Cutting the deck

yeah sometimes i do read the bottom card too but more often i found out the card there dont relate at all to the question.

Thanks for all the information. I am starting to study and to use the cards again after a longer pause, and notice it all comes back to me very nicely, I remember spreads, the card meanings are (mostly) still there. But there are many things I was not aware of before - my studies in tarot history did lack (or is it just that so much new stuff about historical decks has been published in the last few years) and there are things I did not know and thus cannot remeber, the shadow card being one of those.
BTW: I just did a three card reading for myself and used the bottom card to clarify a possible outcome, a goal, a promise about the situation ... got a XIX Sun ))

Lionheart said:

I visited a lady in Sydney a couple of times, her accuracy was excellent in her tarot readings. She'd ask me to shuffle the cards and split the deck 3 ways. I would do this and she would then turn the 3 piles over and read where I cut the cards, she said that these cards gave her an indication of what is around me now, at this very moment.

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I haven't heard about this method - reading the cards at each of the cuts - or the shadow card, but I like these ideas a lot. I'm going to have to experiment with them!

so it sounds like you would split the deck into 3 piles, then turn each pile over and read the card at the bottom, correct? so one of those cards would be the shadow card as well?

I do take note of cards that fall out, and last night (for example) one of them turned out to be the significator for the reading. Had not thought about the "shadow" at the bottom of the deck until today. Maybe start adding this to my readings . . .

zb

I have the querent shuffle the deck and then cut them into 3 piles before i lay out the reading i have found this very helpful to the reading

catlin said:

I let querents shuffle and cut the cards and I have a look at the bottom cards as well.
Sometimes they give interesting information for the reading, especially when querent does not mention the question to you. Sometimes these cards give information of the shadow of a reading, eg what querent does not want to see.

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Hi all - I have two questions:

1. I've been wondering about this alot lately. I've read that the bottom/shadow/base card of a deck can be significant to a reading. After reading through this thread, I think I finally have an understanding of it's purpose, 1) to teach the hidden meaning of the reading, or 2) to reveal something the querent is ignoring or not wanting to admit. Is this an accurate way of looking at it? And in determining the use of those cards, do you actually think about which of those methods you'd like answered before, during, after the shuffle?

2. I've also seen just yesterday that someone mentioned the "quin" card. What is that one exactly?

LP~

LixiPixi said:

Hi all - I have two questions:

1. I've been wondering about this alot lately. I've read that the bottom/shadow/base card of a deck can be significant to a reading. After reading through this thread, I think I finally have an understanding of it's purpose, 1) to teach the hidden meaning of the reading, or 2) to reveal something the querent is ignoring or not wanting to admit. Is this an accurate way of looking at it? And in determining the use of those cards, do you actually think about which of those methods you'd like answered before, during, after the shuffle?


LP~

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I use it to give me more info on the querent's question. It always gives me a look at where their head is at the time.
I always think about the method I'm about to use while shuffling. It gives my cards a stronger edge... they know where I'm coming from.

LixiPixi said:

1. I've been wondering about this alot lately. I've read that the bottom/shadow/base card of a deck can be significant to a reading. After reading through this thread, I think I finally have an understanding of it's purpose, 1) to teach the hidden meaning of the reading, or 2) to reveal something the querent is ignoring or not wanting to admit. Is this an accurate way of looking at it? And in determining the use of those cards, do you actually think about which of those methods you'd like answered before, during, after the shuffle?

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Yes, both of those. And sometimes I (and others) look on it as the 'teacher card', or 'advice to the reader'. Look on it as an aside, or side comment to the reading.

2. I've also seen just yesterday that someone mentioned the "quin" card. What is that one exactly?

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'quin' or 'quint' are used as shortened forms for quintessessence.

It is a method of adding up all of the numbered cards (that is, not the courts), and then reducing them to a number less than 23. The Major represented again gives the reading an overall flavour.
In this system 22 is The Fool, since you cannot reduce to 0.