Best deck cuts

[Anna333]

Hello

I would be interested in how you all cut your deck. I only read about one way that I stick to, which is holding a deck in left hand and loosely dropping into three piles before collecting back into one starting from the first dropped pile.

How do you cut yours, and is there a better way?

Thank you xx

 

[AJ]

a brand new deck I shuffle quite a bit, but after that I shuffle twice, take the back third and put it in the front and shuffle once again. I never order my decks except for when I get them, and if I sell them.

 

[nisaba]

Hello

I would be interested in how you all cut your deck. I only read about one way that I stick to, which is holding a deck in left hand and loosely dropping into three piles before collecting back into one starting from the first dropped pile.

How do you cut yours, and is there a better way?

Thank you xx

I get clients to cut the deck into four piles (not three, for a reason!), then put them back together. I don't care how they do it, with what hand, whether the piles are even or not.

When I'm reading for myself, I cut only once (because the four-cut thingie is about surprising the clients and adding extra randomness they weren't expecting after their shuffle), and I do it where the DECK wants to cut, I sorta nurse it in my hand and see where it wants to open. Sometimes that's near the bottom, sometimes it's near the top, sometimes it's near the middle. I don't care - as long as it's where the deck wants to open.

Yesterday, when I cut, it cut at the second card from the top <grin>.

 

[Wendywu]

I shuffle thoroughly, cut into three piles by dropping small stacks off the bottom of the stack, size of each stack varies with what feels good at the time, and then I use whichever one of the three heaps draws my eye most.

I'm reading for a person who is with me then they do the shuffling, cutting and stack choosing. I just deal and read.

 

[Zephyros]

I don't. Actually I don't do anything "by the book," not even my own book! Sometimes I shuffle, sometimes the querent does; sometimes the deck is cut and sometimes not; sometimes the sitter chooses the cards and sometimes I do. I always meant to formulate some sort of system but I never got around to it, and I'm far too old to begin now.

 

[Tarot Orat]

I don't cut the cards after shuffling, but I do have a shuffling system.

I shuffle seven times - I read somewhere that that's the magic number to randomize a deck - and each time I take some of the cards from the top and put them on the bottom. That way the cards get a chance to move around inside the deck. I guess in a way that does count as cutting the deck, I'm just doing it within the shuffle instead of afterwards.

 

[BodhiSeed]

This thread made me go in search of an old thread on shuffling by a former member:

THE FULGOUR SHUFFLE:

I start with Six piles from left to right...
1 2 3 4 5 6 but then put the 1st card on the 2nd pile
6 1 2 3 4 5 and so on...
5 6 1 2 3 4
4 5 6 1 2 3
3 4 5 6 1 2
2 3 4 5 6 1
It does something that's almost breathtaking...
which I can't describe, it must be experienced.

Beginning with laying down six cards ( 1 2 3 4 5 6 )
then for the next six, you skip to the second pile...
card 1 goes on card 2 ~ but then it's 1 2 3 4 5 6

Each set of six cards is laid down, with a skip over,
so the third 1 2 3 4 5 6 starts on the first 3rd pile.

It's easy (doing it once makes it easier) and the last
pile ends up being 1 2 3 4 5 6 right over the first set.

 

[jolie_amethyst]

This thread made me go in search of an old thread on shuffling by a former member:

THE FULGOUR SHUFFLE:

I start with Six piles from left to right...
1 2 3 4 5 6 but then put the 1st card on the 2nd pile
6 1 2 3 4 5 and so on...
5 6 1 2 3 4
4 5 6 1 2 3
3 4 5 6 1 2
2 3 4 5 6 1
It does something that's almost breathtaking...
which I can't describe, it must be experienced.

Beginning with laying down six cards ( 1 2 3 4 5 6 )
then for the next six, you skip to the second pile...
card 1 goes on card 2 ~ but then it's 1 2 3 4 5 6

Each set of six cards is laid down, with a skip over,
so the third 1 2 3 4 5 6 starts on the first 3rd pile.

It's easy (doing it once makes it easier) and the last
pile ends up being 1 2 3 4 5 6 right over the first set.

Thank you for digging this up; I hadn't seen it before. Tried it out and it certainly seems like a pretty good way to mix up a deck.

Put me in the category of "no set method" for cutting a deck. Sometimes I'll do three, others four, but mostly I won't bother. And I'm one who draws from a fanned deck rather than the top cards. I figure that potentially compensates for my sometimes poor shuffling.

 

[Anna333]

Thank you everyone. It's very interesting what others do to cut the deck. I should have been more precise and said when you cut for yourself. I m a very new to tarot so don't read for others, just did few for myself and having difficulties with interpreting. I will be trying your suggestions and see what will work for me. I also read about 7 being a special number...)) and that old method looks interesting.

Thanks again for your input

 

[rwcarter]

I shuffle thoroughly, cut into three piles by dropping small stacks off the bottom of the stack, size of each stack varies with what feels good at the time, and then I use whichever one of the three heaps draws my eye most.

This is the closest to what I do. I shuffle 7x, put the deck on the table and use my left hand to cut the deck into 3 piles from right to left, letting the deck tell me where it wants to be cut. My eyes are closed while I cut and also while holding my hand over each pile to feel which pile's energy draws my hand to choose it. I take that pile and put it on top, reassembling the remaining piles from right to left.

Then I do this 2 more times for a total of 21 shuffles.

Fulgour's shuffle is close to what I do with an ordered deck (whether brand new, bought used or just reordered by me for some reason). I randomly deal the deck into six piles (614325, 421635, 315246, etc) 13x. Once I've done that, I randomly take three of the piles, assemble them and shuffle them together. Then I take the remaining three piles, assemble them and shuffle them together. Then I shuffle the two piles together and continue with my shuffling method listed above.

Rodney