Hi Robert. This was brill and right on time. Just last night I was trying to break in a new deck and resisting the urge to riffle it to avoid wearing them out too soon. My partner asked if I needed help because he apparently it was obvious I was doing a bad job at randomizing the cards. Though I was chatting to another tarot friend recently and she suggested that riffle shuffling is more common among American tarot readers, whereas in the Uk the old schoolers tend to stick to overhand. Not sure how true that is though based on your preference.
Hi Gitta! I did overhand for years! Apparently it is absolutely USELESS for randomising. I have noticed that my German friends riffle-shuffle with complete abandon, in a kind of "use it up and wear it out" kind of way - which is probably perfect. Maybe we should use tarot cards as we use beloved kitchen instruments - just make them work for us until they fall to pieces!
I prefer riffle shuffling my decks but sometimes I do overhand if the card stock is thick. I used to worry about the cards not being shuffled enough by doing overhand but I've just accepted it as the cards end up exactly where they need to be and it doesn't matter too much if I'm going to fan them out and randomly select the cards for the reading.
I used to riffle shuffle when using upright cards only, but when I felt ready to introduce reversals, I got disturbed by the idea that I automatically forced half of a deck to become reversed! What if only a quarter of the deck is meant to be reversed? What if only some? Or none altogether? And this is why I returned to swooshing, however unprofessional it may look. Because the number of upright and reversed cards is always random, I don't experience any issues putting the cards together, and I always follow up by cutting the cards into three piles and reassembling the deck. Et voila, my 5-kopecks worth of opinion🙂 As usual, thank you for the video, dear Robert!
Ah yes! reversals! But then I use the yin-yang rule: if more than 50% of the cards in any spread are reversed, I reverse the whole reading, so that reversals are never in the majority... Rx
Hi, Robert. Great video. I find that for mini decks, if I divide the deck in two, I can riffle shuffle each half a few times, then join them and overhand shuffle them. I do the same thing with decks that have very stiff cards. It works very well, for me.
Good stuff! Irinically enough it was while making this video that I suddenly became better at shuffling. I thought the mini was going to be a nightmare but it was OK. I still think very small minis are not the best decks to take on holiday though. Because the cards do seem to fly all over the place... :-)
Hi Robert! This video has been bothering me and I have a question. Do you think how one shuffles affects the accuracy of a reading? In addition to you, I sometimes watch videos from the lovely older woman in Australia who really seems to be quite a gifted reader . I notice she does not rifle shuffle her large cards but rather just randomly places them in different parts of the decks
Hi - good question! I am convinced that how you shuffle ultimately makes no difference. By mistake the other day I used a deck that I had recently put into order for a video, and only partially reshuffled. The reading that I got was the knight, king and queen of swords! But I decided to go with it and got a perfectly good, meaningful reading out of it. I think that tarot is an entirely illogical process - unlike astrology it has no connection with any kind of natural process. I believe it is a way of connecting with another dimension in which probabilities are somehow in play. You just have to accept that the way you shuffle the cards, and the way the cards fall, is fairly random, but the fall of the cards is connected to the flow of the universe. I have noticed that some extremely psychic card readers are quite sloppy shufflers!
The age old question especially with the modern card industry. Is why don't they just make tarot cards that are the size of playing cards. I bought some "fake" decks that were pirated and they were the same size as playing cards and it didn't distort the pictures of the cards. I use those decks over the regular sized decks because I like to riffle shuffle. I also have tiny hands and normal sized playing cards are the best for me. Even if their half the size of tarot and normal like an in-between I can shuffle them well. I'm like you I like to use my decks. I used to be all, oh I don't want to destroy the art work, but then I started buying decks that were tea stained and such and the dings and faded edges makes the deck have more character. The point of tarot is to read the cards. I've been reading for the past 6 years almost and I still like to look up better shuffling methods. Especially with bigger cards. I find the bigger cards unessisary.
Oh I so agree! I have many nice decks that only exist in large size, and I rarely use them. I even bought a pirated deck this year and it was bridge size and I was so happy. Then my flatmate gave me another pirate deck, also bridge size. Hooray! I think the thing is, when you read for yourself you want bridge-size. Large-size are good for 1-2-1 readings because querents find them exciting, but frankly I do most of my readings via video-calls these days, and in that case I need smaller decks again! Rx
@@teatarot4557 In my readings I find their actually looking for someone to talk to. Only unless their an artist or work in the digital world of film making do they actually want to look at the imagery of the cards. I do everything in RUclips format and typing on word and sharing the image of the card with people. I only do a 5 card spread any way even with myself. I find a good cup of tea or coffee and a chat is just the medicine they need. The tarot deck for me at least is just a medium I use to get them to open up about their situation. I still find it funny that their like How did you know that? I tell people all the time. I'm simply a mirror that your looking at and your reading me I'm just providing a reflection that you can understand. I find just as much healing in my readings with others that the seeker gets. There is no such things as secrets with the querent and the reader.
I’m not in the US and decks are so expensive here, even mass market. So I love the idea of total randomization but will never adopt the riffle shuffle 😬
@@teatarot4557 🤣 it looks sorta silly but I'll give it a try the next time I read. I usually just do an overhand and then cut the deck randomly for each card and shuffle again in between cards. I never pick cards all together, so I think that helps a ton.
I am not a swoosher. Too uncivilised and undignified, plus it's harmful to the edges. I will ripple and overhand. Much more natural feeling and, I believe, much more condusive to placing ones energy and question into the deck.
Hi Robert. This was brill and right on time. Just last night I was trying to break in a new deck and resisting the urge to riffle it to avoid wearing them out too soon. My partner asked if I needed help because he apparently it was obvious I was doing a bad job at randomizing the cards. Though I was chatting to another tarot friend recently and she suggested that riffle shuffling is more common among American tarot readers, whereas in the Uk the old schoolers tend to stick to overhand. Not sure how true that is though based on your preference.
