Create Your Own Tarot Spreads

Create Your Own Tarot Spreads

A tarot spread is a diagram of card positions that allows you to do a helpful and understandable tarot reading. Typically, each position asks a question. The card that falls into that position must be read in the context of the position.

It is possible to do a good tarot reading without a positioned spread. It is also possible to include numerous spreads and techniques in a tarot reading session. Not every question calls for an entire spread. Yet, a good tarot reader needs to know when a tarot spread would be helpful, and how to most effectively work with a spread.

Each tarot spread has a theme. The spread may be comprehensive in that it addresses many or all departments of life. Or, a spread may be created to address a specific concern.

How the cards are laid out graphically can matter to the efficacy of a tarot spread. Sometimes the cards are meant to form a shape that relates to the theme of the spread. Whatever the graphic shape, we tend to notice how cards that are near each other interact with each other. We often create spreads that are like trees, where a single card addresses a larger issues and multiple cards branch from that to answer questions about that issue.

There are many traditional spreads, many books of tarot spreads, and many spreads created by professionals and shared on social media. With so many available spreads, why would you want to create your own?

There are many possible reasons to create your own spreads. First and foremost, since working with tarot spreads is such an important skill, the act of creating spreads helps us become better at reading spreads.

The act of making spreads is in itself creative, and therefore, fun. It’s also fun to share the spreads we create with others.

No matter how many spreads exist in the world, there is always room for more. There are an infinite number of questions we can answer with tarot.

As we work to create new spreads, we sometimes stumble onto new ways of working with the cards, and new techniques that improve our tarot practice.

Tarot spreads can have as few as two cards, or as many as seventy-eight.

When you create your own spread, it will likely fall into one of three categories.

You might create a comprehensive spread. This would be a larger spread, perhaps ranging between six and fifteen cards. You would want each position to reflect an aspect of life. The goal of this spread would be to get as complete a picture as possible of what is going on in a person’s life. Traditional comprehensive spreads include the Celtic Cross and the Astrology Wheel.

Another type of spread is a themed spread, or a situational spread. A themed spread might be created for a specific holiday, or a specific time of astrological transition, such as a full moon or a mercury retrograde. The graphic shape made by the cards might reflect this theme.

A situational spread could be created to use to answer a specific type of question, such as how to handle a relationship problem, or how to make a career transition.

These sorts of spreads can be shared with others and can be performed when need arises or when the time is appropriate.

It’s also possible to create a spread for a single use. These spreads are often the most powerful. I will occasionally use this method when a client presents with a unique and multi-faceted problem.

A single-use spread is likely to include many cards. You may also add positions as you are performing the spread, based on what the cards reveal.

A single-use spread allows you to break a complex issue into its components, and consider all aspects of the situation in order to find guidance, understanding and direction.

You can create a spread with a pen and a piece of paper, or you can create a spread using any sort of word processing or graphic software.

Sometimes, in a tarot reading, you might create a two- or three-card spread in the moment to answer a specific question. For example, if you are deciding whether or not to do something, you might pull one card to show what happens if you do it, and another card to show what happens if you don’t.

The more you allow yourself to explore tarot spreads and tarot reading techniques, the better you will become as a tarot reader.

Overcoming Shyness and Other Obstacles as a Tarot Reader

Overcoming Shyness and Other Obstacles as a Tarot Reader

I received a question from a budding professional tarot reader who is struggling with shyness. She noticed that I had spoken about my own struggles early in my career, and how I overcame them with tarot. She wanted to know how I had done that, and my advice for her. This is something I think a lot of tarotists contend with. The traits that make us mystical often also make us a bit introverted.

I think one of the best ways to create personal change with tarot is to work with Court Card Significators.

The first thing you need to do is find what I call your Native Court Card Significator Do this based on your age, gender identity and sun sign astrology. For example, I am a cisgender adult woman born under the sun sign of Scorpio. Therefore, I am the Queen of Cups, because Scorpio is a water sign.

