negativity

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 02 Nov 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

loveinspirit	02 Nov 2004
do we always need to cleanse the tarot cards, before and after readings to get rid of the negativity. where does the negativity come from. and can you protect yourself from the negative vibes from the person you are reading and whats the best way.

Moonbow*	02 Nov 2004
I'm afraid I don't cleanse my cards anymore. It was something I used to do, especially if they were bought second hand. But now, I find that just using them and keeping them in the special place that they belong, keeps my energy on them. I shuffle them alot too. I keep a crystal from St Nectan's glen with my Thoth deck.... This is the only deck that I gave away then got again, and I got it just before going to St Nectan's so a crystal from there seemed appropriate. It has now given me good readings and I connect to it better than the first time. My opinion is that some of this is superstition and some is ritual, and that you should do whatever you feel comfortable with.

Diana	02 Nov 2004
Quote: Originally posted by loveinspirit do we always need to cleanse the tarot cards, before and after readings to get rid of the negativity. where does the negativity come from. and can you protect yourself from the negative vibes from the person you are reading and whats the best way. lovinspirit: Why would your cards be filled with negativity after a reading? Wouldn't it be just the opposite? Wouldn't they be infused with wisdom, and loving thoughts, and illuminated road-signs to guide people on their paths? (This is assuming, of course, that you believe that your cards retain "energy". Lots of people find the very idea of wanting to "cleanse" one's cards to be of a superstitious nature and not based on facts. But this depends very much I think on one's own individual spiritual beliefs) As to how to protect yourself from the negative vibes from the person you are reading for... well, most people who come for readings are not negative. They are eager and happy to be read for, and they are very positive indeed. But supposing a querent was negative. Well then I suppose one would protect oneself in the same manner as one would in any situation. And that again is individual. My way of protecting myself has to do more-or-less with my imagining myself in a ball of white light which makes the negativity bounce off back into the universe and I leave it up to the powers-that-be to take of it (after all, that's one of their jobs, right?), and my ball of white light only allows positive stuff to come through. I don't really BELIEVE that I'm sitting in a ball of light - I'm a very rational person and am not too much into hocus-pocus. I do visualise it though and visualise it very seriously. Symbolically, I have found it to be a powerful way of protecting myself.

Sulis	02 Nov 2004
I don't cleanse my cards - if they have that 'new deck' chemically smell when I get them I waft them through some incense but it's not to cleanse them of any negativity it's to make them smell nice. Love Sulis xx

Teranar	02 Nov 2004
I avoid clensing cards because I want everyone's 'feel' on them, in other words I want the feelings, the hopes, the dreams, the desires, the wants, the needs, both happy and sad, on the cards. The world is not a completely happy place, if I try to help it in what little way I can with tarot why should I shelter my cards from the 'bad' parts and only expose them to the 'good' parts?

Emily	02 Nov 2004
I don't cleanse my cards either - I like the feel of them, especially my main deck, and to cleanse them would be like clearing them of every vibe that I've shuffled into them. Actually the only deck I've ever tried to cleanse was a used Thoth and it didn't work, what did work was my use of them so I do think that shuffling and use really are the key to happy cards. :D

Ace	02 Nov 2004
One good riff shuffle should clear the deck. Clearing your HEAD is something else! come up with a good way to ground yourself and clear out the querents thoughts after a reading is a good thing to do.

Umbrae	03 Nov 2004
I don’t clean my cards. I shuffle them. I never put my cards in ‘order’. Each deck contains all it’s shuffles, and all it’s readings – ultimately they may even contain the essence of every person who’s touched them… Which for me…helps my decks, and me…grow. That said, I know that some folks have had bad experiences with decks that have ‘gone wild’. Well now I know this works…rent one of your favorite all time movies. Watch it and shuffle your deck. You’ll be right as rain (as they say).

Little Baron	03 Nov 2004
I don't cleanse either. I like my cards to grow with each reading; the more layers, the better; the more dog-eared the better; the more experiences, the more I build a better relationship with them. Sometimes, like Sulis, I wave them under some insense. Insense, the kind I use, is brilliant for my tarot. When I bought my first deck, I lit some and continued to. The effects now is amazing. Whenever I smell that scent, I think 'tarot'. The memories of excitement when I bought my first deck and did as many readings as I could, flood through me. It is hard to explain how strong it is. I was walking on the 'Kings Road' recently with my friend and the same smell just hit me. My friend asked why I stopped in the street and I said 'I can smell tarot'. He thought I was nuts, but a couple of shops along, I found a quaint little shop that sold a great sellection of decks and books; the insense smell I relate to was pouring from the doorway. Yabs

MeeWah	03 Nov 2004
I have not bothered cleansing my cards on any regular basis for a long time now other than shuffling them prior to a reading. They work fine without any ritual (though I go for ritual on occasion). Sometimes I do not even shuffle but grab some cards from part of the deck. They also work fine this way. I put some decks in "order" more to better study their cards than for cleansing purposes.

