Reversals. Do you use it or not?

[Universal Student]

As a beginner, I too wonder about the need to use reversals. There are times when the thought pops into my head, "Maybe I should use reversals to see what they reveal or add to the reading", but my fear of getting such a bad layout prevents me from doing it. I can just imagine doing a general Celtic Cross reading say, "In what direction is my life heading?" and receiving cards that answer back, "Dude, you're screwed. Do yourself a favor - drink a twelve pack and drive off a cliff" . I have read some boards here at AT that mention reversals not having such a dramatic tone, but it is in how the reversals are utilized: blocked energies, complete opposite meaning. Another view that I have read is concerning the historical legitimacy of reversals: some yes, some no (though, I would have to go back and find the source of this opinion). I am at a fork in the road concerning this matter, but I will give my unqualified opinion. I see a tarot reading as a set of scales and the use of reversals as being the different polarities to the reading giving weight positively or negatively. I am still at the point where I still need to settle in with the qualities of the cards.

 

[nisaba]

Reviewing this thread, it seems there's a majority-trend of using no reversals when relatively inexperienced, and moving to using reversals later.

I was the exact opposite.

In my salad days, when I was green in Tarot (name that author, Kwaw!), I used to use reversals, because LWBs always had reversed definitions.

It bothered me, because my eyes don't often make sense of an image that is upside-down, so I'd often have to pick up the card and turn it over even to recognise it.

As I got older and more experienced, I began to realise that I could just tell in my body how a card wanted to be interpreted, so I stopped bothering with reversals. This also allowed the damaged and neglected Virgo to come out in me, and keep all the cards in all my decks neatly uprighted. (Tarot and the way I hang washing on the line are the *only* two areas where near enough isn't plenty good enough!)

So with me, experience simplified the process and got rid of any need or want to reverse cards, because I just got better at reading them.

 

[JSNYC]

I certainly agree with the ideas nisaba presented, especially...

It bothered me, because my eyes don't often make sense of an image that is upside-down, so I'd often have to pick up the card and turn it over even to recognise it.

Those upside-down cards are so very annoying!

... the Virgo to come out in me.

And this is probably why! Hello my fellow Virgo!