AUTHOR’S NOTE: For the last fifteen years I’ve been on a quiet crusade to liberate the practice of tarot from the numerous popular myths about what should and shouldn’t be done before and during divination with the cards. I last wrote about it at some length in a 2020 essay titled “The Myths of Tarot: Sacred Cows and Tin Gods” (linked below), but since that time further instances have cropped up that encourage revisiting the subject.

Most of what I’ve seen occurs in the online tarot community, where neophytes are led astray by only-recently-matriculated former beginners in a case of “the blind leading the blind.” My usual approach is to confront these misapprehensions in my commentary when they come up for discussion. I covered most of the “usual suspects” in the linked post, but the intensity of some current customs really gives me pause. The majority of my efforts have had to do with debunking mystical hypersensitivity.

One of these is that a tarot reader is somehow exceptionally vulnerable to being “corrupted” by subliminal pollution from distressed querents or exposure to unsavory spiritual contacts. I think of this as the “snowflake theory” of psychic hygiene that has engendered a number of curious preventive measures, some aimed at sanitizing the cards and others at inoculating the diviner. During a recent discussion about using prayers, affirmations, spells, vows and other forms of spiritual self-protection to fend off these perceived threats, I made the following observations:

“I used to engage in these defensive maneuvers at the suggestion of my cousin, who was a Spiritualist Church leader in Connecticut. But since that time I’ve had enough experience with the Astral Plan to realize that, unless we deliberately invade their space and poke our noses into their affairs, its less-agreeable ethereal denizens aren’t going to bother us (an assumption corroborated by members of the r/occult sub-reddit). A client’s negative energy is even less likely to be a problem for us.

We don’t have to accept it if we are mentally strong enough to resist. I’ve been a metaphysical explorer for over 50 years and I have a pretty good idea how these thing work. Negative energy means little if it isn’t accompanied by negative intentions (it will hurt them more than it hurts me). Someone can throw “bad vibes” at me all day long and I won’t worry about it unless they follow up with harmful actions, although I will definitely keep my eye on them. There is an old fire-and-brimstone sermon that goes “Chastise them according to their desserts,” which falls into the category of “The best defense is a good offense.”

I can’t understand why self-proclaimed sensitives feel so intimidated by their calling. It’s not as if we’re going to offend the gods or the lesser daemons by reading a few tarot cards, and we certainly shouldn’t expect that being a psychic, intuitive or empath paints a big red target or a “Kick Me” sign on our backs just because we open ourselves to the vicissitudes of someone else’s damaged emotional state as long as it’s no more invasive than a passive-aggressive attitude. I don’t know about you but I can deal with that, and I’m only going to respond in kind if it becomes too pointed. Interestingly, I’ve run into this kind of behavior most often in service-industry settings, notably among wait-staff.

I’ve typically been the recipient, but I once saw a sad “reverse” example of it in a restaurant in Roanake, VA. Three young women, who obviously fancied themselves fledgling sorceresses and were quite impressed by the idea, were baiting and tormenting their male waiter, who was around the same age and had the look of a clean-cut college student. (Remember those? I didn’t think so.) We didn’t hear exactly what was said, but the waiter was almost in tears and his antagonists were enjoying themselves immensely; when they departed giggling they didn’t leave a tip. We felt so bad for him that we tipped him double. One can only hope that, as Freddie Mercury sang, “Beelzebub has a devil set aside” for such sick antics.

I realized belatedly that some of these unfortunate encounters involve an innocent “carrier” who is radiating negativity as thought-waves that inadvertently impinge upon other people (or so the theory goes, since they usually try to hide their depression unlike Winnie the Pooh’s gloomy friend Eeyore). They clearly don’t deserve being ground into the dirt for something they can’t help but, by the same token, as prudent practitioners of face-to-face counseling we would be advised to stay out of their range so we don’t have to purge them from our presence. They are probably in no shape to benefit from a tarot reading anyway, and should be referred to psychological care. Unless we’re trained and licensed, we have no business diving into those deep waters no matter how much we want to help.

The Myths of Tarot: Sacred Cows and Tin Gods