Reversals

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 23 Apr 2005, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Rogan	23 Apr 2005
Im sure this has been brought up before... But anyway. Is it essential to include reversals in your readings? Do you go through your pack after every a reading and re-align them so they're all the right way up if for next time if you DONT want to read reversals? As a beginner - Ive researched reversals a bit, but Ive also noticed that it doesn't seem like you HAVE do include them... Do you think a reading is less comprehensive if you dont include them, or are their positives in just a straight reading too? Rogan.

Free Flight	23 Apr 2005
Hi Rogan Reversing is such a personal choice. It is up to each reader to decide. I read with reversals others dont. It has to be whatever works for you. Dont feel pressured to do reversals as very many GOOD readers do not. People who do not reverse are able to read just as well. Each card has a positive and a negative side so it doesnt matter if you dont reverse. As I said I love reversals and I am a beginner to...but it is a lot to take on in the early days so if you feel more comfortable, start out not reversing and review at some point in the future : ) If you do a search on this subject you will get alot of information :)

Moongold	23 Apr 2005
Rogan ~ You'll find lots of advice about reversals in various threads at Aeclectic. I personally think it is easier for people to get to know and integrate the possible meanings for the images before reversing them. It's also important to feel comfortable with your deck and reading generally before you explore reversals in my opinion, but not everyone agrees. You can get very honest and realistic readings without using reversals, and even Mary Greer comments that there are some decks where they simply should not be used. My suggestion to you would be, if you're very new, get to know your deck first and do afair bit of reading. Use a Tarot journal. write notes, readings, observations, thoughts .... write. There are dozens of ways you can learn and reversals are just one. You don't have to be obsessive about avoiding them in throws - If you get them, simply turn them up the right way :) The Tarot Gods are not going to rain on you......

mingbop	23 Apr 2005
I'm puzzled here...how can you read without them ? I learned a long long time ago so I don't remember any problems I had, which is a problem for me here...but somebody tell me how you find the true meanings without the reversals ? Not being cheeky here, just askin !!!

Vadella	23 Apr 2005
I've read somewhere [sorry, i don't remember which book out of the many] that reversals are the lesser meanings of the cards. I don't know how true you may think this is.

Moongold	23 Apr 2005
mingbop wrote: I'm puzzled here...how can you read without them ? I learned a long long time ago so I don't remember any problems I had, which is a problem for me here...but somebody tell me how you find the true meanings without the reversals ? Not being cheeky here, just askin !!! Very easily Mingbop! You simply interpret the card before you in its context. :)

Rogan	23 Apr 2005
I dunno about lessening the effect of a card through reversal - I think some cards lend themselves to be read quite easily if reveresed, while other I sit there and think "what the?...." It's an interesting subject... I think for the moment Im more than happy to stick with straight readings - Not exactly IGNORING the reversals, but not getting caught up with them if I dont understand them - Just giving my feelings on it and moving on.

mingbop	23 Apr 2005
but moongold--lookat the lovers, then the lovers reversed !!! to me, reversals are the opposite of the upright ! oh god, am gettin a headache noo! please dont make me think!

Julien	23 Apr 2005
I sometimes use reversals, and sometimes I don't -- it depends mostly on the type of spread I'm using and the type of question. When it's a more complicated question and a bigger spread, I tend to keep the cards upright. For smaller spreads, or elaborations/clarifications, I tend to like using the reversals. I like having the additional images available in the smaller spreads, whereas in the bigger spreads, there are so many cards already that I don't need anymore possibilities. I don't know if that makes any sense, but it works for me. I also usually put my cards rightside up every night when I'm done with them so that I can start out with a deck without reversals and decide what I want to do in the new day. I've found if I don't go through once in awhile and right them, for whatever reason, I start throwing too many reversals to make any sense of the reading. This may simply be because I'm still not quite comfortable with them. I didn't use reversals for a long long time, and then started this pattern of using them sometimes but not others a year or so ago when I began to explore a really wide variety of spreads. I simply found that some spreads seemed to call for them somehow so that I could make sense more readily of the cards. It really is a personal choice, but I tend to think that it's much easier when you're getting started to work with the cards rightside up. The negative meanings that the reversals bring are there even when they're rightside up, as others have noted -- you have to read the cards around and you'll find the meaning in the context, and also the way the question was framed, and the meaning given to the position of that card within the spread (after all, some reversals have very positive meanings under the right circumstances). If you're not sure what a card means even in its context, you can always draw clarification cards. That's how you gather the nuances of the card, see all the ways the Tarot has for making the spread mean something... Just my two bits, Julien

mingbop	23 Apr 2005
I agree the way the question is framed is most important. tarot is tricky and if you ask the wrong question then you'll get the wrong answer.

