After you shuffle the cards, you can cut the deck. Anywhere from one to three times is typical. If you’re reading for someone else, you can choose to let him or her shuffle the cards a couple times and/or cut the deck. 

Once the deck is cut, you can hold your left hand out, palm facing up. Traditionally, your left hand is your “receiving” hand. Basically, what you’re doing here is asking your intuition (or whoever) to send its power into your hand. You can say something like, “Intuition, guide my hand during this tarot reading.”. 

Hold your left hand out until you begin to feel some kind of sensation. It might come in the form of a tingling, a bit of pressure or a temperature change. You might not feel anything at all. Regardless, just stay open. 

When you feel ready, bring that hand down over the cards. Hold your hand over each stack until you feel any kind of sensation again. Whatever stack gives your left hand the most “sensation” is the stack that goes on top when you’re combining your cards back into one pile. 

From here, you can either draw the cards from the top to complete your tarot spread or fan the cards out on a flat surface and pick cards one at a time. If you choose the latter option, you can skip the “cutting” step and use your left hand to hover over your line of cards. Select the cards that are generating the most “feeling”. 

You can choose to flip your cards over as you’re drawing them, or you can wait until you’ve picked all your cards and turn them over all at once. I prefer the “all-at-once” method because my mind immediately starts interpreting the flipped cards before I’m done pulling the rest of the spread. I find it distracting. 

On the other hand, you might enjoy seeing the story unfold before your eyes. Try out both ways and see what style works best for you.