Sue Ellis-Saller

Combining essential oils and tarot readings can help to deepen your connection, enhance your intuition, and keep your reading space energetically clean and positive. In this article, I’ll talk about the basics of using essential oils or incense to enhance your tarot reading or other intuitive practice.

Working with scent

Personally, I prefer using essential oils to burning incense, as I don’t want to “smoke out” the whole house (really, it is about what my family will tolerate). As smoke can represent the element of wind (intellect, speech), you might prefer to actually burn incense or find an oil-based room spray. Experiment with different variations and methods to find out what best works for you.

Honestly speaking, most of the time I just put a vial of oil to my nose and inhale a few times, allowing the scent that I am using to really work its way through my nasal cavity and into my pineal area. Closing my eyes and turning my attention to the scent(s) I am using signals the start of my session. I have even started getting images right when I start inhaling perfumes – they are that good!

You can also apply the oils to different areas of your body. For example, if you would like to strengthen your connection with Spirit through your Crown Chakra, you could rub a few drops of lavender oil on your crown prior to your reading. Or, if you wanted to concentrate on opening your Third Eye Chakra to be able to accurately see during a reading, then you might try rubbing a drop of Frankincense on your third eye area. People who have a hard time communicating their intuitions to clients might do well to rub lavender on their throats prior to a reading session.

If you would prefer to release the scents into the room without burning anything, you can buy a good diffuser that uses air to “blow” the scents into the air. There are several different types on the market, and they range in cost and area covered.

Make sure that you are getting good, quality oils or incense that are made with care to the Earth and environment – not to mention to the integrity of the oils themselves! Cheaper oils can be made from tinctures or synthetics (YUCK), thus making them far less powerful and more poisonous to the environment. Other cheap oil brands use bark when resin is called for (so the skin instead of the sap) – or they simply grind all of the pieces together to make a conglomerate scent, instead of working with the plant in a truer manner. Another thing to take into consideration with quality is eco-friendliness of the company. Whenever possible, the plant and tree species used to make the essential oils should be cultivated in their native habitats. This ensures that the plants are healthy and hearty and are able to thrive in the environment in which they are grown.

If you are interested in using the oils I’ve described here or even start your own part-time business sharing oils. Please email me at sue@sueellissaller.com if you would like to sign up or order, or go straight to my doTerra site.

There are a few different scents that will help with every reading, and those that are geared more toward working with specific sorts of energies, like fairies, spirits, elves, and angels. I will suggest a few of each in the following section and tell you why they help!

Clearing, Cleaning, and Connection:

Sage:

Sage is a sacred plant that has been used by various tribes and groups around the world for ages. It is the “go to” herb for smudging/clearing negativity out of spaces and objects. I recommend using SMOKE when possible so that you can really connect with the spirit world when working with this holy and sacred scent – but I have also heard that room sprays can be just as good for clearing space (personally, I wouldn’t spray my cards with anything, as they might get ruined by liquid).

If you would like to clear your cards either because you have purchased them second-hand or for “maintenance,” fan your deck out on a table and “push” the sage smoke over the cards, holding the intention to clear the cards of any negativity or lower vibrations that might have become attached to them in their usage.

Cedarwood:

Cedarwood has clarifying properties when applied topically, and can also help to remove negativity or negative residue from a person’s aura. I love using this oil to clear my energy after doing readings.

General Scents:

These scents are those that I would use regardless of what sort of reading I was working with.

Aside from being a plant known to help keep spaces cleaned, it is also strongly associated with connecting to the Spirit Realm.

Sandalwood:

Sandalwood is renowned for helping people to enter meditative states. It can help to relax and focus a person – helping them to settle their thoughts, concentrate and turn inward. It is also astringent and antiseptic oil, so it can really “clear the air” and help you to create a sacred space. This essential oil/scent is high in something called “sesquiterpenes” – these are compounds contained in the scent that are said to stimulate the pineal gland.

Frankincense:

Frankincense is well noted as being an oil that healers and prophets have used for ages. Like sandalwood, this scent has antiseptic and antibacterial qualities and can aid in creating a sacred space. This oil also has a very high vibrational frequency, and so it can serve as a protective agent in your readings – keeping lower level spirits out of your space and reading. Using frankincense can also help a person increase his or her perceptive abilities.

Lavender:

Lavender is another all around great oil/scent to help with meditation and connection with the source so that your readings will be more accurate. Known for its calming properties, lavender can help a person to better relax and be more open to receiving messages from Spirit. This “purple” smell relates to the Crown Chakra, and is said to help people to see and hear spirits.

Attracting Guides and Good Spirits:

If you are interested in working more closely with your guides and good spirits that are in your space when reading tarot, then try some of these oils

Rose:

Rose essential oil has one of the highest vibratory frequencies. Many recommend using rose scent to attract angels and spirit guides associated with joy and love into a session. You can use this scent to increase your psychic awareness as well.

Wisteria:

Wisteria is another great oil to use when connecting to the spirit realm. It can help to attract specific guides and aid in the development of energetic healing skills.

Protecting Your Energy from Negativity:

We all want to make sure that the entities that help us out in our readings are high vibrating souls, spirits, and angels, and that they have the greatest good of ourselves and our clients in mind when working with us. In order to protect your energy, space, and the space and energy of the person you are reading for, you might want to use these scents…

Carnation:

Carnation has been used in the past to protect people from wayward and negative energies and entities. According to Llewellyn’s article, carnation “was worn during Elizabethan times to prevent encounters with ghosts.”

Super duper helpers:

Rosemary:

Rosemary is another scent/oil that is very antiseptic and antiviral, and can help not only to clear and clean your space – creating a sacred area to work within – but it is also considered to be highly protective. It is associated with elves and can be used to work with them. Aside from these uses, Rosemary is said to help people to focus and relax at the same time, and that can help to increase psychic awareness and a peaceful, calm feeling for the reader. **DO NOT use Rosemary if you have a seizure disorder, as this scent has been known to bring on seizures in those who are prone to them.

Gardenia:

Like Rosemary, Gardenia has a wide variety of uses related to working with Spirit. It is said to attract good, high vibrating entities and to increase a person’s telepathic abilities.

Lilac:

This wonderfully versatile fragrance is known to enhance psychic visions and fine-tune clairvoyant capabilities. People have used it to clear hauntings from houses and connect with fairies. It is also a great scent for attracting good, high vibrating entities and spirits into readings.

As you can see, there are a wide variety of different essential oils that you can use to help with your tarot reading, angel card readings – and even mediumship sessions or just for general spiritual cleansing and connection. Experiment with different oils and decks and find out what works best for you!

If you have any additional oils or rituals to add, please feel free to share your experience and the combinations you use!

With respect and light,