contradiction	23 Apr 2005
mingbop wrote: but moongold--lookat the lovers, then the lovers reversed !!! to me, reversals are the opposite of the upright ! oh god, am gettin a headache noo! please dont make me think! As one that has alway used reversals, I had the same question when I found out that some people don't use them. What I found out is, (tarot is strangly wonderful), that someone who dose'nt use reversals, will know which meaning to use. The same way I would know if the tower is indicating a good or bad event, or change. It is hard to understand. But if you read using intuition, as most do, then you just know. When looking at each card in context with the cards around it, you just know how to read it. Rogan wrote: Is it essential to include reversals in your readings? Do you go through your pack after every a reading and re-align them so they're all the right way up if for next time if you DONT want to read reversals? I have always used reversals, I was first taught you had to. But I have learned that you don't. Personally I feel if you are going to it would be easier to use them from the start, but I have been told by many that going back later, and adding them is easy also. This is completely up to you, each person is different, so what you need to do is what works for you. If you would like I will be happy to help you with learning them. If you think it would be easier to not use them, and that works for you go for it. You will do just fine.

mike gorth	23 Apr 2005
My mentor and I agree that it is not essential to use them. The tarot evokes emotion and there is always more than 1 way to display it. Anyway, it's not really the tarot that is the main source of power. It's you. It opens up your mind/3rd eye and lets you explore more. Reversals are just more confusing and yet another 78 definitions for you to memorize. Again it is your decision but I find it irrelevant. Mike Gorth

mingbop	23 Apr 2005
this is the thing with tarot--that there are no "have-tos" !

Julien	23 Apr 2005
Amen to that, Mingbop. It's liberating!

contradiction	23 Apr 2005
mike gorth wrote: Reversals are just more confusing and yet another 78 definitions for you to memorize. Again it is your decision but I find it irrelevant. What you don't realize is that not using reversals, you are still learning the reversed meaning, and using it. The cards are just not reversed. The whole thing with reversals, is visual effect. For instance, a friend that does not use reversals, did a reading for me a while back, there was one particular card that she used the exact same meaning, I would have used if it had been reversed. I noticed that in a reading she did for someone else a few days later she used the upright meaning. Why the difference?, The cards around it showed her which meaning to use. Using reversed cards, or not depends on what visual effect you personally want to see. NOT if you want to memorize 78 more meanings or not. Mike do not think I am picking on you. I have heard alot of people say the same thing. And, I told them exactly what I said here.

Alice23	23 Apr 2005
I personally think that as others have said, reversals are a personal choice, - I do find them confusing when they come up, especially at first when I was just starting out...there is a really good book on reversals but I cant for the life of me remember what its called unfortunately! I always use the deck upright but when the cards come out reversed I do believe that they are trying to tell us something and do listen to them more carefully...the reversed ones are always the ones, to me, that are certainly more 'negative' - but just my two cents! Alice x

mingbop	23 Apr 2005
but some, like 3 swds...are different, the rev cards arent so bad. And the lovers, the 2 cups.are the total reverse...I would have to use them or I'd be lost. It's just what you're used to I suppose.

Moongold	23 Apr 2005
A couple of years ago I began a little bit of research into reversals. There was little material available and it was Lee who actually advised me that using reversed cards dated from the use of ordinary playing cards for divination. Mary Greer herself in "Tarot Reversals" accredits Etteilla/Alliette (1738 - 1791) with creating the concept of reversals. He also wrote a book on divination in which he explained the technique. According to Greer, Etteila originally used a version of a plying card deck called piquet which contained only 32 cards and he developed the concept of reversals to increase the number of interpretations which could be made. At some stage, Etteila also published his own Tarot deck, the Etteilla Tarot , in which he actually published the reversed meanings on the cards themselves. There are pictures of the deck in The Encyclopaedia of Tarot Volume 3 Greer goes on to point out that in our present times with the developing tendencies to use psychological and spiritual approaches in reading the tarot, the use of reversals has increased. All her excellent book on reversals does is sum up the many different approaches to this in one place. She herself acknowledges that there are many ways of using reversals and that it is a personal and intuitive matter as to whether and how one uses them. So there is perhaps no ultimate truth about this. Reversals simply seem to reflect a dynamically evolving Tarot. Tarot allows so many different and personal approaches, according to our own gifts and stages of development. I think people should explore and develop an approach that suits them.

The Reversals thread was originally posted on 23 Apr 2005 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.