Reversal as Returning to the Previous Card

Yeah. It may have been me. I do mention it pretty frequently.

This seems like one of those questions that each reader needs to feel for themselves - I mean the question of whether it's the previous card in the suit, in the spread, or something else. I imagine each way will be right for some of us and not others, but as long as each reader knows what s/he uses that will be ok.

Personally the preceding card in the same suit feels right.

I really like this method - it may get me giving reversals another try. I have kept saying I'll practice again now that I'm not a tarot beginner, but it has felt too unclear to be worth the trouble. But this has a logic and consistency - it's a rule, in other words. Which can be played with got familiar with. Can't wait, now, to start turning half the deck upside-down before shuggling...

Here's one experience I've had with this: http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=229080

Thanks for that example, Amanda, it helps deepen understanding of this concept.

I finally realized the fundamental problem I have with this concept: it strongly suggests crawling back into your shell and licking your wounds. If, every time we encounter a conflicted or complicated situation, we just backslide into our comfort zone rather than mustering the spirit to grapple with it, it seems all we learn is where our upper limits are rather than actively trying to extend them. Sometimes a "burr under the saddle" is a goad to drive us forward to the next level rather than seeking safety in the familiar. This is why I decided to use "facing" to show whether it's better to retreat and regroup or just push on through.

Barleywine said:

I finally realized the fundamental problem I have with this concept: it strongly suggests crawling back into your shell and licking your wounds.

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Makes a great deal of sense.

On the other hand, the concept (of reversal as return to the previous card) could simply mean not being ready yet for this stage/development. Which is already one of the ways of reading a reversed card anyway, but thinking of it as like a return helps a lot with identifying what that unreadiness consists of precisely and how to approach it.

So I'm going to keep it in the quiver as one possible interpretation of reversals, not *the* interpretation.

Barleywine said:

I finally realized the fundamental problem I have with this concept: it strongly suggests crawling back into your shell and licking your wounds. If, every time we encounter a conflicted or complicated situation, we just backslide into our comfort zone rather than mustering the spirit to grapple with it, it seems all we learn is where our upper limits are rather than actively trying to extend them.

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Not necessarily. It could mean that you got too big for your britches, and overstepped. There's something to be said for not inviting a high schooler to a corporate board meeting, for example - it's inappropriate for them to be there. Not because they need to crawl back into their shell, or lick their wounds, but because they shouldn't have been there in the first place.
It's perception.

It's one thing to push boundaries, or to test them. It's another to do something inappropriate, such as practice psychology as an armchair psychologist and, without training, do more harm than good.

Well, we aren't exactly talking about psychotherapy here, just how to manage the energy of a reversed tarot card, which may "squeeze" us in ways we're not familiar with or comfortable with handling. In most cases it's probably not something we choose to attempt before we're able and then fail, the choice is often made for us, and it could be entirely practical, with no (or very little) psychological aspect at all. My point is that not every situation warrants backing out of, some are perfectly manageable as they lay. There's no "one size fits all" solution to reversed meanings in my book.

I think the key phrase here is "not every".

Barleywine said:

Well, we aren't exactly talking about psychotherapy here, just how to manage the energy of a reversed tarot card, which may "squeeze" us in ways we're not familiar with or comfortable with handling. In most cases it's probably not something we choose to attempt before we're able and then fail, the choice is often made for us, and it could be entirely practical, with no (or very little) psychological aspect at all. My point is that not every situation warrants backing out of, some are perfectly manageable as they lay. There's no "one size fits all" solution to reversed meanings in my book.

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No. There is no one size fits all. Just suggesting that, perhaps, there's more to simply retreating backwards to licking wounds. There might be more behind the story, or an alternative story.

Nor is that psychotherapeutic to consider. It doesn't require intensive training to, again, not invite your 14 year old to a meeting with the bank to get a mortgage.