Shuffling your Tarot Cards for the Big One

One of my students once emailed me in panic after she had chosen the cards for her Soul Purpose/Soul Gifts reading. "I don't think these are the right cards. I'm sure I didn't shuffle them properly. What do I do?" 

Have you ever had the experience of shuffling your tarot cards for a 'big reading' and then going into an anxious tither about when to stop shuffling? The mind chatter goes something like: did I shuffle one time too many after my inner voice said ready, should I stop now or do another long shuffle so that those cards come up again? I really want to get the right cards. The card that flipped out then, is that important? Is it a sign from the universe?

First the shuffle - this simple method works beautifully to clear the cards from previous readings, give them a thorough mix and allow them to fall into those intuitive guidance positions.

On a flat surface deal the cards out in seven piles as if you were dealing for a card game. You can deal them in a random order. Then pick up each pile in turn in an intuitive order. I let my eyes go soft and pick them up as my eyes go to each of them in turn.

I came across this tip from Caitlin Matthews in her Da Vinci Enigma Tarot book - a set I was lucky enough to win at my local Auckland tarot guild meeting. Thank you Caitlin - this method of shuffling is a lovely calming ritual and the cards have always been spot on.

I use this seven hand shuffle before I read for clients and for what feels like an important reading for myself. If I am reading for a client I design the spread to fall into three lines and cut the cards so I have three piles and then deal off the top of each pile for each line. 

For daily guidance I ask the question "How can I best meet and move through this day?" That way the cards are guidance cards, not predictive, and can be looked at in the most positive light. I shuffle normally, with an inner ear alert as to when to stop, and then take the first three cards off the top. If a card pings out I do take note - sometimes I take it as my first card.

In answer to my student's email, I suggested she make a note of what she got the first time round. Then do the seven hand shuffle to select her new cards and look closely at the cards that fell into the same positions to see if there were any connections between them. 

Transformational Tarot by Arnell Ando

It is important to remember that the cards are not some mystical force outside of ourselves - but simply a tool to access our own intuitive guidance - the inside answers that were there all along. If done with care and sincere intent then any card that comes up for us can lead us to that high vibration insight or next step. 

If we refuse to work with the cards that come up, but keep pulling cards to the same question in either a low vibration melt down state (and we've all done this at some time or other :-) or a defensive rejection of cards that don't fit what we want to see - then we have blocked the channel and nothing will make sense.

In those cases my practice is to calm down through focusing on taking deep, slow breaths - to go for a walk and come back to the cards later - and then just to pull one card and sit with it in quiet meditation - asking for high vibration assistance to help me to be open to what the card and my intuition and guides are trying to tell me.