MeM	19 Nov 2004
I know I am bringing this thread back from 2 weeks ago.. but... what if you buy used deck for your very FIRST deck. Should you then? or do you think that the previous owners usage will help guide in learning? I am just curious to know how does one cleanse a deck anyway?

jmd	20 Nov 2004
If someone bought a secondhand deck which was the one they were going to use, felt it was somehow 'dirty', and had no means of obtaining another or in other ways still wanted to make the deck their primary reading deck, here's how I would probably cleanse it (I say 'probably' as it would very much depend on what was felt from the deck). I would first get some tissues or quality pure cotton, get a small cup of boiled water, put a few drops of an oil you sense would be cleansing (tea-tree, for example), and carefully and slowly wipe each card through on each side, making sure they are not soaked, and that they are dried with another piece of the material or tissue. I would then order them, for the simple reason of checking that all the cards are there, and also sensing that they 'feel' without that which you felt before. I another washing is required for some cards, I would do it. Then I would shuffle them, and allow a spread to emerge. ...and then begin to use them as per normal.

ren	20 Nov 2004
I would use a creative visualisation exercise, although they are second hand visualise as you shuffle, that you are the only person that has touched them. Inhale the new energy, exhale the old.

Rhiannon	20 Nov 2004
loveinspirit wrote: and can you protect yourself from the negative vibes from the person you are reading and whats the best way. Why are you reading for someone you feel is negative? If someone came to me for a reading and I felt "icky" I just wouldn't read for them. I'd make a polite excuse. If I was at home, I might offer to smudge them to help them release whatever is bothering them, but out in public I'd just say "NO". :)

Keslynn	20 Nov 2004
I take a shower with them, once a month, whether they need it or not. ;-) Just kidding. I don't cleanse decks, even if they were pre-owned. Sometimes I will reiki a deck, but that's to add lovely energy and not cleanse any energy away. That and I need to practice reiki. I don't think the decks actually hold any energy. Well, let me amend that: they do if you think they do. So, if it floats your boat to cleanse, then do it. And I have read for people who gave me "negative vibes." However, I didn't realize they were total idiots until the middle of the reading so I just finished. I'm new at "pro" reading so I still have to develop the sense of when to say no to a reading. :) Kes

Sushi	20 Nov 2004
Once I picked up a deck I had left sitting on a table and started to shuffle them. I picked up a very negative vibe from them, and started to think about alcoholics and how miserable they must be. Then it occured to me that someone may have handled them. Sure enough when I asked, they had been handled by an alcoholic, someone I would have turned down for a reading. After shuffling them for a while the feelings went away, but it was icky none the less.

Dark Inquisitor	20 Nov 2004
loveinspirit wrote: can you protect yourself from the negative vibes from the person you are reading and whats the best way. I was asked something similar not long ago by a massage therapist as she wandered confused among the stones in a new age store. Practitioners who come in contact with the general public on an intimate or spiritual level may be subject to some lingering negative energy given off during the encounter. They are coming to feel better after all , it has to go somewhere doesn't it? Some people might be more sensitive to these energies than others, of course. One of the ways I came across to address this question said to get a hunk of obsidian and put it in a bowl of salt . You are supposed to place that on your reading table , and it takes care of any negative vibes .

Dark Inquisitor	20 Nov 2004
Sushi wrote: they had been handled by an alcoholic, someone I would have turned down for a reading. ****Why?

Nevada	20 Nov 2004
I don't cleanse the cards, as I don't think they retain much. But I do cleanse myself, usually with a prayer or some sort of little ritual intended to break any remaining connection to those I previously read for. It's easy for me to get caught up in the other person when I'm reading for them, and I feel a need to disconnect. Don't know if that makes sense to anyone but me. It's certainly no reflection on anyone I've read for, just a need to let go and move on. Nevada

Gaidheal	20 Nov 2004
I would cleanse a second hand deck before I used it...but I would only buy a second hand deck in the first place if it had at least a relatively good energy to it, anyway. I'm a little leary of using someone else's deck...though I couldn't really explain why. Other than that, I'd only cleanse a deck if I felt it had come into contact with some serious negative energy. Someone with a distinctively icky aura had handled the cards, for example, or I'd done a reading for someone who was just oozing negativity. After readings, I take the cards I used and release the energy used in the reading (I find that if I don't, I occasionally end up with my next reading relating to my previous question), but I don't cleanse them, per se.

gypsy	20 Nov 2004
i no longer "cleanse" my decks, although i used to regularly. well, i don't allow others to handle the cards anymore, so i guess the need for it is gone. i do, however, "charge" my cards in the light of the full moon, with a little prayer or some words of intent. this is as much to recharge myself as a reader as it is to recharge the cards. i find that afterwards, my cards have a pleasant tingling aura around them, they make my hands buzz when i handle them. i see no harm in asking the universe and my inner guide for a little help now and then!

Lurea	21 Nov 2004
Wow, gypsy, you took the words right out of my mouth! ;) I LOVE to bathe my cards in the light of a full moon. It's something I only get around to doing every six months or so, but you are right, they 'tingle' the next morning. I've smudged my decks once in a while, but mostly because I love the smell of sweetgrass and sage, not because I felt they needed it. :D

Phoenix Rising	21 Nov 2004
Just another "Superstition" you can cleanse them if you get dust on them! Do you feel that vulnerable, that you think you need protection. Only people who live in fear and believe in all sorts of mumbo jumbo need protecting, because they leave themselves wide open and draw to them what they believe in. You only have to believe that you won't attract any negativity and that's all the protection you need.

full deck	22 Nov 2004
Phoenix Rising wrote: . . . You only have to believe that you won't attract any negativity and that's all the protection you need. There's more than a little truth in that idea. The other day, I watched (foolishly) Blade II and all the gory fake blood and weird hyper-vampire gore and it turned my stomach. I had to get out and put my mind in a fresh place, take a walk, praying as I stroll back to the studio. I was the one with the vibe. If cards get a "bad vibe", then it must come from people. Change the person, change the cards.

The negativity thread was originally posted on 02 Nov 2004 in the Talking Tarot board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Talking Tarot, or read more archived threads.