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Do You Need To Store Your Tarot Cards In Order?

    If you love reading tarot forums, you might encounter the information that you need to store your cards in order. Is there a reason for this? Will a deck in order give you more accurate readings, or are there other reasons for re-order your cards after readings?

    7% say they reorder tarot cards after a reading. 92%  do not reorder their tarot decks in between readings at all. You reorder the tarot deck when you need to reset, recharge and reboot the deck’s energy or close an intense psychic reading.

    Some say you should reorder the tarot deck after every reading. The reason is foremost to charge and reboot the cards. But is it necessary? And what do other tarot readers do? Let’s take a closer look!

    REORDER TAROT CARDS IN BETWEEN READINGS

    There’s a say you need to reorder your tarot cards after readings to reset and charge them with fresh energy. If you have scrolled through tarot forums, you might have encountered this opinion from time to time.

    Reordering tarot cards is a way of cleansing, resetting, and charging them. The deck might pick up energies that will linger and interfere later on. It’s a way of cleansing the cards. 

    But do you need to do this procedure every time you do a reading? My answer is no; you don’t. But you are free to if you want, of course! As with everything tarot, you do it your way. Nothing is right, and nothing is wrong. There are easier ways of cleansing cards than reordering them every time. I use a shielding tarot box and a crystal, for example.

    REORDER TAROT CARDS IN BETWEEN READINGS

    HOW TO REORDER THE TAROT CARDS

    Even though it might not be necessary to reorder the cards after every reading, it can be beneficial to do so once in a while. It’s pretty easy to do, but it might take a little time as there are 78 cards to organize. 

    Start by pulling all the Major Arcana cards and rearranging them in numerical order. You find a Roman number at the top of the card. Arrange the Major Arcana from the Fool (0) to the World (21). 

    When you have rearranged the Major Arcana, continue with the Suits. Make four piles; Swords, Wands, Cups, and Pentacles. Arrange them in numerical order, followed by the Page, Knight, Queen, and King. 

    Lastly, take the piles and arrange them in order – the Ace should be the card on top.

    Now it’s time to pile them all together. Start with the Pentacles. On top, place the Cups. Continue with Wands, and lastly, the Swords. Place the Major Arcana pile on top of the stack of the Minor Arcana.

    1. Start with the stack of Pentacles.
    2. Place the Cups on top.
    3. Next up is the Wands.
    4. Lastly the pile of Swords.
    5. Finally, the Major Arcana with the Fool on top.

    Below you find pictures to guide you and a table of the Major Arcana.

    If you found this brief explanation hard to follow, I have written a full tutorial on doing this. You will find a link below. The article is about finding a missing card, but there is a section on rearranging the deck with pictures and detailed information. 

    This is the Major Arcana in sequence.
    This is the Major Arcana in sequence.
    NumberCard
    0The Fool
    1The Magician
    2The High Priestess
    3The Empress
    4The Emperor
    5The Hierophant
    6The Lovers
    7The Chariot
    8Strenght or Justice
    9The Hermit
    10Wheel of Fortune
    11Justice or Strength
    12The Hanged Man
    13Death
    14Temperance
    15The Devil
    16The Tower
    17The Star
    18The Moon
    19The Sun
    20Judgement
    21The World

    WANT TO LEARN MORE?

    How to reorder your tarot cards tutorial

    Cover card

    WHY REORDER TAROT CARDS AFTER READINGS?

    The main reason for reordering tarot cards between readings is to reboot and recharge the deck. The ritual resets the deck to its initial state and cleanse residual energies. With a clear deck, your readings will become more on-point and accurate.

    It’s time to reset the deck when your readings feel off. Often it’s referred to as the deck being “tired.” You have to go with your gut feeling on this. Sometimes the deck might be “tired.” Residual or active energy might cause the deck to give skewed answers.

    I recommend that you do a cleansing and a reboot of the deck to be sure you are covering all bases. The easiest way is to reorder your deck and perform a cleaning ritual with crystals, incents, or a prayer. If you are new to tarot, crystal cleaning is easy to do. Place a selenite crystal on top of the deck and let it sit for a couple of hours. 

    In the recommended tools, you find my favorite cleansing crystals and incents. 

    Another cause for rearranging your tarot deck is to connect with it. During reordering the cards, you will look at and touch every card in the deck. This is a powerful way of connecting with it. If you want to, charge the deck after the reorder. Do this by knocking three times, for example.

    You will find two articles below that might be of help. I have written one about cleansing for beginners and an article on charging a deck. 

    WANT TO LEARN MORE?

    How to cleanse tarot cards with crystals for beginners

    WANT TO LEARN MORE?

    How to charge a tarot deck

    7% REORDER TAROT CARDS AFTER READINGS

    When researching the topic of reordering decks, I wanted to know what readers did, not what everyone said people did. I decided to create a poll in my favorite tarot community on Facebook, Learn Tarot. Over 400 tarot readers shared their insights as I asked them, “Do you store your tarot cards in order?.” 

    92% of the readers do not reorder the cards after a reading. They said it was too much work, and they only did it when they felt the need to. 

    Only 7% answered they did do so often or occasionally. The leading cause for reordering a deck was resetting and removing residual energies. Some enjoyed the procedure of rendering the cards and closing the reading. This ritual can be very effective if you do psychic readings. This is a way of closing the “door.” 

    7% REORDER TAROT CARDS AFTER READINGS
    AnswerNumber%
    No37392%
    Sometimes225%
    Yes92%
    I categorize them10%

    DO YOU NEED TO REORDER TAROT CARDS FOR ACCURATE READINGS?

    You don’t need to reorder your tarot deck after reading if you don’t want to. Most tarot readers do not do this, but this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. You have to go with your gut feeling and what feels right. There are no rights and wrongs when it comes to reading tarot. 

    It might be a great idea to reorder the cards if you’re doing psychic readings as it closes the reading. But as with all advanced divination, be sure you know what you’re doing. You don’t want to accidentally leave a door open for energies to come along as they wish.

    IN SUMMARY

    As a general rule, you don’t need to reorder your tarot cards after readings if you don’t want to. Most tarot readers do not reorder their cards after readings but when they feel they need to.

    Most causes for reordering tarot cards is if the deck gets “tired.” The tarot might start to give you unclear and wonky messages. I always recommend a cleanse and reboot to ensure you are targeting the underlying issue. 

    As with everything with tarot, there is no right or wrong way of doing things. You have to go with your inner compass. Nothing bad can happen by reordering your deck, so do it if you need to.

    Sandra Törnroth

    Intuitive multi-modal tarot reader with a love for crystals and everything esoteric

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    THE DEFINITIONS IN THIS ARTICLE ARE BASED ON THE RIDER WAITE DECK AND SYSTEM.

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