The Bright Side To Negative Cards

[Blasianpersuasion]

So ykno we all pull those “bad” cards or what we subjectively might think are bad/negative cards. Yea actually, negative might be a better word! Anywho, I did a reading once and for the position of “positive aspects of this union” got the eight of swords. And I was like huuuuh? And so I had to do some searching around to see it in a positive light. I found “feeling/being there for someone during emotionally traumatizing times” and in my cosmic tarot deck there are two people surround by swords and connected by the puddle of water they are both in so it actually made sense! So it got me curious. What are some positive meanings to cards that you usually would consider “negative” cards. 

[stephanelli]

In the Creative Tarot Circle we're working with the Five of Pentacles at the moment and @Grandmareally got me thinking about aspects of this card.

I'm sure Grandma won't mind me sharing it here because I can't express it any better and it's so appropriate here:

"This often maligned card represents pain, rejection, hardship and sickness and loneliness and abandonment and on and on, but it also represents the possibility of hope, safety, recovery and warmth.  If the weary travelers in the typical RWS depiction changed their perspective they would see the welcoming lights of the church that they are passing by."

 

I love the thought that if you're feeling like the people outside the church then it might simply be that you need a new perspective and actually there is the things you need available to you if only you knew where to look!  

[Rodney]

I believe ALL the cards have positive and negative aspects to them so I don't see ANY of the cards as inherently good or bad.

• The 5P can show someone who is there for you through thick or thin, someone who is your ride or die in today's slang.
• As I've said for years, everyone assumes the woman in the RWS 8S is a victim. While she can be, she also can be blocking out all external stimuli so she can just think since Swords are also about thoughts.
• The Tower can represent orgasm or that AHA! moment of discovery or realization.
• Someone at Aeclectic had the 10S come up as a chiropractor's appointment. I could also see it referring to massage, acupuncture or acupressure.
• The 9S could show someone thinking through what's the worst that could happen.

Happy to examine specific cards if people would care to mention them.

[ArmadilloAmor]

I agree with @Rodney and believe all cards have dual positive and negative meanings, based on the context of the spread.

 

One of my friends told me today that she was concerned because the Tower card kept popping up in all of her readings. Personally, the Tower is one of my favorite cards in tarot. Whenever it pops up in my readings, I ask myself either, "What aspects of my life feel out of control/am I trying too hard to control?" or "What aspects of my life feel out of my control, and where do I need to take control back?" It can be a really positive power card to reflect on.

 

I used the Tower because it came up in conversation today, but I believe any card that comes across as "negative" in a spread is just a card that signifies that personal reflection is needed in the situation. 

 

[Rodney]

My own personal positive Tower moment was when Thirteen back at Aeclectic talked about how all of the minor suits discuss emotions, not just Cups. Each suit discusses a different type of emotions. At that point in my tarot journey, I still thought that Pentacles talked about money, the body or health. It never occurred to me that they could also discuss grounded, long-term, stable emotions, deep friendships and the like. My mind felt just like the top blowing off the Tower, instantly opening up my tarot world to new input and ways of looking at the cards.

[gregory]

I learned a HUGE amount from Thirteen's takes on stuff, too. Her main meanings info is all still up there.

 

3 hours ago, Rodney said:

I believe ALL the cards have positive and negative aspects to them so I don't see ANY of the cards as inherently good or bad.

• The 5P can show someone who is there for you through thick or thin, someone who is your ride or die in today's slang.
• As I've said for years, everyone assumes the woman in the RWS 8S is a victim. While she can be, she also can be blocking out all external stimuli so she can just think since Swords are also about thoughts.
• The Tower can represent orgasm or that AHA! moment of discovery or realization.
• Someone at Aeclectic had the 10S come up as a chiropractor's appointment. I could also see it referring to massage, acupuncture or acupressure.
• The 9S could show someone thinking through what's the worst that could happen.

Happy to examine specific cards if people would care to mention them.

 

I'm totally with Rodney - I was one who had 10 Swords show up as a happy marriage and my sitter totally got it.

[Eric13]

I've used the 5 of Pentacles as two people choosing to live away from and outside of how society says they should live. 

I've used the 10 of Swords as letting someone know they have suffered yes, been stabbed in the back by people close to them and now its time to move on. 