Hi Gitta! I did overhand for years! Apparently it is absolutely USELESS for randomising. I have noticed that my German friends riffle-shuffle with complete abandon, in a kind of "use it up and wear it out" kind of way - which is probably perfect. Maybe we should use tarot cards as we use beloved kitchen instruments - just make them work for us until they fall to pieces!
@@teatarot4557 sounds about right! Yes I need to be less precious about them.
I prefer riffle shuffling my decks but sometimes I do overhand if the card stock is thick. I used to worry about the cards not being shuffled enough by doing overhand but I've just accepted it as the cards end up exactly where they need to be and it doesn't matter too much if I'm going to fan them out and randomly select the cards for the reading.
This was so much fun! Thank you!
You're welcome!
I used to riffle shuffle when using upright cards only, but when I felt ready to introduce reversals, I got disturbed by the idea that I automatically forced half of a deck to become reversed! What if only a quarter of the deck is meant to be reversed? What if only some? Or none altogether? And this is why I returned to swooshing, however unprofessional it may look. Because the number of upright and reversed cards is always random, I don't experience any issues putting the cards together, and I always follow up by cutting the cards into three piles and reassembling the deck. Et voila, my 5-kopecks worth of opinion🙂 As usual, thank you for the video, dear Robert!
Ah yes! reversals! But then I use the yin-yang rule: if more than 50% of the cards in any spread are reversed, I reverse the whole reading, so that reversals are never in the majority... Rx
I'm can only overhand shuffle. I wish I could riffle shuffle, but I just carnt master it ❤️
Do you swoosh? 🙂
@teatarot4557 hi Robert not yet. It's the first time I've heard of this method 😳
@@ikalesunflower Try it! They say it works well:-)
Hi, Robert. Great video. I find that for mini decks, if I divide the deck in two, I can riffle shuffle each half a few times, then join them and overhand shuffle them. I do the same thing with decks that have very stiff cards. It works very well, for me.
Good stuff! Irinically enough it was while making this video that I suddenly became better at shuffling. I thought the mini was going to be a nightmare but it was OK. I still think very small minis are not the best decks to take on holiday though. Because the cards do seem to fly all over the place... :-)
Hi Robert!
This video has been bothering me and I have a question.
Do you think how one shuffles affects the accuracy of a reading?
In addition to you, I sometimes watch videos from the lovely older woman in Australia who really seems to be quite a gifted reader .
I notice she does not rifle shuffle her large cards but rather just randomly places them in different parts of the decks
Hi - good question!
I am convinced that how you shuffle ultimately makes no difference. By mistake the other day I used a deck that I had recently put into order for a video, and only partially reshuffled. The reading that I got was the knight, king and queen of swords! But I decided to go with it and got a perfectly good, meaningful reading out of it.
I think that tarot is an entirely illogical process - unlike astrology it has no connection with any kind of natural process. I believe it is a way of connecting with another dimension in which probabilities are somehow in play. You just have to accept that the way you shuffle the cards, and the way the cards fall, is fairly random, but the fall of the cards is connected to the flow of the universe.
I have noticed that some extremely psychic card readers are quite sloppy shufflers!
The age old question especially with the modern card industry. Is why don't they just make tarot cards that are the size of playing cards. I bought some "fake" decks that were pirated and they were the same size as playing cards and it didn't distort the pictures of the cards. I use those decks over the regular sized decks because I like to riffle shuffle. I also have tiny hands and normal sized playing cards are the best for me. Even if their half the size of tarot and normal like an in-between I can shuffle them well. I'm like you I like to use my decks. I used to be all, oh I don't want to destroy the art work, but then I started buying decks that were tea stained and such and the dings and faded edges makes the deck have more character. The point of tarot is to read the cards. I've been reading for the past 6 years almost and I still like to look up better shuffling methods. Especially with bigger cards. I find the bigger cards unessisary.
Oh I so agree! I have many nice decks that only exist in large size, and I rarely use them. I even bought a pirated deck this year and it was bridge size and I was so happy. Then my flatmate gave me another pirate deck, also bridge size. Hooray!
I think the thing is, when you read for yourself you want bridge-size. Large-size are good for 1-2-1 readings because querents find them exciting, but frankly I do most of my readings via video-calls these days, and in that case I need smaller decks again! Rx
@@teatarot4557 In my readings I find their actually looking for someone to talk to. Only unless their an artist or work in the digital world of film making do they actually want to look at the imagery of the cards. I do everything in RUclips format and typing on word and sharing the image of the card with people. I only do a 5 card spread any way even with myself. I find a good cup of tea or coffee and a chat is just the medicine they need. The tarot deck for me at least is just a medium I use to get them to open up about their situation. I still find it funny that their like How did you know that? I tell people all the time. I'm simply a mirror that your looking at and your reading me I'm just providing a reflection that you can understand. I find just as much healing in my readings with others that the seeker gets. There is no such things as secrets with the querent and the reader.
I’m not in the US and decks are so expensive here, even mass market. So I love the idea of total randomization but will never adopt the riffle shuffle 😬
They say swooshing is quite good!
@@teatarot4557 🤣 it looks sorta silly but I'll give it a try the next time I read. I usually just do an overhand and then cut the deck randomly for each card and shuffle again in between cards. I never pick cards all together, so I think that helps a ton.
@@terriw6116 Sounds fine! 🙂
I am not a swoosher. Too uncivilised and undignified, plus it's harmful to the edges. I will ripple and overhand. Much more natural feeling and, I believe, much more condusive to placing ones energy and question into the deck.