Thirteen
It occurs to me that if you're all going to be practicing spreads, we ought to discuss pre-spread rituals and post-spread habits. These are obviously personal and you alone can decide what works for you. They're important, however, for the health of you and your deck. A deck, in theory, picks up energy from the querent and the reader and offers up it's message. If left uncleansed, it will continue to carry this residue, and the readings will become unclear or repetitive. Likewise, readings put the reader in another mindset, and if you stay in that mindset, you can really start to exhaust yourself. You need to be able to get you and the deck in and out of that space, decisively and completely.
Pre-Rituals:
1) You should find a way to keep your deck "closed" or locked away from outside influence between using it. This can be as simple as turning the top card face inward so that top and bottom cards "hold" in the others, or as complex as wrapping it in silk, bagging or boxing the deck.
2) Before you lay out a spread, you should shuffle it to cleanse it and losen yourself up. Kind of like a dancer stretching.
3) You should do something to put yourself in a "reading" space, to put yourself in touch with the cards and with the "power" you're using to read them. Again, this can be very simple, a moment of silence, a prayer, or visualization of the cards glowing between your hands, or very elaborate: casting a circle, lighting candles, etc.
4) You should know ahead of time how you feel about other people handling your cards, how you plan to shuffle them, cut them, lay them out.
Post-Spread:
5) Likewise, you should also know ahead of time how you plan to end the spread, pick up the cards and return them to the deck, reshuffle them if you're going to do another spread, or end the session/reading if it's at an end.
6) Ending a reading: Before picking up the cards and returning them to the deck, you should have a way to "cleanse" them. Consider that the cards are filled with energy and/or the signature of the querent you've just read for. How can you tell them, "Job's done, let me cleanse you of this person's essence and set you back into neutral"? Come up with something simple, as you do not want anything complex in this case. A wave of the hand, wand or bundle of dried sage, a rap on the table, or ringing of a bell. Do this after each spread, and absolutely at the end of the reading.
This will ground you as well, which is important. A reading can take a lot out of you, take you out of yourself. You need a way to come back to Earth.
7) Return cards to the deck and the deck back to it's safe or closed position with top card turned inward, or put back in it's silk scarf or box.
Any other thoughts or suggestions on this subject? Or stories relating to it?
Here's one from me. I did a reading for one person, promising to do one for another person when finished. Understand that I had done readings for both #1 and #2 before, often enough that I knew that certain cards sometimes showed up in their spreads. Anyway, I did the reading for #1, finished, I went onto person #2. There was plenty of shuffling. But when I laid out the spread, I stopped and shook my head. It was almost *EXACTLY* the same layout as I'd had for #1. Same cards, almost the same positions. "Didn't cleanse the cards enough," I apologized to #2, "this isn't your reading, it's still #1's." So I reshuffled, did a little visualization, and aggressively cleansed them. Handed them back. #2 shuffled again, and I laid out the cards again. This time, they were *completely* different from #1, and very much #2. I can't quite explain it more than that--the spread now *felt* right for #2, when before it had not only mirrored #1, but felt all wrong.
To summarize:
Before you begin, shuffle, connect with the cards, get into the right space.
After, cleanse the deck and ground yourself.
Pre-Rituals:
1) You should find a way to keep your deck "closed" or locked away from outside influence between using it. This can be as simple as turning the top card face inward so that top and bottom cards "hold" in the others, or as complex as wrapping it in silk, bagging or boxing the deck.
2) Before you lay out a spread, you should shuffle it to cleanse it and losen yourself up. Kind of like a dancer stretching.
3) You should do something to put yourself in a "reading" space, to put yourself in touch with the cards and with the "power" you're using to read them. Again, this can be very simple, a moment of silence, a prayer, or visualization of the cards glowing between your hands, or very elaborate: casting a circle, lighting candles, etc.
4) You should know ahead of time how you feel about other people handling your cards, how you plan to shuffle them, cut them, lay them out.
Post-Spread:
5) Likewise, you should also know ahead of time how you plan to end the spread, pick up the cards and return them to the deck, reshuffle them if you're going to do another spread, or end the session/reading if it's at an end.
6) Ending a reading: Before picking up the cards and returning them to the deck, you should have a way to "cleanse" them. Consider that the cards are filled with energy and/or the signature of the querent you've just read for. How can you tell them, "Job's done, let me cleanse you of this person's essence and set you back into neutral"? Come up with something simple, as you do not want anything complex in this case. A wave of the hand, wand or bundle of dried sage, a rap on the table, or ringing of a bell. Do this after each spread, and absolutely at the end of the reading.
This will ground you as well, which is important. A reading can take a lot out of you, take you out of yourself. You need a way to come back to Earth.
7) Return cards to the deck and the deck back to it's safe or closed position with top card turned inward, or put back in it's silk scarf or box.
Any other thoughts or suggestions on this subject? Or stories relating to it?
Here's one from me. I did a reading for one person, promising to do one for another person when finished. Understand that I had done readings for both #1 and #2 before, often enough that I knew that certain cards sometimes showed up in their spreads. Anyway, I did the reading for #1, finished, I went onto person #2. There was plenty of shuffling. But when I laid out the spread, I stopped and shook my head. It was almost *EXACTLY* the same layout as I'd had for #1. Same cards, almost the same positions. "Didn't cleanse the cards enough," I apologized to #2, "this isn't your reading, it's still #1's." So I reshuffled, did a little visualization, and aggressively cleansed them. Handed them back. #2 shuffled again, and I laid out the cards again. This time, they were *completely* different from #1, and very much #2. I can't quite explain it more than that--the spread now *felt* right for #2, when before it had not only mirrored #1, but felt all wrong.
To summarize:
Before you begin, shuffle, connect with the cards, get into the right space.
After, cleanse the deck and ground yourself.
