Pick a Card, Any Card!
It’s time for a reading. You shuffle. You draw…but are the cards you drew the “correct” cards? Did you stop shuffling at the proper time? Did everything go wrong before you even started reading because you couldn’t manage to sense-
It’s not that big of a deal. Get it? Deal? Cards? Sorry. Anyway, from my perspective, if you read the cards in accordance with your inquiry and are consistent with your reading methods and systems of choice you will always glean something useful from a reading. There are never “wrong” cards laid out to be interpreted. From a psychology-based standpoint, your brain is naturally wired to make sense of things and it will derive meaning from any arrangement of cards. It ultimately doesn’t matter which particular cards are in front of you. This philosophy assists with reducing shuffling anxiety a great deal.
However, I understand that it doesn’t entirely eliminate this anxiety, and worrying can rob you of your concentration and your confidence. I’m not a mystical whatsit with a strong intuitive sense about when to stop shuffling, so adding some technique and structure was beneficial for starting readings off on the right foot. If you’re anything like me, you might find these ideas useful too.
1. Ritual Shuffling
You’ve probably heard this suggestion before, and if you don’t already do it, give it a try. Before you start shuffling, determine how many times you will shuffle. You are done shuffling once you have completed your chosen number of repetitions. For example, if I shuffle through the deck with an overhand style followed by a riffle and then a bridge, I would count that sequence as shuffling once. If I decide that 5 is my chosen number, I would overhand, riffle, and bridge 5 times and call it finished.
The conscious decision to shuffle in a certain way a specific number of times makes it into a ritual with a clearly desired outcome – a useful spread of cards. Transforming the act of shuffling into a ritual of its own can greatly alter your overall perception of shuffling and your state of mind when doing it. You are directing your energy and focusing it to achieve your goal rather than waiting for an intuitive “ping” to strike your consciousness. For those who find that waiting for that “ping” has a tendency to preoccupy or even become an impediment to the reading process, the concept of “ritual shuffling” is worth exploring.
This method can be used in conjunction with the subsequent methods I describe. Doubling up these techniques can maximize your confidence with drawing cards. However, the following techniques are also great on their own, especially if you feel a degree of certainty about when to stop shuffling.
2. Position Counting
Let’s say you are doing a 3 card spread. Draw the top card from your shuffled deck and place it in the first position.
For position 2, discard the top card from the shuffled deck and place the second card into position.
For card 3, discard the first 2 cards from the top of your shuffled deck and place the third one. When you begin reading you should have a stack of shuffled cards, 3 cards discarded, and 3 cards in their assigned positions.
3. Gambling Draw
This method requires a die. Before drawing any cards from your shuffled deck, roll the die and see what you get. Let’s say you roll a 4. Count to the fourth card in your shuffled deck. This is the first card you draw for your reading. Discard the first 3 cards. At this point you have two options. You can count to the fourth card for each subsequent position, or you can roll the die again for each position.
Returning to our example, the fourth card is drawn for the first position, and you decide to roll the die again. Let’s say it’s a 3. Draw the third card from the shuffled deck, discarding as before. If this is a 2 card reading there will be 5 discarded cards: 3 from selecting the fourth card in position 1, and 2 cards from counting to the third card for position 2.
3. Dealing a Hand (of fate!)
If you don’t have a die and/or wish to keep things simpler, this variation works well. In this example let’s say it’s a 5 card spread. Shuffle your cards and deal 5 into each spread position (25 total cards are drawn). Turn over the top card in each 5 card pile for your reading (the others can be ignored). In this example 5 cards are dealt into each position because it is a 5 card spread. If you prefer to choose a different number, let’s say 7 cards in each pile, that’s fine (the total of cards drawn for a 5 card spread would then be 35). The number of cards in the piles doesn’t have to match the number of spread positions. It can match the number you use for your ritual shuffling, it can be your lucky number, etc. Just make sure that each pile has the same number of cards. As for dealing the cards, if you deal them traditionally according to the 5 card per pile example, you will be reading the twentieth through twenty fifth cards in your deck. Dealing into a single pile in its entirety and then moving on to the next would mimic the single die roll method in the absence of a die (without the element of chance, of course).
4. Swish Puddle/Fanning
If you hate numbers or if dealing cards initiates traumatic flashbacks of Uno games with your family, this method might be more appealing. Swirl your cards around on a flat surface instead of formal shuffling, or shuffle conventionally and fan the cards in their shuffled order. Select the cards that your eye is drawn to or ones that give you a hot or cold or tingling sensation when your hand hovers over them. If you are like me and you’re about as intuitive as a doorstop, your mileage with this technique may vary.
Briefly, here are a few other ways to spice up shuffling and/or drawing your cards:
1. Refer to the Opening of the Key method for reading cards. This is a great way to shake up your card selection (and reading) methods.
2. Try the “position counting” and “gambling draw” techniques without discarding the cards you count through (be sure to keep them in order!) and see which format you prefer.
3. Alternate between drawing a card from the top of the deck and the bottom of the deck.
4. Try to shuffle conventionally, fumble, and ask the universe for answers while you play 78 card pick up.
Although these methods may seem complicated, in practice they are straightforward and add a greater sense of purpose to drawing cards. I hope you give them a try!
Happy Shuffling!