Does reading the tarot drain you?

For some reason, whenever I do lots of tarot and read a lot for myself or others it absolutely drains me! Analyzing the cards, intuition, all of it is lots of 'work'! And whenever I spend a full day with the cards I have strange dreams Probably that 3rd eye at work...
Which is why I'm taking a few days break for now
Does this happen to you?

Being fairly new to the world of Tarot I found that when I do bigger spreads I feel quite drained but it's not an unpleasent feeling. Almost like a I've just had a nice warm drink on a miserable day or a glowing sensation.

Since a few weeks I feel drained and uncomfy when I read for myself That is, I think - because I didn't 'get' the message yet to listen more to my intuituion for my descsions, rather then the cards. I feel in touch with my Angels, and can communicate with them during my meditation and thats hwo they want to bring the messages accross So, I stopped reading for myself at a great deal! And I feel more in tune

Also, since doing this and getting my Thoth I can read much better and more intuitively - its a all together different process now for me! I just posted this a few days ago on another thread. Now I feel I read 'really' intuitivly I can read that particular meaning only at that point when I meditated briefly, focussed on the question and the card - and thats it! I cant recap it later again.

So, with these changes - when reading fro others, I feel energetic - even with difficult readings. But I also must say I am never spending a whole day reading....I reckon, this can be quite exhausting!

We get tired shuffling the cards ...?

LOL

Drained reiki(spirit energy) is a problem for new students to the Tarot, supposedly. I, too, felt my energy drain away from me when I was new to this and when I did huge, confusing spreads for my friends. And I agree, analyzing the cards used to take a lot out of me too (once you're accustomed to all the cards' meanings, it'll get better). Huge spreads like the 10-card Celtic Cross drained me. This prompted me to revise the Celtic Cross, make it make sense.

new CC here: http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=71839

One time, I was reading the tarot cards for my friends at Starbucks cafe and right after so many readings all at once, I saw stars and positively was on the verge of blacking out. My friends were a bit worried, said I needed some sleep.
Also, I've heard from a fellow tarot-student that you can, in fact, do nothing but read Tarot for a while and feel absurdly tired all day despite not doing any strenuous physical activity, which led me to conclude: twas' the brain that got tired. You know? Using psychic muscles that we usually use? Like MercyMe put it, "the more we use our psychic muscles, the stronger they get" -- or something to that effect.
True to her words, I stopped feeling drained after some months with the Tarot. The mind muscles get stronger, become less easily tired out.

Tarot is like a physical exhaustion. The only difference is, is that few people actually use your psyche which is what enables you to read tarot. If you were out of shape physically and tried running a marathon, you might near kill yourself. That's kind of how it is with the psyche and the Celtic Cross or overwhelming spreads. Start out slow. Don't do the whole reading at one time. Write your initial feelings and then later go over the cards to jot down what you didn't get the first time. Set a limit for yourself to read, like 5 cards is nice and manageable. When you are excerising your psyche and you haven't used it really for your entire life, it'll feel like doing a bench press from 30 years ago or something from high school. You don't "drain" your energy, but your body will reflect that it is not used to such excersize by feeling tired or drained. You can't drain yourself of your energy, but since you are redirecting it, it will give you these other sensations. After doing it (tarot) repeatedly, you won't feel it anymore. In the middle of a reading, I feel all warm all over my body and that's because I'm distributing my energy everywhere and consciously redirecting more into my aura and hands to help the cards. Don't worry, like with gymnastics, you'll build "calouses" (I know I didn't spell that right ) and create a tolerance for the feeling but you don't feel bad about it. It's just a new sensation that you've been depriving your body of.

tarotreader2007

**PEACE**

Yes, reading cards can drain your energies. It can make you noxious, give you headaches or even dizzy spells. But it all depends on MANY factors. One is age. Yes, I used to get very sick every time I read but as I grew older, I learned how to "control" this. One piece of advice is that reading shouldn´t be felt as an extrenous exercise. If the spread looks as difficult as reading an advanced physics term paper (to me LOL), leave it. Do another spread or get from this one only what comes to you. Study as much as you can and feel like but do not expect yourself to see it all in one go. There will be messages that are jumbled. There will be messages that will NOT be understood for a reason (not for you to know...). Look at the cards, be receptive and let them talk to you. Let the images tell you something, a story, a piece of news... There´s a thread at AT that may help you practice on creating these links. It works with putting two cards combined and making a sentence using their meanings. I´ll find it and post later.
Be receptive. And accept the fact that some decks are not for you the same way we´re not friends with everybody we meet. Don´t force a particular deck to give you messages if it doesn´t want to. Try another. And come back to the first later. Some of my decks have a "voice". Some are rude, even. learn how to deal with thei particular personalities .Let them find a way to get the message across to you. Much of the malaise that comes after reading has to do with poor "communication skills"...
Also remember to ground yourself and avoid reading when you´re particularly tired or even "uninspired".
Finally, be careful who you read cards to. I know many friends here at AT may disagree with me but I do believe that some querents bring with them "bad vibes". They´re not "mean" per se but their life situation may be such that they carry all the spiritual trash with them to the reading and dump it on you. Often, uncosnciously.

Above all, enjoy the experience.

ana luisa said:

There´s a thread at AT that may help you practice on creating these links. It works with putting two cards combined and making a sentence using their meanings. I´ll find it and post later.

Click to expand...

Ana, I look forward to that post! Thanks for looking for the thread.

I found 2 threads that may help "liberate" us readers and work on our intuition/creativity.

One was started by Elf:

Reading exercise: One card-One sentence

The other was created by Kilts_knave:

Reading exercise: Two cards (mini-CC)- One Sentence


They´re both under the Tarot Games and Fun. I hope you find them stimulating.

Did you know that the brain is the organ that take the more energy to run(more than any other muscle in the body), it "eat" a lot of suggar so it normal to feel drain if you do a lot of brain work....

one thing that can help is ginko biloba, it help oxygen the brain and keep it in good shape.

Eat well, sleep well and go gradually
Omeada

When reading, I always suggest water. not tea coffee or soda. Water.

also practice 'grounding'.

The water trick works for folks who try it...

it's been posted before, along with results.

Most folks go through life clinically dehydrated (medical fact). The brain, is 98% water. Ya gotta replace it…especially if you’re using more of it (doing readings) than you’re used to.