Does tarot attract any (bad) spirits?

214red

yagger said:
now i wonder, if you don't open up for spirits or whatever there is when drawing cards, does it mean all energy comes from within yourself. So we have that energy and power in ourselves without connecting to anything or anywhere else to draw the cards that should answer our questions?
the theory i agree with at the moment is that we are connecting with our higherselves or our soul, this means we cant read for other people when reading.
However you can connect to your guides without opening up so the information could come through there, however if its coming through any of the clairs (clarivoyance etc) you are opening up to a certain degree,therefore you can attract bad energy or spririts.

i have learnt that different disiplines require different levels of protection and different levels of opening up.

if you want to read for other people then you do need to get the information about them from somewhere, so likely you are opening up at some point, as you must be reading their energy.
 

214red

CelticDruidess said:
I agree with that to some degree. As a clairsentient, I'm one of the ones that tends to attract spirits (they can sense sensitives and tend to clamour around that person to get attention) but I have a range of different protections around me to prevent the negative ones from affecting me. The strongest of those protections are my Guardian Spirits. Before using anything that opens myself up even slightly (even meditating), I raise my barriers (which are more filters than barriers, really - they let the good stuff in, but keep the bad stuff out) and call on my Guardian Spirits to help protect me.

Put simply - Because I'm a sensitive, I'm more aware of the movements and energies of spirits and energies around me, and because of that, I've learnt to protect myself, like red, every day, and to increase that protection whenever I meditate or do Tarot. If I do do anything that requires opening up to the spirit world (I have been involved in quite a few exorcisms, for example) then I do what I refer to as a 'controlled open'. It's impossible to explain, but it's like... opening the outer door, but leaving the glass inner door in place - you can see through it, but nothing can get in. Using the same analogy, my spirit guides also act like guard dogs!

I think being aware of energy, especially your own is the most important thing. bad energy or negative energy can affect anyone, if your sensitive its more likely to be a problem.

Basically if you have ever experienced an extreme mood swing and you dont have hormonal issues...you likely have absorbed someone or somethings negitive energy
 

Basic Elements

214red said:
Basically if you have ever experienced an extreme mood swing and you dont have hormonal issues...you likely have absorbed someone or somethings negitive energy

Could also just be a psychological issue.
 

214red

Basic Elements said:
Could also just be a psychological issue.
yes i should have said psychological and hormonal....

i would say if in doubt , protect yourself.
 

WinterRose

214red said:
I think being aware of energy, especially your own is the most important thing. bad energy or negative energy can affect anyone, if your sensitive its more likely to be a problem.

Basically if you have ever experienced an extreme mood swing and you dont have hormonal issues...you likely have absorbed someone or somethings negitive energy


I agree totally with that. I remember when I was much younger, having been raised in a Christian household with parents who didn't believe in any of this, I had no idea how to protect myself - and as a young sensitive, that was very bad indeed. I can remember being bombarded from all sides by other people's emotions and energy and having no idea how to stop it. I used to hate going home from school, because it meant going on the bus and the metro, and going through town - large crowds of people in enclosed spaces, all with the same intense drive to get to where they're trying to go - and I'd get all their emotions at once. Now, of course, I know how to shield and protect myself, so going into town isn't such of a big deal as it once was. I still get battered, but it's my shields that take the battering, not me. I'm also a lot more relaxed than I used to be - I used to be a lot more prone to mood swings (I used to have a right temper on me), but now it takes a lot to get me angry. My parents now say that if I were any more laid-back, I'd be horizontal! And that's all because I'm no longer absorbing other people's negative emotions, because I've learnt to protect myself.
 

214red

i agree with you celtic druidess, i put it down to being cancerian so i was moody, but wasnt till later i understood. i had to not go to concerts etc because of it.

now if it happens i know its my own fault for not being protected or grounded enough, and i can deal with it fast.

i nolonger collect people who fed off my own energy either, so am a much calmer person who can go on the subway/tube and concerts without the pain

CD- i would look into the way you protect yourself if your still being battered,perhaps you need to look at your aura, your chakras etc so check that they are not too big and are attracting too much attention....could be your developing more so you need a higher level of protection
 

Taamar

Tarot doesn't attract spirits any more than a sexy outfit attracts rape, but a smart person makes an effort to not be vulnerable all the same. Not by avoiding the cards/outfit, but by being aware of surrounding and situations, and not inviting danger.
 

