Reversals?

How important is using reversals in your readings? Are they necessary to add to your readings, or does it sometimes weigh them down? I feel no need to add reversals just yet, as I'm not 100% confident in my reading skills, but I was curious as to who likes them and why? or why not?
I'm not sure if I'm posting this right, this is my first thread. I read the guidelines and think this is okay, but please correct me if otherwise!

Welcome Aslan!

I don't use upside down cards in my readings, but I do apply reversed meanings to upright cards when the positional meaning, surrounding cards or intuition tells me to do so. So you don't need upside down cards to use "reversed" meanings.

I don't use reversals either but I do use elemental dignitaries which can make the cards ill-dignified. For example, Water and Fire will clash. Earth and Air will clash while Earth and Water can provide nice synergy and support. With this, the central card is the main focus but can be strengthened and weakened by the supporting cards

ED is a more complicated method of reading which I find to be that extra layer I need to read accurately. I am still learning about ED two years later since I read about it (and use it in my readings) but I love the system! It works for me.

I don't use reversals. Tried to teach myself the meanings via the Revelations deck, but that didn't quite work out. Don't know if it was because I didn't quite click with the deck, that adding Rx created more meaning than I felt able to absorb at the time, or what.

Now that I'm more comfortable with upright card meanings, it's probably time to stretch and begin to allow reversals. I think they can add depth to readings, but it's ultimately personal preference... besides, you don't want to overwhelm yourself if you're just starting out.

I dont use reversals, it's very confusing and i don't understand the difference.

Here is the full definition of reverse from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary.


Note that there is no mention of upside down, although this may be implicit in definition 1a. I take reversed to apply to the meaning of a card, not its physical orientation. It is sort of the obverse or flip side of the card. I think of it as something like the shadow of the unreversed meaning, which is not necessarily negative or opposite, as a perusal of the reversed meanings in The Pictorial Key to the Tarot will show.

They were a "given" when I started out in the 1970s; now there are few more vigorously-debated practices in all of tarot-dom. Some like them, many don't, and they don't seem to be "necessary" by any stretch. I use them but they're well down my list in importance, and I almost never see them as a direct contradiction of the "normal" meaning. I feel that they can add depth, subtlety, nuance and shading to a reading when it's called for. There are numerous permutations, many of them generally indicating something that's not entirely out in the open, or forces at work behind the scenes. I find them useful if I'm looking for a less-forthright take on a card's significance when the usual interpretations aren't clicking. For me, they're more of an "intuition-flogger" than a hard-and-fast rule.

Being a newbie, I haven't settled on one definition for reversed cards that really beats out the others for me. I've seen them meaning a card is intensified, blocked, its negative aspect is intensified, etc. Later on I might try using various different meanings of reversals as practice and see if one meaning sticks out to me, and use that. For now though I'm keeping it simple.

If a card comes up reversed, I read it as such. I have found them to be accurate. There are many methods of reading reversed cards. It does not always mean the opposite, or negative. You will find that opinions on this site vary. You must choose for yourself what works for you.
Welcome to AT

I think using reversals depends on you and there are no rules as such.

I don't shuffle for reversals but if a card comes up reversed I do pay special attention to it but it's very rare.

I tend to judge how a card sits by the other cards around it and its position in a spread and sometimes EDs so a mixture of stuff