Negative cards can also serve as a warning to the sitter that something is about to happen and simply be prepared for it. I have no qualms about using them that way. 

[DanielJUK]

I love to think up alternative perspectives for cards because they are always so nuanced in my readings. Here are some of my ideas....

 

The Devil - The Devil can be great lustful sex, let's face it! and if you are into bondage or s & m, it's a great card for it. Sometimes people want power dynamics where one person is more dominating. Also I think it can reflect people who have a bond like soul mates or a natural connection. Depending on how you feel about marriage I think it can be portrayed by this card, it is ultimately a contract between two people and some people who are very negative about marriage would say about the ball and chain of it, patriarchal marriage and the ownership of another. I used to believe that and vowed to never marry but I think I am mellowing as I get older 🙂

 

The Tower - this can also be sexual, it's so phallic for great sex! On a different tact I have had times in my life where I was really depressed and just stuck and honestly having a stagnant stuck life is awful! I fought against change and if you fight and fight, eventually the tower happens, you cannot escape it! change is a constant! It might seem like a disaster in the short term but like Sheryl Crow once sung "A change would do you good". Also if your foundations are going to collapse, it's better to find that out as early as possible, the tower might not have been built so high!

 

4 of Cups reminds us of what we are missing, we are missing opportunities because we are not looking out for them! The 5 of Cups reminds us of what we do have! In RWS and other decks, 3 cups spill on the floor but 2 remain upright! The person in the black cloak faces the spilt cups on the floor but if only he just looked around and saw the full cups left upright, not everything is lost. Both cards have a similar theme of looking out for what our emotions are making us miss! The 4 because we are apathetic and the 5 because we are mourning or sad.

 

3 of Swords is positive for emotional healing, swords through the heart is just awful but it's about the recovery and release. You can let the emotional pain go now.

 

9 of Swords is a wake up call (literally like the card) to work out your fears, to confront them and work out what is real! We have all had sleepness nights worrying and worrying about something the next day and then you realise the worst part of it was the worrying in bed! Our imaginations can conjure up things far worse than we will ever meet in reality. Things are rarely as bad as you think or imagine they are.

 

10 of Swords I find this an oddly soothing card, this is the very worst it's going to get! Like the 3 of Swords, it's now all about the recovery. So how do you get back on your feet off the floor? Also the sun rising in the background of many versions of this card offers hope.

 

some ideas 🙂

[Aldor44]

Hey @Rodney and @gregory

 

Could you please tell me who this Thirteen is and how/ where can i locate the info she provided,  from what little you have said it sounds interesting

[gregory]

Thirteen was a member of Aeclectic for years. She has signed up to one of the new forums,. but hasn't posted in a couple of years now. Her meanings are here:

 

http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/learn/meanings/

 

Her book is still for sale as far as I know.

 

Oops no maybe not.

 

 

Edited November 28, 2019 by gregory

[Rodney]

I lost touch with Thirteen after Aeclectic shut down. I don't have the link to her post about the suits as emotions, but I do have the text:

 

“The problem that arises with the attributes is that Cups gets refered (sic) to as indicating "emotions," which gives the impression (wrongly) that other suits are lacking emotions  In truth, all suits are about emotions, it's just that the types of emotions have been divvied up between the suits

 

Cups relate to the heart, to the rise and fall from bliss to depression

 

Swords, on the other hand, relate to communication and problem solving (tactical fighting as with swords)--that's why they indicate "intellect" and the emotions that go with such things like fear, anxiety, confusion, frustration, but also that feeling you get when things click, come together or make sense 

 

Wands are passionate emotions, the ones you feel when you're burning up, be it sexual energy, wild energy, fiery ambitions or a hot temper

 

Even Pentacles relate to emotions, usually very steady and earthy ones ”

- Thirteen, Aeclectic Tarot Forum, 4/20/2007

 

In addition to her book of meanings, Thirteen's wisdom is sprinkled throughout the Using Tarot Cards forum. I was always learning something new from her.

[Grizabella]

I haven't read the whole thread but everything depends on question, positional meaning, context, etc. Therefore, there aren't any totally negative cards. Even if you see a card as having an almost totally negative meaning attached to it, you're going to read the reversed meaning of it sometimes in some contexts even if you don't actually physically reverse the cards. 

