What is Sacred?
What do we hold as sacred when it comes to our cards?
Do we have any things when it comes to the Tarot that we hold dear, that we hold sacred or set upon a pedestal? What rituals do we follow, and why do we follow them? I’m always reminded of a quote from one of Pratchetts novels, 'Lords and Ladies':-
“She placed the card on the black velvet cloth in front of her.
Perdita looked at it gloomily. It was all very pretty, the cards were coloured like little pasteboard jewels, and they had interesting names. But that little traitor voice whispered: how the hell can they know what the future holds? Cardboard isn’t very bright.”
We have a tendency to look after our tools, and, rightly so – we keep the tyres on our cars pumped up, and the tank filled up with petrol. We keep kitchen knives sharp, and we grease hinges to stop them from squeaking. We replace bulbs when they blow, and keep our ovens (mostly) shiny and clean…but we do that for the very practical reasons that things last longer when they’re kept in good maintenance… Is the same true when it comes to our Oracles? They provide us with intuitive insight and information that can help us in our daily lives, our planning and our personal development…and yet how many times do we see a Tarot deck in someones room on popular display, rather than them being kept in a drawer, or out of sight, tucked away because of the stigma associated with something so ‘fluffy’. Many of us protect our decks, wrapping them in silk or keeping them in boxes, but have we asked ourselves *why* we do these things – is it to keep them safe, protected, in prime condition so that they’ll last as long as possible, or do we attach beliefs and rituals to those pieces of cardboard, like people used to put the bible on the top shelf in the home, so that it was the highest book in the house?
What is sacred? Our connection with the divine, or our connection with the cards, as a tool, and the gateway they provide as a communication gateway? How do we honour ourselves, in the same way that we honour our tarot decks? How do we polish and maintain that connection, in the same way that we protect and safeguard our cards? Another Pratchetism is that the Oracle is just something pretty for your eyes to rest on while the mind does the work, so while we want our tools to be in the best working order, we should also remember that a car doesn’t drive itself, doors don’t open themselves, vegetables don’t chop themselves, ovens don’t fill themselves with tasty food for dinner…and we should put as much effort into caring for ourselves as we do for our decks.
I'm considerably more blasé with my later decks than I am with my original 'golden three' - my first deck, for example, the Hanson Roberts deck, is wrapped in silk, stored in a wooden box with a small bronze owl and kept by my bed. I slept with those cards underneath my pillow for around 10 years, happy in the belief that this would attune and re-attune them to my particular aura and vibrations, and taking them on a road-trip anywhere was an exercise in overkill - the wooden box was further wrapped in a silk bag, and that in turn was placed in a wooden carry case...stars of stage and screen travel in less opulence than my first deck of cards, but they are in remarkable condition for a deck that's around 22 years old and has been handled by clients throughout that time. My next two decks are also kept in wooden boxes, transferred from their original cardboard when the box gave way under the pressures of regular use, and they've added to the stack of Tarot decks that sit by my bed. My youngest regular-use deck on the other hand is a modern, rebellious child who gets popped into my bag with other paraphernalia for 'readings on the go' - no silk, no wooden shield against the world, just the cardboard box that they came in, and they perform beautifully, without the need for pomp and ceremony. Perhaps as I get older (wiser? hrm, let's stick with older!) I'm less concerned myself with the necessity for fanfare, and instead I just look forward to reading cards for clients, without having to spend 10 minutes getting at my deck. "Ain't nobody got time for that" as the cool kids today would intone, with their YOLO attitude!
What practices do you hold sacred with regards your cards? How do you store your regular-use decks? Are you all about the traditional silk and wood approaches or are you more about the practicality of storage? Share some of your beliefs about your cards, and question the 'why' of doing it, so that we understand our motivations for the things we do, and whether they remain beneficial to us as we continue to move forwards in our Tarot journey.
