Do you use reversals?

NEVER... what, never? well, hardly ever...

Long ago and far away, I used reversals.
But I found that I became too focused on the "negative vs positive" aspects so I began only reading upright. I began trying to incorporate all of the possible meanings for each card and paying more attention to the position and it's significance within the spread. As I went over my journals, I found that my readings were far mor accurate

In the deleted thread, someone mentioned Mary Greer's "The Complete Book of Tarot Reversals". It's a great read and very helpful in understanding more of the aspects that the cards can have. But I feel I'm already incorporating everything into my readings now.

Also I believe that fairehedgehog mentioned she didn't like the pictures being upside down in the spread. Me either

DarkElectric said:

I use them sometimes. I know that sounds odd, but this is my explanation. Before I shuffle the deck, I go through it and turn all the cards right side up. then I shuffle a while. I then proceed to turn the cards face down, and lay them out in a spiral of 11 cards.
I use this as a method of shuffling them, so they are guaranteed to be in random order, especially if I am doing a few readings at a time. I will choose a card in this sequence of shuffle, and turn it SPECIFICALLY upside down. Usually on a 3,5,7,9,or 11 card.

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Hmmmm....selective reversals. Interesting concept. I might have to try this sometime!

i'm very interested in your method, too, darkelectric. it makes a lot of sense that a reversed card should be a very special thing, having such a slim chance of appearing...

how did you develop your method?

i do use reversals, i think they add to the interpretations (although they arent the only way to tell between the good aspect of a card and the bad aspect).

its useful especially in the deck i use, marseilles, where the cards create visual contact with eachother (the cards are looking at each other, and the empress card even has a hand that looks like its coming from the card on the left of it), so it gives a whole new aspect to the spread, which card is looking where, and from what direction; a card might be not reversed, but a card with a figure next to it, which is reversed, looks at the card and sees it reversed, and so on.

Supletion said:

....marseilles, where the cards create visual contact with eachother (the cards are looking at each other, and the empress card even has a hand that looks like its coming from the card on the left of it), so it gives a whole new aspect to the spread,....

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I have never thought of reversals in this way before, its an interesting point.

I read reversals if they come up, but I find that they rarely do. I see them, not so much as a negative, but as a lesson/situation that has not yet been faced or overcome.

I didn't really believe much about reversals until I did a reading for someone who had 7 out of 10 cards reversed, and all the reversed cards were cups! I knew the situation and the person and believe me, it was far more accurate than if I had read them upright.

VGimlet said:

I've always used them, because that's the way I learned in the beginning.

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Yep, me too! In fact, the concept of not using reversals never even occurred to me until after I married & Hubby introduced me to the wonderful world of the Internet where I first came across this particular method of reading Tarot.

For those interested in learning more about how to interpret reversals, I highly recommend Mary K. Greer's The Complete Book of Tarot Reversals. It certainly has provided me with a lot more insight and depth into reversal interpretation.

Muddled thinking

The hermit has already posted my main objection to using reversals - that I don't like looking at the cards upside down. (So someone does read my posts )

I was thinking as I read through this thread, that I somehow expect that the cards will know that I don't use reversals, and will send another card that will provide the reversed meaning instead. Which isn't very logical, given that I also believe that the cards fall according to simple chance, and that every card potentially carries both upright and reversed meanings.

So who said I had to be logical?

The technique one uses to shuffle the cards is really significant. I think I read Rachel Pollack in 78DW saying that one good way of shuffling is to put all the cards on the table and to mix them up. If you do that thoroughly you're almost certain to get quite a few reversals.

Another book suggested just making half a dozen or so cards in the deck reversed and commented that if they were meant to come up they would. I might try the latter way for a while. What do others do?

Moongold

I sometimes use reversals in readings, but only if 1 or 2 of them come out reversed as i feel that there is reasons for them being this way, but if the most part of the reading was reversed in most cases the reading does not make too much sense therefore i feel the client (when choosing or cutting etc) has maybe turned them around so i then place them down the right way, then it makes more sense to me.
It depends on the reading to me, some of the cards that may fall in reverse sometimes really stand out and i feel that it should be read this way, but usually i don't get that many reversals (by chance anyway).

Cheers
Kazz

WAITING FOR MEEWAH!

Meewah has not replied still, but I already know I agree with her... *LOL*
And she does too, I suppose...