Reading Reversals

nisaba

Hi, I am new to tarot. I know about reversals but I didn't realize that some people do not read reversals. What are your feelings on that? Do you read reversals or specifically do not? I feel reversals are a normal part of Tarot but I have not yet shuffled my deck to allow for that.
Thanks!

I used reversals in my first couple of years, but I reached a point where I knew what my decks were trying to tell me without needing "clues" like reversals, so they were a waste of time. They were very useful when I was learning.

Also, cards are harder to recognise quickly, upside-down.

Also, putting a deck away with some of its cards reversed feels *wrong* to me.

Use reversals only for as long as you need to: when you grow beyond needing them, leave them behind. :)
 

Barleywine

Having worked with reversals since 1972, I've gone long past the point of "needing" them and have reached a state of "appreciating" them for the subtleties they offer. Granted, these subtleties are already embodied in the cards themselves, reversal just makes them more "pointed" within the context of the reading, and often changes what I call the "mode of delivery" (which says more about the querent's experience of the card's energy than about its core meaning). I pay little attention to the images on the cards these days, only enough to recognize the card and connect it with the other cards in the spread, so the shorthand offered by orientation speeds up my thought processes.

headincloud said it well: "I see reversals as an integral part of tarot, it's so much more difficult to read all upright because the reversed meanings can obviously still apply but your only clue is the other cards bouncing off each other throwing a negative or positive spin on things, I think the latter takes much more skill and is by far the long way around through my eyes."

My only additional thought would be that it's not a matter of requiring more "skill" to see the downside in upright cards so much as one of taking more "time." Reading reversals with appropriate sensitivity to all of the possible nuances and their interplay within the spread is no less challenging when done well.
 

Barleywine

I had a very instructive case of reversals this past week-end that's worth offering here.

The reading can be found in the Your Readings forum here.
 

Sassyinkpen

I don't have reversals in my readings right now, because when I started out I took some weird advice about flipping half my deck and so most of the cards in a reading were reversed. It stressed me out so much that I almost gave up on Tarot altogether because of it.

I had a similar experience when I first started, because I got so hung up on the idea that reversals are negative, and felt like I was always getting gloom and doom out of the cards. (I know that's not really what reversals are about, and I knew that then, but I couldn't shake the idea).

I also felt like trying to read them upsidedown was interfering with my ability to learn how to read the cards, because I couldn't recognize them that easily, and I wasn't familiar enough with the meanings to be able to effectively then interpret them reversed.

I finally decided to stop reading reversals for awhile. At least until I feel I have a really really solid handle on reading.

As I've progressed I've learned that all the meanings, both upright and reversed, are really right there in the card, and it depends on where they are in the reading, what the topic is, etc. as to how I interpret it. (I don't feel like it's the long way around either - it feels more like a cohesive message to me this way.)

I do think that reversals probably add an additional element to readings, but nowhere near as much as I used to think. Having said that, I'll probably try adding them back in at some point to see how that goes, but I don't feel my readings are lacking now.
 

MissChiff

ive always read reversals... but some decks..like the Thoth, I don't. It would depend on what the makers of the deck suggest.