Part 1: Why Should You Cleanse a New Tarot Deck? And How to Cleanse Your First Tarot Deck?”
When you are working with Tarot, you are working with energy.
I mentioned in my Blog post “Is Tarot Witchcraft or Evil?” that a Tarot or any kind of divination reader does not primarily work on their own energy, they act as a guide between the querent (asker) and the source where the information comes from.
This does not, however, mean that the Tarot reader’s energy field does not get affected. The energy still passes through the Tarot reader and the reader not only needs to cleanse the deck, they also need to know how to protect and cleanse themselves. If that’s something you want to know more about, drop me a comment below and I would be happy to create a Blog post dedicated to protecting yourself as an energy worker.
When you grab a new divination Tool, be it a pendulum, a set of Runes that you did not create yourself or a Tarot deck, there are some situations you need to consider:
1. Who made this object?
How was your Tarot deck created? Are you sure the person had a good heart, positive energy and intentions? What if they were angry that day because they had an argument with their neighbors?
The strength of a negative emotion can be very powerful and it will inevitably stick to anything a person touches and what if this is your future Tarot deck?
2. Who sold you this Tarot deck?
Again, this can be a very serious matter.
It can be a beautiful store with a nice and positive worker.
It can also be a place where things have gone a wrong way and the energy is dark and ill.
And sometimes looks can be deceiving.
I hope I’ve convinced you that cleansing your Tarot deck is essential.
You are going to burn one or mix of the following herbs and run your deck through the smoke until you FEEL like that’s enough.
Here is the list of great herbs:
1. Sage. Sage is the most used herb for smudging and for this reason it is the easiest one to acquire. Sage has banishing and cleansing properties.
You should always keep some sage at home and you can use it once in a while to cleanse your Tarot deck if you do frequent readings or after someone touches it.
EDIT: due to some comments, I want to make something clear: I have NO MENTION of the type of Sage to use for cleansing. There are MANY different types of Sage that are used in the world. My great-great-grandmother used sage leaves for a practice similar to what now is described as “smudging” in Siberia over 100 years ago. Use the type you are comfortable to use based on your believes and values.
2.Cedar. Cedar is also a great choice and you can do cider smudging sticks yourself if you are on a budget. Cedar is often used together with sage in a smudging stick.
3. Rosemary. Rosemary is another great herb to cleanse negative energy.
4.Mugwort. Mugwort can be ADDED into the mix of your herbs. It’s not particularly cleansing on its own but has good protective qualities and is said to increase psychic ability.
5.Palo Santo. Palo Santo has been used quite a lot LATELY in ritual magic and spiritual healing. You can use Palo Santo to cleanse your Tarot deck but make sure you buy it from a known supplier, as there are a lot of fakes out there.
Crystals: cleanse your Tarot deck using crystals
You will definitely find a lot of information of using crystals to cleanse your Tarot cards deck and divination tools BUT here’s the kicker:
You have to cleanse your crystals after you use THEM to cleanse anything because they absorb the energy like a sponge.
Nevertheless, crystals are worth to mention because they really are a great cleansing tool.
How to cleanse a Tarot deck using crystals
With tumble stones, you are going to place them on top of your Tarot deck. There is no need to use more than 3 stones. In fact, if it’s a large crystal, one is enough.
If you are using druses, then depending on the side you can either place the deck on top of the druse or put the druse on the deck, it really doesn’t matter.
1. Clear Quartz Crystal. Clear Quartz Crystal, just like sage is something you should always keep at home. It’s an amazing universal crystal that can be used for any matter, from healing to charging with any intention.
2. Citrine. I have seen a lot of people using Citrine to cleanse a Tarot deck and while it’s not really a cleansing crystal, it is good at BALANCING the energies.
3. Shungite. While Shungite is mostly known for its protective qualities, it is also an excellent cleansing crystal. It is also used to cleanse water.
EXCEPTION: Using Druses to cleanse a Tarot deck.
Druses are an excellent choice for cleansing an oracle or Tarot deck for the following reasons:
They ALL have cleansing properties. You can use amethyst, quartz, fluorite, literally any druse you own.
