Question: How Do You Determine Shadow Meanings With Non-Reversed Cards/Decks?

Hi there everyone,

I'm new to this forum but I've been reading tarot for about twelve or thirteen years now and professionally for three. I have a question about something I'd like peoples' opinions on…

I use reversals… Even in decks that aren't designed to be used reversed. My question is this: if you read the cards without reversals and right-side up only, how do you determine whether the shadow side of the card applies to its interpretation as opposed to the standard meaning? If you can't see the card upside down, how do you know which side of itself it's indicating? Also, with regard to reading reversals in general, I've found that they can be interpreted in five ways - this if from Caitlin Matthews' blog, co-author of The Wildwood Tarot,

"Let’s see a single card in action, so you can get the idea: I going to choose a happy card that makes trouble for people when it shows up in reversals: XIX The Sun.

A tardy reversed Sun is when the sun is slow in coming out, or when expected happiness is late arriving. You experienced this when you’re looking forward to going on holiday but are so tired from your travel preparations that you actually only start enjoying it on day 3!

An abating reversed Sun shows up when, instead of things growing, they begin to wither. Instead of the sun coming out, the day is gradually darkening. You can already tell that things are slipping back the other way.

A restrained reversed Sun is when conditions in the card are trying hard but coming to little good. We experience this as forced happiness or when we make excessive attempts to get our health in the right place. We are pulling against the odds and failing. There is a blockage or something we are not seeing?

An obverse reversed Sun can be when, instead of giving radiance and light, the sun becomes intense, burning and overbearing. Suddenly you are in the desert under a blazing heat that is not what you desire.

A transferred reversed Sun can be when we find reflected glory from living in the shadow of someone else. Or instead of growing into your power as a human being, you act in a naïve and immature way. It doesn’t fool anyone and can be damaging to your self-worth."

So now I'm wondering, even if you do use reversed cards, how are you supposed to know which of these meanings applies to it? I suppose by looking at the cards surrounding it and using intuition, but if anyone can suggest anything more practical, methodical or pragmatic, I'd be interested to here it.

Quote Source: http://thewildwoodtarot.blogspot.com/2012/10/caitlin-matthews-reading-reversals.html

Thanks,

I did a reading for my friend who owns a weight loss centre and she didn't ask a question. We allowed the cards to answer her question. When it came about the outcome was the fool reversed.

She told me that it was about her changing the place from a franchise to a personal Wellness centre.

The fool reversed was saying that a mew journey will begin, but since all the infrastructure is in place it will not truly be a new journey.

See what I mean? All about context. There are no strict rules to tarot. You really got to feel it out sometimes

And I never do reversals in the sense that it is the opposite. I do reversals as in that energy is lessened, it is a smaller event.

Death upright would uproot someones entire belief system. Death reversed would mean a small habit has changed

Funk3 said:

I did a reading for my friend who owns a weight loss centre and she didn't ask a question. We allowed the cards to answer her question. When it came about the outcome was the fool reversed.

She told me that it was about her changing the place from a franchise to a personal Wellness centre.

The fool reversed was saying that a mew journey will begin, but since all the infrastructure is in place it will not truly be a new journey.

See what I mean? All about context. There are no strict rules to tarot. You really got to feel it out sometimes

And I never do reversals in the sense that it is the opposite. I do reversals as in that energy is lessened, it is a smaller event.

Death upright would uproot someones entire belief system. Death reversed would mean a small habit has changed

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Thanks for the feedback

Anytime

I don't know if I understood what you're asking but when I read reversed cards I usually "get"the shadow meaning or the misuse of the energy (different things), by the way the other cards interact with it. It's like a sentence where the word alone won't give you much info. You would need the rest. Including the punctuation! So, if I see Sun Rx + 4 of Swords I would see it as sunburn (excess energy) that caused the person to have to lie down and stay still whereas if I see Sun Rx + 10 of Swords it could be bad turn of luck. 6 of Wands + sun Rx, ego inflation and well, you get the picture.

