Do you use reversals?

I always use them.

I learned tarot reading reversals and I just can't get past the whole "there are 78 MORE cards" if you use them. LOL Sounds crazy, right? Well, I am crazy... so there

To answer Moongold's question: With a new (in order) deck I shuffle the cards about 10 - 15 times then I flip half the deck over and shuffle them again. Then I'll take the deck and cut it, taking a small handful and twisting it, leaving another upright, twisting again, upright again... you get the picture. Then I shuffle some more. That's all before I even ask a question! LOL Then I'll ground, ask my question and shuffle another 3-9 times, cut the deck in half (placing the bottom half on top) and then lay out the cards.

Gosh, that sounds so complicated when I type it all up!

R

I haven't been using reversals but the more readings I do the more I get the feeling I should be using them. I've always thought that there are enough cards in a deck to give good and true meanings without reversals but sometimes I've done readings and seen the negative side of a card and wondered if it should be read reversed.
It is starting to bother me a little now, so I think for a while I'll try shuffling the deck to give reversals a chance to show up and see what happens lol

for years i always used reversals. after a conversation, with another reader, about not using them, i decided to ask the cards what to do. it was a unamimous "upright"!

being the questioner of authority that i am, and not being willing to give up my idea, that i would lose half of the interpretations, i decided to do a test. i alternated readings, first up, then reversed etc. keeping a journal.

well, it wasn't long before i discovered that my upright readings were not only clearer to read, but they were more accurate.

now i realize that both interpretations are inherent in each card. i use the "meaning" based on the surrounding cards and the position.

I have been reading cards reversed ever since. Sometimes it really makes sense. In the last weeks I was often thinking of giving up reading reversed. The cards as such seem to be enough, there is no need to make it more complicated with the upright/reversed stuff. In the end I have not decided yet, whether I would give it up or not.

zorya said:

being the questioner of authority that i am, and not being willing to give up my idea, that i would lose half of the interpretations, i decided to do a test. i alternated readings, first up, then reversed etc. keeping a journal.

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I like this idea of "testing" the use of reversals for yourself, zorya. How did you do it: did you do the same reading twice, one with and one without reversals? Or would you simply do one reading with reversals and the next without?

Re: Muddled thinking

fairyhedgehog said:

I was thinking as I read through this thread, that I somehow expect that the cards will know that I don't use reversals (...)
So who said I had to be logical?

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!!! EXCELLENT !!!

(Sorry, I don't know why but I skipped your post...)

*writes down: "I agree with Meewah and FairyHedgeHog"...*

As I said last time in the thread that got the boot *sob*, I usually use reversals. I think it adds some interesting nuances. For a while I considered not using them because they confused me, but then I read Mary Greer's The Complete Book of Tarot Reversals. That book is amazing and I think that everyone should read it, even those who don't read reversals. If you don't read them, this book can help you incorporate reversed meanings in your readings. If you do, then this book can help you make a lot of sense out of them. I have since come up with my own theory of reversals which I'm testing out.

I don't use reversals with one deck: the Gill. I looked at it and it seemed to me that it would look ridiculous upside down. For some reason, it's okay to put people and scenes upside down, but putting numbers upside down offends my sensibilities. *lol* I never claimed to be entirely sane.

Kes

Sometimes

depends on the deck.

When I pick up a deck to read, I always look through the cards as some sort of welcoming, and I automatically put the cards upright.
Although I once by accident put the Hanged Man upside down that way LOL. If somehow a card still appears upside down in a reading due to my energetic shuffling *cards flying everywhere* I read it reversed. I see it as the opposite of the original meaning or a somehow blocked original meaning. If this is positive or negative depends on the upright meaning of the card, the place in the spread and also of your personal life experience.




BTW I'm glad to read so many good things on Morgan Greer's book. I ordered it, I bought a deck at amazon and as "offer of the day" they let me have this book cheaper. Can't resist that of course

I am also a "sometimes" upside down reader.

At first i never used reversals, now I will shuffle the deck, and if I feel some need reversing, I will turn one upside down, shuffle, turn another, shuffle, etc. I probably never have more than 7 or 8 reversed cards.

when they show up in the reading, i too have to turn them right side up to read them, but many times knowing the card in such n such position was reversed helps me. i can say, " you may have a tough time with ...." because i know it's reversed.

i recently had the knight of wands (osho zen style) reversed.
the card shows a happy, playful person surrounded by stars.
upside down it looked like the stars were falling out of the knight.
it was easy for me to see that this person was losing their energy because it was draining right out of them, becuase it was so visual! but perhaps that information would have come up anyway.

i'll have to try the journal method as well, i do think a reversed card makes me pre-judge sometimes. when i see the back of the card and can tell it's reversed, sometimes i worry that the reading will be harsh. most of the time the reversal turns out good, meaning, for instance, an end to a particular struggle, say the 9 of swords. but still, it's making me think ahead instead of reading into the card.

great discussion....making me think (and it's been so hot this summer i've been trying to avoid that!)