Coincidence or outside influence?

[Trogon]

So, tonight at work, I did my usual 3-card daily reading. I was using the Dame Fortune Wheel's Tarot. I shuffled as normal (till it "felt right" - 4 times this time), did a cut and laid out 3 cards. I didn't really look at the cards as I'm laying them out - just kind of looking straight ahead without focusing. When I looked down, here's what I found;

 

Knave of Swords-rx  ......  Knight of Swords-rx ...... King of Swords-rx

 

:o

 

I should have looked to see if the next card was the Queen (but I didn't think of it till just now).

 

I have never had, in that short of a reading, 3 court cards come up, in the correct order as this. I realize that it is within the realm of possibility that this could happen. But with shuffling the way I do, and pulling the top 3 cards (after a cut) ... it is not very probable that I would get these exact 3 cards, in this exact order, out of 78 fully randomized cards. For me, it was a confirmation that there is something much more than random chance in doing a Tarot reading.

 

Oh, I use a slightly modified

. I do it with the 2 halves of the deck flat on the table, and in between shuffles, I will pull a section of cards (up to 1/3 of the deck), rotate it and place it on the top or the bottom - inducing pretty random reversals and a good randomization of the deck. Plus, I've used this deck for a number of readings over the past several days. So, I feel this even further reduces the chances of this happening.

 

Just a fun thing I had happen ...

[Tulirose]

Hello Trogon,

I think you should trust your cards. That is what you got using your own somewhat intricate shuffling technique, so you must trust the cards that come up, IF you are sure you trust your shuffling technique.

 

I used to use the 'shuffle till it felt right' technique, but, and I am speaking for myself only, I started feeling like I was using my own free will to interfere with the message the universe was trying to give me. I decided to speak to the cards as clearly as I could and say what I was asking, then, before I started shuffling I would tell the cars, "I will shuffle three times" (I picked this number because of stuff I have read about the number 3), then focusing as clearly as I could on my question, whether I liked it or not, I started trying to interpret what I got using the 'prearranged' number of shuffles that I 'contracted' with the cards to do.

 

I do this because I trust Math more than I trust myself :-\

 

 

[Trogon]

I see what you're saying Tuilirose and it makes sense. And most often the "feels right" stage is reached for me at 3 shuffles. And, like you, I do concentrate on the question at hand. So most often, my ritual is right on par with yours. As I begin to shuffle, I open myself to guidance from outside myself, and sometimes, I'm told to keep shuffling a few more times. It's actually fairly uncommon that I'll go more than 3 shuffles - and, when I do, It's usually 5 or 7, that's why I thought the 4 was noteworthy (to myself anyway).

 

If you look at a video of someone doing a faro shuffle, you'll see that you get an almost "perfect" shuffle, cards alternating with few, if any, clumps. This can lend itself to cheating (keeping a specific card at the top or bottom of the deck). So, each time I shuffle, I'll pull out a group of cards, rotate it around to reverse cards and lay that group at the top (or bottom) to change which cards are on top. I have checked myself a few times (checking the order of the cards, shuffling a few times, then seeing what the order is ... I get extremely good randomization).

 

But this is why I was surprised by what came up. It didn't have to do with not trusting my shuffles. In fact, it was just the opposite - I do trust my shuffles to thoroughly randomize the deck - that is why having 3 cards come up in that exact order was surprising and gives me confirmation that there is something special that happens when we do a Tarot reading. ;D

[Tulirose]

Hello Trogon,

You know a lot more about card shuffling techniques than I do.

I think that even if what I do, limiting myself to three shuffles, sounds little 'controlling', I do that because I know how doubts creep into my mind in the form of asking myself (instead of concentrating on the question), "did I shuffle enough?, should I go for one more shuffle?", if I don't mechanically limit myself.

I figure enough randomness went into the matter when deciding where to cut the cards. When the cards seem to 'open' at a particular place THEN I ask myself, "are they asking me to cut them there, or is it 'human error'-as in I bent a card, or got something sticky on a card-which is probably just undecided Libra in action, but I know myself well enough to set some guidelines, or I'll take forever ::)

 

I do agree with you, that the cards (Tarot and Lenormand) can put us in touch with the 'whatever' in the Universe that is common ground to us all.

How rare is one of those Straight Flushes in the world of Poker? But they happen.

See, I can tell you to 'trust' your cards, but what I really would like to be good at is reading the cards. If it doesn't give me a 'gut' message that I can be darn sure of...then I have to hit the Tarot forums or a book, although I am getting a little better at 'intuitive' reading, but for me that's a struggle-probably more of that 'I like Math thing :)

[Trogon]

Well, admittedly I learned more about shuffling from playing cribbage, poker, hearts and spades when I was in the Navy. I usually came out ahead playing poker & cribbage, enough to buy cigarettes & books & such for long cruises. I learned the technique I now use from a friend of mine back then (clear back around 1980). It looks good and gives a good shuffle. One of these days I've got to learn how to convert a video to post to youtube.

 

But even with that, I used to worry about the mechanics of it too ... "have I shuffled enough times since the last reading?" As I started trusting my intuition for the cards more, I also started trusting it for my shuffling and cutting too. A lot of what I do with Tarot comes back to "yeah, that feels right". I can't say for sure when, or even how that started happening. But I know it started coming along more when I was meditating more, with the purpose of opening myself to the messages my Spirit Guides would bring and being able to recognize those messages. Using the Tarot to look within myself and meditating to connect to things far beyond myself have been instrumental in opening my intuition and me learning to trust it more.

 

Hopefully that makes sense.