How do we select the cards from the tarot deck for reading?

[rivertarot]

I am a newbie in tarot reading. I am not sure how to select the card from the Tarot deck for personal reading.

 

Should I keep shuffling the tarot cards until one card drops from the deck and use it for the reading? 

 

Or after shuffling the cards, should I keep them stacked up uniformly and select the first card (and 2nd etc. depending on the spread) from the tarot deck? (How do I determine when to stop shuffling for this method?)

 

Is there a recommended way to select cards for Tarot reading?

 

Thank you.

[Agnes]

There’s no one right way. You will develop a way that seems good to you. 
 

My typical method is to shuffle the cards well, then deal the whole spread off the top. Sometimes I cut them but not always. I’m experimenting with shuffling, then fanning the deck out on the table and selecting the cards for a spread. 
 

Some people shuffle between each card in a layout. 
 

I do lots of practice spreads (I ask the cards to “tell me a story”) and so I feel comfortable experimenting with different methods of shuffling and choosing cards. 
 

It’s a nebulous answer, I know. It seems like there should be one right answer so you could be sure you were selecting the right cards to read. But there isn’t, it’s very haphazard, and yet it works. 
 

 

[Guest]

I went to a reading and they asked me to shuffle the cards.  I passed them back to her, she cut into 3 piles and asked me to choose a pile.  The cards were then taken from the top, one at a time for the reading.

 

[Mirath]

Like Agnes said, it’s very much down to whatever feels right to you - there’s no real right or wrong way.

 

For the daily one-card draws I do, I shuffle my cards when I think of my question (I like a good riffle shuffle for full-size cards, even if it’s messy.), cut the deck in half, and select the card from the middle of the deck. But sometimes I take the top-most card.

 

Sometimes cards just call out, so not every pull might be the same ‘location’ either. Top, middle, bottom, ANYWHERE in the deck… you get the idea 😄

[DanielJUK]

Some people take cards out of the deck from random places. There was even a discussion on here a while ago about the Fall Out Shuffling Method for getting the cards

Try some different methods out and work out what is best for you 🙂

 

This is my tarot regular method....

 

I shuffle the cards and make an intention who I am reading for, even with their forum name if I don't know them. I ask the question or topic during the shuffling. I keep shuffling until it feels ready, this is really just an intuitive thing. It just feels like it's shuffled enough. Then I deal off the top of the deck.

[MuninnMissinHuginn]

Recently it was necessary to change the way I shuffled the cards. I see no difference in the quality of the readings.  I would agree with all that is said by the previous posters, that how to shuffle is a personal choice, and that intuition will guide you as to when to stop. In my habits, the way the cards will be chosen happens before the shuffling begins. Will jumpers be taken, will piles be made and chosen, etc.  I do this because concentrating or focusing on the question while shuffling is important to me. For what it is worth.

Edited August 14, 2022 by MuninnMissinHuginn

[rivertarot]

Thank you for your replies Agnes Kate22 Mirath DanielJUK and MuninnMissinHuginn    🙂

[SlightlyMagic]

Like others have said do what feels right for you. There's no right or wrong here and endless ways to do your reads. To me tarot is friendship between myself and the cards and a great way to build up trust in ones intuition. I also feel it should be fun and some methods may just work out better than others depending on shuffling skills, the card stock or environment you do your reads. So have a play, try out a few and do whatever jumps into your head, there's no harm in changing up before or even mid read if that's what you are feeling. 

 

My approach may differ massively from a more disciplined reader but neither are in the wrong as ultimately it boils down to your personality and the relationship you have with your cards.

 

 

[Eric13]

This is always an interesting topic. I've always been impulsive when it comes to choosing a card. Naturally I shuffle until it feels right. I also cut the deck in threes or more to make sure I'm not just moving cards front to back. But when choosing the card, sometimes I'll use one when it falls out, take from the middle of the deck, split the deck in three and take those top cards, or just the cards on top normally. All helps maintain a good variety. 

[euripides]

I used to always take from the top, but nowadays I tend to sort of partially fan the cards a little and take from within the deck. Other times I'll split into as many piles as cards I want to draw (often doing two, three, or four-card readings) and draw from the top of each.

[DanielJUK]

A good idea I once read is when you put the cards back in the deck at the end, to add them randomly into the deck. You can deal from the top (or however you want to do that part) and then randomly put them back in the deck. You still shuffle them for the next reading when you need them again but if the same cards repeat, that is more intriguing 🙂