Welcome to Tarot 101!

I'm not a tarot expert. I am not a gifted psychic. I am self-taught at tarot and thought it would be fun to share with you how I learned tarot. There are much better teachers and tarot readers out there, but I think this is a good place for a beginner to get his or her feet wet. I've tried to create a very safe space for new readers who, like me, don't deal well with overly critical, know-it-all teachers who have no patience for those of us who need to learn at our own pace.

Speaking of patience, I have no patience for the history of tarot. There are hundreds of resources, probably thousands, that can give you that kind of information. If you want to know the history of tarot and how it came to be, you've come to the wrong place. If you want a practical, no-nonsense (well, maybe a little nonsense) introduction to using the tarot in your life, then you have found that place.

A lot of my suggestions, ideas, and theories fly in the face of what some tarot experts believe is right. And I may be dead wrong about a lot of things. But what is most important to me when learning tarot is demystification and the idea that there is no absolute truth about how the tarot should be used. Just because someone with certs out the wazoo says a thing is true, that is no reason to believe them. Test what you are told, don't swallow someone else's truth until you've seen it work for you as well and, even then, accept that truth as your truth, not THE truth. It's when we workers of these alternative tools for living and self-development start to believe that we know THE truth that we become downright dangerous.

I have few guidelines in my work and even fewer rules.

Guidelines:
Consistent shuffling style
Knowing in advance what my spread is going to be
Do what works and set aside what doesn't--no matter how much someone else insists that what doesn't work for me must work for me.
Be open to new or different ideas about the tarot
Try those things that didn't work for me before every now and again. After all, as we learn and grow, things we didn't or couldn't understand before may eventually come to work quite well for us.
If what you're doing isn't working, then change it.
Remember that the tarot does not speak truth, per se. It may offer insight, guidance, perspective, and sometimes very clear revelation, but its answers are never to be perceived as TRUTH. Even when those answers prove to be true later on down the road. Its answer are to be factored into our plans and decisions, but not to be that on which we base our decisions. Like any good oracle, the tarot, in my experience, has a tendency to reveal to me or those I'm reading for what I/they need to know right now, not necessarily what is true.

Rules:
Do no harm.
Carefully research every tarot deck I want before purchasing it.
There is no such thing as too many tarot decks.

Lesson 6 -- Shuffling Tarot Cards

Most of this post is blatantly plagiarized from Learn Tarot, I edited it a bit according to my own experiences. What I didn't lift off of Learn Tarot or didn't add myself (mostly in bracketted italics) was taken from a Wikipedia page on shuffling cards.

There are many shuffling methods, but here are some of the main ones:

Card Player's Method [also known as "riffling" or "riffle style]. The Card Player's Method is commonly used ]to shuffle everyday playing cards. Hold about half the cards face down in each hand and intermingle them as they drop to the surface of the table. This technique mixes the cards thoroughly, but it can be awkward because most tarot cards are bigger than normal. This method is also hard on your cards. They tend to form a bend in the middle. The Card Player's Method is effective, but somewhat mechanical in spirit. [If you don't like reading reversed cards, simply be aware of how you shuffle them when you use the rifling technique. Make sure that when you cut the deck in half that, before you begin shuffling, all the bottoms of the cards are pointed in the same direction. This becomes quite natural in time, I do it without even thinking about it.]

Insertion Method Hold [also known as Lacing, Stripping, or Overhand] about half the deck in each hand, and insert one half in a scattered fashion down through the other half. You can hold the cards on their long or short side. This method is fast, efficient and composed with a lot of hand-to-card contact. Be careful with the edges as they can fray over time [this last sentence is very important to note as it's very very true, except that the edges WILL fray over time. But remember, in this day and age tarot decks are not hard to come by. Unless you are using a collectible deck, why worry too much? Your deck can be easily replaced when it wears out. That being said, I do shuffle rather gently, I want my cards to remain in excellent condition for as long as possible].

Hindu Shuffle Also known as 'Kattar' or 'Kenchi' [Hindi for scissor]. The deck is held face down, with the middle finger on one long edge and the thumb on the other on the bottom half of the deck. The other hand draws off a packet from the bottom of the deck. This packet is allowed to drop into the palm, then put on top of the first half.The manoever is repeated over and over until the deck is all in the second hand. It is also the most common way in Asia and other parts of the world. [I haven't used this method myself, although playing with it just now with my Halloween Tarot deck made me realize that it's a good technique for smaller and pocket decks, but lousy for your average sized deck unless you have very long fingers].

Cowie Push/Put Method In Tarot for Successful Living, Norma Cowie describes her push/put shuffling method. Her technique thoroughly mixes the cards with maximum hand contact and little or no damage. Hold the deck face down in your dominant hand. Push some cards from the top with your thumb into the other hand. Then, push again, but this time to the bottom of the new pile. Continue alternating a push to the top, then one to the bottom until all the cards have been transferred. At this point, put the entire deck back into your dominant hand and start over. This method can be difficult at first. You may push too many or drop some, but your technique will improve with practice. [my version of this method, which I've never bothered to name, involves holding the deck with the non-dominant hand and pulling the top and bottom card off the deck simultaneously with the dominant hand. It starts out smoothly enough but as the deck grows in your dominant hand -- usually held between my first and second finger as I'm going -- it gets rather hard to hold. I usually just slide off the bottom and top card onto the growing pile on my desk or work surface, ignoring the messy way they tend to fall, I repeat this shuffle several times, cutting or lacing the deck a bit between each repetition of the shuffle]

Scrambling Method [a.k.a. the Chemmy Shuffle] The Scrambling Method is about as basic as you can get. Spread all the cards face down on the floor or table, and start scrambling. This technique creates a good mix with few ill effects on the cards. The main drawback is that you need room. This shuffle also has a rather uncomposed feel which some find undesirable. [I almost never use this method as I rarely have enough room and because I don't read reversals, but I really like it for my double-ended deck and use it with that deck whenever space allows]

Pile shuffle Cards are simply dealt out into a number of piles, then the piles are stacked on top of each other. This ensures that cards that were next to each other are now separated. The pile shuffle does not provide a good randomization of the cards (but this can be enormously improved by dealing to the piles in a different order each circuit, not always in the same order).

