Cutting

[Grizabella]

Wow, thanks everyone for your responses!

I've always cut my deck in thirds, but use my right hand (I'm right-handed, so it feels weird using my left...and one should be comfortable during a reading). I always put them together again based upon how the card stacks feel to me intuitively.

So, I guess it is reader's choice. It is interesting how things just become a matter of course.

DarkWolf

That's actually true---the right side of the brain does control the left side of the brain. Interesting point I didn't think of.

As a person learns Tarot they develop their own routines with the cards and I've found that, for me, there are just things I evolved with as routine and now if I omit a step or two, it doesn't quite feel right. I can still read the cards alright if I change some of the routine but being a creature of habit, it just feels a little odd to do it differently.

I've said it before on AT---maybe worded differently---but the "magic" is in you, not in the cards. My cards are a just stack of card stock with art work on them. I'm just an old woman like any other old woman. But when I pick up my cards, we turn into something else. That's where the "magic" happens. I use quotation marks around the word magic because that's just a word that's easy to use to describe it. I don't practice magic or even know anything about the Tarot magic. Just develop whatever feels right for you and don't worry about the "shoulds" and "oughts" you come across in reading about Tarot or learning what others do. None of it matters, really.

 

[DarkWolf]

I've said it before on AT---maybe worded differently---but the "magic" is in you, not in the cards. My cards are a just stack of card stock with art work on them. I'm just an old woman like any other old woman. But when I pick up my cards, we turn into something else. That's where the "magic" happens. I use quotation marks around the word magic because that's just a word that's easy to use to describe it. I don't practice magic or even know anything about the Tarot magic. Just develop whatever feels right for you and don't worry about the "shoulds" and "oughts" you come across in reading about Tarot or learning what others do. None of it matters, really.

Nicely put.

It is what we bring to the tarot that matters. The cards in and of themselves are just cards if they have no one to interpret them.

 

[DarkWolf]

Its all a matter of personal choice and what makes you feel comfortable. l am always for the simple approach. Of course there are other folk who like the ritual beforehand of shuffling and cutting.
Do what feels right for you from the start and stay with it.

I've always cut the deck...I don't know how I learned about it, I just always have. It would be really weird not to. But I can see that just shuffling would be very simple. I like the idea a lot...but I think it would throw me of if I tried it!

 

[Padma]

I've always cut the deck in three, because that was how I learned, from old tarot books. I'm sure it is just a superstition or, as Grizz said, has to do with the number three being tied into magic. (I know there is a far deeper explanation about number 3 than that, but I will leave it at that!)

The thing is, I always get my clients to put the cards back into one pack. And if they choose the left pack to sit on the top, I know the question has to do with their past. If they put middle on top, it has to do with something current. And when they choose the right stack to be on top, I know they are trying to look forward, into the future. And for whatever reason, that never seems to fail me, that trick of watching what they put on top.

I also read the bottom card in the pack, before turning the other cards; it always seems to underline the question being asked.

 

[Penthasilia]

I've always cut the deck in three, because that was how I learned, from old tarot books. I'm sure it is just a superstition or, as Grizz said, has to do with the number three being tied into magic. (I know there is a far deeper explanation about number 3 than that, but I will leave it at that!)

3 stacks with the left hand starting with the middle stack, to the left and then to the right- with a very serious look- that is the way my bubcia taught.

Seriously cannot break the habit. Ingrained- from the old country. (Read that with a thick central European accent.)

 

[DarkWolf]

3 stacks with the left hand starting with the middle stack, to the left and then to the right- with a very serious look- that is the way my bubcia taught.

Seriously cannot break the habit. Ingrained- from the old country. (Read that with a thick central European accent.)

Lol.

I may have to experiment with my method and see what happens. Who knows, there might be something that works better.

 

[nisaba]

I opened this thread hesitantly and with some trepidation: I thought it might be about self-mutilation.

Ok, stupid question. And I'm sure it has been asked a lot. But I have always wondered...why are you supposed to cut the Tarot deck in thirds before assembling the deck for a reading?

You're not "supposed" to do anything at all. I personally cut just once if I'm doing it, but if I have a client in front of me, I get them to cut into four piles, not three.

You don't have to cut the deck at all. Work out for yourself what you like best, then make that a regular routine. Your deck will work around it once you know what you'll always be doing, and put the right cards in the right place.

 

[DarkWolf]

I opened this thread hesitantly and with some trepidation: I thought it might be about self-mutilation.

I thought that might be an issue, nisaba! I was debating whether to add more details or not to the title, but then I thought "hey this is for tarot after all."

It seems that I am quite comfortable with the thirds option, my deck seems to respond very well. I am blown away by how important it is to find the right deck. I use the Steampunk deck by Barbara Moore and Aly Fell. It is so consistent. I have never had a relationship with a deck like this before. I guess I will just stick with what I am doing, since the cards come out right.

Thanks all,

DarkWolf

 

[Barleywine]

I picked it up from Eden Gray's 1960 book, The Tarot Revealed, back in 1972 and have been doing it that way ever since. Nothing magic about it as far as I can see, nor in the rest of that instruction: "with your left hand to the left," although there is an opinion that the non-dominant (or receptive) hand should be used for the cut.

 

[DarkWolf]

Hi Barleywine,

I always use my dominant hand. I never heard of the "left to left" though. I always restack the cards according to how I "feel" about them.

DarkWolf