Reversals

[Mamacitanaz]

Hi guys

I have a quick question, I am in two minds about reading reversed cards and wondered what your thoughts on it where?

It was said to me sometime ago that it was better to read cards upright, and if any appear reversed naturally then to pay extra attention to it. Do you agree? or do you guys purposely split your deck into reversals?

Thanks

 

[Promise]

I don't read reversals, intentionally or accidentally. I feel like every card has both positive and negative aspects, and these can generally be figured out by looking at the surrounding cards, or by going with your "gut feeling", as it were. If a card comes up in a reversed position, I simply flip it around so it's right-side-up.

But reversals are really one of the many things in Tarot that is a grey area. If it works for you, use 'em! If they intimidate you or make you less confident in your readings, then scrap 'em! I know for me, they complicate everything, so I choose not to use them, but what you choose to do may be an entirely different deal.

 

[nisaba]

I have a quick question, I am in two minds about reading reversed cards and wondered what your thoughts on it where?

<grin> This has been asked a lot.

I just did a quick run on the search engine, and a few of the threads where I've already given my opinions are here:-

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=140391
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=127804
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=115503
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=153384

There are a hell of a lot of other threads scattered around, too <smile>.

 

[tarotcognito]

I think it's really a matter of personal preference. I don't use reversals because I get enough information from the many meanings of each of the 78 cards in their upright position. I'm of a mind that each card carries the seed of its own shadow, as it were - even the super bright and shiny and positive ones like the Sun.

 

[Rukargi]

My own feelings on this are that the Tarot cards are not magic, it is the reader that tunes into the 'great subconscious' through the images on the cards, and therefore it doesn't really matter if they are reversed or not, it is the ability of the reader and not the cards themselves that is important.

 

[Babalon Jones]

reversals

I don't really use reversals. I think in the list of posts above that nisaba linked, the first one has a post by Thirteen that says how I feel about it far more eloquently than I could! Basically I think the light and dark elements exist in each card, and it is up to the reader's intuition to decide based on surrounding cards, or just gut feeling. The 78 meanings, and layers therein, are enough to say anything that needs to be said without using reversals.

 

[brightcrazystar]

Take a book, and turn it upside down. Can you still read it? I can read just as well. To me, it doesn't become another language. That is why I don't read reversals with different meanings. If you can't maybe you should read reversals.

"Money" is the same right-side up or upside down.

BUT in combination with other words (or cards) it forms a narriative. THAT to me is key. In general, this is my reason a reversed card is not different in meaning. What reversal is, to me, is a sign to take note of that card carefully for they may be a key in that card, or cards.

I am a Hermeticist, among other things. As Above, So Below.

 

[SunChariot]

Hi guys

I have a quick question, I am in two minds about reading reversed cards and wondered what your thoughts on it where?

It was said to me sometime ago that it was better to read cards upright, and if any appear reversed naturally then to pay extra attention to it. Do you agree? or do you guys purposely split your deck into reversals?

Thanks

First piece of advice, don't listen to anyone who tells you it is better to do something one way or another. Tarot is a very individual thing. What works best for one person will not for another. The only real way to know which way is better for YOU is to try both ways and see which one actually does work better for the individual who is you. Since we all are such individuals and Tarot draws on the skill of the individual (and the skills each of us have may lie in different areas) no one can really say that one way works best.

Learning to read takes a lot of trial and error, you have to try things to see what works well for you and what doesn't.

That being said, what I do. What my intuition tells me to do. Tarot is a lot about intuition. When we open ourselves to that more and more we learn to feel what we are meant to do.

Sometimes I use reversals and sometimes I don't. If I feel the reading will benefit from them I use them, if not I don't. I feel that inside before starting. When I do use reversals I have one of 4 methods that I use. So I then need to sense which of the 4 methods will most benefit that reading. Again it has to be felt from the inside. BTW, NONE of my reversals methods change a card's meaning to its opposite, I have never personally been fond of that method.

IF I decide not to use reversals in a particular reading, then I would disregard any reversed cards, and just return them to their normal postion and read them normally. As for cards having extra meaning or asking to be paid extra attention to... I leave that to the jumpers. They have that meaning for me.

Oh and when I do use reversals I don't actually try to READ them upside down. I just take note of which cards came up reversed, then upright them and when I get to them I ascribe to them the reversed meaning. But I do read them right side up.

Babs