Face Down or Face Up?

I lay them face up because I wanna see the big picture, scan for missing or overrepresented suits and look at the colours. When I used to put them face down it created this extra layer of suspense - what can be hiding under here? - that just made it a bit too dramatic for my taste. That's how it felt for me anyway.

With the majority of people so far preferring to lay the cards face-up. I'm kind of curious why there seems to be such a fixation on reversible backs. I always deal the cards from side-to-side instead of flipping them end-over-end so I maintain the orientation of my randomized shuffle, but if you place the cards face down, either way the reversal would "telegraph" itself to you in advance, if that makes any difference. I never pay any attention to the backs anyway because I deal the cards face-up. Maybe this thread will clear up that mystery.

I do face down - as I'm laying them for larger (more than 4-5 card) spreads. Once they're all laid I turn them all face-up in rapid succession so I can look at them all at once. Yes, it's an extra step when you want to look at them all at the same time anyway....but that way my mind isn't fixating on one card as I'm dealing the other cards, and neither is the querant's.

I like reversible backs because I don't know if the card is reversed or not until I flip it - whether that's directly from the pool/stack or after they're all laid out.

Usually face up. Last weekend I did a couple of celtic cross readings for friends and did them face down. I don't know why I did that. I guess because a few were all around, I wanted a bit more control. It was subconscious tho.

I have always done face down until very recently as I'm learning to read TdM and have been using Yoav Ben Dov's book the Open Reading. He advises looking at the whole spread face up to get an overall initial general impression of the flow, lines, directions and patterns before looking at specific elements of each card. So I've started reading face up and love this approach with TdM. I will probably end up with a mixed economy in future depending on what deck I'm using.

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Always face down!It's better to concentrate in each card before you see the next one.I also like the mystery of the cards that are still hidden while reading

to be honest I lay the cards both ways, sometimes face down sometims face up (abviously not at the same time) and I'm just echoing others here with regards to getting the whole picture or concentrating on each card. As I've only been seriously studying Tarot for about a year I like playing around with different styles...
maybe one day I'll stick to one method

Face up. I like to get a general feel before getting down to the nitty gritty. Ive never cared for reversible backs since i dont read reversals.

Whole spread laid face down - then I flip them all over.
I don't like laying them face up one-at-a-time as I prefer to avoid jumping to any wondering conclusions on single cards - I like the overview first.

Reversible back or not - makes no difference to me. It doesn't bias my reading or anything knowing I have a reversal in there beforehand - in fact I find that rather exciting...
And I like looking at interesting backs. Lol.
The backs that give me the greatest pleasure... are the ones I was able to choose myself (Seven Stars decks - so Deck of the Bastard and some of her Lenormand decks).


But if I were time limited I might just stick 'em all down upright immediately.

Tanga said:

Whole spread laid face down - then I flip them all over.
I don't like laying them face up one-at-a-time as I prefer to avoid jumping to any wondering conclusions on single cards - I like the overview first.

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<curiously> So why lay them face-down, why not face-up in that case? Is it to fill time? Give you time to breathe? I do all that self-preparation while I shuffle.