Hi there, I have quite a few tarot decks which I’ve collected in my home. To be honest though, I still don’t really know how to use them properly. What I’ve been doing so far is just shuffling the cards around and around with my question or situation in mind and then maybe picking out one or three cards and then googling their possible meanings. I’m sure that to some people this method might be good enough, but I’m interested in learning a structured and uniform ritual I can use to divine methods. How do you guys shuffle and read tarot cards?
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I make my own spreads and “attune” my cards by giving myself base readings I already know in order to learn how a particular deck wants to show me how it communicates. My “main” deck I’ve had for twenty years. I kiss it before and after every reading and thank it as part of the strength of our bond. While you don’t have to do that exactly, I find treating them animistically as their own entity offers great experience for reading.
I wrote in one of my grimoires each card meaning, not just what the booklet or Internet says but how I’ve come to understand that particular deck and how it reads for me. Writing each card one by one is a great bonding exercise for the tool. Short hand, not paragraphs. This works best for having a “main” deck, probably. I use the booklet of other decks as they tend to have their own unique personality.
When I shuffle it’s mostly just as normal with the general feeling of the query on my mind.
I feel out how many cards the deck wants me to pull and in what shape. Sometimes as little as one.
Sometimes I do have a specific spread I want to use and simply draw cards in that shape. One spread I use is a straight line of three or more cards, then on the rightmost side three vertical cards, like a sideways T. For me this represents a pathway and the desired/best outcome, middle outcome, and worst outcome. I use it to either mean “what could happen if I do this” or “what do I need to do to do this and what else will come out of it”
If you really want to ritualize the experience, I might suggest that you could open a circle, sit in the circle, then draw cards in a circle around you to get a detailed reading. You could invite divinatory spirits for guidance and offer incense, candles, and other things.
I also use tarot for spell casting and curse work. Drawing cards thinking of someone I hate then removing something good from the reading, or adding something bad. I also use the cards as representations of what I want to draw upon for spell work or spirit work. Many people use them as a method if communication with spirits. Looking into invocation rituals might be helpful.
I’ve sometimes used multiple decks, shuffled each individually and drew each on top of each other to get their multiple opinions in their varying personalities.
Creating something structured and uniform may take trial and error until you find something you feel is best for you.
Hope that helps.
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The advice is the best advice I’ve seen for tarot cards, but simply if I’m not find one card pulls and want s full in depth reading, I always use the Celtic cross spread. It takes some time but is a well documented spread where each position has a well defined purpose speaking to an aspect of the situation.
I learned this as my guest tarot came with a booklet that included the Celtic cross layout and position descriptions, but I’m sure you can find this online. From there you could edit to suit to make your own spread.
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I shuffle them like playing cards
Have you tried pulling out a signifactor card(s) which best represents your situation before doing a reading?
For example, when doing readings on relationships, you can pull out “The Lovers”
You can use the court cards to represent different people or professions
“The Magician” or “King of Swords” if the reading is about a doctor