Dealing the cards

Shuffled Off

I've never heard of this bit about not reading cards at night. Most of my readings are done in the late evening or at night as my time permits, so this would be a serious problem for me if real/true/valid.

As to the process of shuffling the cards, for reasons of lessening any potential damage to the cards (some are quite fragile), or sometimes because of the sheer size of the cards themselves versus my hands, I've settled into a routine of not actually shuffling them as such. To get a good mix, I basically deal out the deck onto the table in say, five piles, gather them, deal out again into seven piles, gather, deal again into perhaps four or even nine piles, gather, cut twice, and I'm "good to go" for a reading. With a new "virgin" deck right out of the box, I would go through several more turns of dealing and gathering to ensure a good mix of the cards, with a different number of dealt piles each time. I don't read reversals, but that can be easily accomodated with random turnings during the dealing/gathering process. This works for me!

90% of the time I read at night. My mind doesn't feel so scattered at that time...

NightWing said:

As to the process of shuffling the cards, for reasons of lessening any potential damage to the cards (some are quite fragile), or sometimes because of the sheer size of the cards themselves versus my hands, I've settled into a routine of not actually shuffling them as such. To get a good mix, I basically deal out the deck onto the table in say, five piles, gather them, deal out again into seven piles, gather, deal again into perhaps four or even nine piles, gather, cut twice, and I'm "good to go" for a reading. With a new "virgin" deck right out of the box, I would go through several more turns of dealing and gathering to ensure a good mix of the cards, with a different number of dealt piles each time. I don't read reversals, but that can be easily accomodated with random turnings during the dealing/gathering process. This works for me!

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Wow, I've never heard of anyone doing that before! How cool.

I like to (but don't always) riffle, then cut once, then (I've always called it dicing, maybe it's what you're calling lacing.....I hold the deck in my right hand, let a few cards fall off the top into my left hand, do the same to the back, then the front, then the back, maybe the front twice, back, front twice, etc, etc...is that lacing???) dice....I do this three times. The cards are shuffled three different ways, three times, for a total of nine (law of three). But, if I have a deck that's clumping, I'll go more...of if I just feel I should go more. I always just go with what I'm feeling. I almost always deal straight off the top, stating what each card represents as I lay it down AND when I flip it. Sometimes, but not usually, I will riffle half of them reversed on purpose....but mostly when I'm doing a yes/no. Other times, I often will reverse a bunch during riffling and not realise it.

I think that Umbrae was right, all that matters is "what transpires between the reader, the sitter, and the cards." AND your intuition.

Sometimes I try not to mess with them when I'm drunk....but it depends.

I like that push put method...sounds interesting.


Here's what a big dork I am.... sometimes, I lay the cards down as though they first part of riffling was done. One down, the other on top, just overlapping about an inch or half inch. I'll do the entire deck like this so that when I finish the riffle, it's nice and smooth. I, of course, don't do this all the time...but it's my silly guilty pleasure.

There is no right way...

just your way.

I shuffle as I would a normal deck of playing cards and pull from the top of the deck.

stonepsycho said:

Hey!

I shuffle/deal my spreading all the cards over the floor/table, and mixing them well and good before arranging them all back into a deck. Then i cut it into three, and put the middle deck onto the right, and then both onto the left.

I havnt heard of this rule about not reading at night, so i'd also like infomation on that. I've delt a few times at night and i've never experienced anything drastically different.

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thanks for the information =)
me neither, but they told me that and I started thinking about it

thanks once again

PlatinumDove said:

I've riffled with good results, except I didn't like the amount of stress and wear and tear on the cards it does. So then I tried lacing, but I didn't feel like I was adequately mixing the cards.

Then, I was reading Joan Bunning's book Learning the Tarot, and found the Cowie Push-Put method. Basically its an over-under approach. Put the first card in your opposite hand, then the next card under it, then over it, then under, over, under, over, ad nauseum till the deck is through. Repeat as many times as you want.

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that´s interesting, I never listened to that before =D

Umbrae said:

Hmmm have to think on that one...that would mean that dang near ALL of my readings have been...what?

I love to read at night...in the dark...

I remember reading once that Tarot decks should never be ‘shuffled’ like regular cards, (I don’t remember the exact source) that the magic in the cards would be ‘flapped out’.

Well I’ve been flapping the magic out of cards for years.

Dealing: I either just deal the cards off the top, OR – have the sitter chose the cards from the deck, spread out like a ribbon before them.

It does not matter.

How you shuffle, how you sit, the time of day…none of that matters.

What matters, is what transpires between the reader, the sitter, and the cards.

May want to hunt down my recent thread on myths. (the myth posts are spread throughout the thread)

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thanks for the link! I´ll check that post out.
I never know how to tell the consultant how to cut the cards.
I belive I´ll go with making them put together all the cards in one pile and the diving them into 3 little ones.

Emeraldgirl said:

I like to smoosh. Get the deck lay it face down on the table and have some fun smooshing all the cards around and mixing them up put the deck back together in a nice pile and deal off the top if it. If there's no space then I shuffle hand over hand I think it's called.

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thanks for the reply ^_____^

As for reading at night I do and have never had any bad experiences besides it's always night somewhere

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hehehe! =D

Coatl said:

As I first speak with the sitter, I begin casually lacing the cards, then I riffle them after we have discussed matters a bit and I'm ready to get down to business. If a group of cards sticks and doesn't want to go smoothly in with the rest of the deck, I take only those cards, reverse them, put them at the bottom, then continue riffling. This is the only way I get reversals; I do not force them. I make the traditional three cuts, but I pay no attention to whether I place the third stack to the left of the first two or just put it down on the middle stack right away. I usually make these cuts and am ready to deal before the person has stated their question or concern, but it doesn't matter either way. I take the first two cards off the top, the third card off the bottom, and I cut the deck one time each for every card thereafter.

It has never mattered to me what time of day or night I read, sounds like a myth to me.

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thats so interesting! I´ll take note about the stick cards.

I also believe that it is a myth, but I though of asking, just to know =)