Significance of the Reversed

Hello everyone! When I began tarot I would always regard a Reversed card as something quite negative. But recently I've been viewing the reversals as still holding the upright meaning (but with a twist) or I just disregard the reversed position all together.
Is the upright/reversed positioning really significant? Does it even matter? Do they have different meanings even though it's the same card?
Just something I've been thinking on lately, just wanted to hear opinions!

Since people seem very torn over whether or not to read reversals, it seems like the intention behind whether you plan to read them or not should affect the meaning. If you never plan to read reversals any differently than upright cards, then I suppose the upright card still contains all those reversal meanings as just another aspect of the image, and you then pick which meaning of the card you highlight in your reading based on contextual clues (like what other cards it shows up with). It's kind of like if you're reading an upright card, there's a negative and positive aspect to its meaning and you have to choose what to focus on for a particular reading.

I have a tendency to add cards back to my deck upright after completing a reading (just because I seem to mechanically organize them all that way when I'm pushing the deck back together), so if I really want to read reversals, then I like to do the "washing machine" approach to shuffling (pushing them in a big pile all around the table) so that reversals have a chance to show up in the deck again at random.

I think it only matters if you want to wring more subtle information out of a reading. I never see them as completely overturning the upright meaning, since they're less about "altered content" than about "mode of delivery" - the influence being delivered or received from a slightly different perspective. I like them because they can take a reading down alternative paths of inquiry, especially if there are several of them in the spread, what I often see as an "undercurrent" working against - or at least obliquely to - the main flow of the narrative. These nuances may not be visible in any other way, or at least not as plainly.

ETA: I just had the thought that reversal could be characterized as a "Hanged Man moment" for whatever is indicated by the card: being handed an altered awareness about its relevance in the situation - call it a "new set of eyes."

It's significant if you wish it to be.
Some people don't read with them at all.
I read with them when I feel like it.

They can have all sorts of meanings.
I personally love Mary K Greer's "The Complete Book of Tarot Reversals"
(** She has a whole page listing permutations on reversals, over 150 different words - pg. 244).

and also always remember Benebell Wen's "WIND" mneumonic for them.
W = Weakened, overpowered by some other force
I = Inverted
N = Negated
D = Delayed.

There is also some mileage to be gained out of the idea that - in spreads that have one or more negative or difficult position meanings - an upright card can express its reversed meaning without being physically upside-down. But I see this as being even more abstract than deciphering an actual reversal. I see no reason to have to work that hard when we have a ready-made indicator, as long as we're careful to randomize a deck for reversals as well as sequence.

Barleywine said:

There is also some mileage to be gained out of the idea that - in spreads that have one or more negative or difficult position meanings - an upright card can express its reversed meaning without being physically upside-down. But I see this as being even more abstract than deciphering an actual reversal. I see no reason to have to work that hard when we have a ready-made indicator, as long as we're careful to randomize a deck for reversals as well as sequence.

Click to expand...

Although I've been revisiting the issue of inverted cards lately, in the wake of a recent discussion elsewhere in these forums, I still prefer to leave my cards upright and allow context to determine when a particular card is expressing its more negative possibilities.

It does sound more abstract in theory, agreed, and admittedly can sometimes require a bit more effort; but in practice I usually don't find it to be at all problematical. Context goes far in helping provide direction. Not saying my way is "the right way," just that it's a way.

Having said that, your comment in a previous post about seeing an inverted card as offering a "Hanged Man moment" hes given me much more food for thought. My reconsideration of my position continues...

Tanga said:

It's significant if you wish it to be.
Some people don't read with them at all.
I read with them when I feel like it.

They can have all sorts of meanings.
I personally love Mary K Greers "The Complete Book of Tarot Reversals"
and also always remember Benebell Wen's "WIND" mneumonic for them.
W = Weakened, overpowered by some other force
I = Inverted
N = Negated
D = Delayed.

Click to expand...

I've added quite a few to this arsenal of ideas over the years:

"Delay," to be sure, but just as often "Detour," as in the influence being rerouted (and possibly misrouted or diverted). This is the one that often leads me down interesting byways in the narrative, and I sometimes visualize a "Detour" sign.

