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BTP134: Eight Ways to Clear and Cleanse Your Tarot Cards

8 ways to clear and cleanse your tarot cards

Eight Ways to Clear and Cleanse Your Tarot Deck

Have you ever found yourself falling out of love with your favourite Tarot deck and not really known why?  Or maybe, you picked up your Tarot deck and suddenly felt grossed out by the cards.  Perhaps you touched your deck and felt empty, a complete absence of energy.    

These aren’t great feelings, but there are ways to fix them. In episode 134 of the Biddy Tarot Podcast, I’m talking all about cleansing your Tarot deck.  I’ll share my top 8 ways to give your cards a beautiful clean energy, so they’re good as new. 

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Transcript

Brigit:You're listening to the Biddy Tarot podcast and this is episode 134. Eight ways to clear and cleanse your Tarot cards. 

Welcome to the Biddy Tarot podcast where you'll learn how to connect more deeply with your intuition and lead an empowered and enlightened life with the Tarot cards as your guide. Listen as Brigit and her guests share their very best tips and strategies to help you read Tarot with confidence. 

And now, here's your host, Brigit Esselmont. 

Hello and welcome back to the Biddy Tarot podcast where we're talking all about Tarot. Now have you ever found yourself falling out of love with your favorite Tarot deck and not really knowing why? Or, maybe you've ever picked up your Tarot deck only to feel like really grossed out by the cards or just empty or just really not getting anything from those cards. 

Now, if you can relate, I'm going to bet that your Tarot deck needs a good energy clean and that's exactly what I'm going to be talking about today. Now, first, I want to let you know that this podcast episode is brought to you by our very own Tarot card meanings keyword chart which you can now download for free at biddytarot.com/keywords. 

If you've ever struggled to remember what the cards mean and you need to give your intuition a gentle nudge in the right direction then make sure that you download this keyword chart. It includes three or four keywords for every Tarot card both in the up right and reverse positions and it really is the perfect compliment for you as you do your Tarot readings. 

Even if your memory needs a little jog, every now and then, it helps to kick your intuition into gear. 

So, make sure you download this free Tarot card meanings keyword chart at biddytarot.com/keywords and remember it is for free so go grab it now. Okay. 

Now if you love this podcast then I invite you to subscribe to iTunes so that you can get every single podcast direct to your iPhone or wherever it is that you listen to podcasts, as soon as we release the episodes.  And even better, if you can leave a review and a rating you are awesome. 

So, I have two reviews today that I really want to celebrate. These are five star reviews and, the reason I share these reviews on the podcast is because I really want to honor and celebrate those who have left the reviews and just say thank you so, I rally appreciate it. 

Now, Andy C from the U.S. says, “Thank you for being a voice in the universe, the guide while we all hike. Fun, insightful, kind, compassionate, if you're one or a hundred years into Tarot then subscribe.” Very sweet. Thank you so much. 

And this one's from Bas 108 from the U.S. also who says, “What a fun and informative podcast this is. I've had my eyes and heart opened by listening to Brigit and her guests. I've found new inspiration and great insights with all of the content. Brigit's very level headed, funny, current and I'm happy that I stumbled upon her work.” Well, thank you so much Bas 108, I really, truly appreciate your feedback as well. 

All right so remember, subscribe to iTunes and leave a rating and review. It also helps get this podcast in front of more people which means getting Tarot in front of more people and I'll tell you what, that can only be a good thing. 

All right so, lets get into today's podcast episode which is the eight ways to clear and cleanse your Tarot cards. Now, I know I just said, the eight ways, really, you can clear and cleanse your cards however you want. But I tell you what, this is a question that I get asked so many times like, how do I clean and clear my cards? What should I be doing? 

So today is about giving you a couple of different ideas to help just reconnect, really, with your deck and re-energize it and re-align that energy that you have and that connection that you have with your deck. 

Now of course, if you feel called to clear and cleanse your deck in your own very special way, you go for it, that's the idea so, treat these as ideas for you today. 

All right so, I want to just start with a bit of a story and this is what happened for me, oh gosh, it's probably about 15 years ago now and, I often talk about this experience as kind of my initiation into reading for people face-to-face and, it was an initiation by fire. So, I crazily signed myself up to read at the Melbourne Mind, Body, Spirit festival. Now this is one of the largest spiritual festivals in all of Australia like, literally tens of thousands of people flock into the city to find out more about all sorts of spirituality in mind, body, spirit. 

