Wow this thread has stayed alive longer than I expected, and changed course a little. Someone many posts back mentioned rituals and the other thread where people talk about routines they engage in before reading. I think I posted in that other thread and mentioned I might pick up a particular routine myself. But for me it wouldn't be for protection. For me a ritual is about focusing the mind, not any belief in a need for protection. I think nisaba's point about just nurturing happiness is right on. For me, keeping fear at bay has always been the answer -- even to fear itself. (To twist someone else's words around.
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The only residual effect I've felt from a reading that might be considered negative by some, but not by me, is something like a connection to the person I read for. Sometimes that makes me feel a bit edgy or anxious afterward. But it's simply a no-longer-needed connection. I do have a little visualization/prayer for harmlessly snipping those threads, but not because I think anything evil is happening, only because it's a residual connection we don't need any longer. Sometimes it takes more than once to completely shed the feeling -- maybe because the other person is still thinking about the reading, still connected somehow. That's fine. Eventually the feeling is gone, and I'm on with my life, as I'm sure they're on with theirs.
It may be more about my own feelings of empathy than anything else. I think I have a tendency to be an unconscious empath -- something I'm working on. So now, after having experienced that sticky connection at times, I try to keep my mind from the start of the reading on not *doing* anything more than read the cards as requested. Really nothing else is any of my business. I also try to keep everything on the level of unconditional love, no judgments, no desire to change the other person. My job is just to interpret, not to advise, fix, change, or tell anyone how to live their life.
Perhaps the friend mentioned in the first post got into the habit of trying to "fix" other people's lives. That's not a good place to go with Tarot, IMO. I think it's best to just read, and let them be the ones to decide what needs fixing or not. When we meddle in other people's lives, no matter how good our intentions, we're asking for trouble. After all, who of us is perfect enough to think we know how to go mucking around in others' lives? I have enough to do managing my own, thank you.