Carrying my cards around with me?

I am fairly concerned about my cards picking up negative energy - whether from clients/querents or just from wherever. I do not let anyone else touch my cards, except for one very close friend whose energy I am very in tune with and whom I trust completely.

Here's the thing: I like to have my cards with me. I just put them in the back of my book bag (in their handmade-by-me protective case, of course) and carry them around with me. When I'm anxious or bored, I look through them (they all calm me down, even Death and The Devil, just because they're so familiar).

I personally feel that carrying them around this way mixes my energies with them more strongly. But I'm also concerned that they might be picking up stray bits of energy from other people, which might be negative.

So: Leave the cards home or bring 'em with?

I always have a deck with me--or at least one in the car.

I'm not worried about cards picking up anything except maybe creases and stains, which would tick me off...but I don't think cards (being inanimate objects) can pick up negative or positive energy. [Well, maybe if they came into contact with a lighted match ...]

I'm fairly confident that IN MY OPINION, I'm the nut behind the wheel of using my cards. They are powered only by me. Now, if I happen to be confronted by negative energy, that may affect the way I look at the cards that day...but that's about it.

I don't believe in negative energy - (I know, I know, call me naive) - but if my cards pick up negative energy god knows what my shoes and wallet pick up out there.

Carrying cards around is great; it's comforting and it means you always have a supply of nice pictures to look at when waiting for the bus or train. I'm never without a deck but it never crosses my mind to think about negative energies.

And if there is negative energy out there, people don't need innocuous, inanimate cards to send it to you. People can mess your life up without the assistance of cards.

I always have a deck on me, a spare in my truck glove-box, one in my garage (The Man Cave of Madness)…because one never knows when one needs to provide a reading...

I love for my decks to be touched and handled by others.

I believe that energy is energy. Positive and Negative are two aspects of the same thing, both are necessary for life itself. I don't cleanse my cards.

I'm not trying to be mean, but doesn't your deck pick up negative energy from you, in the same way that you fear it might pick it up from someone else? When you read when you're stressed (or just handle the cards)... or when you get a not-so-pleasant reply (all reversals, all "trouble" cards, like the tower)... isn't the deck picking up/working with "negative" energy there?

How does energy work/transfer, in your opinion? If you're worried about your cards picking things up just by being in public, why aren't you worried about your clothes picking things up, or anything else that you carry, or even yourself? If you are, what do you do to ward yourself, and how can you replicate that for your deck?

When I think of energy, I think of potential. The potential to be positive or negative, good or bad, rests within all things. Energy isn't inherently + or -, good or bad... it just is. Kinda like the concept of yin-yang. Positive energy is more about action: being aggressive, warmth, light. Negative energy is more about non-action: being passive, coldness, darkness. In that way, energy is more about balance and change; at least, to me.

After much ado about your question, I wouldn't worry about, or try to stifle the flow of energy to and from your cards

I believe objects pick up energy, but I don't believe in energy is good or bad. Energy is energy. Sometimes it doesn't suit us as individuals or at certain times, sometimes it does. Perhaps the frequency of one person's energy is "off" for another person. Perhaps one is just having a bad day or is tired. There are days I can't take a certain person's energy, even being in the room with them, but I wouldn't call it good or bad, negative or positive, even then. Just unsuitable for me at the moment.

I don't mind if someone touches my cards, as long as they don't have goop on their hands or something, and they're respectful. If they are interested and want to handle them, no big deal. I have second hand decks that are every bit as useful and enjoyable for me as those I've owned since they were new. I've never cleansed my decks in any way except by reordering them now and then, which I'm not sure cleanses them anyway.

Another way to look at it might be that if your cards carry around positive energy, maybe your cards serve as a cleansing energy to any negative energies that might be around, and maybe your cards are going around spreading positive energy. If negative energy can get stuck on stuff, positive energy can get stuck on stuff too!

I have my two most precious decks with me at all times, plus any deck I might want to use. And I let anybody touch them who is interested and doesn't have greasy hands.

If my relationship with my cards, and the amount of energy I myself had put into them, was so frail that it could be at all affected, let alone disturbed by anyone else, then I'd consider I'd have a serious problem and a complete lack of a relationship with my decks.

Energy is everywhere. You can't avoid it. However, energy isn't "good" or "bad"; "positive" or "negative". Energy just IS. It is how the conscious mind reacts, in my opinion, that creates those negative or positive aspects. In simple terms, "you are what you think."

If you are worried about avoiding "bad energy", then you will be too anxious to use your cards. And that is the purpose of tarot, to be used. On the other hand, if you focus on the positive aspects: the effort you put into making that bag, the comfort you feel when you interact with the cards, then it won't matter what the cards "pick up". And that means that you'll be more willing to pick up the cards yourself.

You have already discovered that cards like Death and the Devil can be calming. All you have to do is extend that lesson one step further and realize that energy, just like the cards, isn't necessarily "bad". The more your cards experience, and the more you experience when you are with your cards, the better they will be for reading with.

I look at it like this:

If I hadn't experienced both positive and negative things in my life, I wouldn't be who I am. I consider all my life experiences, including the ones that have been really extremely negative, to be blessings in disguise. Without both the positive and negative experiences, I wouldn't be who I am today with the well-rounded depth of wisdom I've gained from all of it. I'd just be someone with a fa-la-la airy-fairy attitude that couldn't help anybody, least of all myself. I wouldn't be able to identify and deal with a negative situation even when one reared its ugly head. I'd soon perish.

It's the same with my cards. If I try to shield my cards from negative energy, how am I going to use them to counsel myself or other people about both the positives and negatives of life? They'd just be useless pretty little pieces of paper, soothing to look at but of no help at all to anyone about the ups and downs and realities of life on life's terms.