Protecting your cards <should I>

[*Gypsy*]

[glow=red,2,300]Merry Meet,
Other Readers would tell you that your cards should always be wrapped in a pure natural silk scarf - black is the color usually recommended. However my cards have never been wrapped in silk and don't seem any the worse for wear.

However I do go along very strongly with keeping cards wrapped or boxed when not in use. Practically, it keeps them all together, and protects them from spills or other damage. Spiritually, over a period of time a given deck seems to acquire a level of innate energy - this is why new decks can often feel cold and inert...cos at that stage they are. Wrapping them and treating them with respect at all times helps to maintain that level of energy.

There are some beautiful boxes around now that work very well as 'safe stores' but sometimes you might have to split a pack in half and have two piles. This is fine. As long as they're altogether it doesn't matter how you stack them.

I don't put my cards back in order after doing a reading. But I do check that there are no inverted cards. When I'm preparing to do a reading for somebody else, before I give them the cards, I sit shuffling them for a few seconds just to clear them off of any influences.
I then burn Nag Champa Incense and wave my cards thought the smoke to cleanse them.
After I've done the reading, I shuffle again for a few seconds..then back thought the Nag Champa so the cards are clean when they are put away.

How do you keep yours?[/glow]

[starr]

Mine are stored in order and wrapped in a scarf that I chose for them of rainbow colors. It was a special gift to me. I think how you store them has less relevance than that you store them in something that has meaning to you and good energy. I did find that having my cards out of order produced a chaotic energy I was not pleased with. But like all things we practise and study, the beauty of our relationship to it is our individuality, you just have to go with what is right for you the individual.

[starlene]

i have a lot of decks actually, and i have a shelf thing that a lot of them are stored on, i agree about the newer ones feeling "cold" the ones that i have really connected with are in bags or boxes... it seems like once i connect with them a bag or box will find its way into my life and it will be time for the deck to go in there...

i never put them together, or right the upsdie down ones either, i just ask the Universe to have me shuffle them as needed the next time i do a reading, I do smudge them though when i get them and draw reiki symbols on them to connect with them.... tarot is a great topic for me,,, im an addict hehehe

[aislinstorm]

When it comes to my card's I am very careful with them. The sit in a large box that was made just for that purpose with ruin symbols representing my initials on the outside. Each set of cards (I have three, and my husband has one) are either in soft bags or in thier original box.

When reading though...I don't change the way the cards are at all when I am done. I meditate for a short period of time concentraiting on the purpose of the reading while shuffling the cards. After the reading I simply put them away until I need them again.

They have never steared me wrong yet.