Is There a wrong way to shuffle tarot cards?
Introduction
There are three main ways to shuffle tarot cards but the third of them as listed is undesirable. They are; overhand shuffling, riffle shuffling (bridge shuffle), and smooshing (washing the cards).
It is often declared that all methods of shuffling tarot cards are created equal. This article will demonstrate that smooshing the tarot cards is in fact undesirable for at least three compelling reasons. First, we will see that the very name of this shuffling method gives us a clue as to why we should not do it! Second, we will discuss how the random sequences generated by smooshing the tarot cards are (perhaps cointer-intuitively) undesirable. Finally, we will discuss the experience of shuffling when giving professional tarot readings to others.
Reason 1: The clue is in the name
The word ‘smoosh’ (an alternative spelling of ‘smush’) is defined in the WordNik dictionary as an intransitive verb meaning ‘to squash or mash’. Whilst the actual technique of ‘smooshing’ involves mixing them up on the table, it should be obvious that doing the monster mash with the cards is going to damage them to an unnecessary degree over time. But what issues should we really have with damaged cards though? A few.
On a practical level, some decks have gilding so that you see a particular colour or pattern when the cards are stacked. If you smoosh the cards, you will fray their edges from the first time that you violently ‘squash’ and ‘mash’ (or should I say “crush”) them, thus destroying this aesthetic feature which is a deliberate artistic detail of the deck’s design.
Professional tarot readers who use this method will find that they are replacing their decks far more often than they would otherwise need to when using this shuffling method. This is not only a waste of time and money when decks must be too often replaced; it is a waste of physical resources. The tarot reader who still insists on smooshing is therefore demonstrating a flagrant disrespect for environmental principles such as looking after our possessions so as to only take what we need from nature. No person who claims to care for the environment can honestly support the smooshing of tarot cards.
In short, it is disrespectful to nature and therefore to God (that is, to God as well as nature) whenever we deliberately damage the tarot cards. This is especially true when we are giving spiritual tarot readings, which require purity of heart, mind and deed from the reader for genuine wisdom to be received. Such virtues attune us with Divine Wisdom so it would be no exaggeration to point out that an uncaring attitude and chaotic approach to the process of shuffling tarot cards can only result in less Divine inspiration.
Reason 2: Smooshing creates randomness
The next point to discuss is the distribution of cards when the smoosh shuffle is used and whether this distribution is helpful to the divinatory tarot reader. To explore this we must discuss why shuffling is done in the first place.
Contextually, tarot readers have inherited their shuffling methods from other uses of cards, namely card games (which often involve gambling). It has since been taken as an assumption by most tarot readers that the utility of generating random card sequences extends beyond the casino and into the house of divination.
Wikipedia states that the intended purpose of shuffling (a pack of cards) is to randomize the deck. The cards are then cut to undermine any manipulation of their order (i.e. to ensure ‘randomness’).
To summarize; gamblers and gamers mix the cards up randomly to ensure fairness. Tarot readers, noticing merely the similarity of both activities involving cards, have inherited this practise without questioning whether it is actually applicable to their own art. So, should tarot readers be trying to create a random sequence of cards? Lest we make any more unwarranted assumptions, it might be wise to ask questions.
Here’s some I made earlier.
What are the relative rates of randomness when using different shuffling methods?
What are the potential impacts, philosophically speaking, of relying on a random distribution of cards?
Ultimately, is generating a random sequence of cards the ideal of a divinatory tarot reader?
Relative Rates of Randomness
What do we mean by ‘randomness’? The adjective ‘random’ is defined in the WordNik dictionary firstly as ‘having no specific pattern, purpose or objective; synonym: chance’ and thirdly as ‘of or relating to an event in which all outcomes are equally likely, as in the testing of a blood sample for the presence of a substance.’ Whilst there are mathematical definitions of randomness, these relate to particular models and applications of the concept. Broadly speaking, the definition works for our purposes.
The relative rates of randomness (and timeframes) for each method of shuffling are
Overhand: 10,000 shuffles (83.3- minutes at a pace of 2 shuffles per second)
Riffle: 7 skilful riffle shuffles (a minute or so if skilled)
Smooshing: 30-60 seconds of shuffles
It is noteworthy that these findings are quite recent and that they mostly apply to playing cards.
