New Deck

[moon]

A brand new Tarot deck is on its way to me, and I would like some advice on how to properly care for it. I intend to do some basic cleansing, and I have laid aside a small cloth bag to keep them safe. What other steps might I wish to take? Perhaps some sort of dedication ritual is in order to make sure there is a connection between my new deck and me. What do you do when you have a deck?

[Lothfavnir]

I follow three rules: Keep in a box, bag or porch. And never allow anybody else to touch them. A third rule is to be very careful with who sees my cards and in what situation.

[Keeper]

Lothfavnir is quite correct.

Do not allow others to handle the tools you will work with, even in divination for another. This is something I have done in the past, and have found myself feeling a severed or damaged connection between myself and the deck I had cherished. It took time to find myself and the deck again in focus, with a bit of assistance from the matron deity with whom I operated at the time. I simply took it upon myself to make an offering unto her to invite her presence in a series of divinatory rituals, and asked for her communication through myself and the tools I had again designated for use by myself alone.

It's difficult to explain what to do to center oneself with one's tools, as it works differently from soul to soul. For me, simply offering myself as well as the cards as a mouthpiece for my matron in divination helped me to feel a powerful connection to my deck. I would not recommend doing this, of course - I was in a rather adventurous period, offering my word and deed as mouthpiece and hand, but that's just sort of an explanation of what I decided to do.

Again, it's different per the individual.

But don't let others handle it. Keep it on your person for a while, in a specially designated pouch, for example, or box. Try focusing yourself upon the deck in a sort of meditative state. Have you ever heard of Liber Null? Peter J. Carroll's Chaos Magic approach to utilizing sigils may be applicable to connecting with your deck.

Then again, that's just the bias of a chaote. Best of luck.

[Branwen]

Mrs. Peel is right. I have a deck for readings and one for my personal use. Nothing bad will happen if someone touches your cards that's new age propaganda.

[Keeper]

I wouldn't really regard it as "propaganda," per se. I wouldn't really consider it "new age" at that. If anything, it's a possessive, private sort of mentality around fetishism (in the traditional definition of the word, not the arguably more fun one) of the tools one uses in divination.

Different strokes for different folks, and all of that goodness.

Take what we say with a grain of salt, here, for perhaps nothing is true and everything is permitted.

Edit: I just wanted to note that I don't think the implication was that something bad would happen if others handled your divinatory tools, only that it might be most beneficial to maintain that exclusivity. It's not as though when I passed my deck from hand to hand I felt a chill wind or came down with a case of shingles. It just made my connection to my cards feel a little empty. Personal opinion, I suppose.

[Branwen]

New age is just that new age. It is not that old and has nothing to do with the occult or anything that is ancient. It has turned into a joke, these phony people who have taken the true ancient teachings and destroyed what was once wise and good.

[Keeper]

I suppose, but again, nothing mentioned in the "personal-contact-only" points made here refers at all to either "New Age" spirituality nor reconstructionist "neopagan" theology.

Just a little personal stance on fetishism regarding what can at best be considered a personal tool.

[Keeper]

Regardless of all of this, I feel like we're getting rather off-topic from what moon asked for.

I believe the question was about establishing a personal connection to the tarot deck being obtained. Do we/does anyone have any further input on that point?

The best advice I can give, again, is to focus on the deck itself in a period of meditation. I always did so in a ritual setting after requesting, as I noted, the deity or entity who I petitioned in a divinatory question.

[Astral Eye]

Agreed Mrs Peel. I myself started of there, and now am here. While I still practice wicca as a religion, I don't limit my magick by it.

Oh, and on touching cards, nothing more than tradition stops others handling them, but try to avoid letting thoes with an unclean phsyce and/or extreme negative energy touch and tool you own. I won't let anyone touch my athame for personal reasons.

[moon]

I must say, whether or not to allow others to touch my cards was not something I had even considered. I really can't imagine telling someone not to touch them, especially if I was performing a reading for them. Then again, I've noticed people don't tend to reach for them unless invited to do so. In the past I have asked people to hold the card that will serve as their significator for a few moments. I find it draws them into the experience.


try to avoid letting thoes with an unclean phsyce and/or extreme negative energy touch and tool you own. I think this is excellent advice.

[Belasko]

What are we in kinder garden? IT doesn't fucking matter who touches your ****, just banish and cleanse it for Christ sake. There's not one person on this world that's pure not even the fucking air you breathe. "Oh look at me don't touch my Athame or my cards." Fucking grow up.

[Darius]

Lothfavnir is quite correct.

Do not allow others to handle the tools you will work with, even in divination for another. This is something I have done in the past, and have found myself feeling a severed or damaged connection between myself and the deck I had cherished. It took time to find myself and the deck again in focus, with a bit of assistance from the matron deity with whom I operated at the time. I simply took it upon myself to make an offering unto her to invite her presence in a series of divinatory rituals, and asked for her communication through myself and the tools I had again designated for use by myself alone.

It's difficult to explain what to do to center oneself with one's tools, as it works differently from soul to soul. For me, simply offering myself as well as the cards as a mouthpiece for my matron in divination helped me to feel a powerful connection to my deck. I would not recommend doing this, of course - I was in a rather adventurous period, offering my word and deed as mouthpiece and hand, but that's just sort of an explanation of what I decided to do.

Again, it's different per the individual.

But don't let others handle it. Keep it on your person for a while, in a specially designated pouch, for example, or box. Try focusing yourself upon the deck in a sort of meditative state. Have you ever heard of Liber Null? Peter J. Carroll's Chaos Magic approach to utilizing sigils may be applicable to connecting with your deck.

Then again, that's just the bias of a chaote. Best of luck.

Never let others touch it? Funny, my dad never had a problem with anyone touching any divination tools he used. He'd just cleanse them when he felt it was necessary. Of course, he was skilled enough that he did not truly need specific tools, he could do the same thing with a deck of playing cards if he wanted to. Why the pouch, I wonder? Seems to me that my tarot desk is safe in the original box and my runes are safe in the pouch I put them into in the first place. Just as Mrs. Peel has stated, cleansing is not difficult, and doing a reading for someone is often considered to need the questioner to shuffle the cards. In the end, I know that you will make up your own mind on this matter. I do ask however, that when you do, you do not pass along your opinion as if it was fact.

[Astral Eye]

What I meant was someone completely ott. I am unlikely to let a homacidal maniac touch my cards am I? Well except perhaps Jackal. Why should I have to cleanse them, and in the mean time, let phsycic rubbish all over them. Why spend time cleaning something when you could keep it clean in the 1st pace?

Oh, and on the subject of "grow up" wish I could by about two years.

[Keeper]

Never let others touch it? Funny, my dad never had a problem with anyone touching any divination tools he used. He'd just cleanse them when he felt it was necessary. Of course, he was skilled enough that he did not truly need specific tools, he could do the same thing with a deck of playing cards if he wanted to. Why the pouch, I wonder? Seems to me that my tarot desk is safe in the original box and my runes are safe in the pouch I put them into in the first place. Just as Mrs. Peel has stated, cleansing is not difficult, and doing a reading for someone is often considered to need the questioner to shuffle the cards. In the end, I know that you will make up your own mind on this matter. I do ask however, that when you do, you do not pass along your opinion as if it was fact.

Which is, of course, why I was very clear in stating more than once in this thread that my presented suggestions are indeed personal opinions.