HOW TO CLEAR NEGATIVE ENERGY
BEFORE YOUR NEXT TAROT READING
When you sit down for a tarot reading, it’s natural to focus on the cards and the reader. But there’s a third factor that matters just as much: you — and the energy you bring to the table.
Negative energy can cling to anyone’s spirit. Stress, difficult interactions, unresolved emotions, or even a rough day at work can leave a kind of invisible residue on your energetic field. If that heaviness goes unaddressed before a reading, it can cloud the clarity of the messages you receive — making it harder to connect with the guidance the cards are offering.
The good news is that clearing your energy doesn’t have to be complicated. Whether you’re sitting down for a free tarot card reading or a session with a trusted reader, these six practical methods can help you show up grounded, open, and ready.
How Do You Know If You’re Carrying Negative Energy?
Negative energy doesn’t always announce itself clearly. Sometimes it’s a nagging sense that something is off — a low-grade irritability or emotional fog you can’t quite explain. Other times the signals are more physical.
Common signs include:
- A tightness or heaviness in the chest
- Tension in the neck, shoulders, or jaw
- Persistent fatigue, even after a full night’s sleep
- Racing or intrusive thoughts that are hard to quiet
- Anxiety, sadness, or unease without a clear cause
- Vivid or unsettling dreams
If several of these feel familiar, a simple cleansing practice before your reading can make a real difference — not just for the quality of the reading, but for how you feel overall.
6 Ways to Clear Negative Energy Before a Reading
1. Take a Sea Salt Bath
Sea salt has been used across many cultures for centuries as a cleansing agent — both physically and energetically. It’s believed to draw out and absorb stagnant or heavy energy from the body, making it one of the most effective and accessible tools for an energetic reset.
To use it: draw a warm bath and dissolve a generous handful of sea salt or pink Himalayan salt into the water. As you soak, close your eyes and breathe slowly. Visualize the tension and heaviness loosening from your body and being absorbed into the water. When you drain the tub, picture the negative energy flowing away with it.
Even 15 to 20 minutes in a salt bath can leave you feeling noticeably lighter and more centered. It’s a beautifully simple ritual that pairs well with candlelight, soft music, or a grounding intention set before you step in.
2. Visualize White Light
This technique is simple, requires no tools, and can be done anywhere — making it one of the most practical energy-clearing methods available.
Sit or lie down comfortably. Close your eyes and take a few slow, deep breaths. Then imagine a warm, bright white light beginning to glow at the center of your chest. With each inhale, picture the light expanding — filling your entire body, then surrounding you like a soft, luminous shield.
This kind of protective visualization appears in many spiritual traditions under different names, but the intention is the same: lower or heavier energies have a much harder time attaching to your spirit when you are consciously surrounding yourself with high-vibrational light. It’s especially useful when you’ve been around people or environments that felt draining.
You can deepen the practice by pairing it with an affirmation: “I release what is not mine, and I welcome in clarity and peace.” Repeat it slowly a few times as you hold the visualization.
3. Burn Incense
Burning incense has roots in spiritual and ceremonial practices across cultures — from ancient temples to modern meditation spaces. Beyond the calming sensory experience, certain herbs and resins are traditionally used to purify a space and shift its energetic quality.
For clearing negative energy, look for incense made with:
- Lavender — calming, emotionally soothing, and gentle on the spirit
- Rosemary — historically used for purification and mental clarity
- Sage — one of the most widely recognized cleansing herbs across traditions
- Frankincense — long used in sacred settings for elevating and sanctifying energy
- Peppermint or cinnamon — invigorating and energetically protective
Light your incense and allow it to fill the room before your reading begins. You can also gently wave the smoke around your body — particularly around the head, chest, and hands — setting a clear intention to release any stagnant or heavy energy as you do.
4. Sweep Your Space
This one might seem surprisingly practical for a spiritual topic — but sweeping has been used in folk traditions around the world as a way to physically and energetically clear a space. The act of moving energy out through your doors is both literal and symbolic.
You don’t need a special broom, though a natural-bristle one is a lovely touch. Simply sweep each room of your home — or at least the space where you’ll be doing the reading — with the intention of moving stagnant energy toward and out the door. Open a window if you can, giving any heaviness a clear exit.
As you sweep, you might set an intention aloud: “I clear this space of anything heavy or unwelcome. Only clarity and positive energy remain.” Ritual actions paired with clear intention can be surprisingly effective at shifting the way a space feels — and how you feel within it.
5. Try Smudging
Smudging is a traditional purification practice — rooted in Indigenous North American ceremonies — that uses the smoke of sacred herbs to cleanse a person, object, or space. It’s one of the most widely used energetic clearing tools in spiritual communities today, and for good reason.
White sage is the most common choice, but palo santo, cedar, and lavender bundles are also popular options, each with a slightly different energetic quality. You can find smudge wands and cleansing sprays through Angel Messenger if you’d like to try this practice.
To smudge: light the tip of the bundle, let it catch briefly, then gently blow out the flame so the herbs smolder and produce smoke. Move the smoke slowly around your body — starting at the feet and working upward — then carry it through each room of your home. Pay close attention to corners, doorways, and any areas that feel particularly heavy or stagnant.
If tension has been gathering in your chest or shoulders, linger the smoke around those areas with conscious intention. Many people like to speak a blessing or prayer aloud while smudging — the words add a focused layer of intention to the practice. Leave a window or door open so the smoke, and the energy it carries, has a clear path out.
6. Clear the Clutter
Your physical environment has more influence on your energetic state than many people realize. A cluttered, chaotic space tends to feed a cluttered, scattered mind — and a scattered mind makes it much harder to drop into the quiet, receptive state that allows a tarot reading to land with real meaning.
Before your reading, take a few minutes to reset the space around you. Clear the surface you’ll be reading on, put away anything that feels out of place, and remove objects that carry difficult memories or associations if you can. You don’t need to do a full deep clean — even small intentional adjustments shift a room’s energy noticeably.
If there are items in your home that consistently bring up grief, anxiety, or painful memories, it may be worth considering whether it’s time to let them go. Letting go of objects can sometimes be its own form of energetic release. [link: how to create a sacred space for tarot readings]
Making Energy Clearing a Regular Practice
These techniques aren’t only useful on reading days. Weaving even one or two of them into your regular routine can help keep your energetic field clear, your mind more settled, and your intuition more accessible week to week.
Think of it as a form of energetic self-care — the same way you wouldn’t let physical clutter pile up indefinitely, it’s worth regularly releasing the emotional and energetic weight that daily life accumulates. This is especially true if you’re naturally empathetic, highly sensitive, or spend a lot of time in stressful environments or around difficult people.
The more consistently you tend to your energy, the more open and receptive you’ll be — not just for tarot readings, but for every area of your life where you want to invite in clarity, connection, and peace.
Ready to sit down for a reading? Explore our free tarot card readings and Tarot Card of the Day — and step into your reading with a clear, open spirit.
[link: how to prepare for a tarot reading]
Do you have a favorite way to clear your energy before a reading? Share it in the comments below — we’d love to hear what works for you.
~ Your Tarot Friend