Reading Reversals

[whittles]

Do you guys read reversals in a spread? I believe I may have seen a thread on this a long time ago but I was just wanting opinions and why you do or don't. I don't read them anymore because I think they are a little too much and if I have a spread with more than three reversals I won't read it. I guess what I'm trying to say is I don't like reading reversals seperate from the original meaning of the card. Whats your opinion?

 

[Linh]

I don't read with tarot reversals. First of all, it really discourages my client, especially when he sees that the majority of the cards are reversed. I tried to read for my brother once using reversal, and it turned out that 9 out of 10 of the cards were reversed, and he didn't even want to hear the reading. I believe too many reversed cards have a negative meaning to them, which shouldn't be the focus of the reading, as a reading should place more importance on the bright side of the issue, since after all, when a client comes to you, she is probably looking for comfort and hope.
Secondly, I personally believe that the tarot was not originally meant to be read with reversals. Take the Thoth deck for example, it was not meant to be read with reversals anyway.
Just my two cents on the matter

 

[whittles]

I agree! I have had a lot of people come to me for readings and if most of the cards come out reversed usually they dont even want to hear the reading. It is quite discouraging.

 

[Frayling0]

Completely agree with Linh - I don't tend to read reversals. It's an extra and unnecessary element, and it tends to weigh the reading down a much darker path.

 

[brightcrazystar]

There is nothing in Cosmos, Nature, or Science that becomes of a contrary nature simply because it aligns to a different axis. Why should it be so in Tarot?

Furthermore, from the start, it is not a function of anything but your own shuffling. If you arrange all the cards in the deck upright, and cut the Deck and bring the top ends of the two sides together to shuffle them back in, then you get what are called reversals, because you are shuffling Heads of Cards to Heads of Cards. If you face the same upright deck lengthwise to the Left or Right, and cut by simply taking a good stack of cards and pulling them off the top, and sitting them down right to its left or right, you will be shuffling Heads of Cards to Feet of Cards, which means when brought back together all will still face the same way. You can actually ensure none of your cards ever face an opposing direction from the rest.

If you do not lay the cards down, pull off the top, head of card toward thumb, and grab the other stack, feet toward thumb. Shuffle with the hand and thumb and push the cards back to one stack. All are upright. There are tons of ways to do this, and you can easily make it a habit to not get reversals if you don't use them in reading.

When deciding how to cut and shuffle the Deck, you can use this way and/or other techniques so you never have reversals. Training yourself to shuffle in a way that reversals do not and will occur is highly advised if you do not wish to read them, as it is simply becomes something you do not have to address.

 

[starrystarrynight]

There are dozens of threads about this very topic, and if you type "reversals" into the search engine on the status line above, you can access them. (I used the "Advanced Search" mode and selected the option to Search Thread Titles Only and got a slew of them!)

A lot of older ATers and experienced readers have answered this question many times and may not want to do it again...so the above is a way to see what they all have to say about it.

Good luck in your tarot studies...

Edited to add:

I don't use reversals per se in the positioning of cards in a spread, but I do take those energies into consideration--always. I also take numerological and elemental dignities into consideration, as well as prominence of suits and trumps, colors, symbology and body language of the figures on the cards.

Tarot is rich, and there is no one "correct" way to read cards. You just have to find out what works best for you and go from there. But I would suspect that as you move forward on your tarot journey that you will revamp and revise the way you read almost fluidly (i.e. what works for you today may seem limp as you wander deeper into your tarot studies in the future!)

 

[whittles]

Thanks starrystarrynight for your suggestion. I tried searching on here before for other threads but the search engine on here doesnt work so well for me sometimes hence my asking today

and brightcrazystar i think your suggestion of shuffling the deck a certainw ay was a good suggestion as well, I shuffle my deck like that now to avoid getting reversals as well. Works just fine for me

 

[Grizabella]

Usually the cards will give you the "reversed card message" all by themselves without actually having them reversed. If you don't feel that works well for you, then make sure your spreads have positional meanings that will include the opportunity to give you the same message you'd get if you did use reversed cards. For instance, use a position or two that will reflect "the cons of this situation" or "what do I (or the sitter) need to know about the negatives here?" or whatever best works for you to show all sides of the situation.

Sometimes I use my simplified version of "Elemental Dignities". I just have a look at the cards and take into consideration the suits and courts. For instance, Wands stand for fire and Swords stand for air. Swords "fan the flames" of fire, water (Cups) puts out fire. You can find a better guide to this by googling Elemental Dignities. I never totally learned it but I just kind of adapted it to my own use and sometimes use it to add a little more information to a spread.

 

[nisaba]

Do you guys read reversals in a spread?

<grin> My opinion is that I'm going to have to write out a stock-answer, hide it in my computer and cut-and-paste in future. This question just isn't going away, and nor it should.

In the beginning when I was clueless (after thirty years I have a clue, but I'm still learning), I bought decks and read LWBs and they always gave reversed meanings, so I did read reversals as a matter of course.

It always felt wrong, My decks disliked having cards upside-down in them.

And it didn't take too long before I was able to sense when I card was in its positive flow and when it was in its negative flow, so I had no reason to physcially reverse cards in the shuffle - I could tell anyway what they were about. Since hten I've kept all my cards in all decks upright.

That being said, once or twice a year a card manages to reverse itself - how, I'll never know, because even when I drop them during a shuffle I'm very careful about how I replace them.

And a card that DOES manage to physically reverse itself is saying two things to me.

1) it is really screaming at me. It is saying: "Look at me! I'm much more important than the rest of them!"

2) It is also saying that the flow of the card may have reversed direction. For example, if the Five Cups is loss and dwelling on spilt milk, perhaps the reversed Five Cups is someone else wistfully morning your loss in their life. If the Six Pentacles is your being generous, perhaps when it reverses it indicates a period where you need to accept help and charity.

Although, on occasions like the two examples I just gave, I can usually tell which way the flow is going anyway, so perhaps it's just about teh card drawing attention to itself.

 

[Richard]

Upside-down pictures don't look right somehow, so I use the cards upright, like the gods intended. For lots of solid information and suggestions regarding reversed meanings, Mary Greer's Tarot Reversals is very helpful, especially for those who use RWS or RWS clones.