Randomness when shuffling
In practise, (divinatory) tarot readers tend not to randomize their tarot decks when reading. Instead, they pick cards based on their intuition or based on cards which jump out of the pack (when overhand shuffling). By doing this, tarot readers are usually choosing cards based on the idea of occult causes (and effects) rather than the idea that the cards are being randomized.
This is surely as expected. As soon as a divinatory tarot reader sets the intention to gain occult insight of whatever kind, the idea of shuffling cards to the end of creating a random sequence becomes ludicrous as these two ends are contradictory.
In heterodox Christian theological terms, the shuffling of tarot cards with the purpose of creating randomness would be a deed of sin against the Special (Divine) Providence that would be said to occur during the divinatory act of the Christian. Esoterically, there would be no Special Providence; only the Natural Laws of the Universe which are called General Providence in this same terminology. But however we phrase this, it is clear that the divinatory tarot reader finds randomness undesirable due to their belief in some kind of intelligence(s) directing the outcomes of the cards.
Some readers may object to this point against randomness, claiming that it is still possible to gain the right messages no matter what card comes out. Apart from the fact that this implies a pseudo-skeptical and reductionist attitude towards divinatory tarot reading, my response is simple. By that logic, you don’t need to shuffle at all because you could use the same cards for every single reading. The point is obvious; some cards are more relevant than others whilst other cards do not actually fit into accurate messages at all. It is also unparsimonious to create randomness before choosing the cards based on intuition.
We all know how much pseudo-skeptics love to invoke the law of parsimony (Ockham’s Razor). Indeed, picking cards based on intuition after randomizing them is a contradictory action whereby the latter part of the act undoes the former. This relates to smooshing whenever the cards are picked based on how they have been shuffled rather than based on the reader either picking them by choice or picking them by coincidence. Again, you cannot have both.
That said, my initial reasoning on this issue was that the complex nature of computers would make digitally generated readings unreliable due to the immense speed of computers in relation to the decision and action of the lower self to click the mouse and, ultimately, determine the cards chosen. However, in speaking with an online acquaintance who works in engineering (pseudonym: Monet or “Mon”), it was pointed out that the microsecond in which the mouse is clicked will be directed, if the conditions are right, by the higher self (the part of us which is able to “reach out” into the future to so speak, to calculate our current trajectory). The cards pulled will then reflect the findings of our higher self rather than the lower self, as I had presumed. Credit to ‘Mon’ for correcting me. What this means for the smoosh method of shuffling is that, technically, it should be possible for the reader to smoosh the cards around in a way that is determined by the calculations of their higher self. Then again, if I was ever to smoosh in disregard to the negative points mentioned, I would definitely prefer to fan out the cards (as opposed to pulling them off the top of the pack) so that this required less concentration and skill.
Reason 3: Smooshing Is Unprofessional
This point is about far more than an aesthetic complaint.
Smooshing also shows disrespect for people’s time since it always takes 30-60 seconds. In contrast, short readings such as 3 card draws may take up to 45 seconds of shuffling but this would be quite rare, making smooshing inefficient in terms of time.
Practically speaking, mixing the cards around a table can be difficult on a cloth unless one weighs the corners down somehow to stop it from sliding everywhere.
And yes, a cloth is a necessity for in-person readings. Heaven forbid that any tarot reader calling themselves a high quality professional (and charging upwards of £100 an hour which is these days standard rate) starts mixing up the cards on the table, exposing the cards to all sorts of dirt. This is highly unprofessional for hygenic reasons alone, especially if the querent is then told to pick cards after they have been fanned out.
Conclusion: yes, there is a wrong way to shuffle tarot cards.
Whilst there is no singular method which a professional tarot reader might be well advised to use when shuffling the tarot cards, there is a wrong way to shuffle; smooshing.
Furthermore, we have seen from our investigation into the issue of randomness that the divinatory tarot reader’s purpose when shuffling cards is to get the right cards out of the deck as far as possible and that this goal is in contradistinction to the goal of attempting to randomize the card sequence (as is done in non-divinatory uses of cards).
