Whats your shuffling method, why does it work for you?

Phoenix Rising

Because I use playing cards mostly these days. I always put the cards back in it's natural order first. Hearts,clubs,diamonds,spades from Ace to king and the jokers at both ends.
I shuffle and shuffle until I think it's good and mixed up.
and then I cut the deck 3 times and put it back in any order, although I seem to always pick the middle deck, which then becomes the top.
 

Jo_75

I shuffle sometimes by mixing them up from right hand to left hand a few times, then i may shuffle like casino sort of style where you thumb them and let them mix in together. I cut them 3 times right to left and back together right to left so the bottom becomes the top. I used to deal from the top, but now i fan the out and pick random cards, for smallish spreads like celtic cross. If its a big spread i deal straight from the top.
 

WolfyJames

Well, I have small hands, so I shuffle the deck at the vertical instead of the average way. I don't shuffle much, due to my tiny hands and arthritis, enough to say my question (or the situation) once or twice in my head. Then, I put the deck on the table and with my non-dominant hand, I cut the deck three times and put it back together. Then, I fan the deck carefully on the table. Once the deck is fully faned, I close my eyes and pick the cards. If it's a spread I know by heart, I will pick all the cards at once, but if it's a spread I don't know, then I will stop at each card and check first the position before picking the next card. I don't use reversal and I tend to shuffle the deck between readings to really mix the cards.

As you can see, I don't shuffle much, more between readings than for the reading itself. My mother, who does cartomancy, says cards don't like to be shuffled too much and I agree with her. As for fanning the cards, it gives an equal chance for any card to be picked, and I'm anal so all the cards are carefully faned first. As for closing my eyes, that's because I'm too brainy and I overthink too much. Closing my eyes forces me to follow more my intuition and I've done good readings using that method. With new decks, I will sometimes tell them, if they give me weird readings, as I shuffle them: "I want the truth, just the truth and nothing but the truth, even if it hurts, even if it kills".

Usually, I let the querent shuffle and pick the cards, but after having some problems with people I know with delusion issues, who ended up with crappy readings, I think I might shuffle and pick the cards sometimes for the querent if I think the querent is indeed delusional. I'm more objective than they are.
 

Enchanted

My post assumes reading for yourself as if I read for others, they shuffle, they draw! In this instance I just prefer to just facilitate in the interpretation. Most of the time this works fine and I don't mind other people touching my deck, I did have to cleanse once though, but I figured that that was down to the unacknowledged (by her) intuitive power of my friend that I read for. Man if she read tarot!!! She is the only one who 'messed' with my cards.

In saying that:
I'll be the first to admit I am not the world's best shuffler. I just do it, close my eyes, focus on the question, hand over hand, nothing fancy. I don't try for reversals and nor do I try to put the cards back the right way when they invariably fall out. I try to keep eyes closed so that I can't do this (anal retentive nature) unless only one falls then I have a sneaky peak. I don't have a number I just stop when it feels right. I also feel most comfortable with fanning the cards, although I currently do this on my bed, which is squishy and I often feel better about the draw when I have the opportunity to do it at a table, nice and firm, no sliders!
 

mike gorth

well I sort of put the deck in my left hand just because I can't do it the other way and then I take part of the deck and then 'throw' bits of that part bit by bit on to the top of the deck. Once my right hand is empty, I get another. Even though this isn't shuffling, I really don't turn the cards over in any specific way. I think it's sort of weird that you "have to" do it a certain way. like a book or something. And I always readwithout reversals
 

Julien

I don't know... I just shuffle till it feels right (I shuffle them like regular playing cards, and usually do a few riffles, too) and then throw the cards. Every now and then I go through and put the cards all back in order by number and suit. Not very often -- probably, like, once every couple of months when for some reason I'm having trouble reading. After that I do have a tendency to like to shuffle a lot, but I've never kept count how many times. Just until the cards start to stick or feel like they're done.

