How to Connect With Your Tarot Deck (Patreon)

A super common question people ask is, “How do I connect with my new tarot deck?”

I’m so familiar that feeling – you’re holding in your hands a brand new deck of cards, still pristine in its wrapping, and you can feel how full of promise and potential it is. You want to pour your heart out to it, uncover its secrets, fall in love with it.

You also know that tarot cards have a mythic status, and that there are a lot of stories and rumours around the right way to receive them and the right way to work with them. They have to be given to you. They have to be charged under a full moon.

Personally, I don’t go in for a lot of those old tales. Or rather, I think old tales only serve a good purpose if they feel useful to you, here and now. The best way to bond with your tarot deck is the way that feels right to you. This is your tarot story, and you get to decide how it goes!

If you’re looking for some ideas to get you started, here’s a few ways that I’ve bonded with decks of cards over the years. Remember, there’s no right or wrong way, so take what feels good, and leave the rest. Happy reading!

1. Look Through the Cards

More often than not, the first thing I do when I pick up a new deck of cards is set aside a little quiet time to take a good look at them. Give yourself a moment or five when you won’t be interrupted. Switch off your phone, maybe pick up a notebook and pen if you feel the need to make a note or two. Peel off that wrapper, open the box, and see what you find inside.

You may decide to look through the cards in order, one at a time. You might prefer to first locate your favourite card, or your birth card. You might decide to dive straight into your favourite suit, or lay out all the Majors side by side.

Take a moment just to be curious about your deck. Which cards grab your attention? Which artwork do you immediately love? Which images do you find confusing, or confronting? Which images are immediately familiar, and which challenge your ideas about what a card might mean?

At this point, you might decide it’s a good time to read your deck’s book, if it comes with one. I love to take a look at a deck creator’s description of their work. Each tarot creator brings a unique sensibility to their creation, and when you’re first meeting a deck, exploring the creator’s writing on their work, if they’ve provided it, is such a great way to get a sense of how the deck might feel and work.

(With that said, don’t forget that you’re going to develop your own relationship with these cards you’ve chosen. The creator can state their intention and offer their ideas about the meanings of the cards, but as you get to know your deck, you’ll make your own associations and develop your own sense of the cards’ meanings. So, don’t feel like you need to take anything as gospel!)

2. Bless, Consecrate, or Charge Your Deck

There are a million and one ways to ritually prepare your deck for use, but here are just a few that I like. All of these methods will be enhanced by bringing a little intention to the process, so I recommend taking quiet time when you won’t be disturbed to cleanse and charge your deck. You may wish to meditate for a few minutes (or longer) before you start so that your mindset is clear and fresh.

Also, throughout the process, talk to your deck! What are you achieving by doing this ritual? What kind of relationship are you hoping to build with your cards? Where do you want your tarot journey to lead you? While you cleanse and charge up your new tarot deck, it’s a great idea to infuse it with these hopes and intentions by speaking them aloud, or simply focusing on them in your mind.

FULL MOON CHARGE

Full moons are potent times of the lunar cycle for taking advantage of peak energy, and many readers also find the moon’s bright light during this phase to have cleansing and clearing vibes. So, you get two for the price of one – your deck is wiped clean of any lingering dull energy, and powered up by the moon’s most intense light.

Check the date and time of the full moon in your location (I use timeanddate.com or the app Full Moon). Before I put my deck out for a moon bath, I like to make sure all of the cards are in order – Majors 0-21, and Minors Ace-King in the order of Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles (if your deck is brand new, it might already be in order). Once you’re happy your deck is arranged as you’d like, place it somewhere, like a windowsill, where it will get to bask in the moon’s bright and powerful light.

Bonus tip: You can also use the sun to clear and charge up your deck! On a bright afternoon, let your deck catch some rays with the intention of freshening it up. Be careful, though, not to leave it out for too long – your deck’s print may fade if it is exposed to the sun for long periods.