Now, look at your Court Card Significator and decide the ways in which this card’s attributes help you to be a good tarot reader, and the ways in which they might create obstacles.

If the obstacles outweigh the positive aspects, choose another card, either a Court card or not, to be your Tarot Reader Significator.

Claim this as the card of your tarot reader persona. Meditate with it, sleep with it, print it out and carry it with you. Eventually, this card will start showing up in your self-readings to let you know you are on the right track.

You can also do some great one-card divination exercises to help you access your best skills as a tarot reader. Ask questions like, what should my focus be right now? Or, which card best describes the energy I need to embrace in my tarot practice right now.

By using these techniques, you will harness the power of tarot magick and tarot divination to help you become the best reader you can be.

Watch the video for more information. If you have a question about tarot, please email me.

A Tarot Perspective Shift That Can Change Your Life

A Tarot Perspective Shift That Can Change Your Life

Here’s a way to perceive tarot cards that can change and deepen your experience when reading for yourself or others. This practice can also help you navigate the ups and downs of life with ease and grace.

I first began studying tarot with an Eden Gray book some thirty-five years ago. Gray clearly spoke of some cards as being bad and negative, and other cards as good and positive.

As I have learned a small bit about the practice of cartomancy with Lenormand cards, I’ve learned that each Lenormand card is designated as positive, negative or neutral. Understanding those designations is important to the study and practice of Lenormand. In my opinion, this should not be so with tarot.

I know that many tarotists, both beginning and experienced, see some tarot cards as good and other tarot cards as bad.

Here’s the shift in perspective that I have started advocating.

Consider what might happen if you were to believe that no tarot card is inherently good or bad.

When you think about this, you have to first realize that the study of tarot is not just about learning how to interpret the cards in a reading. Tarot functions as a book of spiritual wisdom as well as a divinatory device. When we study tarot, we need to learn both the divinatory aspects and the spiritual lessons which exist beyond the function of divination.

Each card teaches us something about life and about ourselves. These lessons stay with us and help us though life. When we understand these lessons, our ability to interpret the cards is increased, even when those deeper lessons aren’t especially pertinent to a specific reading.

When we understand the lesson of each card, we understand that life lessons themselves are neither positive nor negative.

Yet, in most decks, some card illustrations are attractive and appealing, while others are dark or even violent. Regardless, we need to reserve judgment on whether the message is positive or negative, or wanted or unwanted, until we do the reading.

In a reading, whether we find the information we receive positive or negative should depend entirely on the context of the reading. We may get answers we don’t prefer, yet, we needn’t see the individual cards, or the readings, as good or bad.

There is a school of spiritual thought that suggests there is no good or bad anywhere in the world. There is only what you like and what you don’t like. We see examples of this in nature. What is good for the lion is very, very bad for the gazelle. Tarot cards are like that. While we will always prefer to see some cards over others, each card has its place and its value.

So often I hear tarotists say that they don’t like a certain card, or a certain suit. Some people seem to fear certain cards.

If, in your tarot studies, you develop a dislike or fear about a particular card or suit of cards, this is an opportunity to learn something about yourself, or about the cards.

It may be that your dislike or distrust is based on an incomplete understanding of the card. It may be that your reaction to the card is happening because that card, or that suit of cards, is exposing something in you that needs to be healed.

Whenever we have a negative reaction to a card, in study or in a reading, we need to take this as an opportunity to learn something more about ourselves, and about the cards.

We all have favorite cards, and images that resonate well with us. Yet, in a reading, a favorite card might appear to give a message that, in the moment, is less than favorable.

Whatever personal relationships we might have with individual cards, in a reading, we need to let the cards speak, free from our relationship with them, and free from a standard idea of a card being positive or negative.

That said, it is true that in self-reading we can have very powerful relationships with the cards we recognize as “personal cards”. Personal cards might be our birth cards, our astrology cards, or cards we have had significant experiences with in the past. Their appearance in a reading will bring extra information, but, even then, should not be seen as necessarily good or bad.

