Reversals

Hello all!

Since I began reading tarot I decided not to use reversals. Found it too complicated but now that I've had some extensive hours of practice and study, I'm beginning to consider using them.

Do you use reversals? Why or why not?

I absolutely use reversals and have since the very beginning.

Using reversals automatically doubles the amount of information the cards can give you. Without them, the vocabulary of your reading is much more limited.

It's not that the cards can't express complex ideas if you don't use reversals. But using reversals does mean that they have a more expressive way of getting those ideas across to you.

It's like a child learning to talk. If they only know a few words, they try to express themselves using those few words. When they get a bigger vocabulary it's easier for them to express their ideas.

I don't turn parts of the deck to create reversals anymore but will accept any that appear.

Some people use elemental dignities instead of reversals. Others, including me, just allow for positions within spreads that can express the other side of an issue. I just don't especially like seeing upside down cards but in cases where, on a whim, I've decided to try using actual reversed cards, what I do is just turn about 1/3 of the deck around, use them for a specific reading and when through with the reading, I turn the reversed cards upright and randomize them again all upright.

I've been using reversals for over four decades now, but my approach to them has shifted considerably, from a simple black-or-white perspective to one that encompasses a wide range of subtle shades. I don't see them as primarily negative, just "different," less a matter of altered content than one of skewed delivery. I like them because they expand my interpretive palette considerably and create avenues of inquiry that might otherwise remain unexplored. I use them with almost all decks (but not with TdM because I still don't have a solid grasp of it in the upright condition). If there is a psychological element to tarot (something I don't entirely accept) I think one place it resides is in the concept of reversal. Regarding Elemental Dignities, I use those and reversals both; the former mainly tweak the relative strength or weakness of the focus card, while the latter can shift its angle of attack. As long as everything is kept coherent and systematic, I can see no reason to limit myself. I also agree that the spread positions add their own emphasis.

As to how the cards "get reversed," the first time I thoroughly randomize a new deck, I make sure to turn some of the cards as I work through the process. I've been using Grizabella's "four pile" method, but recently I saw someone using seven piles, so I started doing that; it's easy to just flip some of the sub-packs when gathering the deck up. Then I do a normal shuffle. I repeat those steps to a less rigorous extent between readings, but don't pay much attention to reversing the cards other than that. Since I seldom read for myself now, I let my sitters do whatever they want when shuffling and cutting the deck.

I use reversals and have found them very useful in my readings. They give the reading much more room for expressiveness and a broader "vocabulary", adding a whole new dimension to it. Now I'm not just dealing with the meanings of the card, but the level of development of each card's energy. I find them particularly useful in readings related to self-growth or readiness for something, like the reversed High Priestess in a reading about how far along on a mental journey I am. Upright, it would have meant that I was very far along in the area that it applied to, but reversed it gave a much more precise idea of where I am on that mental journey. Anyway, reversed cards have always been very helpful to me and I make a point to turn parts of the deck while shuffling.

I don't physically turn any cards upside down for my readings but I do consider each card's whole range of meaning when I'm reading so depending on the rest of the cards in the spread and how each card fits with the story that the reading is giving, I may very well use a reversed meaning even though the card is upright..
I think cards have a core meaning but that can go from traditionally upright to traditionally reversed. How they're read depends on the context, the question, the other cards in the spread, the position the card falls in etc.

I can read with reversals and have done in the past but now I don't see a need for them because of the way I read.

Leviosa said:

Do you use reversals? Why or why not?

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Not any longer, no. I used them for the first few years, they were useful when I wasn't yuet good at feeling exactly what part of its nature a card was giving me, but now I don't seem to need to do that any more, I just seem to know how the card is aspected without it.

Also, it feels to me as if my decks are uncomfortable when some of their cards are reversed, as I feel uncomfortable if I suddenly realiuse I put on a piece of clothing inside-out.

There'll come a time when you just don't need to use reversals any more.

Sulis said:

I don't physically turn any cards upside down for my readings but I do consider each card's whole range of meaning when I'm reading so depending on the rest of the cards in the spread and how each card fits with the story that the reading is giving, I may very well use a reversed meaning even though the card is upright..
I think cards have a core meaning but that can go from traditionally upright to traditionally reversed. How they're read depends on the context, the question, the other cards in the spread, the position the card falls in etc.

I can read with reversals and have done in the past but now I don't see a need for them because of the way I read.

Click to expand...

I'm with Sulis in this one, as its the image I work with plus its relationship with other cards.I find upside down cards distracting which for me break the narrative

I'm just the opposite. I work with the concept behind the image; the picture is, after all, just some artist's rendering of a universal truth that is no more valid than yours or mine. The image is just a trigger for me, it's recognition prompting well-honed associations that don't really need much pondering for the purpose of reading (probably because I've read with non-scenic pips for most of my life). The pondering goes into the interaction and combination of all the cards in the spread, so the orientation can be a weighting system like Elemental Dignities, but I've found it to be so much more in narrative terms. As long as reversal isn't seen as altering the basic meaning of a card, it can be looked at more as "packaging" than substance. Kind of like a "mask" the card puts on for its role in the reading..