Introduction

    The Crown Deck can be used for esoteric divination or simply for play.  In the United States, we tend to think of Tarot as a fortune teller’s tool or as an alchemical mirror to explore our own psyche but the decks also have an old, rich history in Italy, France, Germany and beyond, where they are used in complex, multi-player card games.  The first tarot decks emerged in Italy sometime around 1420 AD.  Initially used for card games, they quickly evolved into story-telling aids and, as they were often commissioned by families or royal courts, into political critique using imagery and symbols rather than words.  It was not until the 16th century that Tarot began to be associated with esoteric symbolism and divination.

​

 

Care and Cleansing

        As the energetic burden of the cards is important to their use in divination, it is better not to use the same deck for both play and serious soul searching.  Like any sharp, well-crafted tool, the deck can be hurtful when used incorrectly and thus your alchemical deck should only be handled by you or the person you are reading and always with specific, careful intent.  Before and after using your deck to read, you should cleanse or neutralize it in order to rid it of energies from prior readings.  There are many ways of doing this but the most basic is the following:

    1.  Store your deck wrapped in silk or velvet with a pinch of good pure salt.

    2.  Before and after using your deck, knock it on a hard surface (like people do instinctively before shuffling or dealing).  In essence, you are knocking the old, polluting energies out of the deck.  Fan them out, blow on them, then knock again.  You will find that you do this almost without thinking but as in all divination, energetic intention is key and so as you do these simple steps, actively will the neutralizing of the cards.