How do you clear or cleanse your tarot cards?

[Em]

Hi, everyone.

 

If you do clear or cleanse the energy of your tarot decks, how do you do that?

 

Usually, if I find my daily readings are no longer accurate. I wonder put my deck back in its original order. Fool, Magician, the High Priestess, the Empress, the Emperor etc... Then I would burn an incense and let the deck absorb the energy.

 

How about yourself?  ;)

[Little Fang]

Depends on my mood!

 

Sometimes I'll just stick crystals on top of them, especially my selenite. 

 

Oftentimes I'll use sage or palo santo smoke and run the cards through them.  That is my favorite method when I'm home in a place where I can actually burn things.

 

If I'm traveling (as I do for work) I'll use a smokeless spray cleanser to either lightly mist the cards, or mist my hands and then shuffle the cards.  Or use sun/moonlight if the hotel window direction permits!

[Trogon]

Little Fang made some good suggestions. Selenite is very good for simply clearing energy, it always feels to me as though selenite just takes any energy, neutralizes and disperses it. I've used it a few times for resetting a crystal. Hematite also works good as it can absorb negative energy and transmute it into neutral energy. (They seem to do the same things, but selenite and hematite definitely feel different to me. Hematite does more, great for grounding and certain types of healing - selenite just always feels like it responds to whatever is there and is just always shiny white and positive.) Anyway, this came up as part of a different discussion a little while ago. And I posted my rituals - the original question was, I think, about the need to cleanse a new deck. Here's what I wrote;

 

I mostly just put a deck back in order to kind of "reset" any minor accumulated energy - and for the most part, that has worked very well for me. I think a deck needs to be around a lot of negativity before I would feel a need for a full or partial cleansing (for example, if a deck were in an abusive household then ended up in the used book store, I would probably sense that and want to do a cleansing). Now, having said all that, I do have 3 rituals that I would use depending on the severity of the need (in ascending order of how much is needed). Also, these are from my notes which are kind of old now, but for the most part this is what I do;

 

1) After several readings in a short time, or as needed to clear a deck: Clear your mind, relax & concentrate on clearing accumulated readings. Shuffle 7 or 9 times - cutting out & rotating about 1/3 of the deck and lay it on top or the bottom of the deck every other shuffle (if you don't use reversals, don't rotate the part you cut out).

 

2) When a deck is muddled, or seems to have accumulated some negativitiy: Clear your mind, light a sage bundle. Fan out the deck & hold it in your dominant hand, with sage in your other hand, allow smoke to directly flow over the deck, turning it back & forth while stating; "I invite only positive energies and bansih negative influences from this deck" (repeat 3 times). Shuffle 7 or 9 times as in #1.

 

3) If a deck seems to have negative connections, cords, influences (especially from previous owners): Perform smudging as in #2 above. Using an obsidian blade or other ceremonial blade - make a cutting motion over each of the 6 surfaces of the deck while repeating "this severs all negative ties and energies from this deck" (repeat with each cutting motion). Shuffle 7 or 9 times (as in #1) to finish.

 

These are, as I said before, for varying degrees of need. I have not had to actually use #3 on a Tarot deck yet, though I have done so with a crystal which I had been given. It worked very well for that.

 

To add a little to what Page of Ghosts had suggested; A good-sized piece of hematite can also be used to help remove accumulated energy from items. Hematite is, in my experience, a very good stone for absorbing negative energies and neutralizing them so they can pass harmlessly back into the Earth. Take your deck out of the box, lay the stone on it while directing your intent into the stone (I will usually say something along the lines of "I direct that any negative or false energies be absorbed and neutralized and released into the Earth").

 

Selenite is also very good at clearing negativity. Clear quartz, as PoG mentioned is a good all-around crystal for energizing and adding positivity. Black obsidian can also dump negativity into the Earth.

 

I have not done so yet, but I don't think I would need (nor want) to wait on a specific phase of the Moon for any of these rituals. Not to say that I wouldn't wait on a phase of the Moon, or specific day of the year for other rituals or readings. I have done so and will do so in the future. Just not for clearing a deck. And personally, I wouldn't bother clearing a new deck ... those are going to be pretty neutral coming out of the factory. For the most part, all the machines and handling en-masse is just impersonal ... so there's nothing to absorb.

 

Of course, any rituals that I do are subject to change at any given time. But as I learn and grow, I do add things to rituals as needed, or create new rituals or incorporate other ideas into the way I do things.

[Onaorkal]

This thread makes me realize I haven't cleared/cleansed any of my decks in a while!  :o

 

I will usually cleanse any deck I buy secondhand, and when I used to be less busy, I would charge them sometimes with crystals or during some astrological events like the Full Moon. Since then, I've read a really logical argument as to why it would make more sense to do it during the New Moon to get the most lunar energy, since a Full Moon is basically the Moon reflecting a lot of light coming from the Sun.  ;D

 

Anyway, I agree with the suggestions given here, I love to burn sage for cleansing in general too!  :)

[Mand]

This is a useful thread, thanks; I'm always interested in ways of cleansing as I don't feel I have quite found "the" method for me. With decks, I've gone with some of the things others have mentioned such as moonlight (esp. full moon).

 

The most elaborate way I ever did it, which was purely intuition-led, was to lay the whole deck out on a table (sorted of course, not in random order), move the table near a window, and leave it until it felt "done which was about two days if I remember right. The odd thing is that this wasn't a deck that felt particularly unclean for want of a better word.