Julien
 

wandking

Okay, here's my research on card shuffling... it probably needs a rewrite

Once a reading is set up, the next task is shuffling the cards. Although it will not affect the outcome, Tarot cards have their own type of shuffle. Sources rarely recommend poker style shuffling for a variety of spiritual reasons. Most books recommend a method of hand-to-hand shuffling. Spiritual reasons not withstanding, this manner of handling cards, like other Tarot practices, has a practical function, which serves to make the deck last longer. This method not only effectively mixes cards but also reduces wear because this style of shuffling does not bend or flex the cards, like the poker shuffle. To achieve a Tarot shuffle, hold a deck in one hand and with the other hand take a card from the top and another from the bottom in series, until the whole deck transfers into the other hand. By using the thumb to push a card from the top so that it protrudes slightly and then placing it into the other hand, the whole deck easily transfers in quick succession. Often more than a single card will slide forth, which only serves to better mix the cards. What matters most is placing cards on first the top and then the bottom of the new stack in the other hand. After all the cards are mixed, the reader should set three stacks in front of the seeker and allow the client to restack the cards back into a single pack for the reading.


Dealing cards straight from the top is acceptable but by picking up each card, while keeping it face down and allowing the seeker to choose his or her cards, a reader provides better opportunity for real interaction. Allowing a seeker to feel they are taking part in forming their future is an imperative, if sorting through the issues in the present is a goal. Another style of card selection, which provides strong client participation, includes fanning out the entire deck face down and then asking the client to choose cards from anywhere in that deck. Instruct the client not to look at any card and instead hand you (the reader) cards as they are drawn. As the seeker passes each card, the reader can position it in the spread face up or face down; however, by concealing cards until all are drawn and then turning them up, card pictures and names will not cause the seeker anxiety, resulting from a prior card selection. Concern over the previous cards chosen might influence the cards selected later. When dealing cards directly from the top of a deck, extensive shuffling to insure that cards are properly mixed is required.

According to a newspaper article that appeared in the New York Times on January 9, 1990, two statistical researchers found it takes seven ordinary, imperfect shuffles to mix fifty-two regular playing cards thoroughly. Fewer are not enough and more do not significantly improve the mix. According to Dr. Persi Diaconis, a statistician at Harvard University, who co-authored the discovery, “There are people who go to casinos and make money on this.” Although a representative of the state gaming control board in Las Vegas reported that cards get shuffled from four to seven times, at the discretion of each casino, Dr. Diaconis said he almost never sees dealers shuffle seven times. He and his co-researcher Dr. Dave Bayer, a mathematician and computer scientist at Columbia University, watched numerous players shuffle to determine how well dealers interlace a deck during an average shuffle. To inhibit card counting, which describes a method of tilting odds against the dealer; most casinos use several decks simultaneously during gambling. Findings on shuffling multiple decks easily translate to Tarot. A Tarot deck requires nine or ten shuffles to be completely random from the last reading. An accepted school of thought among Tarot readers, however, suggests in a reading everything occurs for a reason. Consensus regarding shuffling shows that a reader will feel when the time to present cards arrives. Keep in mind over-shuffling causes unnecessary wear on the cards, especially if readers flex cards back into the stack.
 

full deck

one way only

I do a drop shuffle, pulling out cards from the front and back, simultaneously, and drop the cards into the front part of the deck, right hand pulling and dropping into the left (I'm a right-handed person).
Upon finishing, I am sitting somewhere where there is a low tea table or on the floor that has been carefully cleaned first and I spread the cards out, right to left, face down. Since I use a visualization method to pick cards out, I visualize myself or someone else across from me that moves their index finger over the deck, picking cards and I follow. I may pick 1, 2, 3 . . . it depends upon what I'm seeing at the moment. I also see my "aid" reverse cards if needed.

I use this one method only. I don't do special predetermined spreads but there is nothing that says I could not use such either. It's simply a matter of doing or not doing.
 

tarotbear

When I bumped up this thread, it was because I thought it contained my method for shuffling so as not to get reversals; upon reading it ... there is nothing about how I shuffle in this thread! :confused: I have posted my method several times and don't want to keep repeating myself and boring people ~~ my method is also described in my book! (speaking of repeating myself - had to get that one in there!) LOL!