Cleansing a Tarot Deck

What is tarot deck cleansing?

Cleansing a tarot deck is a group of customs for marking a symbolic fresh start, including knocking on the deck, restoring the cards to order or setting them in moonlight. Some readers use a ritual after an emotional reading, when someone else has handled the deck or when beginning with new cards. Others simply shuffle and start. Decide what the pause is for: closing the previous question, checking the deck or preparing the space for a different reading.

The customs readers keep most often:

• Knocking. Hold the deck in one hand and knock on it once or three times with the knuckles of the other. Quick, and it needs nothing.
• Sorting into order. Lay the cards out from the Fool to the World, then each suit from Ace to King. Check that all 78 cards are present and look at the images as you go.
• Moonlight. Leave the deck on a windowsill overnight, often at the full moon, in its box or wrapped in cloth.
• Smoke. Pass the deck through the smoke of incense or dried herbs, well above the source.
• Crystals. Rest a clear quartz or a piece of selenite on top of the deck between readings.
• Breath. Fan the cards and blow across them once, or hold the deck and take three slow breaths.

Some readers call a thorough shuffle their cleanse. Choose an action that fits the pause you want to mark: gather the previous spread, clear a space for the cards or prepare a different question.

Where deck cleansing customs come from

Ritual preparation of cards predates today’s lists of cleansing methods. The late nineteenth-century Golden Dawn’s Book T includes an invocation over the cards before reading and refers to a consecrated deck. That is a historical example of ritual preparation, rather than a prescription for knocking, crystals or moonlight.

Today’s term “cleansing” brings several kinds of reader custom together. Some methods use the cards themselves, such as sorting or knocking; others use objects around them, such as incense, crystals or a place in moonlight. Sorting lets you count the deck and study its pictures, while the other customs mark a beginning or an end through an action or setting.

Practice varies between readers. One person keeps a short ritual before each reading, another chooses one only for a new deck, and another uses none. Choose the custom for what it means in your reading routine, rather than treating a particular object or number of repetitions as compulsory.

How to cleanse a tarot deck safely

Choose what the ritual marks. Meeting a new deck, closing an emotional reading and returning after a break are different occasions. Name the one you are marking, then choose whether to sort the cards, knock on the deck or simply put it away.

Protect the cards. Paper and lamination dislike damp, heat and grit. Do not bury cards in salt or soil, do not leave them on a sunny sill for days, where colours fade, and keep crystals clean and dry before they touch the deck.

Keep smoke and flame at a distance. If you use incense or herbs, hold the cards high above the smoke, never over a flame, work by an open window and put everything out completely before you leave the room. Skip smoke altogether if anyone in the house is sensitive to it.

Mark the break between questions. Gather the cards and write down the question you have just read. Decide whether to put the deck away or begin a different topic. Use the ritual as a marker for that choice, rather than expecting it to remove an emotion or settle the meaning of the previous reading.

Don’t confuse cleansing with interpreting. A ritual marks a break in your reading routine. To examine a difficult reading, return to the question, the cards and their positions, and write down what each actually contributed. Keep that interpretation separate from the decision to sort, knock or put the deck away.

Cleansing in practice: four moments

Meeting a new deck. Your first Rider–Waite–Smith deck arrives. You sort it into order, check that all 78 cards are present and look at each image, writing one word beside its name. Mark the cards you want to study more closely. The notes give you a starting point for learning the deck; choose one unfamiliar symbol to examine before you shuffle for a question.

After a heavy reading. You have just read for a friend going through a painful breakup, and the Three of Swords and the Tower are still on the table. You gather the cards, knock on the deck three times, shuffle long and slow, and put it away until tomorrow.

A careful smoke ritual. You like the scent of incense, so you light one stick on a heat-proof dish by an open window, hold the deck at arm’s length above the thin line of smoke for a few breaths, then put the stick out completely.

When cleansing becomes avoidance. Someone cleanses the deck each time Temperance or the Hanged Man appears in a question about waiting, hoping for a faster card. Return to that spread’s meanings: Temperance concerns proportion and integration; the Hanged Man suspension, surrender and a changed perspective. Write down how those themes address the question before deciding what ritual to use.