This week we had a great call with my awesome group of In The Cards tarot students and there was a fantastic question from someone about how we can use tarot and crystals together. At first it might seem like a weird idea; how do crystals have anything to do with tarot cards? The truth is using crystals in your tarot work can give a great boost , whether it’s readings, meditation, tarot magic, or anything else. There are a couple of simple and effective ways that you can use crystals with your tarot or oracle cards but there are a few important things to keep in mind when working with crystals at all.

Size Matters! The bigger the stone the bigger an energy field it has so the larger of an area it will have an effect on. When working with crystals and tarot you’ll likely just be working to have an effect on the immediate area or the space between you and the person you’re reading for, so average sized tumbled stones up to palm sized stones work really well.

Tune Your Stones! Cleansing stones is often a bit of a misnomer and why we often do what we do and why it works is misunderstood. The reason that running a stone under cool water cleanses it is because of the negative ions in the fresh water balancing out and removing the negative ions that build up around the stone affecting the stone’s vibratory frequency. Crystals do not “absorb negative energy”. What happens is their vibration entrains to lower vibrations {what we often perceive is “negative energy”}. When we’re going to use a stone for any purpose we want it at it’s highest and best rate of vibration. We can do this by running it under water but the best way to do it is with other vibrations, specifically sound vibrations. Simply strike a singing bowl or ring a bell or tingshaws around your stones for a few seconds and the vibration of the bell will help clear and reset the vibration of the stone.

Mind Your Points! If you’re using terminated crystals {i.e. crystals with points} direct the points inward if you want to draw in energy or outward if you want to send energy away.

With these couple of basics in mind here are some ways you can use tarot and crystals together.

Place crystals around your reading space/table.

This is something you may have seen others do. If you’ve ever had a reading in a shop or at a psychic fair you’ve probably sat at a reader’s table that has at least one or two clusters of amethyst or quartz. You can place just a central stone on your table or you can create a sort of crystal grid on your table around your card layout space. Clear quartz. lepidolite, amethyst, lapis lazuli, and labradorite all are great for this. Use amethyst points on the corners of your reading table pointing inward to draw in more intuitive energy for your reading.

Keep a programed crystal in your tarot bag/box.

Programming a crystal to help you align better with your tarot deck is super simple. First pick a stone that feels right for you. I would suggest using a stone of intuition that you feel a personal connection to. For me it’s either amethyst or lapis lazuli for this work. Tune your stone so it has a clear vibration and then decide on your specific intent. Intention is your ultimate tool in programming so you need to have your intent for your stone’s program crystal clear {no pun intended}. For this you might envision that every time you use your deck the messages come easy and clearly for you. Decide in a simple phrase for your intention like “clear intuitive messages from these cards”. Hold the stone in your dominant hand {the one you write with}, and squeeze the stone gently. As you do visualize you using your cards with easy. Repeat, silently or aloud, “clear intuitive messages from this deck” over and over until you feel that the stone is programmed {just go with your gut}. Then place the stone in your tarot bag or box and keep it with your deck when it’s not being used.

Please crystals on your cards when you meditate or do magic with them.

If you use your cards for meditation or spellwork/manifestation you can add stones to the cards when you do this. Say you are going to meditate with the Six of Cups today because you want to get clear on some family memories from your childhood. You would place your Six of Cups on your altar or meditation space and then place a rose quartz for love on it to remember these things fondly. You could use a clear quartz to help clear up foggy childhood memories, or an amethyst to help draw more intuitive or psychic messages from these memories. Simply pick the card you need to work with right now and a stone that will amplify or enhance your needs or intention and place the tuned stone on the card or use four of the same stone to surround the corners of the card on your altar.

Empower your crystals with tarot archetypes and energies.

We can reverse this tarot and crystal work a little and instead of empowering a card with a crystal we can empower a crystal with a card’s energies. The idea is the same as above; place the desired crystal on the card and place your dominant hand over it {alternately you can place the card with the stone on it in your other hand and place your dominant hand over it}. Visualize the energy of the card being drawn up into your tuned crystal and empowering it. Repeat the name of the card over and over, aloud or silently, until you feel the card had been charged. When I do this I like to then place the card with the stone on top for a day or two on my altar. Then you can carry the stone with to help you align to the archetype and energy of that card better.

Correspondences of Crystals and Tarot

The following correspondence list is of my own design so feel free to play with it and tweak it as you see fit. Here you’ll find correspondences for each of the major arcana cards, the four suits, and then a single stone for each of the court cards. With the court cards I recommend using a stone for the specific card’s rank and then the suit, so in other words for the King of Pentacles you could use fluorite and malachite together.

Major Arcana

Fool: new beginnings, journey ahead

clear quartz, green tourmaline

Magician: manifesting, opportunity

fire opal, garnet

High Priestess: intuition, psychic power

aquamarine, labradorite

Empress: fertility, nurturing

emerald, green jade

Emperor: power, confidence

red jasper, carnelian

Hierophant: spiritual traditions, guidance

celestite, blue topaz

Lovers: relationships, sexuality

ruby, rhodocrosite

Chariot: control, moving forward

chalcedony, peridot

Strength: power, courage

citrine, bloodstone

Hermit: inner wisdom, self discovery

kyanite, howlite

Wheel of Fortune: changes, cycles

aventurine, serpentine

Justice: truth, logical reason

tiger’s eye, cinnabar

Hanged Man: altered consciousness, changing perspectives

selenite, beryl

Death: transformation, letting go

black tourmaline, amber

Temperance: harmony, balance

malachite, tektite

Devil: blockages, facing fears

hematite, onyx

Tower: liberation, dramatic change

obsidian, perhnite

Star: hope, clarity

sodalite, azurite

Moon: illusions, dreams

moonstone, lapis lazuli

Sun: optimism, creativity

sunstone, pyrite

Judgement: reawakening, re-evaluation

thulite, danburite

World: accomplishment, new life chapter

turquoise, lepidolite

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Cups: Water element, intuition, emotions, spirituality

moonstone, pearl, aquamarine, lapis lazuli, sodalite

Wands: Fire element, action, creativity, passion

citrine, carnelian, red jasper, ruby, tiger’s eye, garnet

Swords: Air element, mental powers, knowledge, intellect

fluorite, blue topaz, yellow topaz, picture jasper, snow quartz

Pentacles: Earth element, money, physical health, material realm

larimar, malachite, emerald, bloodstone, ritualized quartz, black tourmaline

The Court Cards

King: Air element

green fluorite

Queens: Water element

Mother of Pearl

Knights: Fire element

red jasper

Pages: Earth element

green calcite

Do you use crystals with your tarot or oracle cards?

What are some of your favorite ways to combine the two?