To allow reversals or not - that is the question!

[firemaiden]

Perhaps some of us have changed our approach since then, jmd. I didn't use reversals when I started learning. I do a bit more now, but only if the reversed meaning makes sense in context.

 

[Sophie]

Perhaps some of us have changed our approach since then, jmd. I didn't use reversals when I started learning. I do a bit more now, but only if the reversed meaning makes sense in context.

I know I have (well, not that I've been reading the thread that long, but I have been reading tarot) - I used to read reversals much more than I do now. I always found it difficult for myself (see earlier post) but not for others. But now I am enjoying discovering the totality of the cards without reading reversed. It's much harder! but also, more subtle. At least, I have found so.

I don't much like the way the question is framed, though - why "allow" or "not allow" reversals? as opposed to "read with reversals, or not read with reversals"?

Having said that, some decks are not designed to be read reversed. Others definitely are, and some are neutral on the subject.

Sounds like life really. Tarot, once again

 

[CloeCat]

not!!

I like my pictures up right, but should for some odd reason the cards git reversed I just take a coser look at whats around and at the cards them selves. Do to reading energy wise with cards up right I feel if its telling a less than positive meaning, no reversals needed.

Many purrrs,
CloeCat

 

[yusia]

I voted yes, always. Interesting, the majority doesn't use reversals!

 

[swampwitch]

Reversal koan

If I understood f. silvestris and jmd in this thread, their stand may be similar to mine--context is everything. Being a sort of Buddhist-leaning Taroist, I sort of chuckle every time I get caught up in false dichotomies. Yes, the "negative" and "positive" meanings inhere at all times in all the cards. It is simply our cognitive limitations which cause us to polarize them. If you carry this to its natural and maybe not so very nice conclusion, we then put an almost moral coloration on our interpretation of a given Tarot spread. That is, to the querent we may be subtly saying, "You're going along swimmingly," or
"You're really screwing up!" That's probably not the most useful way of delivering up a reading to ourselves or another party. But in a mechanical sense, I concede to getting down off my high horse and really struggling with embracing both "sides" of a card's meaning when I do, artificially, block reversals from a spread. I find the task of integrating both sides of meaning, as well as REALLY getting at a card's reversed meaning, quite challenging. What makes the Tarot good is that you never do really GET it--it is perpetually self-mystifying, yet it is simultaneously self-clarifying. The Tarot itself is a dichotomous variable--to us humans!

 

[marinecomm]

How do you use the other cards in a spread to determine if a card should be interpreted as upright or reversed if you don't use reversed cards? I am working on trying to understand the cards relation to each other. Would anyone be willing to give an example of how a card could be interpreted as reversed based on the other cards in the spread?

 

[raeanne]

How do you use the other cards in a spread to determine if a card should be interpreted as upright or reversed if you don't use reversed cards? I am working on trying to understand the cards relation to each other. Would anyone be willing to give an example of how a card could be interpreted as reversed based on the other cards in the spread?

Hi Marinecomm,
Do you have just one meaning for each card? For me, each card has a full range of meanings. A friend of mine likes using round cards and she said that each card has 360 degrees of meaning. I like that! Most cards are not totally upright or totally reversed but lie somewhere in between with varying degrees of intensity. Learning a card’s full range and understanding how it relates to the other cards in a spread is the challenge that faces all tarot readers. To simplify things, let’s say the Empress card can mean fertility, sensuality, or femininity. How do you know which one applies in a specific spread? If the rest of the cards are about a love interest and romance then chances are the Empress card is about sensuality. If the other cards show other aspects of womanhood then it probably means femininity. The same holds true for reversed meanings. If the rest of the cards in the spread are about control and dominance, then the Empress would most likely be an overbearing female that piles on the guilt. (Anyone have a mother that’s good at the “guilt trip” thingy?) This would be a reversed meaning of the Empress. There are times when Mother is not nice! If you have a card that just doesn’t seem to fit with the rest of the spread, try using it’s reversed meaning and see if it makes more sense. Take each card and learn the yin and yang of that card. Study it from different angles and in different situations. The more you know about each individual card, the easier it is to pluck just the right nuance from the reading. Yes, this takes time but what a wonderful journey!

 

[marinecomm]

Raeanne, I may be new to the tarot, but I know enough to understand that every card has many meanings. It is a good thing you asked that question though. I can see how someone new to the tarot might have a limited view of how to interpret each card. My intention in posting to this thread was to better understand how people who don't use reversed cards can interpret reversed meanings in the cards. I found out that the current deck I have wasn't made to use reversed cards so I am currently using the deck without them. However, I have ordered a deck that was made to use reversals. I agreed with everything you said in your post and your post has given me a better understanding of the process.

 

[Ambyr_rain]

I use reversals in my readings because 1, that was how I learned to read them. and 2, it is amazing how my perspective instantly changes if there are several cards in the reversed possition. It gives an instant reading befor I even start looking at the cards.

 

[bladeraven]

reversals

I'm the same way...I think reversals play a vital role in readings..helps in a lot of ways!

Amber saw you were in Texas! Cool! Where?? I'm in the Houston/Gal area.