A Question about Reversals

[TheWhiteRaven]

I searched the FAQs and didn't really see an answer to my question, so here it is! =D

Do Tarot cards have reversed meaning in ALL decks? I have the Mystic Faerie Tarot and did the "birthday sunflower" spread. Everything was dead on except for the cards that were reversed. When upright those cards made perfect sense...but when reversed they didn't seem to apply at all. And also the book that comes with the deck does not give reversed meanings...

So do reversals really depend on the deck?

[wolf]

They can. Some people do not read with reversals at all. For me it varies from deck to deck. Most of the LS decks do not have reversals explained in the LWB. When I do read reversals, I read the base meaning of the card, but regard that energy as being "out of balance" rather than the opposite meaning of the card.

There are enough negative vs. positive images on the cards in and of themselves that reversals aren't strictly necessary for a comprehensive reading.

[HedwigHarfang]

I searched the FAQs and didn't really see an answer to my question, so here it is! =D

Do Tarot cards have reversed meaning in ALL decks? I have the Mystic Faerie Tarot and did the "birthday sunflower" spread. Everything was dead on except for the cards that were reversed. When upright those cards made perfect sense...but when reversed they didn't seem to apply at all. And also the book that comes with the deck does not give reversed meanings...

So do reversals really depend on the deck?

I tend not to use reversals unless a card comes out of an upright deck in a reversed position. This is for a number of reasons - partly, because books on tarot that come with the deck often don't supply reversed meanings; partly, because as an intuitive/psychic reader I know what the card means as soon as it comes out and that is often enough for me; partly, because dignities matter more to me (e.g. The Star as a Warning card in a spread can be taken to mean as if it was reversed, i.e. that there is too much hope for this situation to fall out in a way you want and you should not get your hopes up for a swift or happy resolution...but what does The Star reversed in that position mean?!) when reading and partly just because I'm lazy and preferred only to hold 78 meanings in my head when "performing" not 156. (You'd be amazed at what senior government ministers get up to at parties - as I've said elsewhere I stopped reading when I got into the Cabinet but only stopped having the cards on me at work when it got into a tabloid newspaper that one of Thatcher's cabinet was a practicing witch and ought to be burnt at the stake, which understandably was not one of her best days...)

Seriously, tarot often means very little at the time you do any spread for yourself so I would not stop using printed reversal meanings just because they didn't seem to fit. It could be a hidden outcome you are not currently expecting or something happening to a friend out of your sight which will have relevance later on. It could also mean something completely different to what you take it to mean - Louise once drew the 10 of Swords for my "opponent" and assumed it was the resignation date of one of them...when ironically another of my rivals learned on the day she drew it for that his son had cystic fibrosis - figuratively ten swords digging into the child's body and a metaphor also, perhaps for how this public figure has been handicapped by the people he works for :(.

If cards fall reversed and you are using reversals, you have to take them at their word, even if they don't seem to fit. I suspect, going by what you are saying, that the situation is not as benign as it seems and outwardly what you see fits the upright . You should probably look deeper into the situation in question because in turning the cards upright you see the situation one way - but the cards came out reversed, so I suggest you give it another think and see whether people are being honest with you or you are being honest with them. (So saying, I draw a card from a deck I have sitting upside down on my desk - a sign from God, I believe! - and it's the reversed Three of Coins - you are thinking you are making progress with this situation - hence you righted the cards you drew for it - but you need to check your actual progress and put things right subconsciously as well as consciously.)

[Simply Puzzled]

Do Tarot cards have reversed meaning in ALL decks? I have the Mystic Faerie Tarot and did the "birthday sunflower" spread. Everything was dead on except for the cards that were reversed. When upright those cards made perfect sense...but when reversed they didn't seem to apply at all. And also the book that comes with the deck does not give reversed meanings...


Reading the cards is building a relationship with your deck. By adding in reversals at an earlier stage, you are creating an unnecessary complication to that relationship. As you explore your deck, you will eventually come to a point (or not) where you want to go deeper and further. Then you can explore the reversals.