Druses do NOT need to be cleansed as they don’t absorb energy like other crystals
Sea salt. Sea salt is a universal cleansing tool. Normally you leave an object in a bowl filled with sea salt for 24 hours. After that you throw the salt out.
So very excited to share the cover of Woodland Wardens, my 52 card oracle deck, published by Andrews McMeel! It’s available for preorder now anywhere you like to buy books, comes with a guidebook, and is one of my favorite things I’ve ever worked on. Coming this April! Links to preorder: https://publishing.andrewsmcmeel.com/book/woodland-wardens/
The Everyday Witch Oracle deck has been out for four months, and perhaps there is a card that you have taken a special affinity toward? Most of the original paintings I created for the deck (including the ones in the image) are seeking a new home! They are all created with ink and watercolor, size 6.75 x 9.875 inches, and are matted to fit 9 x 12 frames. Each painting is carefully packaged with the card from the deck signed by me, a certificate of authenticity, as well as a vinyl sticker of the card back. Email me at [email protected] if you are interested in seeing the full list of paintings.
TheEveryday Witch Oracle deck is complete and now up for pre-order from Llewellyn Worldwide, Amazon, and other online shops. It comes out in September 2019!!! These are two ink and watercolor paintings from the deck, which I created with author Deborah Blake. The top is called “Seasonal Harvest” and the bottom is “Gratitude and Thanks.”
Oracle prints and the original paintings will also be available this summer so keep an eye out! I currently have paintings and prints from the companion Everyday Witch Tarot available in my Etsy shop and everything is 20% off until May 6th!!!
Please spread the news! Deborah and I are really proud of this deck. :)
We’re at 45% funded! Stay tuned, will be adding rewards to smaller pledges soon!
Here are some of the sticker options that will be available with any new or existing $5 pledge! Free readings are still open, but today is my birthday so I’ll catch up tomorrow.
HALFWAY THEREEEEEEE
There’s only 48 hours left to go! Please, if you can, preorder now!!
I got the Archetypes Deck by Kim Kranz and I gotta ask: is it the most confrontational yet cryptic deck ever, or is it just me? It really pushes me to read very deep into myself, which is exactly what it’s supposed to do, but it’s super blunt with what you need. I never feel like I should draw again for clarification, at least not from this deck. It’s gorgeous and really cool to work with, but super abrasive on parts of myself that I hide even from myself.
Have you guys had a similar or different experience with it? Not gonna lie, I’m shook
It’s finally here! The TAAROT deck is now available for pre-order.
The Art of Arthur Rackham Oracle Tarot deck is a 30-card Oracle deck, designed by Emrys Figgins with illustrations by Arthur Rackham (1867-1939), using the Ashwood Tarot Oracle system by Brigid Ashwood.
Tiwar/Tiwaz is the rune of Tyr. It represents justice and law.
Oaths and vows show up frequently in Norse myths and sagas. They were binding and unbreakable.
In the story of Loki’s children, Tyr presented Loki’s son, the great wolf Fenrir, to the Odin and the Aesir to be bound by increasingly strong chains. To persuade the Fenris Wolf to agree to the final magically forged fetters, Tyr agreed to place his fist in the wolf’s maw. If the Aesir were tricking the wolf with the seemingly delicate binding, he could bite off Tyr’s hand.
When the wolf couldn’t break the spelled chains, Tyr paid the price without complaint, upholding his oath.
These images show 25 rune divination cards created by Chris StrattonentitledThe Old Earthen Runes published by MPC (Make Playing Cards.) They show runes of the Elder Futhark plus a twenty-fifth card Yr with unique artwork and brief statements regards correspondences when reading the card from either way round. The images shown were sourced from MPC as samples pre-purchase.
The deck was accompanied by the following statement:
“The oldest magical symbols of Germanic peoples give us a deep insight into the cosmos and secrets of the human psyche. Isatlen Gray Ref (Chris Stratton), the creator of these cards, has allowed us, using his oracle deck, to directly access our intuition and our subconscious, and thus to understand our own actions.”
