How to cleanse tarot cards

Reading tarot · 2 min read · updated 25 October 2026

Cleansing a tarot deck means a small ritual to reset it: putting the cards back in order, shuffling them thoroughly, leaving them in moonlight or passing them through smoke. It is a modern custom, not a historical rule, and none of the methods is required. Its real use is to mark a fresh start.

Temperance from the Rider–Waite–Smith tarot, printed on paper. — Temperance, card XIV, pouring water between two cups: the card of balance and a reset.

Required: No
Historical: A modern custom, late 20th century
Simplest method: Put the deck back in order
When: New deck, after a heavy reading, after a break
Avoid: Water, salt and sun on the cards

Is cleansing necessary?

No. Tarot was a card game for three centuries, and the occult writers who turned it into a system wrote about symbolism, not about cleansing decks. Waite's guide of 1911, the book behind the most used deck, explains how to shuffle, cut and lay out the cards and says nothing about purifying them.^[1] The habit belongs to the personal, New Age practice of tarot that grew from the 1970s, together with crystals, smudging and moon rituals.

What cleansing does in practice is draw a line: this reading is over, the next one starts fresh. If that helps you focus, it is worth doing. If it feels like a chore, skip it.

Seven common methods

Put the deck in order. Sort all 78 cards from The Fool to the King of Pentacles, then shuffle. It takes five minutes, checks that no card is missing, and makes you look at every card once.
Shuffle thoroughly. Spread the cards face down and stir them with both hands for a minute, then gather and shuffle. The simplest reset.
Knock on the deck. Hold the deck and knock on it once or three times. A quick gesture between readings.
Moonlight. Leave the deck by a window overnight, often at the full moon. Keep it in its box or a cloth bag so that dust and morning sun do not reach the cards.
Smoke. Pass the deck through the smoke of incense or herbs. Keep it well away from the flame, and only where smoke is safe.
A crystal. Rest a clear quartz or another stone on the deck for a night.
Breath or intention. Hold the deck, breathe out over it and say what you want the next readings to be for.

What to avoid

Some guides suggest burying a deck in salt or running it under water. Both warp and stain card stock. Direct sunlight fades colours within weeks. If you want salt or water in your ritual, keep the deck in a closed bag and put the salt around it, not on it.

When readers cleanse

When a deck is new, to get to know it.
After a difficult or emotional reading.
When readings start to feel muddled or repetitive.
After someone else has handled the cards, if that matters to you.
After a long break.

The Pulp way

The most useful reset is also the most practical: lay the deck out in order and look at each card. You will notice which ones you have been drawing a lot. In the Pulp journal you can see the same thing as a list, which cards came back this month and which never appeared.