Using Reversals Unsuccessfully

Dragonxx, All you/I do with reading Tarot is timing. Maybe later reversals will
be OK. But when it is learning time, reversals may be an overkill. LOL I made a point of answering because I had the same feelings. {ARRRGGGH}

B*B

You don't have to use reversals to show negative trends, in fact that does not seem to be working for you so I would drop that. There are many others ways to use them, if you choose to. And yes, you can choose never to use them again if you wish and your readings won't suffer.

Another way of using reversals is the let the reversed card have the same meaning as the upright card BUT with the added meaning that there will be a delay until the event happens. Or something is blocking it from happening. Meaning the energy is trying to manifest but for it to do so you need to first remove the blockage.

Or I sometimes also use uprights to show external processes and reversed cards to show internal processes. Eg The Lovers upright means love coming to you from outside yourself, the love of another for you. The Lovers reversed would be the love you feel inside for yourself, self-love....

OR feel free to be creative and make up your own meanings for reversals. You can always think of what you would like your cards to tell you that they are not telling you now and design a system of using reversals to give you that. There is nothing to say you can't invent your own ways of doing things if they give you what you need to do better readings.

Babs

That was VERY helpful, SunChariot, thank you!

Somehow I'd never really heard of using reversals for anything else but ... well, reversals.

I like SunChariot's advice on using reversals, since after all, it's the personal meaning we attribute to the cards that matters...BUT

I agree with you Dragon-Capricorn, I can't use reversals if my life depended on it... I do my readings with the mentality that there are 72 cards in a deck, if something needs to be shown to me, it will use one of those 72 cards... I know that a reversal does not necessarily indicate the opposite of that card, but it's too confusing, or too negative, and seems to drain my energy... or, to put it more honestly, I'm just not experienced and patient enough to fully understand what the reversal is trying to tell me... It just frustrates me, and I do what you did, I put the deck away, and feel some sort of resentment towards myself!

I guess reversals are a lot like retrograde planets in astrology... the energy is there, but it's blocked or not being used to its full potential...either way, do what works for you, and if reversals aren't it right now, then forget about them

I think it was firemaiden who once jested that if your cards all come up reversed, maybe you're holding the deck upside down.

Seriously, it might be too soon for you to start using reversals. Then again, maybe not. I think learning reversals is a valid learning process even for readers who wind up not using them. The main reason is, they get you to look at the cards from another angle. That's really all there is to them -- another perspective.

It's like letting the cards play devil's advocate now and then and show you what's out of balance, not quite there, or still needs work.

The mistake that seems most common with reversals is a black and white approach. The reader sees cards as negative or positive with no allowance for a card being both, or for the gray area that we know exists in life. I think that as soon as you begin letting yourself see the many shades of gray that can exist in a reading, you'll 1) begin to read with reversals with greater understanding, and 2) eventually realize that you don't have to see the card reversed in order to have that expanded view. At that point, you don't really need to think about reversals anymore.

By the way, two books that I found invaluable in understanding the full spectrum of reversals were Gail Fairfield's Choice Centered Tarot and Mary K. Greer's The Complete Book of Tarot Reversals.

Gail Fairfield's approach is to consider upright cards being about external events, forces or influences, and reversed about what's going on inside the querent. In that case, there's really no negative meaning to reversals, any more than with uprights.

Nevada

Very wise words from Nevada!

I think it is true that you never need to use reversals if you can honestly intuit the whole scope of meaning (from very positive to very negative) of every single card and understand when, for instance, the Two of Cups is talking about a love connection vs. when it is signifying unrequited love.

I feel that reversals can only help a newer reader understand when to read an upright "meaning" vs. its reversed "meaning". Reversals actually give you more information to work with, especially when you read a spread all upright and a seeker looks at you and tells you...no, actually the opposite is true!

So, my feeling is that it is better to learn everything and then decide whether it helps or hinders you. It's like learning a language...first you have to know the rules of grammar before you can effectively break them.

Disclaimer: I don't use reversals, but I do look at Elemental Dignities to help me think about the "positive" vs. the "negative" meanings of a card in a spread. I used to think that there were enough cards in a deck to be able to read everything upright and get a good reading from a spread...until I realized that, frankly, I'm not good enough to do that. There are too many nuances I missed by trying to do it that way. Having a way to force me to think about "reversed" meanings of a card in a spread helps me a lot. I still don't get it right all the time (who does?) but I get much better feedback now.

But again, whatever works for you...as long as you are being honest with yourself that you are getting the best readings you can however you do it. That is all that matters in the end, anyhow.

When I first tried learning tarot I would shuffle for reversals and basically end up feeling the same way you do. Then I stopped doing. But even though I don't suffle for reversals, they do still pop up, and when they do they make sense in the reading. I suggest you shuffle without turning, and when you are ready you will be suprised to find reversals start to appear.

Tranquility said:

just not experienced and patient enough to fully understand what the reversal is trying to tell me... It just frustrates me, and I do what you did, I put the deck away, and feel some sort of resentment towards myself!

Click to expand...

I'm sitting here nodding, "yes, yes!"

Nevada said:

I think it was firemaiden who once jested that if your cards all come up reversed, maybe you're holding the deck upside down.


By the way, two books that I found invaluable in understanding the full spectrum of reversals were Gail Fairfield's Choice Centered Tarot and Mary K. Greer's The Complete Book of Tarot Reversals.

Gail Fairfield's approach is to consider upright cards being about external events, forces or influences, and reversed about what's going on inside the querent. In that case, there's really no negative meaning to reversals, any more than with uprights.

Nevada

Click to expand...

I have wondered if I was holding the deck upside down - LOL! ;-)

Thank you for those 2 books - the name Mary Greer seems to come up a lot in this forum as a very good author. I like the approach mentioned by Gail Fairfield that you pointed out, too. I will do some more research on which book to purchase. Thank you!

starrystarrynight said:

Very wise words from Nevada!

I think it is true that you never need to use reversals if you can
I feel that reversals can only help a newer reader understand when to read an upright "meaning" vs. its reversed "meaning". Reversals actually give you more information to work with, especially when you read a spread all upright and a seeker looks at you and tells you...no, actually the opposite is true!

Click to expand...

Do you mean to say, SSN, that you think if a reader does not use reversals, then a reader should know the meaning of reversals so that the reversed meaning can be implied when negative cards show up in a reading?