3 Ways to Shuffle Tarot Cards

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Reading tarot cards is a great way to practice tuning in to our intuition. Part of the non-analytical, less structured beauty of working with tarot is the random drawing of the cards.

Here are three different ways to shuffle your tarot cards to randomize the deck before you intuitively draw a card. Practice all three to see which way feels right for you.

1. Overhand Shuffle

The first way to shuffle tarot cards is the overhand shuffle. This is the way I shuffle because I’m not currently reading reversals (upside-down cards) and the overhand shuffle keeps all the cards going the same way.

To do the overhand shuffle, you hold the deck in your non-dominant hand. With your dominant hand, you cut from the back of the deck and drop a few cards at a time onto the front of the deck. You randomly bring cards from the back of the deck to the front over and over again until you feel that the cards have been shuffled thoroughly.

Again, this shuffle keeps all the cards nice and neat and facing the same way. It’s a quick and easy shuffle for in between questions in a multi-card spread.

2. Casino Shuffle

The second way to shuffle tarot cards is the casino shuffle, which is the fanciest and most difficult way to shuffle. This is when you cut the deck in half, holding half the cards in each hand, and flip them into each other really quickly like a poker dealer. Extra points if you flip them back in a flurry the other way to neaten your stack of cards.

Besides the fact that it’s fancy and fun, why would you use the casino shuffle in tarot? It’s a great way to get reversals in your deck since half of the cards are going back into the deck upside down due to the way you hold the cards when you do this shuffle.

A well worn tarot deck is necessary for the casino shuffle because the cards have to be flexible. My Rider-Waite tarot deck is perfect for this because the cards are nice and bendy now after years of use. But a casino shuffle would be impossible with my brand new Modern Witch tarot deck because the cards are way too new and stiff.

Because the casino shuffle turns half the deck upside down, I like to use it in between readings rather than in between questions in the same reading. I feel like it changes the deck way too much to be used in the same reading.

(Want a visual? Watch my IGTV video showing you these three ways to shuffle your tarot cards.)

3. Messy Shuffle

Finally, how to shuffle tarot cards if you suck at shuffling?

I call the third way of shuffling tarot cards the messy shuffle.  You just jumble all the cards together face down on your tarot reading surface (a tabletop, your bed, the floor, wherever). Just move them around all over the place, swirling the cards around with both hands until you are satisfied. Then, just put all the cards back together in a neat pile.

Like the casino shuffle, this is great for getting reversals in your deck since you’re moving the cards around willy-nilly and have no way of knowing which way they are facing as you put the deck back together face-down. This is messy (thus the name) and time-consuming though. So this would also be good for the beginning of your reading only, rather than in between each question of the same reading.

Let me know how you like to shuffle your tarot cards! And, this is my favorite question to ask, how do you know when to stop shuffling? Leave a comment below!