Let me clear this up first because it’s the bit that matters most. Tarot itself is not a closed practice. You’re allowed to read tarot. You don’t need to have inherited it, been initiated into it, or come from a specific cultural lineage. The cards have been used across cultures for hundreds of years and no single tradition owns them.
But plenty of things people layer onto a tarot practice are closed. That distinction is worth getting clear on, because most readers I know have, at some point, picked up something from somewhere without thinking about whose tradition it belonged to. This week is about pulling that apart properly.
What a Closed Practice Actually Is
A closed practice is a spiritual tradition or set of practices that’s restricted to people who were either born into the culture or who’ve gone through some kind of formal, authorised initiation. The point isn’t gatekeeping for its own sake. It’s that the practice has meaning, context, ceremony, and history that doesn’t transfer just because you’ve seen someone do it on Instagram.
There are loads of them. The term spirit animal is a closed one. It belongs to certain Indigenous communities, and you see a lot of wellness influencers using it as shorthand for, oh, this is my spirit animal, this is so me, and all of that kind of stuff. Which isn’t okay. It takes a term that carries actual meaning in certain native communities and strips it of that meaning. It bastardises it. It cheapens it.
Some religions are closed. Certain titles like shaman or witch doctor belong to specific traditions and aren’t yours to take just because they sound good on a business card. So it matters that we understand where what we’re doing comes from. Not to feel guilty about everything, but to make sure we’re not stepping into something that isn’t ours.
The Egyptian Origin Myth
There’s a rumour out there that tarot is itself a closed practice. To put it bluntly, it’s not. But there are a few myths about where the cards came from that are worth naming.
The first is the Egyptian one. A French writer called Antoine Court de Gébelin came up with the idea in 1781 that tarot had ancient Egyptian origins. Completely false. Been proven wrong. The dates don’t match up. He just invented it. Tarot was created in northern Italy in the 15th century as a card game for the Italian elite. The mystical and occult associations came much later. The Egyptian myth has hung around in some corners, and you’ll still hear people insist that tarot is some kind of closed Egyptian practice. It really isn’t.
The Romani Origin Myth
The bigger one, the one most people have heard, is that tarot belongs to the Romani people. There’s no historical evidence for this either. Jean-Alexandre Vaillant added Romani people to the story of tarot in the 19th century, but there’s no evidence that Romani people used tarot, certainly not for divination, until at least the 18th century. That’s about 300 years after tarot was created in northern Italy.
The reason this myth matters is because it gets used to romanticise a culture without their input and without their consent. The Romani people have faced centuries of persecution, forced assimilation, and active discrimination. Lifting their image as marketing for spiritual mystique while ignoring the actual community is a documented harm with a name. And it’s not okay.
Now, there are some Romani people who do claim that the tradition is genuinely theirs through adoption and adaptation. There’s a live debate about that. So feel free to do your own research and come to your own conclusion. From what I understand, the use of tarot as a tool isn’t closed in any way. Certain ways of using it arguably are. But that isn’t the same thing.
Aesthetics and Appropriation
Here’s the bit that needs naming even though tarot itself isn’t closed. There’s a lot of appropriation in how some readers present themselves. The headscarves. The mystical aesthetic. The marketing that invokes ancient gypsy wisdom or timeless Romani traditions. That’s harmful. Let’s not dress that up as some sort of appropriated party trick.
Using the cards themselves for contemplation, introspection, spiritual growth, or even divination isn’t closed. The cards have been used across Europe and beyond, in many different cultures. No one tradition owns them. But how you present yourself as a reader is a choice. If your aesthetic is borrowing from a culture you aren’t part of and that’s still facing active discrimination, that’s a different conversation.
White Sage and Smudging
Now we get to the one that comes up most in tarot and wellness spaces, and that’s white sage. People use it for smoke cleansing. Lighting the bundle, walking it round a room or themselves, calling it smudging.
Smudging is a Native American and First Nations ceremonial practice. It was illegal to perform in the United States until 1978. That’s not ancient history, that’s within a lot of people’s lifetimes. And it requires actual ceremony, not just grabbing some white sage off Etsy and waving it around. That isn’t what smudging is. There’s a whole ceremony to it that often gets ignored or bastardised by people in the west who do it because it seems cool or mystical.
There’s a practical layer to this too. White sage is native to certain parts of America like California. And because of the number of western witches on Instagram and witch-tok on TikTok using it, the plant has been overharvested to the point where its survival is threatened. Native communities are losing access to a plant that belongs to their practice.
Palo Santo and Overharvesting
For similar reasons, Palo Santo is something I’d probably advise against using. Not so much for the appropriation side of it, because there aren’t the same closed-practice issues attached. But the overharvesting and the impact on the people for whom this is part of an actual tradition is a big thing.
Cleansing Without Borrowing
None of this means you can’t cleanse. There are really good alternatives that don’t require borrowing from a tradition that isn’t yours.
One I do a lot is sound cleansing. Using a singing bowl, or a bell, or even just clapping. You can use any of that to cleanse your space, and the only thing you’re putting out is noise. Locally grown herbs are another option. If you’re going to do smoke cleansing, herbs you’ve grown yourself or sourced locally are better for the environment and don’t carry the same baggage. Rosemary, common sage, lavender. All fine. And arguably if you’re into earth-based witchcraft, surely the point is to be using stuff from your environment rather than something off Etsy that’s been picked by people who weren’t paid a fair wage and shipped over on a commercial airline to get to you.
Cacao and Other Practices Worth Looking At
This isn’t just about cleansing. It applies to all kinds of things. The terms you’re using to describe what you do. The things you’re consuming. Cacao is one I think about. Drinking cacao is fine, that’s not closed. But cacao ceremonies are from Mayan culture, and there’s a whole thing that goes with them. I’ve been to circles where they’ve run a cacao ceremony and just completely ignored, or genuinely don’t know about, the history and the context that’s come from.
The Question to Carry
So I’d encourage you to audit your practice. Not just the cards you use, but everything around them. Where are you borrowing from? What are you borrowing? And why are you borrowing it?
Is it because it looks cool? Because you’ve seen other people do it? Or is it something you genuinely feel a connection to, and is that something you’re able to have a connection to? Or is it something that requires rituals and initiations you haven’t been through?
The question that should sit underneath all of this is simple. Is this mine to use? And if you don’t know, finding out, doing your research, is just responsible practice. We want an honest practice. We want an ethical practice. That’s the whole theme of this month. Asking that question, even when it’s uncomfortable, is part of doing the work properly.
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