Hmmm... don't know how (or why) I missed this thread when I was loitering around the forum before.
Ah well, I've found it now (or has the thread found me?).
(Note - this is my own personal view and is not meant to disparage anyone elses thoughts or beliefs. Honest.)
Ritual... Well, in the first place, for me personally, I feel that ritual, simply for the sake of ritual ends up losing it's meaning and power. Now... having said that... I guess I kind of
do have a ritual of sorts that I follow for most of the Tarot readings I do, whether it be for me or for someone else;
Usually the first thing I do is have the querrent pick a deck to use, if they're not sure, then I'll choose one that I think "feels" right for that reading. Then,
if I'm feeling stressed (just from every day fluff that builds up in my head), I will do a brief meditation/cyclic breathing to find my center and clear out the mental dust bunnies. I invite my spirit guides to be there for the reading and to bring any messages that the querrent (or myself) needs to receive. I say a prayer asking for guidance from God and ask that I am able to receive the messages the querrent needs to hear. I also ask for help in interpreting the messages in a way that the querrent will be able to understand and accept. I generally do the brief meditation before I begin. I do the prayer/invocation of my spirit guides while I'm actually shuffling the cards.
As to shuffling. Now days, I'm very much of the "shuffle till it feels right" school. I don't even count the number of shuffles I do any more. I think it usually ends up being around 3 to 5 times, but I can't say for certain. Sometimes I'll also feel that it might be right to invert a few cards (some times as much as 1/2 the deck) to change the reversals in the deck. Then I have the querrent shuffle the deck and I deal the cards... and we're off and running.