As examples of how cards can change in meaning, the Sun is usually a very joyful card. Yet, it can also indicate a person who is narcissistic. The Three of Swords communicates heartache, yet it also offers an opportunity for healing.

Of the four suits in tarot, the suit of Swords gets the worst rap. That’s because four of its members are usually very dark images. In readings, those images can very often speak of sadness, anxiety, depression and other upset. Yet, when we remember that Swords are associated with the element of Air, we understand that those painful swords are generally words, thoughts, beliefs, mistrust and dishonesty that are laying us low.

It’s also true that having our heartache revealed in a reading can be extremely helpful and healing. Generally, if you can’t see it, you can’t heal it.

As a professional reader, I take those difficult cards as an opportunity to acknowledge my client’s suffering, and to hold space for their healing, as well as their sorrow.

It’s important to remember, too, that the Suit of Swords contains more positive messages than it does indicators of struggle. The Ace of Swords indicates truth and right action. The Two of Swords is the card of peace. The Four of Swords offers healing, meditation and retreat, while the Six of Swords helps us move toward smoother waters.

When we read for ourselves or for others, we need to color the reading with neither over-optimism nor fear. We need to approach the cards with an attitude of compassionate detachment. We will have an easier time discerning the most precise information if we do not confuse our relationships with the cards with our intuition about what is going on in the reading. We have to let each card speak as it will in each reading, regardless of our feelings toward a card in general.

If we refrain from judging cards as good or bad, we can approach the cards without fear, from that enlightened place of spiritual neutral and compassionate detachment.

When we read for ourselves and others we can get out of our own way and find information that is useful. We can use the cards to shift perspective, open opportunities and bring healing for ourselves and others.

The practice of seeing all cards as neutral allows the cards to speak more easily and more freely. When we are free of the judgment of good and bad, we can engage intuition more easily. It is at that point that we are able to have a truly enlightening psychic experience with tarot.

An added benefit is this. Tarot cards reflect all of life. Not all of life is pretty. Yet, to be alive is to experience all of life, and to embrace it all. When we can embrace and appreciate each of the seventy-eight tarot cards, we are more prepared for the unavoidable misfortunes of life. When we understand the lessons of all seventy-eight tarot cards, we more easily understand the difficult lessons of life. Tarot, as a reflection of life, prepares us for everything we might encounter in life. When we encounter each tarot card without resistance or judgment we become able to encounter each live experience the same way.

A Sneak Peek of Tarot of the Divine Masculine

A Sneak Peek of Tarot of the Divine Masculine

Tarot of the Divine Masculine, by Vasich and Vasich, is a new indie deck that will begin funding on Kickstarter on October 1, 2019. Marko Vasich asked me to take a look at a few of the cards in advance of the Kickstarter rollout.

One of my favorite things about being a tarot pro is this privilege. It’s so exciting to get in on the early stages of a creative project, and to be able to communicate with the talented and thoughtful artists.

I was impressed with the lovely packaging of the cards they sent to me. From that I can tell that the artists will spare nothing in the quality and presentation of this new tarot.

The theme of the deck is specific, and, because of the theme, not every tarot reader will feel called to work with it. Yet, the fact is, there are a lot of queer tarotists, just as there are a lot of queer artists. This is why it is such a shame that there are so few decks available that specifically honor this community.

One would not have to be gay, or male, to read with this deck. Yet, it is definitely a deck that celebrates men, and not in a Village People way. These men are pictured in nature, not in nightclubs. There is a fair amount of male nudity in the deck, but it feels naturist, rather than sexual. It’s important to remember that the deck artists are from Germany and Serbia, where the human body is not so often viewed in a shameful way. There is subtle Pagan imagery peppered through the deck,

I remember, years ago, speaking with a group of Dianic witches, discussing that men needed to discover their spiritual mysteries. I think Tarot of the Divine Masculine would be a good tool to help with that journey, for men of any orientation.

Six of Swords image from Tarot of the Divine Masculine by Vasich and Vasich, used with permission.

