barefootlife
I know this has come up before, but I'm always fascinated with the quirks of other readers.
My own:
I always shuffle a certain way. Cut the deck in half, shuffle each half twice, take the tops of each half and shuffle them once, then the bottoms, and then shuffle the whole thing, with the bottom cards in my left hand and the tops in my right (I'm left handed). I always riffle shuffle. If I've recently reordered or 'righted' my cards so that I've looked at the whole deck (I don't read reversals, so sometimes it's necessary), then I'll overhand shuffle a few times before I riffle, just to separate things a bit, but once I've started my riffling I won't ever overhand shuffle.
When I'm breaking a deck in, I don't ask specific questions, just pull cards and see how it resonates with me/the sitter.
I also get tetchy about other people handling my cards, and am wary about using someone else's deck. This is from an experience I had with my first time reading. My college roommate and I were playing around with her deck, and she was teaching me the CC. After she read for me a few times, I took her deck, shuffled, and read a spread for her. It was accurate to the point where she was weirded out. Calling it beginners luck, she took her deck back, shuffled, and got a bunch of gibberish. Rinse and repeat. The cards wouldn't read for her anymore. Needless to say, she got kind of pissy, and I ended up having to buy her a new deck while she gave the old one to me in exasperation. She was so paranoid about it that she didn't even let me touch the closed, shrinkwrapped box. Oops. If I'm reading for someone in person, then I invite them to hover their hand over the deck and ask their question before the shuffle, and then keep it in mind as I do.
My cards also always get a thank you before I put them away.
My own:
I always shuffle a certain way. Cut the deck in half, shuffle each half twice, take the tops of each half and shuffle them once, then the bottoms, and then shuffle the whole thing, with the bottom cards in my left hand and the tops in my right (I'm left handed). I always riffle shuffle. If I've recently reordered or 'righted' my cards so that I've looked at the whole deck (I don't read reversals, so sometimes it's necessary), then I'll overhand shuffle a few times before I riffle, just to separate things a bit, but once I've started my riffling I won't ever overhand shuffle.
When I'm breaking a deck in, I don't ask specific questions, just pull cards and see how it resonates with me/the sitter.
I also get tetchy about other people handling my cards, and am wary about using someone else's deck. This is from an experience I had with my first time reading. My college roommate and I were playing around with her deck, and she was teaching me the CC. After she read for me a few times, I took her deck, shuffled, and read a spread for her. It was accurate to the point where she was weirded out. Calling it beginners luck, she took her deck back, shuffled, and got a bunch of gibberish. Rinse and repeat. The cards wouldn't read for her anymore. Needless to say, she got kind of pissy, and I ended up having to buy her a new deck while she gave the old one to me in exasperation. She was so paranoid about it that she didn't even let me touch the closed, shrinkwrapped box. Oops. If I'm reading for someone in person, then I invite them to hover their hand over the deck and ask their question before the shuffle, and then keep it in mind as I do.
My cards also always get a thank you before I put them away.