Upside down cards

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 14 Oct 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

mikeyofthesea	14 Oct 2004
so are only a few cards suppose to be upside down in the deck and the rest right side up.. or is it where you just mix the cards up. i have another question i printed out the card meenings in the thread so i would have somthing to read. the only prob. i have is that it dosn't give the meanings of the cards when they are upside down. are there any sites that may tell me the upside down meanings. i don't trust the little white book that came with my deck so i have been using the meenings in the thread in the beginning cause it is less confussing then the l.w.b. i hate being so new to things

Major Tom	15 Oct 2004
Hi Mikey :) You posted this in the thread about Thirteen's Tarot Basics - a thread that might answer some of your questions and naturally, Thirteen's Tarot Basics might answer a few more. Anyway, I spilt your post out into it's own thread. This was your post will get the attention is deserves. :) Major Tom Co-Moderator, Using Tarot Cards

maria42airam	15 Oct 2004
Quote: Originally posted by mikeyofthesea [b] so are only a few cards suppose to be upside down in the deck and the rest right side up.. or is it where you just mix the cards up. [b] Hi, whether you get "reversals" or not depends mostly on how you shuffle the cards. Some people choose not to use them. They keep the cards upright and may even turn them before placing them in the spread so that they are always upright. Quote: i have another question i printed out the card meenings in the thread so i would have somthing to read. the only prob. i have is that it dosn't give the meanings of the cards when they are upside down. are there any sites that may tell me the upside down meanings. On Joan Bunning's web-site: www.learntarot.com there's a lesson on reversals, Lesson 17. The way she explains it, if the card is reversed it's energy is different than upright. She gives a list of possible ways that the energy is different: - still in its early stages - losing force and power - blocked or restricted - incomplete - inappropriate - being denied - only present in appearance So, for example, the 8 of cups whose meaning could be interpreted as moving on to something new. The reversed meaning could be that you need to move on but cannot.

Maelin	15 Oct 2004
Hi Mikey, Reversed cards are a whole realm unto themselves, and in fact are the subject of at least two books - I am reading The Complete Book of Tarot Reversals, and there are as many approaches- apparently - as Tarot readers. But don't despair! Lots of people don't use reversals at all, just reading the cards right side up, and if you know this is what you want to do when you do the reading, it won't be a problem. Some decks are designed to only be read right side up - such as the Hallowquest deck. For myself, when using the Rider deck, I like to take the clues from the card itself. Think of a card like the Chariot. Right side up, the charioteer is in control, with tight reins on the two sphinxes - balancing and controling the feminine and masculine, the dark and light, the inner and outer to get where he wants to go. Reversed, the chariot is overturned, the sphinxes are running away with the chariot and it is all the charioteer can do to hold on - things are out of control and he is being dragged along. Using this approach, when you reverse cups the contents spill out, when you reverse cards like the three and ten of swords, the swords fall out and things begin to get better. This technique works for me because I am not very intuitive, but the images in the deck always seem to tell a visual story, so I let them. I also sometimes see the Majors as "life lessons" and majors reversed as the refusal to learn the life lesson. Hope this helps.

mikeyofthesea	15 Oct 2004
thanks for the advice. I have been assuming that the general meanings may change a tid bit or even some times may mean a total change in the meaning thanks for the good advise I will try and remember. I think I am the same way I can't memorize allot at one time because I am a very visual person and so if someone asked me what for example what one of the minor cards where I would say I am not sure right now. but if the picture is flashed in front of me I can reverse the pic in my head if I had to and start to explain what the symbols me to me.

HudsonGray	15 Oct 2004
When a deck is completely randomized (meaning shuffled & upright/reversed) you'll get a good blend of both. I constantly 'turn' sections of the deck, shuffle, then chunk sections together, doing it at random. When you do this on a regular basis the blend does get pretty eclectic. I feel it's better than knowing that there are only 4 cards reversed in the entire deck, or some such thing. Also, I make a final decision before laying down the cards as to whether or not to TURN the cards side by side as I take each from the deck & put them down, or to FLIP the cards (laying them bottom side up in relation to how I'm holding the rest of the deck). This makes a difference too. But make that decision before you lift off that first card to lay down. I learned the flip way & used it for years before starting to train myself to turn them instead, but use both ways now.

Ace	16 Oct 2004
The key is BE CONSISTANT. If you turn one card, turn them all, flip and flip them all. I like to start with thinking of the Rx (reversed) meaning as: NOT the upright reading. There are several threads up about this, search under reversed or reversals, and you will find a LOT. being a visual person is a GOOD thing in a reader: don't memorize what the cards are SUPPOSED to be, Mikey. Go by what they say to you at that moment. A friend suddenly had a revelation recently with the Robin Wood Deck 4 of Pentacles (in that version, the man clutching the cards was in a tiny castle keep). He said that Rx, the man was falling out, he had no legs to stand on so to speak! I find that true of the Robin Wood 4 of Wands: the 4 posts up make the scene a tank to fill (with love!)

The Upside down cards thread was originally posted on 14 Oct 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.