CLEAR AND CHARGE WITH CRYSTALS

Many folks like to use crystals to clear and absorb energy, and also to charge up their tarot cards with a particular intention. Crystals like clear quartz, selenite, and obsidian are great for soaking up old vibes and wiping the energetic slate clean, while some readers like to enhance the intuitive power of their new decks by charging them with intuitive stones like amethyst or labradorite.

Once you’ve selected the stones you’d like to use, arrange them on or around your deck, and let them sit a while. I like to place them on my altar, or to add crystals into a full moon charging ritual. Some readers like to keep a clear quartz or other cleansing stone with their deck when it is stored, too.

CLEAN AND CLEAN WITH SMOKE

One of my favourite methods of clearing a tarot deck is to immerse it in sacred smoke. Personally, I like to use incense (I like this one for clearing, and this one for charging with intuitive intention), but some readers prefer sage, palo santo, or other herb or wood bundles (be mindful many of these products are over-harvested, to the detriment of their habitats, so do your research and source ethical herb bundles where possible – or even better, grow and dry your own! This is a good opportunity, too, to research any smoke cleansing rituals your own lineages may have used, rather than borrowing from another culture’s traditions).

Light your incense (or your chosen smokeable thing), and let its aroma seep into your space. When you’re ready, hold your cards in the smoke as it rises, and envisage it carrying away any stuck or stale energy. Visualise the smoke resetting your cards, and ripening them for receiving your intuitions.

3. DO AN INTERVIEW SPREAD

Getting a new tarot deck is a bit like making a new friend. They all have their own qualities and quirks, and part of bonding with your deck is starting to get to know its unique personality. One of the ways I like to say, “Nice to meet you!” to a new tarot deck is an interview spread. I have to thank Beth of Little Red Tarot for bringing this particular interview spread into my life – it’s a good one!

The card positions for this spread are:

Tell me about yourself. What is your most important characteristic?

What are your strengths as a deck?

What are your limits as a deck?

What are you here to teach me?

How can I best learn from and collaborate with you?

What is the potential outcome of our working relationship?

4. DO A DAILY DRAW

An interview spread is a great way to break the ice, but one of the best ways to build on that first meeting with your new tarot deck is to do a daily draw. Learning tarot – whether that’s from scratch, or just getting to know a new deck – can be really overwhelming, and a daily draw lets us do just a little each day to slowly build our competence and familiarity.

Personally, I like to pull a card each morning with a view to seeing what I might focus on or be aware of for the day. You might prefer to pull a card over lunch, or before you go to bed – whenever suits you is good! You might like to ask, “What do I need to know about today?” or “What approach or qualities might I try to cultivate today?” or even “What tarot card do you want me to study today?”

You might like to record your daily draws in your tarot journal, your calendar, or on social, and you may like to revisit your notes form time to time to see how your connection with and understanding of your new deck has evolved over time.

5. TAKE A COURSE TOGETHER

So, you’ve looked through your deck, cleansed it, interviewed it, and done a few daily draws. Now what?

Working closely with a deck over months (or even years) can yield such deep relationship and understanding between reader and cards. It’s a beautiful thing! When we’re just starting out, though, that work can seem a little amorphous – like, what are we even meant to do with this tarot deck, now that we have it?

If, like me, you need a little structure for your studies, you might like to knuckle down and do a course of study with your deck. This might be an actual course, delivered online or in person, or it could be a tarot book that you work through by yourself or with some tarot pals over a period of time.

Every deck you purchase will have a different way of conveying messages, and each deck seems to have its own personality. New tarot card decks should be bonded with before use and always given a chance before you give up on them.

This bonding experience is a great practice for each new deck you purchase.

6. Meditate with Your Cards

Meditating with your deck is another great option and can help you bond with the deck. You can pick cards and think about the characters on the card, note any feelings that come up, look over the images, and examine them fully. You may even go as far as to act out the card during your meditation and what it represents to you.

If you are stuck on the meaning of a card, you should meditate on the meaning and see if the answer comes to you. You should imagine yourself acting out the card and see what meanings come to you. Meditating is a great way not only to center yourself but to bond with your cards. You can find all sorts of guided meditations online!

