Shuffling Cards

I was thinking about this not too long ago myself. It's interesting to hear how everyone else shuffle's. I really have no procedure for shuffling. Sometimes I'll shuffle like a deck of cards (I've heard some people are not into that!), sometimes riffle, sometimes I'll spread them out and mix them up, and sometimes a combo of different shuffles. I usually cut the deck at least 3 times. Depends on what spread I'm doing too. If it's a 3 card spread, I'll cut the deck 3 times and pull the cards off the top.

I may have replied to this one before, so I apologize if this is a duplicate.

I began reading about 25 years ago, but then took about 18 years off so I've only recently gotten back to it. I've shuffled the same way since the beginning, though.

I do 7 shuffles, overhand, every time. I don't cut, because an overhand shuffle feels like a series of small cuts, anyway. I do it a little loose, so as to not discourage any jumpers.

If I'm doing a spread then I'll note any jumpers, then put them back in the deck and continue shuffling until I reach the 7th shuffle.

At the end of the day, I often meditate and relax for a period of time, and just overhand shuffle the cards for awhile until I feel like stopping. I think that this helps to cleanse the cards.

This might sound goofy, but I also talk to the cards a bit, and thank them for all of their hard work; especially if I've been using them a lot. This started out as a joke, but I've started to think that they may be guided by a guardian angel / spirit guide that I call "Dan"... there's a bit of a story behind that one! LOL So I guess that I've personified my cards a little and treat them with human courtesy.