WinterRose

214red said:
CD- i would look into the way you protect yourself if your still being battered,perhaps you need to look at your aura, your chakras etc so check that they are not too big and are attracting too much attention....could be your developing more so you need a higher level of protection

Yeah, that could be it, red - I have been developing quite a bit lately. I'll try that, thanks.
 

agata

CelticDruidess said:
Yeah, that search function seems haunted in itself....


See what I did there? Didya? *ahem* sorry, too much coffee today.

Anyway, I haven't had an opportunity to put my tuppence in here...

Nope, decks in themselves can't be haunted. (Though I had a 'friend' who swears one of my decks was once, which was a load of tot - I later learned she only wanted them for herself and it was just an elaborate plot to get me to give them to her...needless to say we are no longer friends).

What you CAN sometimes get, though, if a person is clairsentient (and for those who are unsure, or who can't tell the difference, then it can seem like a haunting) are feelings and senses coming through the deck from either someone who has previously owned the deck, or from the creator of the deck. Now it takes a very strong clairsentient to sense it from the creator, and that usually comes through the deck, rather than from the deck - so every pack of that particular deck would feel the same - even seeing the images online would evoke the same senses. Now, i have to admit, that is incredibly rare - I've only had one deck that I've felt the 'residue' as I call it of the deck creator, and I've seen a few others online, but not many. Sensing the residue of previous users only happens with second-hand decks, and they are easily cleaned and washed away. I've never come across any spirits being attached to Tarot decks, and it certainly doesn't attract any. At least, not unless you invite them, and you have to do that specifically. My Guardian Spirits, for instance, usually appear when I'm laying out a spread, but only to help and offer advice, but they, as are all guardian Spirits, are attached to me, not to my deck.
I have a question about the previous owner's residue. Do you have any idea how long this residue would stay assuming nothing was done to cleanse them? In this case I want to keep it. Is there anything I can do to help it to stay with the deck if the cards belonged to someone special?
 

nisaba

agata said:
I have a question about the previous owner's residue. Do you have any idea how long this residue would stay assuming nothing was done to cleanse them? In this case I want to keep it. Is there anything I can do to help it to stay with the deck if the cards belonged to someone special?
1) Don't use the cards too much yourself - every time you use them, your own energy will be added to the mix.
2) Keep them in the same container or wrap their previous owner did, and don't touch that too much, either. Same reason.

Over long periods of time, it will be impossible to maintain a previous person's energy on a deck if you are working with it no matter how careful you are. However, if tehy inherited it from someone else and passed it to you, and you pass it on to someone else, and they pass it on to someone else, it will eventually end up with a lovely well-worked but not individual energy, similar to the energy on 200 or 300 year old pieces of well-used furniture. Gorgeous. I picked up a Mythic Deck some years ago that felt like that: I already had a copy but I happened to pick it up to see what was under it in a box in a second hand shop, and liked the feel of it so much I bought it. I don't often use it, nad I can still feel a slight trace of that on it. The person who ends up with it will notice that plus my own flavcour on it.

Energy is not unique to cards. Fifteen years ago I bought myself a huge, very warm top, a bit like an anorak without the hood, made of a nasty synthetic material that nonetheless was delightfully warm in the coldest winter. I wore it everywhere, every winter, for many years. There came a time when my daughter and I lived in different houses (and in fact on different ends of the continent) for six months, and the only thing she wanted from me was that top. She begged for it. I didn't really have anything else to wear for the winter, but she was only a kid so I gave it to her. She loved it not for the warmth, but because it was loaded with years and years of my energy. When we were under the same roof again and I tried to steal it back, it suddenly felt like her. She made me wear it for a few days recently, to get it feeling like me again <grin>.

So, to keep that energy intact, ideally the deck will need at least occasional contact with the person whose energy it was. Or to be sheltered from anyone else's energy, yours included.