"Surprise," as in experiencing something unexpected that may have "snuck up behind you" or is about to "hit you upside the head."

"Pause" to reassess the situation, perhaps "buying time" (the "take two steps back and look it over" option).

Occasionally "Blockage," but I usually find that the human spirit is inventive enough to work its way around any obstacle, even if there is no "perfect" solution. So this one usually means more a "difficult passage" than outright "negation."

"Diminished" in its potency, more a nagging discomfort than a direct hit, especially if accompanied by more encouraging cards.

"Diluted" or "Defrayed" sometimes come to mind, as in a "watered down" experience of the energy.

"Abstracted" is another way of implying a lessening of immediacy, and can indicate a difficulty in coming to grips with the influence.

"Oblique" is a similar idea, the "out-of-left-field" connotation.

I'm sure there are many more. I keep coming up with them on-the-fly and then promptly forgetting them. I really need to keep notes.

When I started out I didn't want to confuse myself too much with reversals so most of the time I do a lot like bryn describes: look at any other cards and my question/situation to understand which aspect of a card is the best fit. But.. now and then I'm very intrigued by reversals and barleywine makes a good point about being able to clearly see when something is delayed, referring to the shadow aspect of a card or one of the many different ideas about what a reversed card means, instead of wringing my not very experienced brain around it. I'm definetely in the lair who believes there are a lot of nuances to a card so it might be better to actually do reversals to help me out with getting it, but I've yet to make a solid decision about it. Sometimes I feel like having reversals in my deck, sometimes not. I guess I'll keep switching it up whenever I feel like it for now to test it out and maybe in the future I will be more consistent when I know which one I'm more comfortable with.

page of ghosts said:

When I started out I didn't want to confuse myself too much with reversals so most of the time I do a lot like bryn describes: look at any other cards and my question/situation to understand which aspect of a card is the best fit. But.. now and then I'm very intrigued by reversals and barleywine makes a good point about being able to clearly see when something is delayed, referring to the shadow aspect of a card or one of the many different ideas about what a reversed card means, instead of wringing my not very experienced brain around it. I'm definetely in the lair who believes there are a lot of nuances to a card so it might be better to actually do reversals to help me out with getting it, but I've yet to make a solid decision about it. Sometimes I feel like having reversals in my deck, sometimes not. I guess I'll keep switching it up whenever I feel like it for now to test it out and maybe in the future I will be more consistent when I know which one I'm more comfortable with.

Click to expand...

Some decks are designed by their creators to be used without reversals. The Voyager Tarot is one I don't use them with. The Thoth Minor Arcana don't lend themselves that well to it since they're pretty much glorified Marseille pips, with some often strikingly similar structural features, that don't gain anything from being inverted. Unlike Waite, Crowley doesn't talk about reversed cards at all, just "ill-dignified." I've also created a few spreads that don't use reversals. I will use almost any tool that makes sense and adds insight, but never slavishly.

Barleywine said:

Some decks are designed by their creators to be used without reversals. The Voyager Tarot is one I don't use them with. The Thoth Minor Arcana don't lend themselves that well to it since they're pretty much glorified Marseille pips, with some often strikingly similar structural features, that don't gain anything from being inverted. Unlike Waite, Crowley doesn't talk about reversed cards at all, just "ill-dignified." I've also created a few spreads that don't use reversals. I will use almost any tool that makes sense and adds insight, but never slavishly.

Click to expand...

I didn't know of those decks so it's interesting to know that! I'm mostly familiar with the RWS and its many clones and decks following that tradition so I don't have the Thoth or a Marseilles deck nor anything that looks a lot like either except the Sun & Moon Tarot (which I believe has a lot from both Thoth and RWS, and has reversals in the lwb), though a Marseilles is definetely something I think about exploring at some point. Most of what I have, and can remember reading the lwb/accompanying book for, includes reversals but it makes sense that some authors wouldn't include them since I've seen the argument that the 78 cards are very balanced in themselves (there is probably more to it than this but it's what I can remember) as an argument to not read reversals.