And they have this beautiful readers room, like literally about 60 psychic readers all lined up in these rows, like three or four long, long rows and, you do readings for pretty much three days straight, eight hours at a time like, one after the other, like half hour readings. And I thought, hey, I'm going to learn how to do this so, I signed myself up and I found myself in that psychic reader room as a reader. 

Now, as you can imagine, having not just 60 other readers around you but also having back-to-back clients, one after the other like, in an eight hour shift you're looking at probably 15 or 16 different clients in that time so, that was when energy and cleansing my cards became so important because I'd have this very intimate connection with someone in their Tarot reading and then I knew that within a minute, after they stood up and left, there was someone else coming.  And, I also had all of that crazy psychic energy that's going around in that room from all of these other readers. 

Now, in that situation, my cleansing was literally just closing my eyes, taking a big deep breath, kind of grounding myself through my feet and then giving my cards a quick shuffle and that was it. So, the reason I talk about that is because, it is, like cleansing doesn't have to be a really long and convoluted process, it can be as quick as just shuffling. 

Now, consider another situation that I was in recently where I've been gifted a deck, almost slipped there, so, I've been gifted a deck and, I loved it, I loved it when I first opened it, I loved the imagery. I started using it over and over mostly for personal readings, I used it for some client readings, really, really enjoyed it but, as time went on, I felt myself just reaching for my other decks instead of this particular deck and, getting inspired by new decks that were coming my way and just kind of forgetting this beautiful deck. 

And, I started to think, oh man, I'd really like to reconnect with this deck. So, I spent some time just going through those cards one-by-one and integrating it back into my daily Tarot cards and also just giving them a little bit of love like, every time I looked at them, I would really look at them, I wouldn't just do a quick reading, I'd kind of spend some time even just looking at the backs of the cards, the sides of the cards and just appreciating the energy and the imagery of this deck. 

And, that wasn't a great process, that took quite a few months for me to get really reconnected and re-acquainted with the deck. But, having done that, it really helped me to create that new connection so, that's a completely different way of clearing and cleansing a deck.  

So, don't think that clearing and cleansing your deck comes in only one shape or format, it could be something as quick and as simple as shuffling the cards or, it could even be a more longer process where you are re-acquainting yourself with the cards. 

So, that's what I'm going to be talking about today and, really getting into these eight different ways that you can clear and cleans your cards. 

Now you might be thinking, okay, that's great Brigit but, why do I need to clear and cleanse? So think about Tarot as this, Tarot is really energy and when we're working with Tarot we're working with energy. We're getting kind of like this feedback, we're looking at the cards, it's giving us feedback and it's stirring our own imagery, messages, intuitive feelings and so on. 

So we need to have this really nice crystal clear connection between you and the Tarot cards. If you're not feeling it, if you're picking up a deck and just going, “Uh, really don't like this deck” or, “Oh my gosh, this is so dark, I wanted to find out about opportunities and this deck is so dark” like, it will affect the way that you are reading so, Tarot is really energy and it's so important we have that clear energy between you and your Tarot deck.  That really does start by cleansing your Tarot deck and infusing it with all of your good vibes. 

So think also about energy because it comes from all different sources. It comes from you, what you put into your cards, it comes from the cards themselves, it comes from the clients you work with, it comes from people who you talk to about Tarot and that invariably comes into your Tarot readings, anyone who touches your cards, where you store your cards. Like, there are so many different factors that influence the energy of your cards and how you connect with those cards. 

So really be aware of the energetic influence on your Tarot cards and be proactive and conscious in how you choose to work with that energy. So again, you're intuitive, you wouldn't be listening to this if you weren't and, you've really got to trust your intuition when it says, “You know what, we're just not, this deck no, it's not connecting, I need something different,” right? 

Okay so, I want to also just talk, before we get into the actual techniques, I want to talk about when might you want to cleanse your Tarot cards. So quite a few different examples here. 

So, one might be a lot of Tarot readings or a lot of client use so, that example of where I was reading at Mind, Body, Spirit, I might have that 15, like 15 clients that just makes me like almost fall off my seat thinking about it but, 15 clients in a row and I know, for some of you who are quite either part time or full time Tarot readers, that's your everyday, your daily connection with Tarot is that you have so many different clients, so much different energy swirling around your deck so, when you do have a lot of client readings, that's a good time to think about cleansing and making it a regular thing. 