The art in this deck is splendid, detailed, and realistic. The cardbacks are reversable. The cardstock is of quality and has a pleasant finish that I can only describe as slippery matte. The card edges are black.

In a deck of men, some card names must be changed. The High Priestess has become Intuition, and the Empress has become The Provider. My favorite of the card samples I received was the Six of Wands, a fierce Celtic warrior clad in a kilt.

This deck follows the Smith-Waite tradition to the point that the cards will make sense to anyone who reads with a Waite deck. The suit of Pentacles is called the suit of Diamonds, yet seems traditional in its expressions of earthly matters.

While most of the cards aren’t overtly sexual, the Four of Cups isn’t for the faint of heart. We see a woman engaged with two men, while a second woman appears disinterested. It’s important to note that none of the deck images seem pornographic. The art style is gentle and sensuous, rather than cheap and tawdry.

Tarot of the Divine Masculine is not for everyone. That means that the people who resonate with this deck need to get behind it. Let’s make sure that this beautiful offering becomes available to those who will find wisdom in it and use it to find wisdom within themselves.

Big Love for Tiny Tarot

Big Love for Tiny Tarot

There are plenty of novelty tarot decks that we don’t think of as actually being created for, or appropriate for, conducting serious tarot readings.

My very first tarot deck was a novelty deck. I got “World’s Smallest Tarot Deck” for five dollars from Herman Slater’s Magickal Childe shop in New York City. It was a miniature Waite Rider. I bought it because I felt called to learn tarot but still felt very skeptical about card reading. I simply wasn’t convinced I should invest real money in a proper deck. How silly that seems now!

I soon discovered I couldn’t learn tarot with a miniature deck. I ponied up the money for the standard-sized Rider Waite in the familiar yellow box. This became the first deck I read with professionally eight years later.

I kept the miniature tarot. In fact, I still have it. I used it for tarot magick with good success.

Over the years people have given me novelty tarot sets, many of the miniature. I love to display them in my office and my home.

When preparing to evacuate my home for Hurricane Dorian I snatched Tiny Tarot off the shelf by the door and stuck it in my purse. I was thinking about remedies for boredom during the hurricane and thought that it couldn’t hurt to have a miniature tarot in a little plastic box.

Once I got to the family home further from the flood zone, I had some time on my hands, and started playing with Tiny Tarot for the first time.

I bet you have seen this deck, even if you don’t own one. It is a full Universal Waite in a plastic box with a keychain, measuring all of 1.2” by 1”. It’s published by U.S. Games, Inc.

Tiny Tarot Cards - KeyChain by US Games by US Games

USGAMES

Here’s what I discovered while playing with Tiny Tarot.

If you really know the card images well, the small cards read every bit as well as normal-sized cards.

You can put the cards in a pouch and reach in and grab the number of cards you want in one hand.

Because you can pull from a pouch you never need to shuffle.

There is something powerful about holding an eleven-card Celtic Cross in your closed fist.

An entire spread fits on a very small surface.

When you come to my office for a reading, I promise I won’t read for you with my Tiny Tarot; I will use normal-sized cards, of course. I also still believe it is very hard to learn tarot with a doll-sized deck.

Yet, doing readings with Tiny Tarot gave this seasoned pro a new perspective on those familiar Universal Waite cards. And new perspective is what tarot is all about, isn’t it?

How to Read for Keyword Questions

How to Read for Keyword Questions

“‘Love life’ is not a question!” A fellow reader shared this thought in frustration after working a lengthy gig where she had to quickly read a long line of impatiently waiting people.

I understand the frustration. When doing short readings, a clear question is much easier to work with.

Yet, when we have some time to spend with a client, I enjoy the keyword questions because they allow us to expand into many different questions.

Here’s how it works. If a person simply says that their question is ‘love life,’ we can expand that into the following questions.

What has been the energy or experience of love in the past?

What relationship modeling was provided in childhood?

What is the current relationship situation?

What can be done to improve or nurture the current situation?

