"How-to" question : Shuffling the deck

Hi everyone,

Oops! I found what I was looking for!

The best way for you to shuffle the deck is whatever way is most comfortable for you and your hands ... anything else is Tarot Myth.

If you try to do a search of the archives - type 'shuffle' or 'shuffling'; if you put the words 'cards', 'deck', or 'tarot' in a search you will crash everything! There are many different ways to shuffle Tarot cards and all of them do the job!

{PS - in fact - I may add that one to a future revision of my book on Tarot myths, legends, and tall tales...}

Thank you, tarotbear!

I deleted the post after I found some really great discussions on "riffling" vs. "lacing" the cards.

A reader I went to once told me that he preferred "lacing" because "riffling" disperses and scatters the energy of the cards. Thinking back, he really wasn't implying a right or wrong way, just a preference, but he gave a reason that sounded "official" to a novice like myself.

My deck is only slightly larger than the size of playing cards, and I don't mind a little bending here and there, so I will "riffle" to my heart's content!

Thanks again - this forum is so fantastic!

***edited - I forgot to note that I found the discussion on "riffling" vs. "lacing" here: http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=595 ***

tarotbear said:

The best way for you to shuffle the deck is whatever way is most comfortable for you and your hands ... anything else is Tarot Myth.



If you try to do a search of the archives - type 'shuffle' or 'shuffling'; if you put the words 'cards', 'deck', or 'tarot' in a search you will crash everything! There are many different ways to shuffle Tarot cards and all of them do the job!



{PS - in fact - I may add that one to a future revision of my book on Tarot myths, legends, and tall tales...}

Click to expand...

Thank you for that.
I've had to ignore all the stuff I've read about shuffling and just do it the only way I can. I'm dyspraxic so fancy shuffling is not an option so I've always felt a bit useless because I'm not doing it 'The Right Way' so you've made me feel a lot better. Thanks

tarotbear said:

The best way for you to shuffle the deck is whatever way is most comfortable for you and your hands ... anything else is Tarot Myth.

If you try to do a search of the archives - type 'shuffle' or 'shuffling'; if you put the words 'cards', 'deck', or 'tarot' in a search you will crash everything! There are many different ways to shuffle Tarot cards and all of them do the job!

{PS - in fact - I may add that one to a future revision of my book on Tarot myths, legends, and tall tales...}

Click to expand...

I riffle some and overhand some. More overhanding lately using the mini Motherpeace and pocket Thoth and other smaller decks. My arthritis is just too painful anymore to force my hands to riffle a deck that's small enough to overhand.

Depends on the deck

Your standard bridge size LOS deal can be treated like a poker deck

But when you start getting in to the historical recreations you find yourself having to come up with new ways of unsorting the cards

I have no doubt that I have already learned to riffle and lace even if I have no idea which is which and don't want to find out

I don't need to be told I reinvented the wheel, it takes half the fun out of it

On Page 10 & 11 of my book under 'Care & Feeding of the Cards' I list a slightly different version:

Pg 10 -You must not, under any circumstances, riffle shuffle your cards. Any reading you get will be wrong, because you shuffled the cards wrong. {{I'll edit in the sentence "Riffling ‘disperses’ the energy of the cards." in some future printing revision - thank you!}}

Also of possible interest:

Pg 11 - If the Magician is on the bottom of the deck after you finished shuffling it, it means that the deck is "closed" and will not answer your question. You'll have to ask something different.

http://www.amazon.com/No-Reading-Su...3TU_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1410716846&sr=1-8

tarotbear said:

On Page 10 & 11 of my book under 'Care & Feeding of the Cards' I list a slightly different version:

Pg 10 -You must not, under any circumstances, riffle shuffle your cards. Any reading you get will be wrong, because you shuffled the cards wrong.

Also of possible interest:

Pg 11 - If the Magician is on the bottom of the deck after you finished shuffling it, it means that the deck is "closed" and will not answer your question. You'll have to ask something different.

http://www.amazon.com/No-Reading-Su...3TU_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1410716846&sr=1-8

Click to expand...

OK, the bit about the Magician is new to me. I might have come up with that idea myself if the High Priestess was there, but not the Magician. He's usually far more cooperative and talkative with me than she is. Where people come up with myths like that is always fascinating!

I gave up riffle shuffling myself not because it was "wrong" or even because of the bending of the cards, but because the way I tended to do it led to reversals....and while I incorporate the reversed meanings into my readings, I don't depend on reversed images to guide me to the appropriate ones. So now, I mostly do an overhand variant I learned from--where else?--videos on the Internet. Still can't do it as fast as I can a riffle, but hey, no reversed cards.

For larger cards that I can't manage well overhand, I'll do one of two things:

If reversals are OK (such as in one of my oracle decks) I'll do a wash shuffle, spreading the cards on a table and swirling them around and around with my hands. I'll "wash" them a bit, then work them into a smaller and smaller pile until they fit between my hands on end. At that point, probably half are pointing vertically, half horizontally, so I push all the verticals over onto their sides at once, then repeat the process. Between the mixing and moving from upright to sideways, perhaps half of the cards end up reversed. It's probably going to wear the card surfaces down faster, but it works.

If reversals are unwanted, I'll deal the cards out face down into 7 piles, usually placing cards wherever the mood strikes me, then combine the piles by stacking them at random. I'll usually repeat that routine three to four times. Again, it's not a fast process, but it gives me a bit of time to ponder my question and get into the right mindset.

Interesting thread

I had to sort of invent my natural way to shuffle. I have cerebral palsy, which means my hand dexterity sucks, and traditional shuffling is out. I deal out the cards face down into three piles and re stack right to left. As long as the cards are mixed up good. I usually read for myself. Sometimes when i read for others I tell them to pick a stack. It all works out.

jolie_amethyst said:

I gave up riffle shuffling myself not because it was "wrong" or even because of the bending of the cards, but because the way I tended to do it led to reversals....and while I incorporate the reversed meanings into my readings, I don't depend on reversed images to guide me to the appropriate ones. So now, I mostly do an overhand variant I learned from--where else?--videos on the Internet. Still can't do it as fast as I can a riffle, but hey, no reversed cards.

Click to expand...

It's the way the other half of the deck is flipped. When I flip side to side I get reversals, when I flip top to bottom - no reversals. I use both methods at different times and depending which deck I'm using.