Mongean shuffle The Mongean shuffle, or Monge's shuffle, is performed as follows (by a right-handed person): Start with the unshuffled deck in the left hand and transfer the top card to the right. Then repeatedly take the top card from the left hand and transfer it to the right, putting the second card at the top of the new deck, the third at the bottom, the fourth at the top, the fifth at the bottom, etc. [This sounds more efficient than my method of taking one from the top and bottom simultaneously and forming a new pile]

Weave and Faro shuffles Weaving is the procedure of pushing the ends of two halves of a deck against each other in such a way that they naturally intertwine. Sometimes the deck is split into equal halves of 26 cards which are then pushed together in a certain way so as to make them perfectly interweave. This is known as a Faro Shuffle

The faro shuffle is performed by cutting the deck into two, preferably equal, packs in both hands as follows (right-handed): The cards are held from above in the right and from below in the left hand. Separation of the deck is done simply lifting up half the cards with the right hand thumb slightly and pushing the left hand's packet forward away from the right hand. The two packets are often crossed and slammed into each other as to align them. They are then pushed together by the short sides and bent (either up or down). The cards will then alternately fall into each other, much like a zipper. A flourish can be added by springing the packets together by applying pressure and bending them from above. The faro is a controlled shuffle which does not randomize a deck. [I use the above Weaving method on my Rohrig deck because of it's size. The cards are HUGE and "lacing" or "weaving" them into each other from end to end is one of the few ways they can be shuffled]

To Avoid Reversed Cards Start with your cards all facing the same direction.Every time you divide the deck before shuffling,make sure the two piles stay facing the same way.

To Encourage Reversed Cards Every time you divide the deck before shuffling, rotate one of the piles 180 degrees.

I riffle most of my decks, if they aren't too large to do so. I don't have any collector's decks so I don't worry about wearing my cards out too fast. Although I'm much kinder to them than I am to playing card decks. I'm careful about how much I bend them and I make sure they get bent the other direction from time to time--if I don't, the deck becomes permanently arched. The average tarot deck is less expensive than a new, hardcover book. I finally realized there was no reason to treat them like they were glass. They are tools... meant to be utilized!

I don't believe it matters how many times you shuffle and which direction you cut the deck towards... if you cut it at all. Tarot references will stipulate that the deck must be cut with the left hand and lots of other rigormarole. If it makes sense to you to follow such rules and you believe it to be important, then by all means, do so! But don't decide that such strictures must be applied to shuffling tarot cards just because somebody wrote it in a book. Do what works for you and what aligns with your own beliefs.

For me, sevens and threes are important. I don't know why, I just like those numbers. So I tend to shuffle in groups of three or seven. Generally I riffle three times with one cutting of the deck as well as three "Lacings" between each riffle. I also announce to the Universe, usually silently, before I begin the shuffle how many times I intended to shuffle and how many cards I intend to draw. I think a certain amount of consistency in how I shuffle and draw may encourage better channeling of energy between myself and Source, but this is only a feeling, not a rule. It works for me, so I do it. It's just a belief I've had from the beginning... that I should be consistent. If I make a change, I make sure and have a brief conversation with Source about it.... just in case Source is still counting on me using the old method. By even believing this I know I put myself in a box as well as pulling the power of Source in there with me... but so what? If it works, don't fix it. We humans like our rituals, our habits, and our patterns. I'm human.

Lesson 11, Exercise 3: What's in the News?

Here's an interesting exercise to develop your psychic intuition and tarot skills.

Before you turn on the tv or open your newspaper to check the news, grab a tarot deck and a pad of paper. Before you start shuffling, though, start attempting to tap into your own psychic skill and ask to be shown what the headlines are. If it's a newspaper you're about to open, ask to be shown the front page, especially the headline. Write down everything you intuit, letters, colors, shapes, faces, words, feelings. Write it all down. You can do something similar with the television news, but it's not going to be quite the same--understandably. A newspaper page is fixed, television news is in constant motion.

Now, start shuffling your cards, decide how many you are going to draw in advance and what kind of spread you are going to use. For instance, "I'm going to draw eight cards, the first four (top row) are to represent four different stories or separate bits of information on the front page, the next row of four will represent the content of each of those stories/bits of information, each card being the secondary card to the one above it." This is just one way you could do it, there are innumerable ways you could design your spread. But be clear about what you're going to do before you do it. Maybe you prefer to start small and draw one card to represent the lead story. It's up to you. Be one with Source, shuffle, draw, and and begin interpreting your cards. Take notes! Take lots of notes. Write down your impressions and stray thoughts. When you've exhausted what you are getting from the cards, THEN look at the paper. If you don't take these notes it's too easy to fool yourself into thinking your cards were more accurate than they are or, even worse, less accurate than they really are. Those notes will keep you honest with yourself.