[aranarose]

With the Revelations Tarot I use reversals, because it was MADE for reversals. Other than that, I don't use reversals. In a spread, no card is read by itself, it's modified by the cards surrounding it. If you have the Two of Cups surrounded by the Three of Swords, the Five of Pentacles, and the Ten of Swords, do you think it's a good thing? Or how about the Tower with the Empress, the Three of Cups, and the Ten of Pentacles? Is it such a bad thing then?

[Nitefalle]

I don't use reversals because if a card has a negative or positive meaning, I believe that I will pick up on it. I've had a spread where The Tower was a positive card, that's just how it read to me at that time, in that spread for that person. It's about the overall message of the sum of the reading, all the cards working together.

[wolf]

That's a good way to check, but the artist does not always get to choose the back, and not all publishers are cognizent of the conventions related to tarot decks.

[Belgalad]

(e.g. The Star as a Warning card in a spread can be taken to mean as if it was reversed, i.e. that there is too much hope for this situation to fall out in a way you want and you should not get your hopes up for a swift or happy resolution...but what does The Star reversed in that position mean?!)

I'd read it as a warning that losing hope in the matter will make the bad outcomes you fear self-fulfilling. It'd be a warning to keep hope alive. But that's just me.

I do read with reversals, and I insist on reading with reversals because it gives the cards a whole extra language to convey more subtle messages to me. It takes a big more work, but when I get it right, I really get every tiny detail that way.

I mean, at first glance, by themselves the three of swords and the two of cups inverted could be used interchangably, but there are definitely different interpretations on a subtle level for me. Two of cups inverted indicates heartbreak, yes, but it also has a touch of sneakiness and betrayal and unawareness to it whereas the three of swords is very painful but very straightfoward. And the three of swords can be contrasted to the Lovers inverted in that the Lovers inverted, as a major, is always going to indicate a more significant life event than the pips will.

I also allow for the idea, depending on the surrounding cards and my intuition, that a reversed card can indicate an energy that has not yet manifested, but is in the process of manifesting or is blocked from manifesting. For cards with very bold, unreversable meanings like the ten of swords or Death, an inversion could indicate a background influence.

Then again, I'm much more in tune with runes than tarot, so I might be doing tarot all wrong. Of course, I might be doing runes all wrong, too.

[Lady Moonsong]

Personally, I don't read by-the-book meanings when I do a reading, so reversals only matter in specific readings. In fact, if my cards let me know that the reversed position is important I pay special attention to the warning my cards are trying to give. I interpret the pictures on my Tarot instead of the meanings written in the book. For instance, I have pulled the Tower card reversed so that the lightning cracked top was at the bottom. For this particular spread the warning was that the lady's foundation was cracked and she was trying to appear like a pillar of strength, but she had nothing to support her. The lady started crying I was so dead-on. Another time I had the papass card come up and I focused on the book in her lap. The advice was for the woman to check her books and make sure everything was in order. Maybe I'm odd, maybe my deck is, but that's how it works for me and so far I've been right. :)

*hugs*

~Cat

[HedwigHarfang]

I'd read it as a warning that losing hope in the matter will make the bad outcomes you fear self-fulfilling. It'd be a warning to keep hope alive. But that's just me.

Depends on the specifics of the case. But I agree, another interpretation is always good. In my line of work there are times when disappointment is going to be inevitable (e.g. not even the most hopeful Tory could win in Tower Hamlets and by belligerently hoping you could win it you may be letting the side down elsewhere where we can win) but you are right - without hope we have nothing, so why not?


I do read with reversals, and I insist on reading with reversals because it gives the cards a whole extra language to convey more subtle messages to me. It takes a big more work, but when I get it right, I really get every tiny detail that way.

