Cut: definition

The cut is the gesture of separating the deck into two or more parts before the spread. It is one of the classic steps of preparation, alongside shuffling.

It can have a purely practical value —finishing the randomisation of the cards— but it can also be invested with a symbolic function: marking the break, shifting the energy or formally opening the reading.

Some practices give the cut a specific interpretive meaning, reading for example the card left at the bottom; others consider it a simple technical gesture with no reading of its own.

It is usually performed by the querent, which involves the person in the arrangement of the cards and reinforces the link between their question and the spread to be read.

In any case, it is part of the ritual of the spread: like shuffling or the cloth, it helps create the frame of attention and transition that precedes the reading.

What matters is not following a universal rule, which does not exist, but keeping a coherent, meaningful gesture for the reader, one that helps move from preparation to interpretation.

As in the whole ritual of the spread, what is decisive is not the specific technique of the cut, but the intention and attention that accompany it: the same gesture can be pure mechanics or a true threshold into the reading.