Reversals

[kittykat]

Hi All

 

I've read a lot about reversals, but am still unclear.

My deck is always mixed up  - I don't 're-set' as such. Should I?!   My question is; if I have the 10 of swords reversed in my deck and I shuffle away, (I don't tend to flip many cards 180 degrees.), then that card is going to stay there for many subsequent readings.  I'm thinking of re-setting all cards and letting the querent lay all the cards down and move them around  - this way the reversals will be organic and not set.

Am I making sense? Any thoughts? Thanks so much, Katie

[akiva]

How do you get your reversals into your deck? Could you not follow the same process each time you shuffle to randomise the cards?

 

I don't read reversals with tarot, but I do with some piquet systems I dabble in. And what I do is split the deck into 3 and reverse the central pile. Then after the reading I reset the deck back to upright position, but that's personal preference. If I just kept reversing the central pile I'm still randomising the cards, does that make sense?

 

1 hour ago, kittykat said:

I'm thinking of re-setting all cards and letting the querent lay all the cards down and move them around

Is this like washing the cards? So you use both hands to just mix them round on the table? If so, resetting the deck would be personal preference again as the process of 'washing' would randomise them for each reading.

 

You should just experiment. Tarot/divination is a grand experiment after all. What works and what doesn't has to be explored by the individual. If your intuition is calling you to let the querent mix the cards up like that, then follow it, if it doesn't work out there's nothing lost but knowledge is gained! 😊

[Chariot]

@kittykatI have always used reversals, and this is my shuffling method, which I do every time.

(Note: At the finish of every reading I re-organise the cards—all upright, and in normal tarot order ...Major Arcana, then Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles, all in order.  That's how I put them away, every time. The Fool is always on top, the King of Pentacles is always at the bottom.  This totally clears the energy from the previous reading, lets me handle and become more at home with whatever deck I'm using—maybe I take time to look at the pictures closely as I'm sorting them, etc.  I start a new reading from the same place each time.)

1 - When starting a new reading, first I hold the cards for a wee bit, with The Fool upright and on top, focusing on the question.  Then I write the question down in my journal, as well as the date and the name of the deck I'm using.  I make up my mind what spread I will use to answer the question, then draw the spread in my journal, with the card positions numbered.

2 - My first shuffle is ALWAYS a face down random smearing of the cards with both hands (on my clean reading cloth.)  The way a little kid would 'mix up' the cards ...or at least the way I used to with playing cards when I was little.  I turn and twist them. I bring some up from the bottom and rearrange them until I feel I've done enough like this. This creates the upright/reversed orientation for this reading.

3 - I gather the cards together in a single stack, and choose which side will be upright.

4 - Then I deal all of them out, one at a time, face down in three piles. Then I pick the piles up at random and put them back together in a single stack. This helps to separate the cards.

5 - Then I riffle shuffle 10 times, occasionally picking a few cards from the bottom and putting them on the top, so the same cards aren't always at the top or bottom of the pile.  (I have a few decks which are too stiff or large to riffle shuffle.  With them, I have to do the—for me—clumsy in-hand shuffle until I'm satisfied. This can take quite a while.  It's not a technique I'm particularly good at.)

6 - THEN, starting from the top of the shuffled deck, I deal the cards out, face down, into my pre-chosen layout.

 

7 - Finally I turn the cards over so they are face-up, and begin reading.

This method (especially step 2) ensures that there WILL be reversed cards, and that the reversed cards will be totally random in number. (As opposed to holding a deck upright and deliberately turning a few cards around.)   I like to give the tarot itself a chance to choose how many will be reversed.

Edited November 30, 2023 by Chariot

[DanielJUK]

Ultimately this is whatever will work for you with reversals 🙂 

I've seen members here, put the deck back and "reset" it, it's fully reordered each time and then they turn the same amount of cards each time. This is really time-consuming though, I don't use this method.

 

My personal method is that I have decks with reversals in and decks which I only use upright! If I read with a deck with reversals, I shuffle it and turn cards as I do it. I will often do one reading where a card is reversed and it's upright in the next. So I think it's about the good shuffle! I never put them back in order or turn them around myself, just keep shuffling each time and turn 1 pile of cards around, I never know how many and what way around the cards were before. This for me is an organic practice, the cards are in the destined order which works for me.