Reversals - Random or not?

Krystophe said:

Shorthand/shortcuts can certainly be valid and useful, especially when dealing with a complicated spread involving a lot of cards. And I agree as well that reversed cards shouldn't be interpreted as the direct opposite of the upright meaning.

I prefer to avoid the whole issue of upside-down cards because it seems to encourage too much of "the switch is on or the switch is off" approach, but handled as you have described they can certainly have their uses.

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I avoid them with Marseille-style decks since the pips are hard enough to decipher without the added complexity, and of course I never use them with Lenormand. Probably because I've been at this for so long and hardly see the pictures any more beyond the quick flash of recognition (unless some metaphorical twist jumps out at me from the details), I find it hard to get my head around the argument that "the upside-down cards disorient me" (or give me vertigo, or nausea, or whatever). Once we get past the need to deconstruct every jot in the imagery, that would seem to be less of a problem.

Amanda said:

I actually need to get back in touch with reversals again soon. It was originally how I started and mostly learned tarot. I'm a highly visual, but systematic, reader so the reversals tend to help me with the "flow" or "direction" of things. It may still hold the upright meaning for instance, but perhaps I need to see the Knight of Wands moving towards the future/right, rather than moving towards the past/left.

For instance, if I had three cards like this:

Card 1 + Card 2 + Knight of Wands; I'd tend to read the Knight as an incoming influence that is more like someone "new" since it is coming from the future direction.

If I had three cards like this:

Knight of Wands RX + Card 2 + Card 3; I'd tend to read the Knight as an incoming influence that is more like someone "known" since it is coming from the past direction.

The Knight of Wands might still mean the same thing whether it's reversed or not. Make sense?

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Directionality (aka "facing") with the court cards and other "human figure" cards is another good argument for using them.

Barleywine said:

, I find it hard to get my head around the argument that "the upside-down cards disorient me" (or give me vertigo, or nausea, or whatever). Once we get past the need to deconstruct every jot in the imagery, that would seem to be less of a problem.

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Agreed. I've never found that to be a really valid objection anyway, since it's so easily worked around; back at a time when I did experiment with reversals, I simply used a coin or bead or some similar small token to identify cards that turned up reversed, then turned them back upright in order to avoid the annoyance of upside-down images.

Krystophe said:

Agreed. I've never found that to be a really valid objection anyway, since it's so easily worked around; back at a time when I did experiment with reversals, I simply used a coin or bead or some similar small token to identify cards that turned up reversed, then turned them back upright in order to avoid the annoyance of upside-down images.

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I've heard about using a token of some kind to show what came up reversed. It's about the message anyway, not about the appearance of the image. I'm impervious to the annoyance, but it seems like a reasonable approach.

Barleywine said:

I've heard about using a token of some kind to show what came up reversed. It's about the message anyway, not about the appearance of the image. I'm impervious to the annoyance, but it seems like a reasonable approach.

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I'm one of those who finds the richness of a card's meaning can be greatly appreciated by taking cues from the specific "twist" the images of a particular deck place on the essence of meaning found in the basics of suit/number/astrological signifiers, so even if I were to use reversals I would still prefer to view them right-side-up.

But then, I'm an artist; it's well-established that we're a rather cracked lot...

Krystophe said:

I'm one of those who finds the richness of a card's meaning can be greatly appreciated by taking cues from the specific "twist" the images of a particular deck place on the essence of meaning found in the basics of suit/number/astrological signifiers, so even if I were to use reversals I would still prefer to view them right-side-up.

But then, I'm an artist; it's well-established that we're a rather cracked lot...

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Ha ha, I'm also a trained artist, but in Graphic Design, not Fine Arts. We're cracked and perverse! But I don't let it interfere (much) with my approach to tarot.

Barleywine said:

Ha ha, I'm also a trained artist, but in Graphic Design, not Fine Arts. We're cracked and perverse! But I don't let it interfere (much) with my approach to tarot.

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My intention is always to let it enhance, rather than interfere my approach to tarot. I do try to accomplish that without straying so far beyond the boundaries as to render them meaningless.

Krystophe said:

I never use reversals (meaning upside-down cards), as the whole idea just seems a bit too heavy-handed to me as a way of determining whether a card is displaying its positive or negative aspects. All cards express their energy across a wide spectrum ranging from dark to light, and I typically use a combination of intuition, context, and elemental interaction to guide my interpretation.

I rarely, if ever, interpret a card as completely positive or negative; in my own readings I usually see a given card as more positive than negative, or vice versa. And the opposite, whether positive or negative, is always there at least in potential.

I agree that looking at the shadow side of the cards adds important depth and nuance to a reading, I just don't get to that by turning cards upside-down.

For what it's worth...

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I think whilst it's totally possible to read this way to me it seems like the advanced technique over using reversals because we have to rely on intuition for orientation as well as meaning but each to their own.

I see a cards on a spectrum as opposed to just upright or reversed and when it's rx it could be a fraction into the shadow spectrum or in it's depth, other cards around give clues as to depth of position.

Another useful expression I came up with last night while reading the companion book to the Druidcraft Tarot is "distancing:" the idea of drawing away or diminishing of whatever is indicated by the reversed card. Previously I was thinking only of how the emphasis might be "delivered" in an alternate manner, but it can also be withheld in ways other than total blockage. It gives the sense of "slipping away" or "trending" rather than outright denial, and suggests something that can be worked with rather than simply endured - maybe a "go with the flow" approach or some kind of "creative adaptation." I can see it being applicable in a relationship reading to show where the other person's "head is at" in addition to changing the directionality ("coming or going").

These are the sort of concepts that endear me to reversals because they would be more difficult to discern directly from a single card solely through intuition (although I agree it can be deduced from a chain of cards with some ingenuity). Besides, sometimes simple and direct is better; not every thought that comes out of a spread deserves weighty pondering, especially when trying to give concrete advice to a sitter. Sometimes I can be a pragmatist as much as a theoretician (but don't blink or you might miss it! )

Barleywine said:

Another useful expression I came up with last night while reading the companion book to the Druidcraft Tarot is "distancing:"

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I noticed that more with upright cards; I call/ed it 'zooming in' or 'zooming out' on something. I can't recall an exact combination that came up at this moment... I think it might have been a Cup Court, along with the Ace of Cups to 'zoom in' on a personal feeling. It came across by the court's hand/cup, and the hand/cup being larger in size in the Ace to emphasize a feeling/motivation. Then again, I haven't really been doing reversals enough to notice this with them, probably.