"Deactivating" a deck

jolie_amethyst

Annabelle said:
One more thing, just a tip -- If you are going to use it as a study deck, you may find it worth your time to scan all the cards at a high resolution. I find tarot SO MUCH EASIER to study in detail when I have big, high quality digital copies to look at. It's easier to spot the minutia that I wouldn't see on the physical cards in hand.
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I like this idea a lot!

For me, the only difference between my reference decks and reading decks is that my reference decks are ordered so I can easily find any card I'm looking for. Regular decks are left shuffled. So if I intended to turn a deck from reading to reference, all I need to to is reorder the cards.

That's it. I don't change their bags, or put them through rituals, or tell them what I'm doing. (Nor do I sleep with them at the foot of the bed, LOL!)
 

Laurelle

Annabelle said:
One more thing, just a tip -- If you are going to use it as a study deck, you may find it worth your time to scan all the cards at a high resolution. I find tarot SO MUCH EASIER to study in detail when I have big, high quality digital copies to look at. It's easier to spot the minutia that I wouldn't see on the physical cards in hand.
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I do the same thing, except I photocopy them. I write all over it too. :)
 

DugSkullery

Annabelle said:
I wouldn't think any special process is necessary to "deactivate" a deck; the deck has always been paper and ink, and will remain paper and ink, though you are using the cards in a different way.

That said, though . . .

If you view your "working deck" of tarot -- i.e. the cards you use for readings -- as a magical tool, and if that deck is something that you initially charged in the moonlight/on an altar, etc., then I can see how some type of ritual would be useful to you in terms of changing how you view and use that magical tool.

To that end, you might deactivate the deck by wrapping it in black cotton cloth and placing it on your altar on the dark moon, and lighting black candles (or brown, or white, or whatever color signifies for you that you are changing this deck from a magical tool to a mundane tool).

One more thing, just a tip -- If you are going to use it as a study deck, you may find it worth your time to scan all the cards at a high resolution. I find tarot SO MUCH EASIER to study in detail when I have big, high quality digital copies to look at. It's easier to spot the minutia that I wouldn't see on the physical cards in hand.
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Thanks. I didnt expect such a huge landslide of comments LoL :p. I always read that you do a quick conscious "tag" to connect them to their use as actual tools rather than any old cards, one of the ways is actually written in the Thoth tarot booklet before you use them, to connect to univeral force as a communication vessel. I only ask because I have actual (albeit feint) perception of such things, and I wasnt sure if there was any formal method per se.

So yes, I do take them as a majikal tool (the ones I work with) and I know it sounds flaky but I feel I should not disrespect the energy by just consigning it to dead matter for pictorial use, without some sort of disconnect :)
 

DugSkullery

tarotbear said:
You could also sleep with them down at the foot of the bed for about a week - wrap them in an old, used sock - this will negate you having slept with them under your pillow to activate them.
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I feel they might avenge themselves out of spite in that case, when it comes to my terrible socks.
 

DugSkullery

Tanga said:
Sweet and simple! ...feet could be seen as disrespectful though...



<gasp!!! horror!> :-D such a sacrilegious suggestion!
Them Thoth cards may bite her in the bum when she sleeps at night (?) :) Lol.

DugSkullery, you could try sticking them inside a Tarot reference book and leaving them sitting in there on the shelf for some-time...
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Yea, my socks are bio-weapons so I think it would not be approprite :p
 

Tanga

tarotbear said:
You could put them in a Bible opposite any one of these anti-witchcraft verses/quotations: click here. There is almost one for each card!
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Lol. Just digging your heals in then tarotbear. :-D

Barleywine said:
... Personally, I wouldn't do that to the only Bible we own, a rare Salvadore Dali-illustrated, leather-bound relic of my wife's Catholic past. On second thought, the deck might be humbled by proximity to the mighty Dali, and take a vow of silence. Mission accomplished!
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Wow - I'd love to see that. (The Dali I mean)

DugSkullery said:
...I only ask because I have actual (albeit feint) perception of such things, and I wasn't sure if there was any formal method per se.
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There you have it - there isn't one. :)
Your choice.

DugSkullery said:
...So yes, I do take them as a majikal tool (the ones I work with) and I know it sounds flaky but I feel I should not disrespect the energy by just consigning it to dead matter for pictorial use, without some sort of disconnect :)
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WHO says it's flaky?? :) (Says the Alexandrian initiate, with 5 spirit guides, guardian crystals at every window, moxa under her pillow (Mugwort), a charging pentacle by her bedside with her favourite magickal jewellery on it, 3 working indoor Altars and 1 outdoor one, 2 devotional Patron Deity pictures on the wall - hand-painted by her, 3 Magickal Tarot decks [used for no other purpose but Magickal ritual], 2 devotional/Magickal tattoos - and a 3rd-and-final pending for next Samhain [Halloween. 3 of course, being a significant number, and the season extremely significant] - designed by her, and when she's in the mood - rituals to wake up with, rituals to go-to-sleep by, rituals to enter and exit the house... I could go on... ;-) ).
I LOVE ritual.
 

FLizarraga

Some Tarot readers, and some people in AT, use the cards as a mean of communication with spirit guides or similar entities, and from their point of view the cards would absorb at least some of that sacred spiritual energy. Yet every time one of them opens his/her mouth, I see the Tarot equivalent of fart jokes thrown at them.

Not all of us think alike, except that we are united by our love of the cards. I find that every viewpoint, no matter how different from our own, needs and deserves to be treated with a modicum of respect.

The OP asked an honest question, and I think she/he deserves an honest answer, instead of juvenile, discourteous nonsense.

Just my two cents.
 

Padma

Myself, I would put it in order, then put it in the sun, and place clear crystal points on it, and let it sit a bit in the sun. Sunlight is a natural disinfectant :)

The other thing might be to place the cards in a wooden box, then fill it with sea salt, and let it sit for a few days. Salt is very cleansing! Then, I would do as others have stated here - place them with the reference book, on a shelf, and away from your reading decks. When you reach for the study deck chosen and cleansed, tell it the first time you use it it is only for study. Be really clear and sincere about it. Spoken and thought intention is big, imho...intention is everything.
 

Barleywine

Seems like the consensus opinion came out quite early in this thread: "Not necessary in most situations." I think that message got across loud and clear, and it seems like the OP got it, humor notwithstanding. Everything after that point was "gilding the lily," or put more bluntly, "overkill." I'd like to think not all of us are part of that 80% demographic Ciro was talikng about in another thread.
 
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