The act of dissolution or disassembly is in an essential first stage to any succesful tarot working. The reader/mediator should commence by balancing and stilling his/her awareness. This is a basic meditational exercise and is the primal act of meditation ... a stilling clearing of consciousness undertaken before any operaiton with the tarot. Next is the physical representation of this inner act of stillness ... which is where the magical ritual of tarot is outwardly evident; the cards are shuffled or randomised which when undertaken is the ritualising of the dissolution of the universe. The pack is then divided and laid out into seven groups or packets. This is undertaken by holding the pack and building seven packets sequentially, working from 1 to 7, left ot right, laying down a single card upon each position until the pack is reduced to one remaining card (7 x 11=77), which maybe placed anywhere. The seven packets, now containing all of the pack fully randomised are place upon one another, working from left to right, and recombined into a single pack. This sequence will clear any connections between cards, either physical/statistical or energetic/intuitive.
The reader then holds the cleared pack of cards and defines the question, attuning his/her previously stilled awareness to the subject. This is another meditative process, and not a matter of force, wishing or will power. The pack is then shuffled in the normal manner, but slowly and steadily. A steady pace, which is unlike the fast shuffle of card games, permits the reader to stop easily at any given point in the shuffling sequence. Steady rhythmic shuffling is the physical reiteration of the turning of the wheel. With practice the reader knows intuitively when to stop shuffling and lay the cards. With continued use, this inner sense becomes highly developed and in many cases the card kick or lock immovably at the right point in the steady shuffling process. (The Merlin Tarot)
