Question

[Enchanted_DreamFaerie]

Does anyone burn candles while giving themselves a Tarot or Oracle Card reading? Do you burn incense? How do you generally do you're readings? In the morning? Before you go to bed? Is there any kind of preparation you do before your readings? I'd curious and would love to hear from others.

[Jenny Crow]

Yes, I often burn a candle (or one or two sometimes). Often I burn a purple candle for spiritual awareness. I usually burn incense, too.

Before starting a reading I try to calm and relax myself. I never do a reading if I'm in a bad mood or really upset. I've done readings in the morning, afternoon, evening and in the middle of the night, often around 2 am - I just like that time of the night. I'm a professional reader so have to be able to do readings at all times.

I don't do any prep, sometimes I will already have incense burning (I tend to use a lot of incense on a daily basis). I don't intentionally have it burning and don't light candles or have crystals at hand.
Like Jenny, I don't read if I'm angry or emotional but apart from that, I read my own cards at anytime of the day that I feel called to.

[tealily]

I have zero rituals and on occasion, have also read under the influence of alcohol (for science - turns out my accuracy's not that bad).

As the others have mentioned though, I also tend to avoid reading when emotionally compromised for any reason (or make efforts to address emotions before I start reading). I also try to avoid reading when really tired - whether mentally or physically. This is more common sense than anything special though :)

[FairyCrystal]

I often do get essential oil going (I don't like incense much) and put on nice music.

Time a day .. doesn't matter as long as it isn't morning. I'm not a morning person.

[Kine Lea]

When using the Travole vampirea cards I do prefer the evenings. They just seem to resonate more after dark than in the daylight hours. I'll usually burn two tealight candles and always keep two shards of Citrine crystal near by (with a little sword I found in a churchyard while travelling through Grimsby:) - superstitious protection, I guess.

With my new Tarot of the Druid cards I cast a sacred circle as standard.

[faithy]

I like to burn white sage before I do a reading, I feel for myself it is a comforting and a protective thing, I also like to pray to the Divine light for guidance. I dont like doing readings when I am upset or emotional either, it is hard to concentrate on anything. After I am done I close the reading with a little sage too :)

[StrandedSnowMonkey]

I used to use candles, incense and sage quite a lot. Now that I'm living somewhere where I can't use incense, candles and sage, I use essential oils instead. Sometimes I'll use my tinghshas or my singing bowl, before shuffling the deck. I'm always wearing a crystal too ~ at the moment it's labradorite.

It will be nice to move on soon. I kinda miss using the white sage :)