Kind of OCD Question about turning cards

How do you turn cards over in a reading?

I ask because when I started as a teen, I always turned them end-over-end, but as I've come back to tarot as an adult, I kind of latched onto the idea in several books that you *should* flip them over as you would open a door. This has bearing because I use reversals.

Now, I don't think it ultimately matters, but when I go to flip them the way I always have, it distracts me, and doing it the "right" way still feels odd.

Just curious about how others do it. for my OCD soul.

I always wonder this when I see youtube videos of readings.

I flip them, like a door. But usually I am reading so the cards face me, and then I type the readings out over here.

But I have in the past turned them end-on-end when reading for people in person. Kind of just happens.

This gets discussed a lot - whichever way YOU want to turn them is the way YOU turn them.

That said - since the way I shuffle I DO NOT get reversals - then the only way for me to keep the pack that way is to turn the cards over side-to-side like flipping pages of a book - NOT end-to-end like dealing poker hands. That way the orientation of the cards stays true.

If you were to shuffle and have all the cards upright but one - and flipped them end-to-end - then the entire deck would be reversed and that one lone card would be upright.

Hello, I’m Bookwight, and I have an OCD soul too. *waves*

I’ve always flipped the cards like opening a door, because I didn’t want to reverse a card that was upright in the deck (as it sat in front of me), and vice-versa.

Which means precisely nothing, by the way. It’s just the way I do it, neither “right” nor “wrong.” I don’t actually think there is a right or wrong way to flip them over, and everyone should flip ’em whichever way feels right to them!

But, being OCD, I’ll be fascinated to hear what other people do. And, being OCD, I’ll go into further detail and mention that I flip them with my right hand, as if the doorknob were on the left side of the card, hinges on the right. …Huh, maybe I should try it differently just to see how it feels.

I turn them like opening a door but as though a door knob is on the left. I don't use reversals.

I do end-over-end, but very conscious of which way up the deck is while I shuffle, and part of my "shuffle ritual" is to "double" cut the deck in a way that rotates them all 180 degrees - so my end-over-end puts them on the table the same way up they were during shuffling (and before I shuffled, while giving them the question).

3ill.yazi said:

How do you turn cards over in a reading?
...
Just curious about how others do it. for my OCD soul.

Click to expand...

You know what? I have no idea how I do it. And I don't think it matters.

If one way feels natural and the other way feels odd, do it the natural way. I do it in a way that is *so* natural that I don't even know which way I do it - it's just automatic.

I think whatever way we do it that works for us is the "right" way to do it. I had to shuffle and put out a few cards in order to know which way I do it because I really hadn't paid that much attention to exactly how I did it.

"Which way do you turn your cards?"

I turn them from left to right like reading backwards - or opening a door with the knob on the left.
There's no significance to it - it's just what's most comfortable.
Sometimes I'll just deal them straight face-up, so no turning is needed.
I'll usually have decided beforehand if I want to read reversals or not - and organise/shuffle the deck accordingly. And then I will 'listen' to my intuition when I turn them over. Sometimes (if I'm reading reversals) - I'll just turn them up again if it 'feels wrong'.

I agree with most of what's been said here that it's a matter of personal comfort. I'm in the habit of opening them like a door, but the operative word here is "habit". I think that I could get just as comfortable with another style, if I forced myself to it for long enough.

That said... I've also gotten in the habit of thinking of the cards as figurative doors that allow me to access my unconscious mind. Turning them like doors is a physical reinforcement of that idea and allows me to then mentally pass through those doors and see what's on the other side. This is an image I started using long after I was already in my card-turning habits, but if I were to start flipping the cards end-over-end, I would probably want to develop an equivalent mental image to help me access the card imagery in that model.

(I do read with reversals, which is quite relevant--particularly as tarotbear noted--because flipping cards end-over-end can completely screw with the directionality of a reading. But once again, I think it's all a matter of what you're used to.)