A Quick Question...

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 15 Mar 2005, and now archived in the Forum Library.

lorena	15 Mar 2005
Could somebody please give me some tips on shuffling or mixing the deck before laying out a spread?

HudsonGray	15 Mar 2005
If the cards are too large for easy handling (a common complaint) then use a clean surface and just 'smush' them around with both hands into a large pile, blending them every which way. Then scoop them all together, tapping them into one pile, and go from there. OR you can fan the deck out face down and pick one card at a time that way. OR toss them into the air over a bedspread....but that's harder to pull together.

Dave's Angel	16 Mar 2005
I personally put them down on the floor and whizz them around. I don't like shuffling in the hand because there is no truly random way of reversing the cards (OK, you can pick a handful and turn them upside down, but that strikes me as less random than the other way). Another plus side is that - for me, at least - I find it very relaxing, just those few moments doing that. More relaxing than gnawing my lip trying not to drop the cards all over while I'm doing my very hamfisted shuffling. :) Just a note on when I bundle them all together into a neat stack afterwards - I always keep my pack so that the end of the cards pointing to my right hand becomes the "bottom" of the deck. If I didn't have a firm rule on this, I could unwittingly invert the entire deck. For me this makes sense as I do turn the cards over with my right hand. Just a thought.

SunChariot	17 Mar 2005
Here's what I do. I read this when I was starting somewhere, and I adopted it because it mentioned it was one of the methods that caused the least amount of damage to the cards. It's called the Cowie Push/Put Method (I just copied the following paragraph of a web site on that...) "In Tarot for Successful Living, Norma Cowie describes her push/put shuffling method. Her technique thoroughly mixes the cards with maximum hand contact and little or no damage. Hold the deck face down in your dominant hand. Push some cards from the top with your thumb into the other hand. Then, push again, but this time to the bottom of the new pile. Continue alternating a push to the top, then one to the bottom until all the cards have been transferred. At this point, put the entire deck back into your dominant hand and start over. This method can be difficult at first. You may push too many or drop some, but your technique will improve with practice. " Oh, and it also says that if you want reversed cards in your spread: "Every time you divide the deck before shuffling, rotate one of the piles 180 degrees." Bar

The A Quick Question... thread was originally posted on 15 Mar 2005 in the Using Tarot Cards board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Using Tarot Cards, or read more archived threads.