Here’s another example. If the keyword question is ‘career’ you have no idea whether the person is unemployed, happily employed or unhappily employed. You have no idea if they are doing what they want to be doing, or if they have a dream they have yet to fulfill.

It can be an interesting exercise to simply ask a question such as, ‘What is the energy around career at the moment?’ and pull a few cards. Share the energies you see in the cards and see how it fits with the client’s situation, and the way the client perceives their situation. Then you can ask further questions to help the client set goals for next steps and understand what could be possible for the future.

In readings that need to be short, keyword questions are the bane of readers everywhere. When you have some time to explore, keyword questions allow the reader to develop the narrative by asking multiple questions in a way that can be extremely helpful and enlightening.

Is This the One? The Truth about Relationships, Tarot and Predictions

Is This the One?

The Truth about Relationships, Tarot and Predictions

It’s more than a stereotype. It’s a reality. Tarot readers from beginner to pro find themselves reading about love relationships; their own, their friends and their clients. This goes beyond tarot to include all methods of divination and psychic work. We employ many tools and techniques to help people understand each other, foresee when the right person might arrive, when a relationship isn’t worth trying to save, and when a person is actually ‘the one.’

I’ll speak from the perspective of tarot here, since that is the tool I prefer. However, what I am going to say applies to all attempts to predict the outcome of a new love relationship.

Also, truths about relationships apply whether the relationship is comprised of cisgender or transgender folks, or whether the relationship is same sex or opposite sex, or a couple or a polyamorous pod.

It is absolutely true that tarot, in the hands of a good reader, is an amazing tool to give us insight into our relationships. A good ‘couples reading’, while not therapy, can increase understanding and communication, and can offer new ways to grow as a partnership.

A tarot reading can help us navigate dating by taking unlikely fits off the table early, and by potentially predicting the timing of more interesting possibilities. A tarot reading can help us figure out what we want in a relationship and assess our readiness for love. A tarot reading can help us understand our feelings and give us an opportunity to figure out strategy in handling difficult situations. A tarot reading can help us heal from heartbreak, learn from our mistakes and look forward to the next adventure in love.

In all these ways, tarot has rightly earned its reputation as the panacea of the heartbroken and hopeful. In my book, Tarot Tour Guide, there is a whole section dedicated to using tarot to read for romantic relationships. However, after twenty-five years of fulltime professional reading, I have come to the conclusion that there is one question we just cannot answer with tarot, nor with any other psychic or predictive tool or method.

That question is, when asked at the beginning of a relationship, ‘Is this the one?’ That question can be phrased a lot of different ways, such as, ‘Will this definitely work out in the long run?’

When we speak of ‘the one,’ we are speaking of the one we want to marry, or the one we have been waiting for, or the one with whom we can share life in the long run. A complication to this is the number of people who absolutely believe that there is one particular person for whom they are destined, and whom they are destined for. This belief may cause someone to ask, ‘Is this my soulmate?’

While a spiritual connection or past life connection may appear in the cards, there would be no way to ascertain if there is a good long-term future with someone, even if that person appears to be a soul connection.

A great relationship, even in the beginning, does feel like destiny. It is possible there is spiritual intervention, or a sense of spiritual rightness, that makes a great relationship opportunity happen. It is also possible that we meet the same souls from lifetime to lifetime, causing us to feel a sense of connection, karma or destiny with a particular person, whether that turns out for good or for bad. Yet, the idea that in all of the seven billion people in the world there is only one that you can love, live with and make a life with doesn’t make mathematical sense.

The idea that our partnerships are ordained by a higher power and all we have to do is find the right one and the rest will be simple abdicates our personal power and responsibility in a way that feels unhealthy and unrealistic. There are times in life that we absolutely must trust a force great than our own. Our choices in relationships are very often times for us to be proactive rather than surrendered.

When people have a clear connection, attraction and desire to be together, and neither of those people are obviously seriously emotionally unhealthy or personality disordered, there is always a chance that they can build a life-long relationship.

