Tarot 101: Bonding with Your Deck(s)
A deck of tarot cards is a useful divination tool, but that doesn’t mean we have to be all stuff about it! Tools can have personality, and we can attach ourselves too them in meaningful ways. (Of course, you probably don’t have a special relationship with all of your tools magical or otherwise, but a tarot deck is a bit different from your microwave.)
Once you’ve started to develop your tarot practice a bit, you will begin to find which routines work best for starting, building, and maintaining deck “relationships.” Until then, these methods can be a good jumping off point.
These methods are ones you’ve probably seen floating around the internet or even heard mentioned by tarot-obsessed friends. That’s because they’re effective! But, don’t think that these are prescriptive. Since these are so basic, there is a lot of room to adapt them to what feels right for you. Use your intuition!
Sleeping with Your Deck Under Your Pillow
One of the reasons this is so popular is because it is a passive way to start working on that reader/deck relationship. Part of bonding with a tarot deck is getting your energy into the cards. Keeping them close to you for long periods of time, like when your asleep, is great for this.
Carrying Your Deck Around
Is there anything easier that putting something in your backpack or pocket? Like sleeping with your deck, keeping the cards on your person while you go about your day introduce the deck to your energy. The major difference here is that you are awake to take them out and interact with them.
Your main goal is to get to a point where you and your deck have a nice back and forth and an easy reading relationship (unless your deck is a real spitfire, then things might be a bit more interesting), so doing light readings with a new deck is always useful. This gets your hands on the cards and, if you ask some simple questions, can give you a feel for how your deck likes to respond.
I’ll talk more about deck maintenance in another post, but small tasks like cleansing and charging and otherwise maintaining your deck are a great way to strengthen your bond.
You might be thinking, “Hold on! I’m not ready to read yet!” Don’t worry. I’m not asking you to. One of my favorite methods of bonding with a deck (or even maintaining a bond with a deck I’ve had for a while) is shuffling. You don’t have to pull out and wild card tricks or high roller shuffling skills for this. Just passively shuffle the deck while you watch Netflix or read a book. This shuffling has no motive other than closeness. It’s like cuddling!
The name “Deck Interview” is a little misleading because by this point your deck already has the job, but that doesn’t mean you two don’t need to get to know each other. Using the questions below as a guide, shuffle and pull six cards from your deck. Read each card as the deck’s response to your question.
What are your limitations?
What can I learn from reading with you specifically?
What are some challenges of working with you?
Outcomes of this relationship
You can flip all of your cards, read, and be done with the interview if you’re trying to be quick, but I’ve had a lot of success flipping one card at a time and considering it as an expansive answer to the corresponding interview question. When I’m doing a deck interview, you’re likely to hear me say things like, “Oh, so that’s how it’s going to be?” or “Well, I look forward to seeing how that works out for us.” Have a conversation! You can even pull clarifying cards if you need to.
This was not something I did for bonding until I got my Mystic Monday deck. Not long after getting that deck, I sat down with a friend who had also recently gotten Mystic Monday, and we did “meme” spreads back and forth. My two favorites for this are “Expectation vs. Reality” (you provide the scenario and the deck responds) and “What ___ Thinks of You” (you know the old Facebook meme?) readings.
I’ve found that fun spreads and “meme” readings are similar to shuffling in that the typically don’t require a lot of energy while still getting you engaged with your deck. (They’re also good practice! See my “Practice Makes Perfect” post.) Plus, all of the joy and laughter that comes with these readings really sets a positive tone for your relationship.
Bonding with your deck is an ongoing process, and depending on how many of the above practices and exercises you do and how often, it can take time. You can sleep with your deck, but you really can’t bond with it over night. Don’t rush. You can still work with a deck as your bond strengthens (in fact, that will probably help). Just be patient and follow your intuition.
More Tarot 101: Welcome to Tarot / The Story of the Major Arcana / Card Keywords / Choosing a Deck / Practice Makes Perfect / Bonding with Your Deck(s) / An Introduction to Court Cards / Methods of Reading Court Cards / Using Personality Types to Understand Court Cards / Tarot Journaling
