Reading cards & other novelties

In My Humble Opinion
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Calling all Tarot readers!

When do you cleanse your cards & how?

When doing a reading do you know what the question(s) at hand are or what the situation is (when for another person)?

How did you become interested in tarot readings and how successful of a reader are you?

For those of you who are skeptics, keep any and all snarky comments to yourselfs or start your own thread, please.
As for me - a childhood friend of mine owned an antique set of tarot cards. Her parents (mostly her Mom) collected antiques and I’m guessing they were given to my friend for whatever reason - she wasnt interested in anything of the sorts. I, however, wanted them really bad BUT I was also scared of them. Being raised a Catholic, and being the age of apx 10yrs old, I wouldnt know what to do with them if I had them & in a way I was scared of them because of what I was taught (which was anything occult/paranormal, etc was the work of the devil). To this day, I will not touch a ouija board.

Through the years I only took a curious approach to the subjects of astrology, dream interpretation, norse runes, ghosthunting, and just about anything considered “New Age”. As a matter of fact, I used to be able to see colours when people spoke (and if not in person I would close my eyes and see the colours) which is somewhat like those who can see aurus. Unfortunately, as I get older, I have to put in a lot of effort to do this so i dont usually bother with it.

When I met my bff, I learned to embrace my curious & unorthodox side and run with it. My bff taught me a lot about astrology and tarot and introduced me to palm reading. If I was to personally rank my abilities, palm reading would register as my strongest… but palm reading is, imo, much much different and I cant figure out how people can “see” the future (if they can). IMO, I can only see the past with a bit of a timeline of 2-3yrs give or take. In most cases, I was within 2yrs of the incident - my speciality was reading the relationship line. I stopped when I started getting flashes/visions of things that happened and frankly, it scared the shyte outta me - and I cant really explain what I saw, the closest can get is what I felt.

Second, I would go with card reading. I just did one last night for a friend that lives up North. We were coworkers and for fun I read her palm one day, then did a reading for practice on her later on. She was a

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sorry 'bout that - locked up my keyboard when i hit a combo of keys with my left hand…

Anyways, she was a skeptic until I started doing readings for her as a practice for myself. I tried different techniques and I’ve decided the one that works best for me is to not know what the situation is, have the person write down the issue with great detail and thought and their specific question and then sleep with it under their pillow until I get the itch to read. I pull 3 cards and email them with what I pulled & explanation. Every one that I have done this way has been dead on in relation to their issue, or so I am told. Some even say that the cards are generic and can be molded to refer to any situation… but last night, even I got goosebumps when I did my friends reading. I did a “live” one this time and knew of the situation in question - just not in extreme detail. What gave me goosebumps is when she asked me a specific 2 questions after the 3 card pull. The followup card - not really a big deal - dead on to the subject at hand which brought the second question. When I pulled that card, the response was negative (the question was a “what happens if I let my fears get the best of me?”). All the other cards pulled reflected challenging but positive aspects, the last card to answer a question directed at fear was in itself, negative. Goosebumps. So much so my friend broke down and cried.

Coincidence? maybe… mathmatically, I don’t know what the specs would be.

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I “cleanse” a deck I intend to use for reading purposes when I first purchase them.

It is highly unlikely that I would use a deck previously owned by someone else for such purposes.

Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

I’m a NeoPagan and tarot is part of our history and such traditions as such a disorganized religion can be said to have.

Success? I dunno - I read more for insight than prediction, really, and the entertainment value. I can’t say I’ve kept any sort of track of any “results”. Admittedly, I am not the most dedicated or skillful of readers.

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I am a skeptic, and a cynic. I’m also very good at Tarot reading. 99% of my skill is simply that – I’m skillful at reading peoples reactions.

Being a cynical athiest skeptic, I don’t purify my cards anymore. When I was a practicing pagan, I did the basic salt & candle Purification 101 ritual. Now I just keep my good deck wrapped in blue silk. I’m sure one of the practicing pagans can give you instructions, or at least direct you to a source for those intructions. My memory on decent books is failing – sorry.

The other 1%, well, I’ll just chalk those up to coincidence, but I will no longer do a reading for anyone who thinks their SOs vasectomy worked.

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What does that mean? “Cleanse” a deck? Are we talking literally or figuratively speaking?

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ok - I HAVE to ask… wtf?

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Standard “what’s in my future” reading for curious acquaintences. Fertility type cards came up in every position. While there are several ways to intepret every card, trends can be recognized. When *every * freaking card has “Pregnant” in the list of the possible meanings, I ask “are you trying for a new baby? Prospects look good!”

When the response is “God No! <I/my hubby> had a vasectomy last summer/winter!” I have learned to start babbling about the importance of follow-up testing to verify and using a condom until then, and so on. I have never had any other answer in that circumstance, but I hope I’d say something about the importance of reliable BC every time, or something about hope, alternatives, and the pain of infertility. I can’t predict any other pregnancy, but unplanned post-vasectomy kids are all over my radar.

I’ve had the vasectomy answer nine times in 27 years. The kids names are John, Noah, Megan, Amber, Michael, April, Kaylie, Malika and not announced until July. :smack:
It might be just that I know these people well enough to anticipate them acting like rabbits as soon as his swelling goes down. Who knows for sure, but it does seems a little odd that I am 9 for 9 in predicting pregnancy in that particular circumstance.

(All read by my “good” deck, Rider-Waite, given to me by a friend who got Jesus just long enough to give away all his “evil” possessions. My other decks are antiques or modern bought for the artwork or unusualness of the designs)

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Figuratively/spiritually. Removing all other/prior influences (“vibes”) from the cards.

Most of the modern ones are plastic coated paper, so I suppose you* could* literally and physically clean them if you were careful. I wipe my antiques with a barely damp cloth, but I doubt that actually removes anything but dust.

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I’m hesitant on doing this simply because I feel as though the cards are absorbing my energy and becoming a part of me and they seem to be more accurate.

My fav deck is Brian Froud’s “The Oracle”. I’ve tried others but these just seem to talk to me the best.

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What I’ve heard is that you normally do the cleansing only once, before you start using them for divination or other such purposes. It’s not something you repeat, normally.

There’s also the “do you or don’t you let other people touch your cards” debate, but unless folks are REALLY interested I don’t feel like wading into the 1001 variations on cleanings, touching/not touching, use, etc. of tarot cards and their cousins.

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When do you cleanse your cards & how?

Two shuffles / Three cuts before each reading to ‘reset’ for each reading. I minor meditation before each reading to center myself and focus. I’ll do a more elaborate lesser banishing ritual of the pentagram for a more serious reading. I’ve been using the same deck for seventeen years, and I’ve never felt the need to cleanse it.
When doing a reading do you know what the question(s) at hand are or what the situation is (when for another person)?

Depends. I read mostly for myself, and I use different spreads for different situations. For personal readings, I’ll use a celtic cross, If considering two different courses of action, I’ll use the Golden Dawn 15 card Left/Right path spread. I also use a five card pentacle spread that’s good for general situations.

How did you become interested in tarot readings and how successful of a reader are you?

Interesting story there. Let’s just say if you meet a gal with three kids, who says she’s a renegade gypsy priestess, and she needs to get married, so she can have an official ID to get on welfare, you get everything you deserve…

I’m successful enough to suit me.