Sonnenkind Posted September 27 Posted September 27 Somewhere was a post with the question what people wished they had known when they started reading tarot (I went looking and couldn't find it here so it might not have been on this forum). Someone responded that not including reversals in their reading takes half of the vocabulary away from the tarot that the cards could use to convey their message. This hit some chord inside me and when I sat down with my cards today, I decided to include reversals. So I thoroughly shuffled my cards without any consideration to which way around they would end up in the final pile. And then in my reading ALL cards were reversed! Including the card on the bottom of the pile! At first I was dismayed and turned all cards upright. But then I turned them back around and hit the books on the possible meanings on these cards reversed. What I found blew my mind! I have never had such a clear reading conveying such a specific message! The reading made complete sense - because all cards were reversed! Would they have been upright, the reading would have been confusing at best. As it is now, the cards delivered a message to me which I will have to process as it is very personal and which I didn't expect in any way (I wasn't even expecting for this topic to come up at all). I might add the reading with my interpretation to the respective part of the forum in the coming days to ask for additional thoughts on this reading. But right now I just wanted to share how baffled I am by this reading with only reversed cards - which in the end made complete sense.
DanielJUK Posted September 29 Posted September 29 They really add depth to my readings. I can totally understand why some people don't read with them and it does make interpretation more complicated and harder to read the cards on the table. But it's given me really important messages in my readings and it aids my readings 🙂 . There is an old tarot tradition or maybe it's a myth, that if all the cards are reversed it's a bad or blocked reading. Like you shouldn't continue reading on this. I like to go deeper into it though and not just follow that. I think it's an important message in itself if they are all reversed and depends on the reading context. One time it was telling me to stop reading on the same question. I once kept getting nearly every card reversaed in all my personal readings for weeks and it was because I was taking no action. The tarot was giving me advice and I was not acting on it, so it was doing reversed cards until I took action. So interepreting each reversal is still helpful. They can also be the regular card's energy blocked or delayed.
ballerina Posted September 29 Posted September 29 I've always used reversals. It just didn't seem right not to. In decades I've never gotten a reading where all the cards were reversed. That would be wild! 🙃
EricSpellman Posted September 29 Posted September 29 I’ve been reading with reversals since I began reading tarot, mostly because I want to be prompted to explore different perspectives on the questions and issues I come up with, even in a “reversed” manner. I’m always frustrated when the reading is overly positive, it makes it harder for me to assess blockages, obstacles or areas for growth. I believe most upright tarot cards can carry more positive connotations than their “negative,” “blocked,” or similar counterparts, and it’s these latter cards that help me move from just getting "toxic positivity" answers. However, recently, I acquired a new deck that I’m thoroughly enjoying working with - Mindscapes Tarot. Unlike other decks, the back of the cards isn’t reversible, and it is annoying to know whether a card will be reversed or not before drawing it. So I’m only reading upright with this deck, and this works well because the deck and its guidebook are so different that they really add to a reading, almost like an Oracle of sorts.
Symph Posted September 29 Posted September 29 (edited) Well when you think about it, the Tarot is here to tell you the truth, the whole truth and nothing but, so if the reader is not adding reversals because they are afraid of a more "negative" reading, well that doesn't really make a lot of sense, cause if the truth of the matter is negative, it will be negative whether your cards are reversed or not. I'm quite the novice reader, never really knew what I was doing but got a lot correct through luck and intuition, but I always used reversals, and still found most messages to be over all positive. I feel like if we truly trust the Tarot, doesn't it make sense to trust it with reversals? If you take all the storm clouds off your weather map, is it gonna stop the rain? (I've also heard some good arguments for not having reversals in, this is just my feelings on the matter at this time) Edited September 29 by Symph
Barleywine Posted September 29 Posted September 29 I've always read reversed cards as well, and I've explored numerous (an understatement) ways to approach them. But I let reversed orientation become cumulative and thoroughly dispersed in my decks so if I get all reversed or all upright cards it usually means that its a new deck that I didn't adequately randomize. If that happens I normally disregard the reading.
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