Book that teach you NOT to use reversals

Can anyone suggest books that teach you NOT to use reversals and to do it correctly.

I never use reversals in my readings, I don't see the need. I've given up using spreads and I've even given up referring to my keywords now, preferring to go entirely on intuition.

There is a great website I found though, that has all the meanings of the cards and although it does have a section on reversals, it doesn't put a huge emphasis on them. http://www.learntarot.com/top.htm - I quote from their section on reversals:

There are no separate explanations for reversed cards. The meaning of a reversed card depends on what the card would mean if upright. A reversed card shows that a card's energy is present, but at a lower level. For some reason, the energy cannot express freely, normally or completely. It may be:
still in its early stages
losing force and power
blocked or restricted
incomplete
inappropriate
being denied
only present in appearance

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They teach you how to read the tarot normally (no reversals) first.

Here's a link to their course (totally free), by the way:http://www.learntarot.com/course.htm

"The Tarot: History, Symbolism & Divination" by Robert Place, of the Alchemical.

He changed the way I read!

He looks for patterns between cards rather than depending upon static "positions"; he also does NOT favor reversals because they "needlessly complicate" things.

I had learned w/reversals from the age of 12 (1978!!), so this was a BIG departure for me but I really do get into his method, it's rather advanced but if you've been reading for a while it's not hard.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for both the tips. I used both those sources when I first started and took from them what was relevant and useful at the time and have forgotten to revisit them now that I have new questions and needs. Thanks!

I don't think you need a book to tell you how not to read reversals. If you don't want to read reversed cards, then don't. Simple as that.

hunter said:

Can anyone suggest books that teach you NOT to use reversals and to do it correctly.

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There's no such thing as "correctly" in this game. It's "correct" if it leads to accurate readings, and what works for you will be quite different from what works for someone else.

CelticDruidess said:

I never use reversals in my readings, I don't see the need. I've given up using spreads and I've even given up referring to my keywords now, preferring to go entirely on intuition.

There is a great website I found though, that has all the meanings of the cards and although it does have a section on reversals, it doesn't put a huge emphasis on them. http://www.learntarot.com/top.htm - I quote from their section on reversals:

They teach you how to read the tarot normally (no reversals) first.

Here's a link to their course (totally free), by the way:http://www.learntarot.com/course.htm

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I do like this website and their explanations for "reversals" as well. It makes more sense to me, as does reading cards in combination, rather than as separate worlds within themselves.

If you skip the reversals and and read all cards as just upright...it's not going to give balanced readings.

I guess I should have said "balanced" instead of "correct".

It really is an entirely different way to read. It's not just skipping the reversals.

hunter said:

If you skip the reversals and and read all cards as just upright...it's not going to give balanced readings.

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I don't use reversals. If I see the Sun upright in a spread, the surrounding cards, spread position (if there is one) and elemental associations of all the cards will determine for me whether I apply a "regular" meaning for that card or whether I apply a blocked/ill-dignified/alternative meaning for the card.

Not using reversals doesn't mean not applying reversed meanings. It just means not using the orientation of the card to determine what meaning to apply to the card. So that shouldn't affect the balance of the interpretations in the reading.

And while I'm sure I have books that teach one how to interpret the cards without regard to their orientation, it's not a subject that I need help with (although I once did), so I don't know which of the ~400 tarot books I have might discuss that. If people think it's a worthwhile topic to add to the Tarot Books & Media Index, I'd be happy to create a listing for it in the Index and include all the sources suggested in this thread.

Rodney

hunter said:

Can anyone suggest books that teach you NOT to use reversals and to do it correctly.

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Here is a web site that discusses the use of Elemental Dignities:
http://supertarot.co.uk/lessons/elemental-dignity-rules.htm

Using Elemental Dignities pretty much negates the need to use reversals. Doing a search on Elemental Dignities in these forums should yield several books on the subject.