A Traditional Approach to Tarot

Magic circle. (Photo credit: wikipedia)

I received another email from a friend asking about tarot cards. I enjoy answering these kinds of questions and I feel like this is a good topic to share with everyone. As usual, I have the email here and it’s been edited to protect my friend’s identity.

Just a quick question for you, since you’re more experienced in stuff like this… 

I was just gifted a tarot deck, and it’s my first one because I wanted to do it traditionally and not buy my own. It’s just a deck, no accompanying book, which is fine for me because I intend to interpret readings instead of relying on a book. 

Despite my “non-traditional” (or very traditional, depending on your view) approach to reading from my deck, I think it’d be nice to do a formal ceremony to bind the cards to my energy. I’m not sure if I believe that decks are alive or if they’re just an extension of your subconscious yet, since I’ve never had one, so I want to cover my bases. 

Could you tell me what you do with your new decks? Or… If you don’t do anything ceremony-wise, could you humor me and give me some advice for my own binding ceremony? I know I could just look it up, but I also could have just purchased myself a deck. Trying to be traditional here. 

I think this is an awesome idea! A ceremony for a tarot deck really helps you to build a relationship with your cards and find a balance of energy between you both. Some people forego a ceremony and let their energies build up with experience, others like to get to know their cards before doing any reading. It’s wonderful because there are so many different ways to handle a new deck.

I’m also happy to see that my friend wants to approach this in a traditional manner so that they can have a truly personal experience with their deck. I also happen to have a traditional tarot binding ceremony that my friend can use. Check back to see my tarot ceremony so that you can use it for your own decks!