Dragon-Capricorn said:
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?
I'm not sure I understand your question, but I do think that knowing upright and reversed "meanings" of all cards gives a reader a bigger and better reservoir to draw from. That just makes sense to me...the more you know, the more you have to use. I know the premise here is that you should be able to get the right reading from only the 78 cards in the deck dealt upright...and I'm sure that many excellent readers can do that. But I can't.
Going back to the Two of Cups example, which--reversed--often means unrequited love to me, I would have to ask myself what upright card would make me think that? And I'm not sure that there is one. At least, not in my experience with the cards.
That said, I have to add--again--that this is how it seems to work best
for me. When I did try (for awhile a few years ago) to read only upright cards with their upright "meanings", hoping to get a good idea of a situation without benefit of blockages, reversals or even delays, I often didn't get the clearest picture in my mind. But that could be because I had used reversals before that, so I don't know...I guess it depends somewhat upon how one first learns.
I mean, some readers can give banging readings using only the majors. I can't do that either.
But it's way past my bedtime right now, and I'm too sleepy to give this much more thought tonight. If I think of something else tomorrow, I'll holla.
Basically, though, I guess it comes down to whatever works for you!
Edited to add:
p.s. I do firmly believe that reversals are NOT merely opposites of uprights, but do have a lot of different slants of their own. And many of my own "reversed-card keywords" (as well as "upright keywords") have been gleaned by keeping track of seeing how certain cards panned out in readings long after the fact.