You can approach a yes-or-no reading in a number different ways, depending on how well-versed you are in the tarot cards. In general, this type of reading is expressing your query and selecting cards until a “yes,” “no,” or even “maybe,” becomes obvious. We’ll go over a step-by-step procedure a little later.
The aces of the deckthe aces of cups, wands, pentacles, and swordsare used by Alexander to indicate a yes, but your yes cards may alter if you have a connection or intuitive sense for a certain card. Like any other tarot reading, a lot of it depends on your intuition, so you can be somewhat flexible.
These spreads are a fantastic choice if you’re looking for clarification on a particular topic, even though they’re not intended to provide you with the finer nuances, just a basic yes or no.
In This Article...
How can I get my tarot cards back together?
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
How is a Tarot deck updated?
While rearranging the cards in the tarot deck is a good approach to purify and clear their energy, there are some circumstances in which you might wish to perform a more specialized ritual. If you’re just getting started with tarot, cleaning your deck can be an excellent place to start.
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. Consider it as a little spiritual hygiene to maintain a strong and clear connection. 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 stress if you don’t believe it is necessary for your deck. 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). It works well to leave it like way for an hour, but I prefer to leave it overnight.
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.
Unorderly shuffle. 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.
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.
Can I ask the tarot any questions?
Sincerely, the nicest aspect of tarot is that you may ask the cards ANYTHING. No question is too illogical for the tarot, and even better, there is no criticism. There are countless problems that tarot may help you understand and resolve. I personally steer clear of health-related inquiries as a tarot reader because I think a doctor would be a better resource for those, but I welcome every other subject. All of the solutions are already available and readyyou simply need to find them. Here’s what to do if you’re using tarot to make significant decisions in your life or simply to help you choose what TV show to binge-watch next.
Why am I not connecting with my tarot?
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.
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.