Now another time when you might want to cleanse your Tarot deck is when you're feeling a lack of connection or you're just sort of falling out of love with your Tarot deck. You might even be able to run your mind over the Tarot decks that you have at home and think, there's some that's like really collecting dust and that I can't just get into. I've had those and, yeah, I'm thinking about how I can find new homes for those decks because they deserve some love. I know that there's going to be some decks that I'm just not going to connect with and others that I'm not connecting with now but, if I was able to clear and cleanse that energy, maybe it would have a different relationship with that deck. 

Lets see so you, or your Tarot cards might have been exposed to a lot of negative energy. So, for example, if you've done a reading for a client and it was all about doom and gloom, maybe you've had a series of clients that are all doom and gloom, that could be a perfect time to really cleanse out your deck and bring new energy into it. 

Maybe other people have touched your cards, particularly without your permission. So you might have had some friends or family over recently and someone found their way into your bedroom or your office and just happened to pull all your cards out of your favorite deck and start looking at them. Maybe even a toddler came along with their sticky fingers, you're like, “No that's not the idea.” So that can be a perfect time to cleanse. 

Now, sometimes your Tarot readings might become confusing or unclear. That can also be a time to clear and cleanse your deck. Now, of course, if you just have one confusing reading, fine, that's probably the reading but, if you're finding that repeatedly you're just not getting a connection to the message in that reading, try clearing and cleansing your deck, you may find that you have a different result as a result of doing that. Oh dear. 

So another one might be, maybe your cards have fallen on the floor or had some kind of accident. Maybe they've tipped over in your car and you just want to get them back into their beautiful aligned energy again. Maybe you haven't used your Tarot cards for a while and you want to reconnect with those cards. Maybe you've just bought a new Tarot deck or even a pre-owned Tarot deck, remember energy comes from so many places so, particularly if you have a secondhand deck, you want to kind of clear that other person's, the previous owner's energy and you want to infuse your own energy into that deck instead. 

You might even have had like a really big transformation, a personal transformation and now you want to put new energy into your cards, a bit like a spring clean, I suppose. If you've had a soul spring clean, spring clean for your soul and you might want to have a spring clean for your Tarot cards at the same time. 

Maybe it's a full moon and you want to take advantage of the full moons energy or, you know what, it might just feel like the right time for a cleanse and so you do. So look there's so many different times when clearing and cleansing your Tarot decks are a good idea. 

All right so, let's get into these eight ways to clear and cleanse your Tarot deck and again, remember that there is no one right way. You choose the techniques that work for you and also be reminded that in some cases it may make sense to do one technique and in other cases it makes sense to do another one. Choose what fits for you. 

All right so, in number one is just simply, shuffle your cards. Like literally pick them up, shuffle them. If you read reversals, I like to turn them around like 180 degrees so you can get some new reversals in there. You might even want to do big messy pile, a much bigger shuffle than you night normally do or even sorting your cards into different piles and then putting them back together again. So, shuffling your cards is a great technique for in between readings when you don't have much time and you really just want to shake that energy out of the deck and, it's great for a quick cleanse. 

Now, at the same time of shuffling your cards, you can also close your eyes, take in a deep breath and say an affirmation like, “I release any negative energy held within this deck and, I replace it with love and light.” And you can even also knock or tap your Tarot deck. So, I know quite a few readers just simply do three little taps on their Tarot decks in between readings and it's a great way of just clearing out that energy really, really quickly. 

So that's the first option is to shuffle your cards, give them a little tap, say a bit of an affirmation at the same time. 

Okay so, let's move on to number two and that is to meditate or visualize with your cards. So, hold your cards in both hands and close your eyes and just relax then, allow your mind to be free of any thought and just be with your cards. Just be really conscious of even the weight of the cards in your hands, the feeling, the sort of edges of those cards so, be aware of that physical connection with the cards and, as you're just being with your cards, you might also get a sense of the energy from those cards. What are the cards trying to tell you? What do they need more of? What do they need less of? Where are they in this sort of energetic place right now and, what are they asking of you? 

So just be aware of your connection with the Tarot deck. Now, you might also like to take a step to visualize all of that universal energy being drawn through you and down into your cards, surrounding your cards in a protective white light. So, this is one of my personal favorites because, it is really easy to do in between readings, no-one really has to know that you're doing it, just closing your eyes, bringing all that beautiful white light and yummy-ness into your deck and, it also just helps you focus when it comes to your next client reading because you've channeled this beautiful energy through you so, at the same time that you're clearing and cleansing your cards, you're clearing and cleansing you which is pretty neat. 

