Opening and Closing a Tarot Reading is a powerful ritual that helps you start a reading with focus and wrap it up with gratitude. Today, I’m going to share this ritual with you, along with why it matters.
When we do a Tarot reading, it is very important to make sure that we are in the right frame of mind. Being confused, while being natural for the client, is not desirable for the reader. However, it is not logical to assume that as a reader you may not have other things on your mind. It is, however, required that as a reader you are in a frame of mind where you are focused on the reading process.
That is why many readers follow a variety of rituals and meditations before a reading. These opening rituals help you get in the zone and stay focused on the task at hand. However, after you finish the reading, it is equally important to close it.
Let us look at ways to open and close a reading to ensure a smooth, focused process.
Opening The Reading: Rituals and Meditations
Several Tarot card readers use a variety of rituals and meditations to ‘get into the groove’, so to speak, for a reading. These rituals provide a fantastic way to create a concentrated effort of the mind geared toward the reading process.
These rituals often include prayers and meditations. Some Tarot card readers prefer to have slow music playing in the background, while some prefer to have herbs, candles, or incense burning in the background. Some Tarot card readers also prefer to have crystals like Rose Quartz placed around the desk or table where they do the reading.
When I begin a reading, I do a combination of a prayer and a meditation. The meditation helps me ground myself and align my energies towards the reading process. My prayer is mostly a variety of affirmations and requests.
I request the Universe for permission to read for the client, and I also request the Universe to protect and guide me during the process. The affirmations I say are more like a way of telling myself to remain non-biased to the answers that the cards tell me – because I have a lot of difficulty in accepting answers which don’t sound ‘logical’.
I call this process ‘Opening the Reading’.
Closing the Reading: Closing a Chapter
When the reading is over, I spend some time meditating and releasing the energies that have accumulated around me. I also combine this with a prayer that gives thanks to those energies for helping me, then tells them they are now free to go.
This process of ‘Closing the Reading’ helps me slowly ease myself out of the very focused, concentrated frame of mind I usually go into while I am doing a reading. If I had to explain it in a very simple way, I would say it brings me back to Earth! 🙂
Opening and Closing a Tarot Reading: Advantages + benefits
There are several advantages of these rituals for Opening and Closing a Tarot Reading.
When you open the reading, it is as if you are opening up a little corner of the Universe for the reading. It is as if you’ve created a bit of space where you can engage with the energies of the Universe to understand the threads of the flow of events being explored in the reading. And after the reading is done, you express your gratitude to the energies of the Universe that have helped you during the process, and then close the space you opened for the purposes of doing the reading.
As mentioned before, Opening the Reading helps you and the energies around you focus on the task at hand: the reading.
The process also helps you to get into a good frame of mind while doing the reading. I have discovered that when I say the prayer while Opening the reading, I tend to forget my own thoughts and pay more attention to the reading process. It has proved to be a good way for telling myself to let go of my personal thoughts while I focus on the client’s issues.
The affirmations I say while opening the reading also remind me to remain unbiased and not question the judgment of the cards and their answers. Although I must confess that my ‘logical’ mind often does not agree with many of the answers the cards provide, I have found that those are the answers that have always worked out and come true for me. I guess, over time, I have learned to tell my ‘logical mind’ to shut up, and I have started to unquestionably believe what the cards are telling me.
Closing the reading is a way of telling myself to zone out of the frame of mind I am in while doing the reading. If you started something and finished it, it’s natural to acknowledge that ending. Closing the reading helps you do just that.
I find that after the reading, I do end up feeling a bit tired. Closing the reading helps me regain my strength and find myself out of the ‘zone’ I was in.
The prayers I say while Closing the reading also help me express my gratitude to the Universe and its myriad energies that help me interpret the cards much better.
In Conclusion
No matter how you look at it, the meditations, prayers, and affirmations you say before and at the end of the reading help you create a frame of mind better suited to the reading. They also help you create a space and time where you are more aware and actively listening to your intuitions, and therefore better able to help your client.
Your Turn…
Do you also have any rituals for Opening and closing a Tarot reading? If not, why? If you do have your rituals, please share your favorite rituals, meditations, and affirmations to open and close your reading. Why do they make sense to you? Do share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Comments
17 responses to “Opening and Closing a Tarot Reading”
Doesnt answer any of my questions………..what prayer do I say before a reading?
Hi Melissa,
As it says in the blog post, when I open the reading, the prayer I say includes a variety of affirmations for myself, and a request to the Universe for permission, protection and guidance. As for when I close the reading, I thank all the energies that have helped me during the reading, and then let those energies go.
You can totally formulate your own opening prayer and closing prayer. You can use my prayer as a guideline if you want. As for the affirmations, you need to come up with those that make sense to you.
