Deck cleansing for the cartomante of limited means

I belong to quite a few cartomancy groups of Facebook and the question of how to cleanse a deck of negative energy has come up several times recently.

I'm not the type to have a supply of smudge sticks, dragon's blood or dressed candles to hand (I do have Florida Water, mind you - love it!). If you're the same and you find yourself with a troubled deck then this may be of interest.

My Thrifty Witch method for cleansing a deck – when all you've got is salt and time!

Place the offending deck ;-) face down on a clean level surface. Place your hand, right or left, you decide, flat on top of the stack and begin twisting the deck. Keep putting your hand back and twisting to mix the cards. As some escape to the sides, push them back into the pile and keep twisting them all together until you're satisfied they've had a thorough blending.

Gather up the cards and place them in order, whatever "in order" means to you – by suit or by number, etc., turning any reversed cards upright.

Get a clean dish or tray and sprinkle some salt on it. Sea salt if you have it, or just ordinary table salt. Place the deck face up on top of the salt and sprinkle it with a bit more salt. You don't have to bury it. Now place the tray and deck on a windowsill where ideally it will get some sunlight, and better yet moonlight, and leave it there for 5 days.

While you're waiting, use another deck. This bit is important. It keeps you from anxiously waiting for your other deck to be ready (so your energies won't be disturbing the resting deck), keeps your divinatory engine ticking over, and potentially releases any negative energies you yourself may be holding into the stand-in deck.

As you can see, there’s a fair bit of leeway in these instructions. Take what you find useful and make the process your own. Like all magic, Intention is the key.