So great if you've got a new deck, maybe you've fallen out of love with a Tarot deck or, you're starting to feel a bit of bad juju around your Tarot deck. Just doing this connecting in, feeling the energy and infusing your deck with universal white light can be really helpful. 

Now, if you have an understanding of Reiki, then you might also like to bring some Reiki energy into you and into those cards so, that's a bit of a little extra step there for you. 

All right, lets move now into the third way to clear and cleanse your cards. Now, I call this loving up on your cards and, this is what I was doing with the deck that I had started to fall out of love with so, literally just grab your deck and, place, like, even just go through the deck card by card, look at each of the cards and just appreciate them for their beauty, for their intuitive energy, for just what they have to offer you. Just one-by-one, really love up on your cards. You may start to notice aspects of those cards that you haven't noticed before. Maybe if it's a deck where you're like, “Uh, this is so dark, I'm not into it,” you start to look at it and you realize, “Well actually, there is some lightness here, there is something beautiful in this deck.” 

So, this can also be a really good way for channeling love into your deck and, again, infusing it, not just with that universal white light but, also your pure love and pure intention as well. So, love up on your deck. Okay? 

Now number four is to do a full moon bath. So the full moon is an excellent source of energy for your cards as it is for crystals and all sorts of things. For you, particularly if you're a women, the full moon energy can be absolutely amazing. So when it is a full moon then simply place your Tarot cards on a window or if you're really brave pop them outside, maybe place a heavy crystal on top so they don't blow away and, just let them bathe in that moonlight overnight. 

So this is really good for just general cleansing of your deck. Something that you might do regularly every full moon and, again, just fill up your cards with all that good juju. 

Now, some people might also use the full moon like for ritual. I love doing a full moon Tarot ritual at full moon, of course and, I think incorporating the full moon, the moonlight into that and also clearing and cleansing your cards at the same time is great. I think you're just doing everything wonderfully when you do that. And, yeah, you can just use that full moon energy just to clear out any old stuck stuff and fill it with all that beautiful, divine intuitive energy that we have from the moon. 

Okay, number five is to do a herbal smoke cleansing so, you might want to burn some dried sage or some rosemary or even use a store bought herb bundle and, simply pass the cards through the smoke several times and just, again, it's just a gentle smoking of the cards and using something like sage has such cleansing properties to it. So allowing that smoke just to drift over the cards. Of course, please be careful of not getting things on fire, it's just getting the smoke around the cards, no flame. 

So this is great for, again, general cleansing and removing any sort of bad or stuck energy that you might be feeling around your cards. And you can also cleanse your Tarot reading area at the same time. So, I love doing two or three things at once so, why not also cleanse your Tarot reading area too. 

All right so, the sixth way of clearing and cleansing your cards is to do like a crystal cleansing. So when you are in between readings, instead of just stashing your Tarot deck in a drawer, place a crystal on top of your deck and, this crystal can really help to draw out any negative energy, bad vibes in between your readings and then also replace it with really yummy energy. 

So, some good crystals are celestite and, that's a really purifying crystal that you can use and it really brings that instant peace and harmony into your mind while it's refreshing the spirit and uplifting your mood. Selenite wands are great or even just a selenite tower which I really love and, they're great for sort of cutting chords. I often use like a selenite wand when I'm cutting just energy chords that have got stuck between me and someone else or something so, I'm waving that little selenite wand everywhere and, you can do the same with your cards. You can wave the wand around your cards and also place it on top of your deck. 

If you do feel a bit of yuck energy in the cards, smoky quartz can be great or, black tourmaline, that helps to draw out those negative energies. And then, of course, if you want to infuse energy like good juju into your deck, I mean I love amethyst probably because it's purple and fluorite because it's purple and teal and so is Biddy Tarot but, you could use any of your favorite crystals that have the kind of energy that you want to put back into your deck. 

Clear quartz is also a great option because it's just pure white light that you're putting into your deck so that can be really, really neat. 

Now, the crystal cleanings, great for in between readings and, again, for any bad juju that you might have or just to keep your decks looking pretty because crystals are so pretty so you might just have a crystal on your deck so it looks nice. 

Okay so, you can also place the crystal that you are using with your deck, you can also place it under the table where you read and, it actually can infuse that whole reading with the kind of energy that you most desire. So, for example, if you're doing a love reading, then bring in the rose quartz and, it will just bring a beautiful energy into that reading. 