The reason I was asking is because I've recently gone back to working with this one tarot that doesn't use reversals but lists both meanings. It's the Vampire's Tarot of the Eternal Night - I won't lie, I'm excited about True Blood's final season airing on HBO starting June 22nd, lol.

It is a very good tarot though. It tells about the meanings of the cards with the traditional interpretation, "The Vampire's Story," which tells what's illustrated on the card, the "Dark Approach," the "Human Approach," and the, "Light Approach." And then it gives a basic divinatory meaning. I'm still trying to figure out why there are three meanings, but I think I've figured it out - one is obviously the vampire, macabre-like meaning, as though you were reading for a vampire. The human approach I think is intended to also be the dark/shadow side of the card, but reinterpreted as though you were reading for a human. And then I think the light approach is supposed to be the right-side up meaning, or an overtly positive interpretation. Can't say I'm sure on this though. The guidebook is a book, not a pamphlet, and I haven't read the first fifty pages of instruction on it since I first got it years ago, so I should probably reread that section.

The deck is intended to be kind of dark to begin with. It works well for dark inquiries and querents, but isn't your everyday, all-the-time deck.

Anyway… Since these cards have several different meanings - a regular meaning and two version of a shadow interpretation, yet aren't intended to be used with the cards laid out right side up and upside down, I've been trying to figure out how to differentiate the standard from the shadow interpretation without the clue of seeing the card upside down. I guess it probably just involves intuition and lots of practice… Which was how I learned tarot to begin with. Learning to use the cards right side up only is something new for me though.

Boadicea said:

I guess it probably just involves intuition and lots of practice… Which was how I learned tarot to begin with.

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Absolutely!!!

Boadicea said:

I use reversals… Even in decks that aren't designed to be used reversed. My question is this: if you read the cards without reversals and right-side up only, how do you determine whether the shadow side of the card applies to its interpretation as opposed to the standard meaning?
...
So now I'm wondering, even if you do use reversed cards, how are you supposed to know which of these meanings applies to it? I suppose by looking at the cards surrounding it and using intuition, but if anyone can suggest anything more practical, methodical or pragmatic, I'd be interested to here it.

Click to expand...

Interesting. I'm not quite sure that I believe in "standard meanings" or "shadow meanings". A reversed card may mean it's opposite - but then, for most of 'em there are other cards in the deck that come out upright to mean the opposite. It may mean a delay, but again, it would just come out in a future position if there was a delay. One the rare occasions where a card might reverse itself in my readings (maybe a couple of times a year, if that), it's usually that the card is screaming at me, so I give it more weight in the reading. Very occasionally, if a card means that you feel something, if it reverses itself I read it that you may be causing other people to feel that thing without feeling it yourself - reversing the card reverses the flow of the card's action in the world but not the action itself.

I read cards upright. There isn't only one meaning for one card - there might be dozens of meanings, related to each other energetically. In fact, each card, to me, is an energy. That energy can manifest in a myriad of ways, that are not necessarily reversals of one another, and will help build up a story when related to the cards around it. I understand what a card means as how it relates to the rest of the spread, and how it relates to anything the client might choose to tell me.

I would find it hard to thread out some of the card's potential meanings and say "This is upright", and thread out others and say "this is reversed". They all relate to that same energy, one way or another.

nisaba said:

They all relate to that same energy, one way or another.

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That's a good point.

lets look at it as one jolly camper would look at a contained camp fire...

Book meanings are good for fire starters and for the remembering to keep the fire happening...

Eventually something more is needed as one fills more books and journals with remembered meanings that can't be used "on the spot" or in difficult readings....

Something more solid is needed to sustain that lit fire when the Papers aren't available to kindle that flame to useable temperatures....

After a while and more experience ,one understands that the harder and more solid wood gives out greater useable flames...and has learn't that the paper is OK but the harder stuff will serve the purpose better...but the fire needs to be fed and stoked regularly...

If it goes out and becomes cold through lack of use then the books of paper need to be used again to kick start that flame....

But how do you tell the new jolly camper that what you have,roaring and running hot, came from a process that can't be seen anymore...

SO, you let them use their paper ...until their learning process shows them the limited value of it...