Tarot basics: Setting up your reading space

This could be a post on setting up any kind of spiritual and contemplative space. That’s what Tarot is at its best—spiritual contemplation.

That doesn’t mean that your space has to be an altar with incense, candles and no other distractions,, although it might well be. People—like yours truly—whose monkey brains are always going a mile a minute throughout the day, multitasking and absorbing some sort of media a good deal of the time, might well need such a space to settle down enough to focus on the Tarot.

But if you can focus at your kitchen table or on your bed, so much the better. There are some spiritual practices, I don’t recommend doing on your bed. I wouldn’t encourage you to do readings dealing with ancestors or highly distressing topics there because, whether you believe in energy residue or not, just the memory of the reading on your bed might interfere with your sleep.

I do encourage you to clean and wash off you table before laying out your cards. There is nothing worse than sticky or dirty Tarot cards. They can be quickly ruined and the language of the deck becomes incomplete even if only one is missing or damaged. Once a card has been warped by water, it will never shuffle equally with other cards again.

Beyond that, the clutter on a table may well exert a distracting energy on your reading, resulting in an answer that is more vague than it needed to be.

So clear off and wash at least a section of your table or smooth out a part of your bed. I have always lit a candle when I do Tarot, but that is a matter of personal taste. The candle flame provides me with focus. I also generally lay out some tokens representing the four cardinal directions.

Image by Arie Farnam

That is because I call in the energies of the four directions and the elements they correspond to as aids for me in a reading. I will generally also call a deity, either my matron goddess or a goddess who deals specifically with divination, like the Morrigan or Hekate. But that is specific to my tradition. I do recommend that you call in whatever entities you work with spiritually before beginning a reading and have a token to represent them if that is part of your tradition.

I usually smudge with white sage because of its cleansing, clarifying and spiritually enhancing properties and because I can get as much of it as I need from my mother’s backyard. But in many other places white sage is endangered, and you may well not have access to it. There are many other herbs you can use. Among the best are lavender, mugwort, wormwood, kitchen sage and sweetgrass. All of these have cleansing and spiritually enhancing properties.

But you can do without a smudge and I have on many occasions. Incense is also good for settling and calming an atmosphere although most stick incense doesn’t have the mildly mind-altering qualities of herbal smudges. Essential oil diffusers may be an even better option, especially for those who have allergies or respiratory problems with smoke. Be aware that synthetic oils may also be problematic for many people and try to find good-quality, natural essential oils.

Still, you may be in a place where no smoke of any kind is allowed or simply need to do a reading quickly. In that case, don’t let the lack of something smoking or steaming stop you from doing Tarot.

One other thing I suggest is a cup of something to drink that is calming and centering. This generally does not mean coffee. Coffee or other caffeinated drinks are fine right after the reading, but will tend to interfere with the contemplation, unless you have ADHD or a similar neurological imbalance—in which case, do whatever your experience tells you will allow you a contemplative moment or two.

I prefer tea, even in the summer. It’s just a thing. I won’t generally drink my favorite chai tea during a reading though. I’m much more likely to drink herbal tea. Thyme, mint and wild oregono are particularly good for readings.

As you can see, setting up a Tarot space has a lot of elements of calming each of our senses in turn. Clearing up clutter and lighting a candle, settles and comforts our visual and kinesthetic senses. Smudges, incense and diffusers both calm and focus our olfactory sense. Tea takes care of our sense of taste in a soothing way.

For that reason, a lot of people will put on some soothing, meditative music to do readings, covering the auditory sense as well. I usually skip that step, but it depends on what helps you to be fully focused and relaxed. Certainly, it is good to try to be at a temperature that isn’t distracting, if at all possible.

And speaking of distractions, there is the question of other people who may be in your space. Tarot, in my experience, is best done alone. I do it with a single friend sometimes, but it isn’t easy. Then again, I’m a certified introvert. It may be different for you.

The thing is that Tarot is a spiritual contemplative practice. I’m not saying that you can’t do it while someone is drumming and a room full of people are dancing as the spirit moves them right next to you. Particularly, if the gathering is spiritual in nature, it may work fine and the energy may be wonderful for the Tarot

However, if the energy is not focused. If other people are watching TV and just hanging out, it is likely that their energy will interfere with the Tarot. Like I said before, this can simply make the reading more vague than in needs to be. I have never met a public Tarot reader who did anything but vague readings at those booths you see at fairs and other events, though there may be someone somewhere with the focus to withstand any external energy.

So it makes sense that if someone is laying out a reading while several friends lean over the table and joke and make derogatory remarks about the Tarot, whether the reader is participating in the hilarity or not, the reading won’t work. This is why “testing” the Tarot in a social setting also tends to get readings so vague as to be useless.

In the end, a space to read Tarot should be a space were you can calm your mind and heart, focus clearly on a question and be receptive to other-than-logical connections. As herbalists say about herbal tea, part of the medicine is in the actual tea (or the Tarot, in this case) and part of the benefit is in the fact that you get to sit down in comfort for a moment. Don’t underestimate the power of these quiet moments and make the space as relaxing and pleasant as possible.