should i turn my cards all the right way ?

merry meet, hi there ive been practising tarot for a few weeks now.i'm really unsure what to do after ive cleansed them. i feel the urged to check that all the cards are the right way up.i am learning with the beginners guide to tarot by juliet sharman-burke and i really love them and feel that these cards are for me. it doesnt say anything in the book about reversed meanings so are they all meant to be read in the upright position? i hope someone out there can help me solve this question. many thanks and blessed be moonstone x

Hi moonstone,

Welcome to Aeclectic.

Reversals are really a matter of personal taste. Some people always read with them, some people never read with them.

As a beginner, I would advise you to get to grips with the cards upright before you start tackling them reversed (if you ever do ), you'll have enough to be going on with there, believe me.

If you check out the 'note threads' at the top of this forum, you'll find loads of old threads on reversals. Here's a link: How to read - links to all questions about reading

Have fun with your tarot journey.

Love

Sulis xx

Reversals are for Car Parks

Juliet Sharman-Burke makes the happy observation
that reading anything upside down is rather difficult,
and since Tarot is often read intuitively, reversals
are not always helpful, and can even be confusing.

Since she has left reversed meanings out of her book
it is safe to say that she is hoping the point is made
to keep the cards upright, just the way they're drawn.

My opinion is that if someone is going to read a card
upside down, why not then read it backwards as well?

Fulgour said:

My opinion is that if someone is going to read a card
upside down, why not then read it backwards as well?

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...which is exactly what A.T. Mann has us doing with his Mandala Astrological Tarot - LOL! The cards are square, and can be drawn upright, upside down, upper title to the left, or upper title to the right.

Moonstone, as has already been said, it's up to you. Enjoy!

moonstone said:

should i turn my cards all the right way ?

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No. IMHO.

Fulgour said:

My opinion is that if someone is going to read a card
upside down, why not then read it backwards as well?

Click to expand...

We are all intitled to own opinion, Fulgour, and I respect yours, but like Fridias says, why not? The mother peace and other round decks can be read in angles and such if you want, why not, if it works for you? untimately, there is no one true way.
Ace

Sometimes a card comes out reversed when I was sure all the cards were upright. If it's a deck where I don't read reversals (and with most decks I don't) I consider the reversed card to mean that I should pay a little more attention to it than I otherwise might, or that it carries a meaning that is not standard or obvious. So I look a little deeper, think a little harder, entertain non-obvious possibilities, or subtle shades of meaning.

Also, IMO, learning to read 78 cards is plenty enough to do for a new reader. Later on, when you are more fluent and comfortable with them is the time to think about learning to read reversals, if you want to.

Hope I've been helpful--good luck with it!
And most of all, trust your instincts.

moonstone said:

merry meet, hi there ive been practising tarot for a few weeks now.i'm really unsure what to do after ive cleansed them. i feel the urged to check that all the cards are the right way up.i am learning with the beginners guide to tarot by juliet sharman-burke and i really love them and feel that these cards are for me. it doesnt say anything in the book about reversed meanings so are they all meant to be read in the upright position? i hope someone out there can help me solve this question. many thanks and blessed be moonstone x

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Yes.

I view reversals much the same as magpie does. I don't read them, but when one does end up in a spread, I pay special attention to it as a reversed card.

At one time I did read reversals, but even then I would start out with all of them going the same way then shuffle and cut a few times, turning one of the cut decks around and shuffle some more.

Really, there is no 'should' about it. If you want to keep them the same way do so, don't if you don't.

Francesca

I read reversals. But I think it is personal choice some people do some don't. My first deck was the Mythic which has no reversals in the book so I didn't read reversals then and I was unsure of what to do with reversed cards (I didn't have AT then) so I just turned them around it still worked for me. As I read more and experienced more I became more curious about reversals and I started to use them because that is what was comfitable for me to do at that stage. If you are comfitable in reading reversals as reversals then do so if not then don't.

Fulgour said:

My opinion is that if someone is going to read a card
upside down, why not then read it backwards as well?

Click to expand...

Or face down? - LOL - you make a good point Fulgour. I'm with you on that - it's common sense, to me.

When I started I read with reversals and did for a long time, but one day decided to stop, because I wanted to learn to read more intuitively - and upside-down pictures were getting in the way. The imagery matters a lot me. Nowadays if a card turns up reversed I note it, and pay special attention to it - but I look at it the right-side up. There are exceptions - some cards do look like something upside-down: the Aces in many decks, for example (certainly in Marseille and RWS). A reversed Ace of Swords, facing the ground, always makes me think of a knight sheathing his sword, or placing it with the point on the ground to do homage to the king or to pray (that was a very common gesture in the times when swords were used). Yet I read in some tarot books it means power abused!!! How's that???

Fulgour said:

if someone is going to read a card upside down, then why not read it backwards as well?

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Backwards sounds like a good idea to try to me.
I think variations on the meaning which are shown by the way the throw of cards falls can be very useful. Why not upside down. Many subtleties of thought can be conveyed well through inversion. Turning ideas inside on their head can be useful. So can turning them sideways, or inside out.

Of course this anti reversal idea seems based on both an image-centered reading approach, and also a non-fixed meanings approach. Those approaches are not the only possible ones. (And even the image centered approach often works well with reversals, depending upon the deck used, and the person using it.)

Helvetica said:

Or face down? - LOL - you make a good point Fulgour. I'm with you on that - it's common sense, to me.

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I think common sense can be a real trap. Divination itself is contrary to common sense.

some cards do look like something upside-down: the Aces in many decks, for example (certainly in Marseille and RWS). A reversed Ace of Swords, facing the ground, always makes me think of a knight sheathing his sword, or placing it with the point on the ground to do homage to the king or to pray (that was a very common gesture in the times when swords were used). Yet I read in some tarot books it means power abused!!! How's that???

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How's that? If it is seen as less of a visual, and more as an idea. If a sword is not a sword, but is power- then an inversion of that can be power abused. I don't see the problem with that idea.
I also don't see any problem with seeing an inverted ace of swords as a sheathed sword. Or, heck, a sideways ace of swords as power diverted. Why not. As long as the person reading gets the message that is coming through.

(As a sidenote- an interesting old thread about the meanings of swords: Swords-intellect or conflict? )