Shuffle Help

Djcooler

I have a question that I thought I would toss out there to everyone and see what advice you may have. I have a lot of trouble with fine motor skills in my hands. Consequently I have a lot of difficulty shuffling a deck to ensure that the cards are cleared after each reading so as not to effect the next.

I've yet to find a really great solution that allows me to really feel like I am satisfied with the cards shuffle. I typically lay them out on the table on the spread cloth and try to mix them up well with my hands, kind of like a kid playing with finger paint, but still it leaves a lot to be desired, and to truly feel like this method would work I would need more room than my spread cloth provides.

Part of the other problem is that of the four decks I now own, two of them are larger than average so it makes the above approach really difficult.

I've thought of getting some sort of giant bag and picking out cards at random, but what would I use, and I am also worried about the possibility that this would damage the deck and such.

Any suggestions on how to achieve a good shuffle given the circumstances?

Namaste
DJ
 

AJ

The stir shuffle or bag shake shuffle would probably both be just fine for the sturdier decks like 'most' of LoS or US Games; I wouldn't do it with many of the self published decks or small publisher decks because their edges can chip.

I've trimmed a lot of my larger decks to make them usable for me in a standard shuffle. Others like the Golden which is too pretty to trim I break into 1/3's to shuffle, alternating 1/3's, and then shuffle together just at the upper corners 4 or 5 times to blend. Where there is a will there is a way.

There are lots of threads here about shuffling, many here have issues of one sort or another...
 

rwcarter

DJ,

For decks that are the size of regular playing cards or smaller, you could use either a manual or electronic card shuffler. You divide the cards into roughly half, put one half in each side of the shuffler and either push a button or turn a crank to get the cards shuffled. While there may be shufflers that handle larger sized cards, I've only seen one that handle playing cards.

The only other thing I can think of that might help you is when I put the cards from a reading back into the deck, I don't put them back in one big stack. I fan the deck a little and in no particular order, put the cards from the reading in one at a time in different spots.

After that, I guess you could randomly deal the cards out into 3 or 4 stacks to mix them up and do that 2 or 3 times depending on how many cards you pulled out of the stack to do the last reading.

HTH,
Rodney
 

Grizabella

rwcarter said:
I guess you could randomly deal the cards out into 3 or 4 stacks to mix them up and do that 2 or 3 times depending on how many cards you pulled out of the stack to do the last reading.
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That's how I shuffle my Tarot of Dreams. You don't have to do it more than once to thoroughly mix the cards. It works better than a regular shuffle.
 

elvenstar

You've had some good replies. Just wanted to add my possibly slightly heretic opinion. I'm often lazy and not great at shuffling in general, so my decks rarely get shuffled really thoroughly. That has never been a problem for my readings. I know it's a personal thing and you need to feel the deck is 'clear', but perhaps you also may need less shuffling than you think :)
 

thorhammer

elvenstar said:
You've had some good replies. Just wanted to add my possibly slightly heretic opinion. I'm often lazy and not great at shuffling in general, so my decks rarely get shuffled really thoroughly. That has never been a problem for my readings. I know it's a personal thing and you need to feel the deck is 'clear', but perhaps you also may need less shuffling than you think :)
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So true!

I've always thought that whatever power you believe shows you the cards you need to see will show them to you no matter what; it doesn't care that much about shuffling!

As to the mechanics of it, you could lay your deck face down on the table and then push it sideways to create a kind of fan effect, and "choose" your cards from there. Just slip them out - I've been known to use the "swoosh" method that you described in your original post (yes, it has a name!) but you're right, it does leave a lot to be desired, especially in terms of dignity if there's someone else present! :D

Hope this helps,
\m/ Kat

PS. I have shuffling problems, too. I can't stop! I have to limit mine to a certain predetermined number of shuffles! :lol:
 

memries

I do what rwcarter does. After a reading I randomly place the cards I have read into the deck and then I shuffle a couple of times and then cut the cards two or three times.
Sometimes I reach in the bag and take my card for the day or if two or three come out I use those as well.

What freaks me is, if after I have done the shuffle thing I get the same cards back that were in my previous reading. It is like they are sticking to me or are they telling me that my reading was not complete ? I don't know.

I have small hands too and not terribly dexterous. I keep them all right side up but if one comes out reversed then I read it.
 

SharonS

Djcooler said:
I've thought of getting some sort of giant bag and picking out cards at random, but what would I use, and I am also worried about the possibility that this would damage the deck and such.

Any suggestions on how to achieve a good shuffle given the circumstances?

Namaste
DJ
Click to expand...

I have made a bag for my cards for the same purpose as kind of a blind draw. I figure whatever card I'm supposed to see, I will draw from the bag, too. I made my bag by cutting off the bottom of a pant leg of a pair of purple silk pajamas I don't wear anymore. Cut it as big as you want it, turn it inside out and sew one end of it. If you can't sew it, then you could actually staple it if there's nobody that could sew it for you because of your hands if you don't have a sewing machine. Then, you can snip little holes around the other end and thread a string or yarn or something through it for a drawstring. It was free so can't complain about that and it works if you want to give it a try.

~SharonS
 

EarthFaery

I'm not big on thorough shuffling, I draw from the deck randomly instead of off the top and lots of times I don't shuffle at all, or I'll just toss em from hand to hand, and sometimes I don't even take the deck out of the box:) It depends on how deep the reading is, no matter how I do it, it all seems to work, I can't say I've ever drawn the wrong cards.

I think the shuffle bag is a great idea!!
 
Constrictive Methods? Whachamacallit? II