A Touching Dilemma

           Currently, one of the biggest debates within the Tarot community is whether or not to let other people touch their cards. Some believe that only the reader should touch the cards, some think it’s okay for people they trust to touch them, some will let the querent (Latin. Seeker. One who seeks. This is the person for whom you are reading the cards) touch the deck. Ultimately, how one treats their deck is up to the individual reader. The belief that something is true, especially in dealing with energy, will make it so. From this, we can impose our own blocks, or we can tear down those of others. Each side of the debate has their own reasons for their views on letting other people touch their decks.

            To begin with, allow me to go into the energy of the matter. Energy is neither good nor bad, black or white, but can be viewed as having a “positive” or a “negative” charge. The aura is an energy field that surrounds an object. This field, when seen around a living object such as a human, will ebb and flow, even change colors, based on thoughts, emotions, and physical or spiritual ailments. There is even an entire alternative medicine method based around altering a person’s aura, known as reiki. Because this energy can be changed at the mere whim of a changing thought, or a person’s emotional state, that energy’s signature could transfer into something it is being concentrated on, whether intentionally or not. When something like a Tarot deck, which acts as a channel between your different states of consciousness, is used as a tool through which energy is concentrated, then it can build up residual energy from multiple readings. When a deck gains negative energy, this can muddle a reading as much as it can transfer the energy to the people handling the deck. This is why most readers will cleanse their decks often. 

            Each decision as to letting others touch a reader's deck is based upon these principles of energy. Some people don’t want anyone other than them to touch their deck so it is only their energy in it. Other people will let people whom they feel they can trust to touch their deck. Then some people think the querent should handle the cards so their energy is in the deck, which the reader feels enhances their reading. Myself, I allow my querent to touch their significator (the card that represents them) and channel their energy through that. I’ll also let friends handle my deck.

So here’s a question to any Tarot readers reading this: Do you let other people touch your deck, and why so?