To allow reversals or not - that is the question!

Do you allow cards to be reversed in a spread?

  • YES - always

    Votes: 80 26.1%
  • YES - but on rare occasions not

    Votes: 55 18.0%
  • NO - never

    Votes: 80 26.1%
  • NO - but on rare occasions I do

    Votes: 91 29.7%

  • Total voters
    306

HudsonGray

I vote yes. If the tarot is developed to use both upright & reversals, I didn't want to hinder the readings by only using uprights.

Guess I look at it as a car--it can go forward & in reverse, both have their uses & there are times when you absolutely HAVE to have them do things in either direction.
 

fairyhedgehog

I voted 'NO but sometimes ...'

I would have said no, but this evening I tried to riffle shuffle my cards (my son had been showing off his shuffling ability with some playing cards :) ) and some of the cards ended up reversed and I didn't know. So I just read them reversed - no biggie.

Some decks seem like they might reverse better, I was using Tarot of a Moon Garden tonight.
 

raeanne

I voted Yes because I do use reversed meanings even if I don't specifically depend on the card itself being reversed.
 

Keslynn

I voted "Yes but sometimes not" (or however it's phrased). I use reversals for almost all my readings, but with certain decks, I don't like to reverse. Mostly it's the Gill and Rohrig I don't use reversals with.

:) Kes
 

neptune

I voted "No" simply because I don't like looking at upside down cards in a reading. Especially if the deck is visually beautiful! On rare occasions (like once in a blue moon, I may reverse-just to be curious) but overall a "No."
 

Woof

Yes.
I haven't been reading long but reading reversals just feels right. I don't allways go with reversal meanings in books but I do read it to be different from an upright. I shuffle so that the cards are randomized either rightside up or upside down.
I even use reversals with my Alchemical deck although the LWB advises not to.
Woof
 

zorya

i voted no, but sometimes...... because if a card somehow ends
up reversed anyway, i read it as such.

for years i always used reversals. after a conversation, with another reader, about not using them, i decided to ask the cards what to do. it was a unamimous "upright"!

being the questioner of authority that i am, and not being willing to give up the "logical" idea, that i would lose half of the interpretations, i decided to do a test. i alternated readings, first up, then reversed etc. keeping a journal.

well, it wasn't long before i discovered that my upright readings were not only clearer to read, but they were more accurate.

now i realize that both interpretations are inherent in each card. i use the "meaning" based on the surrounding cards and the position.
 

Celtic_Dragon

Nope never

I'm not comfortable enough to use or read reversals; hell I've yet to include my court cards. I'm just not at that point yet, and I've yet to get over my fear that once every single card I pull is reversed.

There's a question....has anyone done a reading where 70-100% of the cards were reversed? I mean using a complicated spread like the celtic cross. (3-5 cards don't count) If so how did you deal with it?
 

Major Tom

Much like a Las Vegas dealer, I lay the cards horizontally on the table in front of me and cut the deck with both hands so that I have two stacks horizontally in front of me. Then I rifle and bridge to shuffle.

Shuffling the cards in this way leaves no opportunity for reversals - except sometimes a card will reverse!

So I've voted no except sometimes I do. :)
 

Silaria

Re: Nope never

I voted YES - but on rare occasions not.

I like reversed cards because I feel they give the complete story as opposed to a one-sided view. However, of the 3 decks I own, 1 reads reversals easily (Unicorn), another is DEFINATELY not designed for reversals (Shapeshifter).

The 3rd deck (Robin Wood's deck) I read with and without reversals. I haven't read with this deck enough to figure out what method I'm most comfortable with using these cards. Robin Wood states that she does read reversals and therefore didn't design the deck with reversals in mind. However, I feel reversals are necessary. The deck has yet to tell me what it prefers.