 

I did once get a deck on eBay that felt unhappy, like the example Trogon gives of coming from a dysfunctional household, and I didn't go to these lengths with that one. (Can't remember what I did but it was probably something to do with a windowsill and/or incense.) Whereas the deck that I left spread out for a couple of days was the Tarot Nova and that always felt happy - just very full of someone else's energy. Someone with a strong personality, I suppose, and presumably a happy person. But it would have interfered with my relationship with the deck.

[chongjasmine]

I offer a quick prayer.

[isawhale]

My way feels a little ocd when I do it but I will fan them out blow the old energy out, put them down; knock them to send the residing energy down and ground it. Then I will send my own energy up to the higher realm; carry clear light energy down through me and thenthrough my cards and ask and envision my guides/angels to surround and aid me in this. This process takes about 10-20 seconds. I do it when I feel it's needed.

[EmpyreanKnight]

I always cleanse brand new decks I'm planning to use by running them through incense and meditating on each card.

 

 

Like Em, I usually cleanse cards I've just used by arranging them in the order recommended in the LWB or companion book. I also keep them next to my cleansed crystals. In my rituals, I would pass them through incense or sage. Like my stones, they also seem to enjoy listening to my singing bowl so I use that too. Sometimes I pray over them by holding them between my palms while I pray.

[Saturn Celeste]

I run each card through incense while asking for energy, vibrations and trust.  Then I hold my deck to my chest and say a blessing and finish this process off with a few shuffles.  I’m a riffle shuffler so please don’t hate me!  ;D

[EmpyreanKnight]

I use incense too, but I can't do it for each card or I'll fall asleep lol. I should probably work on my meditation. :)

 

I riffle shuffle too, and a close friend who also happens to be a budding cardist said that it does take a toll on one's cards. :( He taught me the faro shuffle, but I'm almost afraid to use that on my decks since it might blunt the edges or something. I guess I should try it on regular playing cards first, tho their texture, thickness, size etc differ so much from most Tarot cards that I don't know if I can transfer my faro technique to the latter effectively. I should still give it a try.

[gingerblue]

I usually rearrange mine in numerical order and take time to observe and think about each image. If the deck is physically kinda looking a little "rough around the edges" I will run a damp paper towel with a bit of blue windoex on the cards to literally clean them. I'm OCD that way. The cards always seem to respond to that.

[Trogon]

I use incense too, but I can't do it for each card or I'll fall asleep lol. I should probably work on my meditation. :)

 

I riffle shuffle too, and a close friend who also happens to be a budding cardist said that it does take a toll on one's cards. :( He taught me the faro shuffle, but I'm almost afraid to use that on my decks since it might blunt the edges or something. I guess I should try it on regular playing cards first, tho their texture, thickness, size etc differ so much from most Tarot cards that I don't know if I can transfer my faro technique to the latter effectively. I should still give it a try.

 

I use a faro shuffle also (though not exactly as shown on Youtube videos). And for most of my decks it works just fine. However, I have a couple that, because of the way they're cut or some other thing, they're very difficult to do. A very good example is my new Bonefire Tarot. They wouldn't faro shuffle at all and with riffle shuffling I was beginning to see damage to the edges almost right away. But I remembered a method my Dad had taught me years ago; hold the deck face down in my right hand between thumb and fingers - then with the left hand (thumb on the top card, index finger on the bottom), pull off the top and bottom card and lay them down in a new pile. Continue this through the deck. I add a "cut" of sorts between shuffles, where I'll pull out 1/4 to 1/3 of the deck from somewhere in the middle, rotate it 1/2 a turn and lay it on the top - this adds to the mixing and induces reversals.

 

A faro shuffle is a great technique for a Tarot deck ... but if the cards are not made quite as well as some others, it can damage them. DO NOT use a faro shuffle on an antique or valuable OOP deck!

 

Most decks by USG, LoS and Llewellyn work well with a faro-style shuffle. Although, a couple of my older LoS and Llewellyn decks have thin card stock that I am careful of. Practicing with a poker-sized deck of Bicycle cards is an excellent place to start ... you can buy 2 and make a 78 card stack to work with.

[Trogon]

I've posted instructions with photos for the method of shuffling I mentioned. Hopefully it will be of some help. :)

 

https://www.thetarotforum.com/talking-tarot/a-method-for-shuffling-large-decks/

[EmpyreanKnight]

I use a faro shuffle also (though not exactly as shown on Youtube videos). And for most of my decks it works just fine. However, I have a couple that, because of the way they're cut or some other thing, they're very difficult to do. A very good example is my new Bonefire Tarot. They wouldn't faro shuffle at all and with riffle shuffling I was beginning to see damage to the edges almost right away.

 

A faro shuffle is a great technique for a Tarot deck ... but if the cards are not made quite as well as some others, it can damage them. DO NOT use a faro shuffle on an antique or valuable OOP deck!

 

Most decks by USG, LoS and Llewellyn work well with a faro-style shuffle. Although, a couple of my older LoS and Llewellyn decks have thin card stock that I am careful of. Practicing with a poker-sized deck of Bicycle cards is an excellent place to start ... you can buy 2 and make a 78 card stack to work with.

 

Oh wow, thanks for the warning, Trogon!

[Padma]

What I do to clear my decks is to put them back into their original order, and give them a good crack against the side of the table. For older or more fragile decks, I just smack my hand on the top of the deck after reordering. The cracking sound and motion seems to break whatever hold the accumulated energies have.

 

I have to admit, breaking a glass on the floor can also clear energy in a room - messy, but effective! It feels to me as though the sound of the cracking breaks the bad energies. Although I have read that ringing a bell vigorously can have the same effect (hence "bell, book (bible) and candle" to break the hold of demonic spirits).