using a box with salt

I agree with gregory. Whatever works for you, go for it. *smile*

The salt is bad for a deck's blood pressure.

Silver Crow said:

I didn't realize there were a handful of people that knew what is and isn't true as far as tarot and divination go. If ever there is a thread telling me what to believe or not, and who is right and knows all the facts, what is fact and what is fiction, I will be sure to read it, apparently I have it all wrong.

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Seriously- all joking aside: can you stop saying that people making fun of this are the one's that are trying to enforce tarot "rules".

It's actually the pro reader that the original poster wrote about that is trying to enforce rules. Everyone else is saying that they don't follow that rule.

I told her that I kept them in their original box in a drawer and she replied that this was a big mistake many people made.
I'd need to put it in a nice box (it might have been wooden, I can't remember) and told me I'd have to put salt into that box aswell.
Otherwhise the cards could turn against me and tell me lies, the salt would be a protective spell to clean them after each spread.

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Some are having a little fun with the idea that salt cleanses bad vibes from cards. Why so defensive?

misfitknits said:

actually, there are lists *whether in books, or now, reproduced in various places on the internet* that say you absolutely should or shouldn't do certain things. but just as the first sentence of that quote says, it IS subjective.

rituals ARE what they mean to the person who participates in them. and to other people they are ABSOLUTE dribble. these are OPINIONS we are talking about.

to the person who originally asked about the salt, i'm sorry someone made you think you MUST keep your tarot cards with salt. what people are trying to say in this thread is that if you want to do that, believe in that, that is your choice, but it's certainly not something you HAVE to do.

also, what i understood from the question: because this person has given you such accurate readings, you put alot of faith in what she tells you. therefore, the thing with the salt must be true. and also that if this person stopped keeping their cards in salt, their ability to give accurate readings would somehow stop.

so then we could deduce that keeping the cards with salt is what's giving this person their great ability to read the tarot cards, which i can tell you, respectfully, but without a doubt, IS false.

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Okay, okay, but there are no lists which I give any credence to, and since it is my life, in some ways the world can revolve around me.

This is meant mostly tongue in cheek, but really, I honestly, truly, believe that with tarot, what a person believes is what shapes their experience. I do not mind who uses salt, and who doesn't, but OMG I would feel so bad if the original poster did not use cards if they felt like it just because they did not know ANYTHING GOES in tarot.

Rituals ARE important, as much as any person allows them to be. I am half Mohican Indian (no, he wasn't the last) and Scottish and Irish. I get ritual. But I do not get needless suffering, which is what beating oneself up over not doing tarot "right" is.

Defensive because somehow I thought the tarot board would be one place where people didn't call your beliefs myths. I understand that others don't agree with cleansing, or ritual or any of that, and that's OK, we all do things differently. I don't think it's fair however, when on a board consisting of a topic like tarot that so many people think is just a myth or in some cases just ridiculous hogwash, that some say it's OK to believe in one thing that's not tangible, but because salt or whatever isn't what you do say it's wrong a myth or untrue.

I guess I've spent most of my life defending what I believe against small minded people that couldn't get their minds past what they could see or touch.

Well, here we like to dispel tarot myths. To make tarot accessible to the masses. I've read and heard so many things that scared me away from tarot, afraid that I wasn't doing it right and that I was opening the door to evil or something. When, in reality, they are just ink and paper and there is nothing to be afraid of.

There is no reason to get defensive. You are free to choose to believe what you want, but not everyone shares those beliefs. No one here is debating whether tarot works or if it is the tool of the devil. We just like to speak the truth.

Not everyone has rituals and the ones that do vary so very much. In my opinion, this salt thing is a myth, can be a ritual, or even a belief (if one really stretches it), so I think it's more a matter of what terminology one is using. My point is, there is no reason that one must keep salt with their decks or they will "tell lies" or what not. That is a myth. One may keep salt with their deck, if they so choose, to cleanse or whatever. This would be a ritual. But I am hard pressed to see how the salt would be a belief. Why, yes, I do believe in salt (I can see that it does exist and it is tasty) and I am quite aware of the disinfectant(?) properties, I use salt water to clean wounds and to ward off colds/flu. But I am not sure how that belief works into tarot.

So, I'm sticking with myth and ritual.

Silver Crow said:

Defensive because somehow I thought the tarot board would be one place where people didn't call your beliefs myths.

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This makes sense. But the flip side of that is that others should be equally at home saying that they don't believe in a certain thing. Maybe using the word "myth" is harsh or dismissive.... But for one to even say that they don't believe in the salt idea means that they are labeling it as a myth.... even if they avoid using the word. So you see the problem here?

I think everyone should do what feels right for them. I have a very dear friend who sent me blessed salt when we bought our last house. It's meant to bless and protect my house. She's Catholic and she believes in blessed salt just as she believes in holy water. Who am I to judge? I took my blessed salt and I'm happy to have it. It was sent with the best intentions.

If it feels right to protect your cards with salt, then you should do it. I know people who keep crystals with their cards. What's the difference? I use incense with my cards. Why not? It feels right for me.

I've read posts here about spirits, fearies, angels, negative energy and whole slew of other topics that most people outside this forum would find silly. That's what's so great about AT. We can discuss things that are important to us, but may not fly with a lot of other folks. What's a little salt with your cards? Salt has been held as precious and powerful in many cultures. Who's to say it doesn't have protective qualities? Not me.

Hey, if it makes you feel better to put salt in your deck box, go for it! It's certainly not required, but you bought the deck, it's yours, do as you please with it. In terms of whether it's a common or widespread practice among Tarot readers to do so, as far as I'm aware of it isn't, but that doesn't mean it isn't still a valid practice. My only concern would be the salt negatively impacting the integrity of the cardstock or the laminate, since salt tends to be abrasive and could potentially lead to some nasty scratch marks on the surface of a deck. My hands tend to be very sensitive and tender, and something like that would drive me insane, aside from it being just plain uncomfortable.

Well, that and the fact that I don't like salty smells, but that's just me.

I also don't subscribe to the idea that being passionate about something gives you free rein to be openly hostile and make hurtful blanket statements, but again, that's just me.

Whether or not salt is beneficial, it was the part about telling others that your cards can turn against you and you need to try to protect against that which bothered me, as I don't believe this is true.

Babs

Wow, those are a lot of replies! (took me some time to read through all of them )
Thank you all for your input, there were certainly a few very good answers for me.

So far, I never believed in the salt thing, but I thought that maybe it was something everyone should know about and it just hadn't gotten to me yet.
I'm not decided yet, but I have to say that at least putting them in a nice wooden box doesn't seem so bad

Also, that myth thread was really great Thank you for that link
(I only read the first 10 pages though )