To Cut The Cards or Not to Cut The Cards...

I really don't have any ritual or routine. Sometimes I shuffle for awhile, sometimes I shuffle and cut. When it comes to reading for others, I ALWAYS let their shuffle be the final step, as that's just what feels right to me. But when reading for myself, I just do what feels right at that particular time.

Umbrae said:

Famous story!

A little girl was watching her mother prepare a ham for a huge family holiday get-together. Her mother cut off the ends of the ham and threw them away.
“Why did you cut the ends off and throw them away?”
“Because that’s the way my mother taught me.”
The girl runs into the next room. “Grams, why do you cut the ends off the ham when you cook it?”
“Well, it’s tradition I suppose. That’s what my mother taught me to do.”
She turned to the little girl's great-grandmother sitting next to the fire. “Mom, why do we cut the ends off the ham before we cook it?”
“We? I know I did it because the pan was too small. Never could figure out why you did it.”

We do with the deck whatever must be done to make it feel right – at that time.

Cut? No cut? What feels right today, may not feel right tomorrow, so my only rule is…

What feels right today.

Click to expand...

Lol lol! And her I went around and thought this was a Swedish only story and it turns out it is an urban legend! Thanks Umbrae for sharing!

Umbrae

I already heard that joke, still funny!!!!

Thanks, I thought you had to do it the same all the time. I like what you said that what feels right today may not feel right tomorrow (forgive me for paraphrasing). Maybe I am overthinking it...

Thanks all of you, I can always count on good info from you guys.

Tarot seems a haven for people with OCD with all these rituals ...

I can't find the thread where we discussed all the "myths" surrounding Tarot...

I'll hunt for it later....but..

I just did a reading for my granddaughter and before we started I asked her what she knew about Tarot....one of the things she said was....do you have to bury the cards in the ground?

So we didn't go into all of the various rituals different readers use, but I said to her...that perhaps at one time, practices developed for practical reasons...either because a deck was precious (can't go online and buy another cheaply)...and needed to be "preserved," or for another reason.

At any rate. Often the original reason for honoring particular rituals no longer exists, but the ritual does.

That seemed to make sense to her. She asked the same about cutting the cards.

I told her that I liked my sitters to shuffle and handle and cut the cards since, just like on CSI, I believe there is some "transfer" of energies as people handle the cards...after all we are not "solid" ...we are energy in motion.

So....cut, not cut...do what works for you, but understand we may never know where some of the rituals come from.

terri

Here's the lighter thread with a list of "tarot myths."

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=85841&highlight=tarot+myths

and

Better still...read Baroli's post #4...here and log on to Tarot Connection and listen to Dan Pelletier discuss Tarot Myths....great stuff!


http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?p=1352448&highlight=tarot+myths#post1352448

I just typed in "tarot myths" in our Search feature here at AT...and then down below instruct the search engine to look for threads a month and OLDER...and it will go back and you will get multiple threads on various myths.



terri

For some reason, i dont cut the deck for self readings but for others i do cut the deck.. My self readings dont come out right when i cut for myself, but when reading for others it works out great... Although im still having a bit of trouble connecting the cards!! When i get it right, my readings are on point, lol.

My ritual is to pray first, then bless the deck with the sign of the cross on top and back of the deck. Then I suffle with eyes closed until the deck cut itself. That works for me.

I get clients to cut the deck into four piles, then put them back together. This is basically to get them a little off-balance, so they cannot predict which cards are "on top" for me to draw with: if you get them to cut into three or five piles they invariably make it the central pile! If they do not put a set pile onto the top, then their selection of the cards on top is more open to intuitive selection. I draw from the top of the deck when I lay out spreads.

With myself, because I know in advance that I do that, it doesn't work. So I just cut the deck once, wherever the cards feel as though they want to separate, and draw my own cards from there.

i dont cut cards at all, i shuffle and then pick cards from random places in the deck.