7 easy ways to clear and clean tarot cards for reading

You may have heard various accounts of how to acquire and maintain a tarot deck. I remember hearing these stories before I owned my first deck.

You can only use the cards if you were given a deck was an instruction. You must perform a ritual to drain your deck of energies and make it your own.

While I would never downplay the wisdom of different cultures and their beliefs about the best ways to preserve and maintain their divination tools, there are some standard beliefs when it comes to maintaining your tarot deck and cleansing tarot cards.

So let’s talk about how to clean tarot cards and take care of your tarot deck. Note that you can use these cleaning methods for Oracle and Angel decks as well.

How to clean tarot cards against erasing your deck

Depending on the particular culture or belief system, cleaning and clearing your tarot deck can mean a variety of things.

Some say that “clearing” the cards means you intentionally neutralize them, e.g. B. Rebooting your computer to restore it to factory settings and deleting any personalized files stored on it.

The “cleansing” of tarot cards can mean something else. This can mean not only neutralizing your cards, but also energetically removing any energies that may be negative, distracting, or heavy.

The distinction is minor, and some people use the terms interchangeably. For me, clearing the cards is about neutralizing the energy from the past.

Clearing tarot cards means actually taking extra action to really clear the energy. This is more of a thorough cleaning.

A third step is called “loading”. Once the cards have been neutralized and then cleaned on a deeper level, you can imbue the cards with a certain positive energy. This is known as “charging” the cards. Other conditions for charging can be blessings.

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Want to know exactly when your moon phase is and learn more about your moon sign? Check out this free moon reading I love doing by clicking the image below:

The full moon can also be used to charge your cards. To do this, you must wrap them in a secure cloth bag and sleep under your pillow for three nights, starting with the next full moon.

3. Crystals

You can also place your deck on or between crystals that drain negative energies to cleanse and recharge your tarot cards. This is actually one of my favorite methods as it’s easy and I love working with crystals.

How? Simply place clear quartz on top of your tarot deck when not in use. As simple as that!

If you want to work with crystals other than clear quartz, I would recommend using amethyst or selenite. They also have cleansing properties. Your birthstone can also be a powerful tool.

4. Salt Burial

Some readers use salt as a cleaning agent. If you want to try this method of cleaning tarot cards, first wrap your card tightly in a plastic bag. Then grab an airtight container of salt big enough for your cards.

Now place your cards in the container, making sure they are coated with salt on all sides (yes, even on top). Leave the cards in the container for at least a few days.

I personally don’t dare use this method on my favorite decks because of the risk of damaging your cards. Especially if your container isn’t airtight, as the salt can absorb moisture from the air. But I know many readers who take this risk 🙂

5. Incense or joss sticks

When using tools, you can also use cleansing herbs like dried sage palo santo

a local herb or a simple incense stick that achieves the same goal.

As you burn the herb, you can run your deck through the smoke to purify it and cleanse it of past energies.

You can also fan out the cards on a table and pass a smudge stick/palo santo/sage over them. Then stack the cards and place the joss sticks or incense above and below.

You can also charge your deck using the smudge method.

6. Singing bowls

Did you know that you can also use a Singing Bowl to clear and clean tarot cards?

These healing pools have helped me awaken my feelings Check, strengthen my chakras and even improve my physical health. However, I also use them to clean tarot cards by placing my deck in the singing bowl while playing.

7. Visualization and Meditation

Without tools, cleaning and clearing your tarot cards can be as simple as a prayer or visualization to clear past energy connection to the cards.

This is like repainting a house when you buy it. Someone else owned it before, they painted it how they wanted it, but now it’s your house, so put your personal mark on it.

By repainting the spaces, you explain, “This is my space now and I need to separate it from the past and connect it to the present.

Clearing the cards is no different. You can imagine a white light around the cards while holding them with both hands. You can meditate on them and envision a giant eraser erasing all the energies attached to the cards.

Next you can imagine or visualize going deeper into the energy of the deck and removing imperfect, dense, heavy or negative energies. You can think of this as a thorough scrubbing or deep cleaning.

You don’t have to physically clean your cards. This is probably not a good idea. However, visualizing the process helps clear the cards of any previous energies or previous readings.

Finally, when your cards are cleansed, you can recharge them by holding them in both hands again and infusing new, clean, wise, compassionate, and spiritual energy into the cards. For example, you can imagine this energy coming directly from the divine source.

You can also charge your cards by saying a prayer or incantation over them. Anything you do to infuse the cards with your higher energy or higher vibrational energy, whether it be with crystals, herbs, or even with peaceful or spiritual music, will help align their energy with your intention.

Why cleaning your tarot cards is important

Do tarot cards work if they are not cleaned, erased and recharged? Of course. I believe they will. Ultimately, you interpret archetypes and can still read maps, even if the subtle energies are not preserved.

But in time it is necessary to clear the energies and charge your cards exactly as you need to clear them and charge your computer, your phone or anything else.

Think of it this way, if you had a beautiful painting hanging on your wall and it was collecting dust year after year, your ability to see and appreciate it is changed. Even if this change is minor, it’s still not so clear when it was new and fresh.