting at least three months between professional tarot readings. Before returning to the cards, let things to develop and alter.

You Want a Redo

I frequently observe people attempting to “chase the right answer.” People will visit several tarot readers or ask the same question repeatedly to the same tarot reading until they receive the response they desire (which, by the law of averages, does happen eventually). This is basically useless!

Your Question Is About Someone Else

Tarot readings are not the solution if your entire line of inquiry is about another person’s thoughts and actions (such as what your ex is up to). Tarot is meant to help you gain understanding of *yourself,* not other people. (A better option would be to reconsider and rephrase your query as if you were looking for help on how to move past your split.)

You’re Looking for Medical Advice

Simply said, neither physical nor mental health concerns can be diagnosed or treated using the cards. Some things are better left in the hands of medical specialists rather than tarot readers!