Others touching my cards

buying/touching

AutumnMoonfire, I wonder what kind of experience you had? Mine wasn't the best either. The guy was kinda in my face about all this stuff like keeping the new deck in a black sock in the back of your closet and that the cards were "mad". I personally believe that they are tools and don't necessarily have "feelings" but I do agree that they have energy from whoever touches them.

I'm still very new so there really isn't an issue with the touching, but if someone touches them respectfully, I would think that was okay. I still touch them more.

Been there, done that!

I tried everything out there when it comes to the Q shuffling my cards! What works best for me and the overall reading, is if no one but me shuffles the cards! I have adopted this way about 3 years ago, and any readings I have done since then have come through strong and clear! Just personal preference I guess!

I dont mind people looking through my deck unless they are one of those people who are doing it looking for a reason to condem me for reading tarot. But for the most part i don't mind them to look through because the images are very beautiful.

I only read for friends and family really and the occasional casual aquaintence, but I let them shuffle and cut the cards. Sometimes they like to look through them too when I'm not using them and as long as they ask that's perfectly fine with me. I've only had one experience where I wouldn't let someone touch my cards and it was a friend of my brother's and I just don't like the kid, he's too touchy feely and acts too familiar with me and I just got this feeling like "don't touch my cards!". I don't know if I felt it was because of energy or what, but I just felt like it would disturb my peace of mind to know he'd been pawing my cards.

WOW, Me personally I never never never let any one touch my cards. I feel that i have to be connected to my cards, so i spen alot of time pouring my energy into these cards. I really feel that all materialistic things are like an energy sponge. I woulnd want unfamiliar energies in my deck. The only ppl that i let touch my cards are my best freind ben, and my Mother. My Mother is there only person to do a reading with my deck. Because She is a Tarot Guro . I strive to be as good as she was. She always tells me That she think im far ahead with tarot the she was. Plus From me comming from my mother... I think we share a similar type of energy. So in short... if you feel that there a good person, and you think that it is ok... Then under that sercomsance I feel it would be OK.

I used to not let other people handle the cards, having read in a few books that this is a "no, no". Which ultimately I realised when reading a book written by anyone, you are basically reading their opinion or what they have learnt from someone else - and then there are a lot of other books and writer's opinions that it is fine for others to handle the cards - or even contradictory in the same book, as someone else has posted in this thread.

So it is something you need to decide for yourself and "do" or "not do" based on your feeling or opinion of the cards / tarot / person concerned - not just because a book said that you should or should not - if that makes sense

Have always let me family look through my decks but always did the shuffling etc when doing a reading. However more recently have started having the querent shuffle the deck themselves and pick out their own cards and have had good results.

Always go on my gut feeling though, if I am comfortable for that person to shuffle them or look through them fine, if I am not, then I will do the shuffling etc. Usually however if I am reading for someone I don't know for the first time, I will do the handling of the cards, and then see how I feel about it next time I read for them as to whether I hand the cards to them. Just go with what feels right at the time

Have found though that if friends are genuinely interested in having a look through a deck, and ask to do so, then I am happy to have them explore. This has even resulted in a few friends now wanting to get in and learn more about tarot themselves. Which is a great sharing feeling.

Also have come across people who do not like anyone else handling their decks, which I respect as well, as like anything with tarot, it is a personal thing and there is no "wrong" or "right" - whatever works for you


CreativeFire

The only thing I allow a querent to do is to cut the cards, basically so they feel like they have a "part" in the reading process. Especially with my SC, which is a BIG deck, I would never allow someone to shuffle it, too many possibilities for the cards to get harmed.

For me a person that I don't like must not(!) touch my cards. The sense of anger and negative energy that might effect both of us.

When someone wants a reading I let'em to use my left hand with theirs and wear on one of their old things like necklace, glass, cap... etc. That fits me but still I am jealous about my deck seems like.

I shuffle the deck & then ask the client to cut them into 2 piles. I put the deck back together, fan them out & ask the client to pull the amount of cards for the spread.

Also you can tell their energy if they place the cards close to themselves or in a neat pile, I feel they are very tight with their thoughts & if they scatter them as they pull the cards, put them on the other side of the fan or hand them to you they are more open minded.

As the reading goes the more open they are they start handing you the cards, because I feel they trust your answers to them.

I feel they open up more when they are included with cutting & pulling the cards because then it is their choice of the cards that you read for them.

Allowing others to touch cards

Some personal thoughts on this:

For me, the main issue is to show respect for the cards because of what they represent and the purpose for which they are used, and humility toward their mystery (which is really the mystery of the relationships between consciousness, reality and the Divine). It doesn't have anything to do with bits of paper and ink.

Therefore, like any important tool of value, they should preferably be handled carefully and with respect. This means using clean hands, storing the cards in a nice manner eg in silk with lavender etc as some advocate, and trying not to handle them gratuitously and not for the purpose for which they were intended. This respect is for the benefit of both reader and sitter and is part of a positive attitude toward the reading and its power.

Personally, though, for me I do not think this should be extended to an overly obsessive attitude toward the cards. The workings of the cards are inside the reader, the sitter and the Divine or whatever you want to call it, and not in the cards themselves. Therefore anything that surrenders the power of either reader and sitter 'to the cards' is, for me, inadvisable.

Refusing to allow a sitter to touch the cards would (for me) be saying that the cards (paper, ink and symbols) are more powerful or worthy than the sitter. Also, there is undeniable conveyed meaning in allowing the sitter to at least touch the cards. After all, the reading is about them and from them through me. Lastly, surely the essence of Tarot lies in the idea that what we regard as 'random' can in fact be impinged by consciousness and the Divine and can have interpretable meaning. If the reading is about the sitter then it seems reasonable (perhaps not essential) that the sitter should be involved either in the 'randomization' (shuffling, cutting) of the cards or in picking them.

For similar reasons I think it is wrong to feel the cards to be contaminated or weakened by someone touching them should that situation arise. This is especially true if the person has 'bad vibes' because this in effect would be to say that their 'vibes' have more power than the connection with universal consciousness that the cards, for me, represent. Also, in trying to love this person we must fight our fear. Easier said than done, I know. Nonetheless, I do not feel comfortable allowing people to idly sift through the cards or use them for another purpose, simply because this would not respect the process. Also, I do not want to find myself doing accidental, unintentional readings on, say, just dropped cards. The process should probably be intentional and focussed.

I hope never to refuse a reading only because someone has 'bad vibes' (as opposed to declining to read because they intend to seriously mock the process - that takes more strength again than I have right now).

Disclaimer: note that I'm a novice so my practice may well change. We'll see.

FlipTarot