Okay, we've got two more left and, the seventh way is visualization. Now, I love the power of visualization, visualization can really help you manifest the things that you want to create and it goes the same with your Tarot deck. So, if you're getting a sense of bad energy in your Tarot deck, you can visualize your Tarot deck surrounded by white light and actually just radiating positive, abundant, amazing energy. 

You can also visualize yourself doing a Tarot reading with yourself or a client depending on how you normally do your readings and, in that visualization, you imagine yourself giving the most crystal clear insights from your cards and, even just that visualization of crystal clear insight, will help to manifest that as an outcome and it's a clearing and a cleansing in itself because it's removing all of that bad juju and bad, like, negative energy and allowing you to just jump in there and create the readings that you most want to create. 

So definitely use visualization and, in fact, its something that I share with a lot of my students to really boost confidence and intuition before a reading. Like, picture yourself with your client and picture yourself giving the best reading you've ever done, something where you're getting like beautiful downloads from the universe, you're able to communicate effectively, the client is open to you, you can see this beautiful channel of energy between you and the client. There's so many good things that you can visualize that will also help in that clearing and cleansing process. 

All rights so, lets move onto our final technique for clearing and cleansing your cards and that is an elemental clearing. Now, elemental clearing, it brings your awareness to using different techniques that are aligned with the four elements of the Tarot. So, you know that the four elements are, water, fire, air and earth and so, you might think, well how an I get a little bit of water, fire, earth and air and integrate it into a cleaning ritual? 

So, perhaps there's some special water maybe from a nearby river that you really like to visit or, the ocean and, you know, water and cardboard don't really go so well but, maybe it's just a little dab of water on your cards. And then, from the earth, maybe it is that you actually find some dirt or, you might find something that you found on the ground, a leaf, a twig, whatever it might be and, you might infuse, again, your cards with that earth energy using that symbol that you found from the earth. 

Remember earth is very much about the grounding. Water is very much about infusing it with emotional clarity and then, you might have something with air. Now air, you know, you could, really simply, just wave your cards through the air. Have the intention that you're infusing it with air energy. You might blow on your cards. You might just simply be outside, there's such a difference between sitting inside and sitting outside because outside you actually feel the air moving around on your skin. I don't know if you've noticed this recently but, that's something that's been in my awareness a lot lately is, I love being outside because I can feel the air moving around on my skin and it just brings in that air energy. And then finally, fire.  Okay, we're not going to burn our cards because that would be awful but, what we can do is, we can light a candle and integrate the energy of fire into our cards. So have a play with that, bringing those four elements into your deck using the energy of those four elements and using some kind of tangible, real symbol of the elements in a cleansing ritual. 

All right so, there you have it. You now have eight different ways you can clear and cleanse your cards. So, you'll never, ever run out of options. And I really do encourage you to stay in connection and communication with your Tarot deck because, it will let you know when things aren't quite right and, even just sit with your deck and go, right, what is my energy around this deck? Maybe it's all good, which is fine, you don't need to clear and cleanse but, you might pick up a deck and go, “Oh, I really want to work with this deck but it's not feeling right.” So now you have those different ways to clear and cleanse your cards. 

And again, it doesn't have to be a really complicated process, it's exactly what you want it to be. The most important thing is that you are setting the intention of clearing, influencing your cards. 

All right so, that is it for today now, for all the details about today's podcast episode, make sure you head on over to biddytarot.com and you can access the show notes and the transcript there. And remember to access the free Tarot cards meaning keyword chart over at biddytarot.com/keywords. 

Now next week I have a very special guest, in fact she's a repeat guest, it is Nancy Antenucci and she is talking about the 22 portals of magic using the major Accana cards so I cannot wait to share this episode with you. Super juicy, super fun and, in the meantime, just love up on your Tarot deck and bring all that good energy into your cards and into your readings. 

All right. Bye for now. 

Boost Your Tarot Reading Confidence

Now that your cards have been cleansed, it's time to boost your confidence even further. That's why I created my online program Read Tarot With Confidence. In this 7 module program, I teach you how to read Tarot for yourself and others with clarity. You'll discover how to do a Tarot reading naturally and intuitively in your own unique way. Gain powerful skills in how to ask the right questions, how to choose the right spread, how to weave storytelling into your readings, and much more.

Click here to learn more about the program!

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How to Clean Your Tarot Cards Tutorial | Biddy Tarot
How to Clear and Cleanse Your Tarot Deck | Biddy Tarot

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