Reading 1 card, 2 cards, or more

[Bluebonnet]

Another beginner question....

I know there are numerous lay outs in reading Tarot. As a beginner, I've been mainly doing 2 card readings and an occassional celtic cross and 3 card reading. I know many readers do just 1 card readings. I've tried that and come up with 1 message. If I put down a second card, the message is completely different. Do you tell the deck how many cards you are going to select or what lay out you are going to use?

B

 

[amethyst57]

to an outsider it would sound silly, but i do tell my cards what spread, number of cards,etc...just as you would, in asking your question to them...

 

[KMilliron]

My cards know. They're smart, cause someoen in this relationship has to be.

 

[ncharge]

to an outsider it would sound silly, but i do tell my cards what spread, number of cards,etc...just as you would, in asking your question to them...

I do the same. I feel like I have to know the spread in advance so the cards can align themselves for the reading. I focus on the question AND the spread when I shuffle.

I often wait a moment and just hold the deck when I'm done shuffling. It is like that is the deck's last change to change the order of the cards (I know - totally crazy!). Then, I got the Konxari cards, and the LWB says basically the same thing. You lay the cards, then wait a couple of minutes before flipping them to give the spirits time to make changes. Now at least I feel like I have some company in my craziness.

 

[Bluebonnet]

Well, that's what I've been doing....telling the cards what exactly I'm going to lay out. Let's say you're going to do a 3 card read. How are they to know its just a flat 3 card read or if you're doing a past, present, future? What if you intended to do a 2 card read, and just for the heck of it...put a 3rd down? Will that card add to the story? Or just not make sense?

Just the science major in me coming out.....

 

[Richard]

I don't let the shuffle determine the order. Each card in a spread is chosen randomly. For example.... For a one-card spread, I shuffle, then draw a card at random (usually by cutting the deck and selecting the top card after competing the cut). If I want further clarification, I draw another card at random and place it beside the first card. Sometimes I continue this process up to four or five cards. The nice thing about it is that there is no need to decide ahead of time how many cards I'm going to use.

 

[yuenyee]

Before I shuffle the cards, I would have chosen a spread. Then, think of the spread and start shuffling.
If I do not do that, I think the cards which I'm going to choose is meaningless.

 

[blackrainbow]

I always choose which spread i am going to do then i shuffle the cards.

 

[Morwenna]

I do as most here do: decide on a spread, then shuffle. But I very seldom use any fewer than 3 cards. In fact I seldom use fewer than five. Then, after I've read, if I need clarification I turn over more, as needed. So the main spread is decided in advance, but any additional cards are not.

 

[nisaba]

Before I shuffle the cards, I would have chosen a spread.

I used to do that. Then I found if I wavered about hte spread even to the point where I was starting to lay out cards, the right cards still came out in the right positions.

Don't get to anxious about it - then your deck will fail. Be serenely accepting of the fact that the right cards will always come out in the right places no matter how much you dither, and they will.

In the Reading Circles, I take part in a few of them. In every one, the spread is decided on ahead of time. I quite frequently sit down and shuffle my cards for eth reading, and only when I am actually starting to pull cards, will I look at the spread for the number of cards and the positional meanings of them. They still work out right.