Tarot can help people with strategies on how to do that in the healthiest, easiest way, and can point out the possible pitfalls along the way.

In the beginning, any relationship may feel like destiny, or seem spiritually ordained. Yet, love at first sight is only a good story when told many years later. That new relationship energy is powerful and causes us to feel things that may not stand the test of time.

Relationships develop over time. How they develop depend on the choices the individuals make every day. The possibilities are astronomical, and therefore, unpredictable.

I have seen love make crazy people sane. I have seen love develop in the most unlikely times and places, and between the most unlikely people. I have seen very well-matched couples lose their connection unexpectedly as priorities shift and communication breaks down.

If you and your tarot cards are faced with a question about the advisability of a relationship, or the long-term prognosis of a new relationship, you can get helpful information without trying to predict the unpredictable. More importantly, you can refrain from giving information that might cause a person to stay in an unhealthy relationship longer than they should, or that might cause someone to walk away from something with actual potential. Instead, you can give helpful information about navigating the emotions, personalities, and possibilities at hand.

The best method I have found for this is to either create a custom spread, or to ask a series of questions and pull a card or two in answer to each question.

Whether using a spread or a dialogue method, the type of questions would be the same.

When reading about the future of an exciting new relationship, here are some examples of the questions that will yield the most helpful information.

Who is this person?

(It’s good to pull a few cards for this question. Look for personality traits, issues and concerns in the cards you pull).

How does this person feel about the relationship?

What does this person hope for from this relationship?

(I know some people have an ethical issue about divining other people’s feelings. My take is that we are constantly speculating about what other people are thinking and feeling. Speculating with tarot at least gives us a basis that can keep us grounded and healthy in our thinking.)

What is the potential for compatibility between these people?

What personality flaws/quirks does this person have that could make a relationship difficult?
(With this sort of question, it is good to do a card or cards for each person in the relationship.)

What is the worst-case scenario that could arise from this relationship?

What is the best-case scenario that could arise from this relationship?

What can be done to mitigate likely problems in the relationship?

What can be done to foster the best aspects of this relationship?

Spiritually, why is this person in your life? Why are you in this person’s life?

What is the reason for, or the source of, the strong connection we are feeling?

Generally, if we are asking if a new lover is ‘the one’ it’s because we don’t want to waste time on someone who isn’t. Perhaps we have been hurt in the past and want to avoid pain. Yet, even the best relationships can lead to heartbreak, and even the worst relationships sometimes bring us to where we need to be.

Tarot can often tell you if someone isn’t the one. The only thing that can tell you if someone is the one is the passage of time.

The Energetic Care of a New Tarot Deck

Many readers feel the preparation of a new deck is a very important part of a professional reading. Preparing your deck insures the energies of printing and manufacturing are erased, and replaced by the energies of your own personal space.

Part One: How I Care for Decks Waiting for Adoption

Tarot decks aren’t alive. They are cardboard and ink. Yet, in the hands of a tarot reader, tarot cards seem to come alive to speak truth, bring healing and give direction. There are many reasons this happens. Part of the reason is that tarot works with sacred archetypes. Beyond that, in the five centuries that tarot has existed, each tarot reader, artist and student has added their energy to the body of tarot. Another reason is the power of creativity, and the intentions of the artists who create each deck. Yet another reason is the energy we use to care for our decks.

Unless you designed your deck yourself or purchased an indie custom deck, your tarot deck was made in a factory, and is one of thousands. Yet, when your deck become your own it takes on a specific energy and becomes something unique and one-of-a-kind. We call this ‘bonding’, or ‘connecting’ with your deck, or ‘seasoning’ your deck.

My goal in curating and selling tarot decks is twofold. First, I want to make my all-time favorite tarot decks available to you, incuding beloved classics and exciting brand-new offerings. In this goal, I am especially interested in provided good beginner decks, and decks that are particularly good ‘workhorses’; that is, decks appropriate for readings of all types.

