Tarot Reading Techniques - The Shuffle

Tarot Reading Techniques - The Shuffle

At the beginning of a tarot-reading I fan the cards out face-down in a row on the table in front of the client and ask him/her to select 7 cards.

I then gather up the deck and insert the 7 chosen cards randomly back into the deck in reverse (upside-down).

Then I ask the client to shuffle the cards while thinking about a question or issue.

Then I take the deck and start tabling and interpreting the cards.

I think it's a good idea to reverse some cards in the deck because reversed cards teach you new card meanings. If you become stuck during a reading on what a reversed card means then simply interpret it as if it were in its normal upright state. You'll often find that the reversed meaning will suddenly occur to you as you're describing the card's normal upright meaning. If you don't receive an intuition about the reversed meaning, that's OK too, simply stick with the upright meaning and move on to the next card. (Sometimes, the meaning will occur to you later during the reading after some more cards are tabled.)

Note: Reversed cards are not "negative". The meanings change subtly in some way, however. In fact, none of the tarot cards are "negative". Some of the cards simply express significant challenges that need to be overcome.

Cheers,
Patrick.