Wizards Tarot by John J. Blumen

New And Old Tarot Traditions

Today I saw an interesting picture on Facebook and it got me thinking about traditions. When it comes to the Tarot, there is a wide range of old traditions for how to keep the cards, how to use them, and who’s permitted to touch them. Added to those old “rules” are new concepts that have become common place and considered to be new traditions. But there’s no one single definitive or authoritative list of these ‘rules’. And some of these existing concepts even contradict each other. Here’s a short list from around the world as an example.

• Keep your cards in a pine box.
• Wrap your cards in silk or cotton.
• Sleep with your cards under your pillow.
• Never let anyone else touch your cards.
• Only the querent should touch your cards at the time of their reading.
• Always purify your deck in sunlight.
• Only purify your deck in moonlight.
• Sit the deck in a plate of sea salt to purify it.
• Light a candle or incense before a reading.
• Lay all your readings out on a pine board.
• Always face east when doing a reading.
• Always face your querent.
• Shuffle and cut the deck three times to the left.
• Don’t shuffle, cut once to the right.
• Have only the querent shuffle.
• Have only the reader shuffle.
• Your cards must be gifted to you or stolen.
• Never use a used deck.
• If your cards are lost, they needed a new owner.

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