Second, I want to treat the decks I keep in stock as I treat my own new decks. While these decks are waiting for adoption, I will not only keep them safe, I will begin the energy work that will help to ensure your excellent connection with your new deck.

When each deck arrives from the factory, I do three important steps. First, I smudge the deck with sage or palo santo to remove any random energy it may have picked up from production, packing or shipping. Next, I give it a pre-dedication ceremony (see words below). Then, I cleanse it with a selenite wand to make sure it is ready to absorb your energy and bond with you when you receive it. Finally, I bless it with a special wand, giving it my intention for your success with your new deck.

Part Two: How to Dedicate Your Deck

Christiana prepares a deck with sage

Everyone has their own traditions and preferences. These directions include traditional methods. Feel free to adjust your dedication to your specific need and beliefs.

When you receive your deck, think about how you want to use it. Is this deck for personal use, study, professional use, or all three? What do you hope to achieve with this deck? Take a moment and write a dedication for your deck (see sample below).

Once that is accomplished, I suggest that you create sacred space through prayer, or playing music, or by lighting candles or incense. You can invoke elements, angels, saints or ancestors. Call in your energies and entities ask them to attend your deck dedication. Or, you may prefer to simply quiet your mind and address your Higher Self.

If you like, smudge your deck with sage, palo santo or your favorite incense. You may smudge the whole pack at once, or you may take the time to run each card through the smoke.

Once that is complete, read your dedication aloud.

Then, it is time to ‘mark your deck’. This is a time-honored and traditional way to make your new deck your own.

To mark your deck, take a pencil and draw a thin line down its side. When you shuffle the deck, the line will disappear, but the energy will remain.

As you draw the line, send your energy into the deck, making it yours.

Next, mark your deck with your breath by blowing on it.

Finally, mark your deck with your chakras by holding the deck to your heart, your throat and your third eye.

If any of those steps feels unappealing to you, simply skip it. As long as you mark your deck with at least one of these techniques you have created the traditional energetic bond.

You are now ready to begin your study and practice with your new deck.

Remember that every time you shuffle your cards, every time you rap your cards on the table, and every time you place your cards in order, you are energetically cleansing your deck, and returning its energy to this original state of connection.

My Pre-Dedication

“I cleanse this sacred tool of its mundane origins and focus on the creative and spiritual energy by which it was created. I hold space for this tool that the person who will most benefit from its wisdom will make it their own. In creating a relationship with this deck, may that individual be given wisdom, knowledge, peace and healing.”

A Sample Deck Dedication

“I dedicate this deck to my use. I dedicate myself to the study of tarot, and the wisdom that I may gain. From this deck may I learn about matters both spiritual and mundane. With this deck may I receive guidance for my highest good, and for the highest good of those around me. With this deck may I serve to guide, help and heal others who seek me out for readings.”

Don’t Fear Your Cards!

Don’t Fear Your Cards!

Over the past year, I have seen an alarming increase of fear-mongering about tarot. Sure, some of this has come from the usual suspects; religious fanatics who are sure that evil forces will enter us through our decks. That doesn’t bother me at all – I’m used to fear-mongering from ill-informed and misguided folks.

What bothers me is fear coming from tarotists themselves and being presented as fact to new tarotists. I see this in posts on social media and videos on YouTube. I don’t see it as much on tarot blogs, perhaps because readers who are dedicated enough to keep written blogs are also experienced enough to know better.

There are two types of fear-baiting that I am consistently seeing. One is fear of particular cards, usually cards like Death, The Devil, The Three of Swords and the Ten of Swords. This shows a simple lack of knowledge and technique that is easily remedied with study and practice.

The second and more egregious is a fear regarding the idea that the use of tarot is somehow unsafe if we don’t use specific energy-clearing techniques with our cards.

For example, our cards will somehow hurt us, or not work correctly, if we don’t smudge them with sage or store them with specific crystals.

