Do you want to cleanse your oracle cards but don’t know how to do it in an easy and effective way? I feel you! That’s why I created this article to show you the best way to cleanse these cards and explain to you why you should not skip this process as it’s one of the most important of them all to truly connect with the cards and let their magic work and their messages unveil to you! So, without any further ado… let’s begin!
Why it is so important to cleanse your oracle cards?
If you smoke a pipe, you know there are many flavors of tobacco, with different aromas, intensities, and mixtures. Let’s say you are a lover of vanilla tobacco.
Smoke your pipe and slowly the wood of the pipe is impregnated with vanilla tobacco. Then one day you decide to try another, more intense tobacco. The wood of the pipe also absorbs this new tobacco. Then you go back to smoking the vanilla tobacco but… it’s not as good as it used to be!
Why? Because the wood has absorbed both. And the longer you have smoked the vanilla tobacco, the more the wood will be full of it.
The same happens with energy, it would seem. Or at least some believe this. An oracle deck in contact with me exchanges its energy with me, and if I read them to you, it will exchange its energy with you. If you do a lot of readings with certain energies, the cards could get charged with those energies.
Now, imagine how many people during the printing and making stage of a deck come into contact with your deck. So, when you buy or receive an oracle deck, it is like starting to smoke a pipe already used and with many different tobaccos. Purifying and cleaning the oracle deck means keeping it as neutral as possible in your mind; it means cleaning your pipe well.
It is no coincidence that pipe smokers have different pipes for different tobaccos. You can do the same with the oracle cards. But first of all, you need to know how to clean the pipe, and in our case, our faithful deck of cards. As with any other matter, experiment.
Try to notice how your readings change before and after; it’s not a matter of believing, but of experiencing firsthand, always. And in this case, beyond any personal conviction, it’s about celebrating your personal instrument with a ceremony.
Also read: How to Choose Oracle Cards? (Steps to Follow)
The best 6 methods to purify your oracle deck
I have sorted the best-known purification methods in order of time to perform them, from shortest to longest.
1. Quartz crystals
Quartz crystal and especially hyaline quartz (also known as rock crystal) has been used since ancient times to purify and decongest energy fields, as it would absorb low vibration energies.
To keep your deck clean, you can insert a quartz crystal inside your oracle holder in contact with the cards, so even when you carry your deck around or store it at home, the crystal will absorb the energy received from your readings.
Of course, when you feel it is necessary, you need to clean your crystal or replace it.
2. Reordering
This is a small expedient to restore the deck between one reading and another. However, it should be considered as a palliative. This method consists of putting all the cards in order (both Major Arcana and Minor Arcana) after each reading, and then shuffling them again before carrying out the next reading. There are different philosophies on the correct order; I recommend the order of arrangement when the deck was purchased, since it is the first imprinting that the deck received.
3. Meditation or Reiki
If you practice Reiki, you can send Reiki to your deck, in order to channel neutral energy with which to charge and clean your deck. The purpose of meditation will therefore be to become hollow trunks, gutters to let the neutral energy of earth and cosmos flow, and direct it towards the deck. Do this without the deck being wrapped in anything, or you’ll load its container. Furthermore, some energies do not appear to pass through the plastic.
4. Smudging
In almost every remote corner of the Earth and in every native tradition, smudging has been used as a method of purification. This method of purification consists of passing each card, one at a time, under the smoke created by incense, Palo Santo or sage.
5. Moon bath
Wait for the night of a full moon and place your deck where the moonlight can radiate to it and leave it like that for the whole night. If you leave the deck outside, I advise you to wrap a cotton thread around the deck to tie it, otherwise if gusts of wind blow during the night, you will have a deck that is sure to be purified, you just won’t know where it is.
6. Burial in salt
One of the most commonly used methods of purifying cards, runes, and other magical items is to bury them in salt. If you search on the internet, you will find several sites that will advise you to wrap your deck in an airtight plastic bag, cover it entirely with salt (I prefer coarse salt), and wrap it all in another airtight bag. In my opinion, this is not correct.
Why do they recommend bags?
Because the salt absorbs not only energy, but also humidity, so you risk finding your papers wet and damaged. The fact is that, as mentioned for Reiki, some energies do not go through the plastic, so wrapping the bunch in plastic protects it from the purification itself. My advice is to take a wooden box (which in itself absorbs energy) and put a thin layer of coarse salt in it. Lay your deck on this layer and then cover the cards completely with salt. If you leave the box in a slightly humid place and only for a few days (more than enough for purification) you will not have any problems.
My favorite way to cleanse oracle cards
I love cleansing my cards with white sage and by leaving them under the moonlight on a night of a full moon! I get amazing vibes from this procedure!
Clean things are meant to be dirty
Very well. Now that you know how to clean and purify your oracle deck, you just have to get it dirty again! Oracle cards are made to be read, so don’t become a clean freak by leaving the deck closed in a drawer without ever using it for fear of energetically dirtying it. Sure, you don’t have to go rooting in the mud in your good suit, but if you have a pair of comfortable shoes and you never wear them, they are useless. Also, if you want to figure out if you are cleansing your deck well, the only way is to try it in different ways and see if the readings you do change. So, as I always say, practice, practice, practice! Only those who never do anything are never wrong.
If you don’t feel like reading cards all by yourself, don’t forget to order a reading to have great insight into your life by unveiling your past, present, and future and have some guidance to finally get the life you’ve always wanted and that you deserve!
Magickal Blessings,
Mystic Amber