reversals?

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 03 Jan 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

sirbrad	03 Jan 2004
hi i have a question. i have a marseilles deck, and on alot of the minor arcana's, i cannot distinquish whether or not they are reversed or not. they seem exactly the same, or there is just no indication on which way is up and which is down. here is an example. http://www.astroamerica.com/t-marse.html in the 2 of swords and the eight of wands, which way is right side up and which is reversed? thanks...

MeeWah	04 Jan 2004
SirBrad: Referring to the card in the second row on the far right--8-Wands' flowers are not identical. Perhaps ye can use them to determine if the card presents as upright or reversed. Not very familiar with the backs of Marseilles decks nor Marseilles decks in general, but would ye be able to tell from the card backs? That is, check the back of the card to see if not upright.

Diana	04 Jan 2004
sirbrad: Some of the cards in the Marseilles decks cannot be reversed - they look the same upright and upside down. If you are really keen to use reversals, then you should make a tiny mark yourself on those cards so you know which way you're reading them.

sirbrad	08 Jan 2004
yes i seen that the flower did look slightly different, however on some of the cards there just is no indifferences. some decks have the roman numerals at the bottom, but this one on both sides. i also thought about makin a mark on them b4 by highlighting part of the roman numeral, but i did not know how to tell for sure if it was right side up or not, and it would be a 50-50 chance that i get it right. also the backs of this deck are identical as well. meaning 50/50 split and no way to tell. i do have a rider waite deck that you can easily tell what is reversed, i was just wondering about this deck, as alot of them you cannot tell. mostly the wands, pentacles, and some swords.

Diana	08 Jan 2004
sirbrad: If you have cards that are 100% identical - then it doesn't make any difference where you put the mark. You will decide which side is upright and which is reversed. Another solution is to accept that these cards are not reversible. I don't use reversals so this doesn't bother me for my readings.

The reversals? thread was originally posted on 03 Jan 2004 in the Using Tarot Cards board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Using Tarot Cards, or read more archived threads.