Disrespect of Cards

13WildMoons

This is more of a vent but please feel free to comment...

One thing that really bothers me about other profession readers is how they treat their cards. It's as if they have absolutely no respect for them.

It seems that they take them for granted. That's where my biggest peeve is.

I consider my decks, crystals, candle, scrying ball, pendulum, - everything that is with me when I do a reading - my coworkers. Yes, coworkers. They all have very special energies that are unique to say the least. Therefore I feel like it's very important to treat them with the deepest respect and consideration. Especially since I work with them almost every day and I earn my living with them.

I'll start every day when I work with them with a thanks for them choosing to work with me. At the end of the day I will let them know that I appreciated what they did for myself and those I read for.

I don't just take them out and throw them on the table at the start of work and start reading. Nor will I just throw them back in at the end without removing energies and cleansing. Which I must say I have seen a large number of readers do in many different situations.

I'm not saying I'm a better person or a better reader because of this. Nor am I trying to tell others how to do things. This is just something that has been on my mind for a long time.
 

AJ

good for you for letting the vent escape

People in every profession do the same thing with their tools.
Mechanic, cook, seamstress...you pick it, there are folks who abuse their tools and then wonder why they don't last.

I like to get the best tools I can for the job and then maintain them.

Obviously the mileage varies for others. Not my problem I don't have to pay for their tools...nor will I loan them mine.

edited for spelling. Wish I could order a new brain.
 

canid

I mutilate my cards if it's a benefit to my human hands. I sleep with a deck under my pillow, I carry one in the pocket of my robe or jeans & sometimes an edge gets bent. I drink coffee & tea next to my cards. I've splattered them while mashing potatoes. I let my decks have sleepovers with one another. I loan my decks out, sometimes they come home, sometimes not. Not my karma. Last summer I let Dreyfuss choose a card (he's a 50 year old Halflinger horse with no teeth so he constantly drools green slime). It wiped off. I haven't yet dumped a deck into the toilet, but I can see it happening some day. I'll fish it out & dry it off. My deck, you don't have to touch it. Yet I feed my decks moonshine & anoint them with specially made oil. Go figure.

They're not sentient. I am.
 

JennyNY39

I am completely in love with my cards. But my clients do not witness the ritual I do to cleanse and "talk" to them before I start my readings. And they do not witness my cleansing them and lovingly putting them back "home" into their special places when I am done. All they see is someone who lays out the cards...and has her crystals and other things nearby. Why would I waste a clients time doing anything else?
 

FatesLady

I have to say, while I take care not to damage (most of) my decks, I really don't bother with cleansing, reordering, or thanking them... they're just tools and focuses for my will, not sentient beings that will ignore you if you don't say 'please'.
 

Floss

canid said:
Last summer I let Dreyfuss choose a card (he's a 50 year old Halflinger horse with no teeth so he constantly drools green slime). It wiped off. I haven't yet dumped a deck into the toilet, but I can see it happening some day. I'll fish it out & dry it off. My deck, you don't have to touch it. Yet I feed my decks moonshine & anoint them with specially made oil. Go figure.

They're not sentient. I am.

canid speaks: "Ah - hello there! Ready for a tarot reading? Great ... sit right over ... HERE. Good. Comfy? Right. Now ... I have two decks you can choose from today ... which one appeals to you ? ... green slime or toilet water?? :| :D
 

canid

No one knows but me. :shhh:
 

nisaba

I'm somewhere in between the two extremes.

My working tools are very important to me, and I "treat them right": don't handle them with greasy hands, don't lay them on dirty surfaces, don't allow food-or-drink-oriented accidents to be a possibility. All my most highly prized decks are wrapped in tie-dyed watered-silk squares when not in use. The next echelon are in bags. All of the rest are in their original packaging, maintained as well as I can.

However.

A friend of mine, a fabulous reader, keeps his one deck held together with only an elastic band, shoved in the back-pocket of his jeans. Is he disrespectful? No. He'd never think of leaving the house without them. He prizes them. He just knows they don't need a fancy silk to work for him.

Some of the best second-hand decks I've ever bought show signs of "disrespectful" use in being unduely tattered. Would I do that to a deck? No. Do I love decks that have had that done to them? Yes. Do I think it's a sign of disrespect? No, quite the reverse. I think it's a sign of love and acceptance into the everyday.
 

Umbrae

Ya know - over in Europe – Tarot cards are just a bits for a card game!

I was at a ArchCon a couple years back and out in the common area a person had her cards spread across a table in the ‘beverage’ area. Guys with beer asked if she was doing readings there or could they share the table. She said to go ahead and share, she was just studying a spread. The guy moved one of the cards so he could put his beer down. She went ballistic.

They both made a point of talking to me about this the next day.

They were both wrong/right.

And I hold both opposing positions to be true. I completely agree/disagree with the thesis statement of this thread.

I honestly believe that the paper and ink are meaningless bits of processed wood fibres and blah blah blah the magic is in the user yeah yeah yah. I also believe that after a deck gets used a whole bunch, it develops…stuff.

On one hand I want folks to feel comfortable enough around me and my decks that they may handle my decks (I love to have my decks touched).

But I want them touched with respect.

I was at a show one time with an exhibit of really really rare stuff – and this guy approached with a big ol’ slimy drippy (looked really really good) hamburger in a wrapper. He’s hangin’ over the table, “Uh buddy, you gotta step back from the table with that burger.” “What’s a matter man, I’m not hurtin’ nothin’.” “Well, this deck you’re hanging over is priced at $900.00…as we move to your left…” He moved way away from the table.

How I treat my decks? I abuse them horribly. I experiment with and upon them. They reward me well for how I love them. Those little slices of forest by-product media receiver and pigments. That dang near vibrate...

And I too never thank them reorder them, cleanse them, charge them...no fancy silk, couple live in boxes.
 

Baroli

Hmmmm, don't thank 'em, don't cleanse mine either. Love having my cards touched,....as long as people don't decide they're going to show me the latest shuffling tricks. Almost had them puked on once, but I was in a bar reading and the guy was obnoxiously drunk.

I have the same regard to them as Umbrae does, I guess. They're just bits of paper and wood by-product that after awhile get stuff.

Hell,....I even have a haunted Marseille.