What do you do to give a reading?

Do you have a set routine or ritual you use?

Do you use a cloth or background to lay your cards on?

Do you light incense or have music and candles?

What about blessing the cards or shuffling?

I bet we all do this differently? Would be great to hear some of your ways please  

Hi Gem,

Readings are not yet my strong point, but I've noticed that I am slowly improving and tapping into my inuition. I keep a glass of water next to me because of the power in water. I find that it helps me to connect with my guides. Sometimes I also light a candle, but always I pray or say a few meditative words. I ask that I am able to hear the voice of my inner self and that I can accurately percieve and connect with the necessary messages that are conveyed in the cards and that I can communicate this to the querent to the best of my ability.

Hugs

I actually did two readings today for real live in my face people and i have been dealing a lot with ritual and a routine that i want for my readings and my querent.  
today i added Clear Quartz to focus the Querent's engery on the cards after they cut the deck into three piles.  i ask them to cut the cards into three and then pickup of the Quartz and place it on the pile they wish for me to draw there cards from.  i did this with the hope that their engery is amplify and transmited to the cards.  I ask the two people if they liked that and they said yes so i might do that in the future.  i was making a wand and wanted to add some kind of stone to it. thus after reading what it does i thought of doing this.  i also bought Hematite to help with stress so i just place that on my cloth too after touching/rubbing it for a second.  and because i've been reading up on Wicca they use a bell to ring to clear negatvie engery and what not.  it has been helping because when i ring the bell over my cards i know its time to sit and read and not walk away several times before i can focus (only for online readings not real people readings).  

i keep my cards wraped in a dirt brown cloth to protect them and keep them from getting lost which i store in a brown woden box which is kept in a bigger brown box that holds a table cloth (made it myself) that i use to keep the cards safe from rubbing of the images on a hard surfece thus giving it a save friction free surface to place the cards and move them around smoothly.

as for music which i am always listening to but lately i have used the soundtrack to the movie "Donnie Darko" it as a friend of mine said a Zin like sound to it!  Recently i bought the Soundtrack to the "Lady in the Water" they are insturmental with only one to three songs with words and that has helped me focus on what i am doing.  this morning with i did a reading for Ruthbello<S>  i was listening to soundtrack to "O Brother, Where Art thou?" which is like 50's gospel type music (super great stuff).  but i wont say i would use it always but i could easy see me adding it to a reading in the future because afterall music calms that savage beast>    maybe it might help the querent relax and focus on the task of hand and that is there reading!  

so new so many new thinks to try and see what works best!  

I ususally look through my decks and see one that calls to me for that reading. I ask my guides for guidance and I imagine white light encircling my deck. Then I just shuffle the cards, thinking about the question until I feel them stopping me from shuffling. I take the fourth card down. I don't usually use crystals or cloths or anything, but if I buy a used deck, I put it in the freezer, reorder the cards and energize them with my hands.
MysticCrystal

Anguleyez, water is brilliant for cleansing and earthing our energies, and it can help to drink water before and after a reading too.

George, I love the clear quartz idea! I use crystals with most of my work and use them to add to my readings too, in fact I will post a picture to show how I add them in....