Quite right, agree, because the more you have to work with, the more variety and detail you can get. I sometimes read with my fiancee's Magic the Gathering cards because there are thousands of different ones and even the "deck" you choose has a meaning for your client. I dislike decks which put a relentlessly happy face on every card, because life is not all - as Meera Syal put it - "ha-ha-hee-hee"; I don't particularly like angel-card decks except for as a meditational focus, for example, because they give rather blunt readings.


I mean, at first glance, by themselves the three of swords and the two of cups inverted could be used interchangably, but there are definitely different interpretations on a subtle level for me. Two of cups inverted indicates heartbreak, yes, but it also has a touch of sneakiness and betrayal and unawareness to it whereas the three of swords is very painful but very straightfoward. And the three of swords can be contrasted to the Lovers inverted in that the Lovers inverted, as a major, is always going to indicate a more significant life event than the pips will.

The cards are often intensified or given a negative slant by the reversal, or else they could indicate that the influence is passing - as in the Three of Swords inverted, where the disappointment is dissipating rather than intensifying. Two of Cups inverted is what happened to me and my first wife over the years I've been in parliament - love turns to duty turns to her becoming my nurse or mother and not my wife, ending in amicable divorce. The Lovers inverted is more what I'd call betrayal and a wrong choice or wrong behaviour in a relationship - wife-beating, hen-pecking one's husband, cheating on someone. You are right about the Major vs Minor dichotomy, so that is what I would ascribe to the Lovers and not to the Two of Cups.


I also allow for the idea, depending on the surrounding cards and my intuition, that a reversed card can indicate an energy that has not yet manifested, but is in the process of manifesting or is blocked from manifesting. For cards with very bold, unreversable meanings like the ten of swords or Death, an inversion could indicate a background influence.

Quite right, or a delay or suspension. We got the reversed Ten and reversed Death last night - going public with what I need to go public with is still perhaps a week off, but we were gearing up to revelations tomorrow or the next day but the tarot suggested - given a very low-key reaction to my statement that I was boycotting the State Opening of Parliament because I no longer felt able to give my all to a Parliament, basically, of Whores - that we are not quite ready for this. This is why I tend to eschew reversals unless they fall as so, but recently I've been working with them trying to get a more detailed picture of what is going on, since it is so important to both of us and the rest of the country and world to get this right.


Then again, I'm much more in tune with runes than tarot, so I might be doing tarot all wrong. Of course, I might be doing runes all wrong, too.

Apart from Crowley, runes and tarot mean what you want them to mean. Crowley you have to study and understand at a psychic level as well as a intuitive level, but even then, an experienced reader can read the cards as if they are pieces of a whole rather than individuals, so the important thing is that you are comfortable subconsciously with what you are seeing in them, not what is written in some book or other.

[1111]

With the Revelations Tarot I use reversals, because it was MADE for reversals. Other than that, I don't use reversals. In a spread, no card is read by itself, it's modified by the cards surrounding it. If you have the Two of Cups surrounded by the Three of Swords, the Five of Pentacles, and the Ten of Swords, do you think it's a good thing? Or how about the Tower with the Empress, the Three of Cups, and the Ten of Pentacles? Is it such a bad thing then?

Agreed, Revelations was made for reversals and I love it.

[wolf]

Agreed, Revelations was made for reversals and I love it.

Ditto. It is a very beautifully designed deck, and makes reversals very easy to understand and interpret. In fact, it's almost like working with a 156 card deck.

[aranarose]

Ditto. It is a very beautifully designed deck, and makes reversals very easy to understand and interpret. In fact, it's almost like working with a 156 card deck.

He did that deck so beautifully that you don't have to memorize anything, it's very intuitive.

[1111]

He did that deck so beautifully that you don't have to memorize anything, it's very intuitive.

The first night I got that deck, I could not put it down. It just spoke to me in so many ways. After about two hours, I went right to the computer to email Zach Wong and thank him for such an amazing deck. I have never done something like that, but I just needed to thank him for making something I was so connected to so quickly.

1111

[Chaos Hawk]

I have several decks that do not have reversed meanings. I also have decks that have reversed meanings, but in the begining of the book the author suggests not reversing the cards at all.