For instance, I am quite leery of ‘non-logical’ answers that come through from the cards, so one of my affirmations is about accepting the guidance that comes through the cards as-is, and without wondering if the answers are ‘logical’ or not. Similarly, you can make the affirmations for the issues that bog you down while you do your readings.
I hope this helps…
Madhavi
Thank you for your post its beautiful 🙂
I love to use candle and incent and I place a status and crystal and I will open the reading with my signing bowl and do a prayer and in closing I will do the same and I feel more at peace and clear the space and shuffle the card for a bit while I am doing the prayer for next reading
~~Namaste~~~
Wow Lucien, your method for opening the reading sounds really awesome! Thanks for sharing.
First of all I want to say superb blog! I had a quick question
which I’d like to ask if you don’t mind. I was interested to know how
you center yourself and clear your mind prior to writing. I have had a difficult time clearing my thoughts
in getting my thoughts out there. I truly do take pleasure in writing however it just seems like the first 10 to 15 minutes
are generally wasted just trying to figure out how to begin.
Any ideas or tips? Cheers!
Hi! Thanks for liking my blog!
Yes, it does take some time to clear ones mind before writing, or even reading. I’ve found that a short prayer before beginning (as I’ve mentioned in my article above) always helps me in my work – both writing and doing a reading.
It’s not easy though and takes a bit of practice. But once you’ve conditioned your mind, it works out just fine. It’s like telling your mind to be quiet for the duration of the writing / tarot reading session.
With some practice, I’m sure you’ll get it. Keep trying, and good luck with your endeavors!!
Thank you for such a lovely and informative article, I knew there was something missing from my own practicing and I am looking forward, to creating my own opening and closing ceremonies 🙂
Hii there!
Madhavi, i just recently started learning tarot and have osho zen tarot cards. ince a month m trying to memorize the meaning of each card,still when i do reading for mmyself then i cant get the meaning in the image.can u please let me know how to learn the meanings. Thnks
Hi Riya,
First off, let me tell you that the Osho Zen cards are truly beautiful. They are among my favorites.
Now, lets get practical… 🙂 The book that comes along with the Osho Zen deck is truly good, but if you are trying to mug up the meanings from the book and then trying to do a reading, then you are going about it the wrong way.
Read the book, sure. But look at the card and try to see what the image on the card speaks to you. Be as creative and imaginative as you can possibly be. The book is there to guide you if the symbols or the stories on the card don’t seem to make sense at first. But once you’ve read what the book has to say about the card, then look at the card and come up with a list of 3 keywords (apart from the keyword that is already mentioned on the card). Make a list of these keywords in a notebook. See my article about journaling.
Hopefully, this method will help you truly understand the image on the card and its deeper meaning.
Once you’ve come up with the meaning on your own, and have learnt how to look at the image and derive the meaning based on your knowledge of what the images and symbols stand for, you will have no need to mug up the meanings and then you won’t forget the meanings.
Hope this helps.
Madhavi
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Thank You! 🙂
In some ways I have no ‘formal’ practice for opening and closing a reading, but actually there’s quite a lot in what I do before and after a reading that helps me get into the right mental space, and put it away again afterwards.
I’m a great believer that mundane actions performed with appropriate intent become magickal. It’s often firm intent that defines our actions rather than simply what those actions happen to be. So, for instance, when I go to the room where I will see a client I will take some time to prepare the room – unpacking my bag, putting the chairs and table in the right place, adjusting the lighting… and whilst these are mundane actions, I know that, to me, they are ‘opening’ the reading. They are putting myself into a different head-space, leaving my ‘stuff’ (worries, concerns, hassles) outside and preparing myself to fully meet a client. Pouring a glass of water for the client is an important ‘welcome’ gesture, as is the way I greet them and invite them to make themselves comfortable.
But for me the real ‘opening’ is such a simple thing – shuffling the cards. Feeling the cards in my hands, and moving them, immediately starts shifting my mental state, putting me into a different place. I can watch my thought processes change as I shift over into an intuitive state of mind. Taking my time to focus and shuffle is my ‘meditation’ at the beginning of a reading – it’s brief, but it reaffirms my connection to my cards and the current of the wisdom that they bring.
Likewise closing – tidying up, putting things away, packing my bag… all of these are done with the intent to also put away the energies of the reading, the concerns of the client and to re-establish my contact with my life, my feelings and my lifepath.
So my answer to whether I open and close is sort of a ‘well, yes and no…’ I don’t use a formal practice, but I’m very much aware that I do open and close through the seemingly mundane actions that I take.
Yes, these actions can also be a good way to open and close a reading. Like you said any action performed with the appropriate intent achieve a certain quality within them which helps to somewhere trigger an ‘opening’ and a ‘closing’ for the reading. 🙂