7. Note Any Strong Reactions

While you are meditating and examining your cards, you should look for any strong reactions you may have. You can separate the cards into decks that you have strong connections with. You can have a pile of cards you love, those you are not drawn to, those you are questioning, etc.

You should go through the entire deck and do this sorting process to better understand the cards. You can look at the cards in new ways and unlock your intuition connecting to cards you may not have before. Go back through any cards you may be struggling with and work your way through them, identifying why they are bothering you and how you should move past this.

8. Sleep with Them Near You

This is one of the easier ways to bond with your deck, some tarot readers swear by this method. Some readers choose to keep their decks on their nightstand or even under their pillow. However, this is not super necessary, and just having them in your area may help.

Also, having your new tarot deck near you at night can help with later suggestions and just ensures you use them more. However, some believe that having your deck near close proximity to you at night will allow images to come to you in your dreams.

If you are still struggling with some cards, using this method may help you find answers to their meanings.

One way to ensure your bond with your cards during the night is to flip through the deck right before you go to bed. You can take a moment to look over the specific cards that you are struggling with to keep them in your mind right as you are following asleep.

This will keep these cards on your mind as you are drifting to sleep and increases the chance that you will dream about them.

9. Treat Cards With Respect

During the entire bonding process and even afterward, when you are using the deck, you should always treat it with full respect. Even if there are cards that you do not necessarily love, you should always appreciate the artistry that went into the pieces. You should do your best to treat each deck you have with utmost level of respect.

Also, when storing your deck, you want to do so properly and in a respectful way. Many wrap their tarot decks in silk, store a quartz crystal with them, and store them in a box.

If you notice they have gotten dusty over time or are starting to get damaged, you should do your best to keep them clean and properly put away.

10. Sort and Reorder Them

While most of this piece has focused on bonding with a new deck, there are times when you may want to bond again with an old deck.

With either a new or old deck, you can take time to shuffle the deck and sort or reorder it as you see fit. This is a great way to browse through the cards again and just become reacquainted with what they have to offer

11.

Reflect with Journaling

During your time of bonding, you may want to do some journaling to keep up with the cards and how they work for you.

This can be added to your daily practices but does not have to be extensive in any way. Simply if you think of something new about a card specifically or the deck itself, you can jot it down quickly for future reference.

Some use social media as a way to document their cards while others use an actual journal to write down any notes. If you want to journal as you draw cards, you can take some specific notes along the way, such as:

Write down the tarot card itself.

Jot down any keywords you would use to describe it.

Note your insights, feelings, or impressions of the card.

Put your personal insight, feelings, or impressions of the card.

Interpret any meanings that may be behind the card.

For daily draws, you may want to jot down the interpretation of the card at the end of the day and how it may have affected your day.

15. Always Thank Your Cards

Going hand in hand with treating your card with respect, you should always thank them for the services that they offer. Whether you have been using your cards for reading or simply bonding with them, you should thank them. This can sound odd but creating this method of thanking your cards can be very positive.

You will want to thank your cards throughout the bonding process and continue to thank them after you begin reading with them regularly.

If you follow these guidelines or choose some of these bonding recommendations, you can truly fall in love with your new deck of cards. The bonding process should be your own; the time it takes can vary, but at the end of the day having a quality bond can lead to better reading results.

There are times when new tarot card decks do not work well for you, but you should always give them a fair try before giving up.

Bonding with your cards is key but can be a process. In fact, many readers do this process for at least a few weeks before they begin using the deck regularly.

Once you are working with your tarot cards for a while, you will also want to cleanse the cards between readings, read about that here.

Whether you have one deck or several, you will want to take time for this bonding process with each new deck you take on!

Sources:

https://vekkesind.com/how-to-bond-with-your-tarot-cards-15-ways-that-work/

https://www.twosidestarot.com/2018/12/06/5-ways-to-bond-with-your-new-tarot-deck/