Cards. read Reversals or keep upright ?

Sorry I tried to quote post - didn't work. Apologies

cozmo0_4 said:

Being new to this, I'm only reading upright cards at the moment.

1). How many of you read this way, or how many read reversal too.

2). How do you think reading just upright would impact on a reading or change its meaning ?

3). How do cards get reversed and then upright again ?

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I read reversals. I always start off with my deck completely upright but over time some cards get turned upside down while shuffling, if they leap out of the deck and get replaced etc. Not many cards end up this way so that's why I do take note of them when it happens.

Reading all upright only is fine. There are enough themes and concepts in a deck for it to be read that way. There's a good balance of positive and negative cards and some upright cards have a similar meaning to others reversed. I honestly don't think it matters.

If a card is reversed then I don't necessarily take it to mean the opposite of what it does upright. I take it to mean it has special significance in the reading or is presently representing an obstacle.

I don't read reversals so I shuffle so as not to have any. However, sometimes I do get a reversed card now and then, so I just note in my mind which card it was and upright it, then shuffle it back into the deck.

With court cards, the reversed meaning is often the negative side of the court represented on the card. For instance, a Queen of Wands is somebody who is fun, outgoing, physically attractive and has a sparkly personality. A reversed Queen of Wands would be someone who is physically attractive but has let themselves go, has a negative attitude and isn't interested in others or in being around the public. She's also someone who often speaks of the negative side of things instead of the positive even if things would normally seem positive to anyone else.

Sorry I'm still having trouble with the 'quote' thing, so I'll have to write names next to my replies.

decan - I'm with you at the moment, still learning so upright for me too.

JackofWands - Yes, I was just asking in the physical sense how they get reversed. As in, if it span round on the table when collecting up would you leave it. Thanks for the advice on turning.

HallowedNight - I like the idea of them being 'watch out for' rather than a full on warning with the cards, instead of reversals. Of course this is all very foreign to me at the moment, but I'll carry this thought with me now. Thank you.

Tanga - Yes, I'm still looking a lot of the meanings up, and will learn them before considering whether to go into reverse or not. Thank you.

Chitrani - I'm still not clear on the court cards yet, but that's a great idea for the future if I want to reverse.

Thank you all for the comments so far. This has been very insightful and it's nice to know you can choose whether to reverse or not, rather than it being set in stone.

SwordOfTruth said:

I read reversals. I always start off with my deck completely upright but over time some cards get turned upside down while shuffling, if they leap out of the deck and get replaced etc. Not many cards end up this way so that's why I do take note of them when it happens.

Reading all upright only is fine. There are enough themes and concepts in a deck for it to be read that way. There's a good balance of positive and negative cards and some upright cards have a similar meaning to others reversed. I honestly don't think it matters.

If a card is reversed then I don't necessarily take it to mean the opposite of what it does upright. I take it to mean it has special significance in the reading or is presently representing an obstacle.

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Taking note of them is a great idea. I can add that to the back of my book, if this happens. Thank you

Cozmo, down in the lower right corner of each poster's comment is a little button that says "quote" and if you click that, then the person's post will become part of your answer. If you wish to quote several people, just click the little face that's there on the lower right by the word "quote". Then the posts of everyone you wish to respond to will be included in your response.

I see using reversals as increasing a deck's vocabulary. It's far more useful to me in larger spreads than smaller ones but I always leave the deck mixed anyway. It's more of a matter of whether it fits what I'm planning to do spread-wise than any sort of principle really.

Like many others here I read reversals now, but didn't when I first started reading. How that changed corresponded to my growth in learning - the more I learned, the more I started reading reversals.

When I was just starting, I would simply turn them all upright. The reversed cards I think were from some jumping out and me putting them back in backwards, me picking them up after a reading and putting them back in backwards, etc. No matter - they always made more sense upright, so I after dealing the cards, I turned them all that way and avoided trying to have them intentionally.

Over time, I noticed that they started making more sense if left as they were dealt. It was as if something was saying, "You're ready for this, so here's a reversal." So I changed to reading reversals but only the ones that happened to be that way. I didn't intentionally shuffle to get them and since I don't "reset" my deck after each reading (putting all the cards back in order), the ones that were reversed stayed reversed.

Fast forward another span of time and it seemed that the reversed cards started to sometimes make more sense using their upright meaning. I got the thought that whatever it is that's giving me the info wanted to use that card upright but couldn't because I didn't shuffle in such a way to let that happen. So I changed again.

Now, I do as JackofWands explained: split the deck in preparation to riffle shuffle, turn one of the halves of the deck 180 degrees, then shuffle and read as they are dealt.

cozmo0_4 said:

How do you think reading just upright would impact on a reading or change its meaning ?

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I don't think it changes the meaning. I think that no matter the message, the reader will get the cards they need to get that message. But like Chaosbloom I think reading reversals increases the deck's vocabulary. For me, it more than doubles it, adding in a lot of subtlety and nuance. Instead of having 78 sets of images (cards) to "talk" to me with, the deck now has 156. Some of those 156 can be similar in meaning, but they'll be slightly different. Also, the number of reversals can mean something now - for instance, if I get all reversals, that's a message in itself, before I even start reading the cards themselves.

Furthermore, if you think of how the cards interact with each other, it allows for a whole LOT more information - instead of just 77 cards interacting with the Hermit, if you add in reversals you'll have 154 cards interacting with it. Then add in that those 154 can now also interact with the reversed Hermit as well - 308 interactions (if my math is right? and it very well may not be). Multiply that over the entire deck and, well, it's a lot more information that can be sent. That's not even mentioning how two cards can get together to interact with one, how two cards can interact with two, and three can interact with one, and ... and ... Oh, man, even thinking of how to do the math on that makes my head all 'splodey.

With all that in mind, I think if I would have started out reading reversals it would have been just too much to take in. So I'm glad I didn't. But I'm glad I do now.

LindaMechele said:

Furthermore, if you think of how the cards interact with each other, it allows for a whole LOT more information - instead of just 77 cards interacting with the Hermit, if you add in reversals you'll have 154 cards interacting with it. Then add in that those 154 can now also interact with the reversed Hermit as well - 308 interactions (if my math is right? and it very well may not be). Multiply that over the entire deck and, well, it's a lot more information that can be sent. That's not even mentioning how two cards can get together to interact with one, how two cards can interact with two, and three can interact with one, and ... and ... Oh, man, even thinking of how to do the math on that makes my head all 'splodey.

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I'm not sure if I understand correctly what you mean by interactions but here's a table of card combinations (permutations to be exact) you can get with and without reversals.

No reversals:
1 card: 78
2 cards: 6006
3 cards: 456456
4 cards: 34234200 (34 million)
5 cards: 2533330800 (2 billion)

With reversals:
1 card: 156
2 cards: 24180
3 cards: 3723720 (3 million)
4 cards: 569729160 (569 million)
5 cards: 86598832320 (86 billion)

(Here's an intro for the principle of how to get to these numbers for anyone that's wondering http://www.shmoop.com/probability-statistics/factorials-permutations.html)

I think you and I are on the same page, Chaosbloom. And thanks for that table! Wow! I knew reversals opened up more chances for more information, but that many?! From 450K+ for a three-card spread to well over 3 MILLION?! And a five card spread - it ups it from 2 billion to over EIGHTY SIX?! Mind. Blown.

Wow. Just wow. That's a lot of vocabulary.