There is nothing wrong with having meaningful rituals with our cards that include smudging, crystals, Reiki or other tools. There is nothing wrong with innovating or teaching these techniques. Yet, to suggest that there are specific techniques that must be used lest our cards become unsafe is straight-up misinformation.

When reading for others, good psychic hygiene is imperative. There are many ways to practice psychic hygiene, and none of those ways need to include particular tools. While many of us use tools such as stones, feathers, candles and incense, the only practice required to achieve good psychic hygiene involves meditation, breathing and affirmation.

Further, should one not practice good psychic hygiene, the worst thing that is likely to happen to them is that they might become tired, not feel like reading for their clients, or get a headache. There is no serious danger to the reader, the client, or the cards.

I have, over the course of my career, seen in clients a few rare cases of a spiritual attachment that caused a great deal of psychological harm over time. None of these cases were caused by reading tarot, or by performing any other type of psychic work.

I have also, from time to time, felt that a particular deck of cards had acquired a certain unpleasant psychic schmutz that needed to be removed. Yes, smudging and crystals could be part of that removal process, but so could a good shuffle, accompanied by a satisfying bang of the deck on the table. Never was I (nor my cards nor my clients) in danger from that schmutz.

We all have different theories about our cards and the reasons they work so effectively. That’s all well and good. Yet, when we start propagating false information that frightens and misleads newer tarotists we are doing our growing community a huge disservice.

When we, ourselves, harbor fear around our precious tools, we are doing ourselves a disservice.

Superstition Doesn’t Mix Well with Tarot

Superstition Doesn’t Mix Well with Tarot

The more superstitious we are, the less spiritual we are.

I am not a superstitious person, though I have fun with the traditions of some superstitions. I will throw salt over my left shoulder if I spill it, and I announce that a man is coming to dinner if I drop a knife. Yet, I don’t worry about bad luck should I forget to throw the salt. Nor do I set an extra place for a stranger at dinner.

Some people think it is strange that I am a full-time professional tarot reader and not superstitious. To me, it makes perfect sense. Tarot is a proven tool, when used appropriately. Superstitions, when taken seriously, seems to be borne of fear and idiocy, and seem to increase and create both.

Superstitious people who use tarot rarely gain the many benefits tarot has to offer because they are too busy ascribing supernatural attributes to cardboard rather than using the cards to find the magic within themselves.

This is a difficult distinction for a couple of reasons. Tarot does seem to operate magically. The cards can speak truth in uncanny ways. The tarot images feel sacred to us. It is both easy and appropriate to revere tarot as one might revere a sacred text like the Bible.

I believe that tarot works well because it works with the third eye, or brow chakra, by stimulating our eyesight when we see the cards, and then stimulating our imagination and intuition. Vision, imagination and intuition are all seated in the brow chakra. These things work together to help us create a tarot reading.

No one really knows for sure why random token divination of any kind works as well as it does. People have ascribed all kinds of theories to it, understandably. The Golden Dawn felt that the angel Hru presides over tarot. Many of us feel that spirits speak to us through tarot. Still others feel that the power that makes the tarot work resides within the cards themselves. There is nothing wrong with any of those theories, until we start to use those theories to absolve ourselves of our own responsibilities as diviners.

When we start to feel that we are getting bad readings because our decks are angry at us, we step into superstition and step away from real spiritual practice. When we blame a deck for a faulty reading rather than looking at our own mistakes in interpretation, we are as bad as any fundamentalist in any religion. When we use the practice of a “deck interview” to decide how we will work with a deck rather than deciding to learn the deck and try actual readings with it we are artificially limiting the deck and ourselves.

When we are receiving cards that don’t make sense, it is our job to study until they do make sense. When we blame those nonsensical cards on the deck itself, we have lost the opportunity to learn and grow, as tarotists and as people.

Whatever rituals we use to honor our deck and keep it holy, we are remiss if those rituals don’t include our own study, our own psychic development and our own meditation.

When we rely on our superstitions about tarot to provide the parameters of our tarot practice, our tarot practice will always be limited by those superstitions, and by the lack of scholarship they allow us.