[zedekiel]

I think the acknowledgement that the 10 of Swords brings to pain and suffering is actually quite positive in a round about way. Sometimes you really do just need to hear "Gosh, what happened to you was awful. Really terrible. I'm so sorry for the pain you've experienced, of course you are allowed to grieve for it." The 10 of Swords acknowledges and accepts pain in a way that I find to be comforting and beautiful. I actually find all of the Swords that are usually seen as "negative" or "bad" to be bright and uplifting. The Swords stare pain, anxiety, and trauma in the face and say "Yes, this is real, and I am living with it." That embrace of the darkest bits of us is a major step to leap into the light. You have to agree that the bulb is busted if you want to replace it. You have to acknowledge that your glass is empty if you want to fill it. You have to know you're feeling cold first in order to get the warmth you really need.

Edited November 29, 2019 by zedekiel

[Eric13]

I would also go on to say that the typical cards that are usually labeled or considered to be negative instead can and may serve as a simple warning to the sitter to be on alert for something in the near future. This way they can be better served by a reading.

[Aliki]

I have so many 😅 but the tower and death cards have somehow similar positive outcomes the tower is also breaking down anything that isn't meant to be anything that isn't good for you and for you anything that isn't built on a stable foundation it symbolises the harsh lessons and wake up calls you get to build anything meaningful to align with your destiny and just eventually be happy so it shows like an opportunity card for me as a meaning and a stable opportunity so that's were i connect it to the death card it's what's gets you to the transformation which to me is symbolised by the death card

A meaning of the death card is an ending and a turning point which also usually comes with the tower as some of its meanings and then eventually a deep transformation which long term is more than good and beneficial as well and very much needed cause that's how you evolve and evolvement on every of its forms is necessary in life and it's what keeps you living but on a deep level not just existing it's the spark of life no matter how old are you so yeah on my perspective every bad card has a good meaning if you look at it on a wider view instead of as a just a current bad situation just a bad incident

i really got so many bad cards keep spaming me over and over for so much time till i get that perspective thought 😅

[Sparklehorse]

I don’t really see any of the cards as entirely bad except the three of swords which has never come up as anything but emotional pain for me 🙁. 
I actually don’t mind the other scary looking ones like death and the tower though - I find these are often a transformation that needed to happen or a huge change that might be painful but will lead to something much better. After all, isn’t it better to feel life than stagnate?

[Nemia]

I call the Death card often "Compost" because I like the metaphor and I like my compost heap. An apple that lands on the compost heap is dead and useless, even disgusting. It used to be nourishing and appetizing but when its time past, it had to be thrown out from the house. Now it's decaying on the compost heap. And when the process of decay is done, it will turn into earth and nourish new plants which will in time bear fruit. 

 

The necessity of honestly looking at my life and kicking out what is no longer alive, nourishing and relevant to me is painful. Recognizing that a relationship has turned toxic, a habit has become obsessive and a belief has become obsolete - that's never easy, and the Death card is unpopular because it puts its bony finger on the painful spot. By calling it Compost, it's easier to let go of the dead stuff and trust time that it will turn up in a new and better incarnation somewhere down the road. But you have to declutter your fridge when this card turns up - it won't happen on its own. 

 

The Tower is more difficult because whether you like it or not, this earthquake will come and shake things up. Yes, you may recognize in five years' time that you didn't need that old Tower anyway in your life but still, feeling it tumbling down is unpleasant and there is no way to make it more palatable. 

 

I sometimes see some of the "positive" cards in a negative light. The Ten of Cups can mean that you're much attached to romantic dreams and ignore problems to keep up a facade of perfection...

 

There are really good and bad sides to each cards, light and shadow, the cliches are true. 

[Bodhiseed]

I heartily agree with all that has been posted. Those negative cards - even though they often include some sort of suffering - are what can transform us in beneficial ways (for instance, we learn to ask for and accept help), even more so than the positive cards.

[FindYourSovereignty]

3 hours ago, Sparklehorse said:

After all, isn’t it better to feel life than stagnate?

Such a wonderful truth for me as well.

 

@Nemia, your description of the Death, Tower, and Ten of Cups cards sound like a fabulous tarot deck, or book, in the making. 
 

 

[emilyn]

I fully agree. Even though negative cards frequently contain some problems, negative cards can develop us in more valuable ways than positive ones. All ends are beginning. We only realized how much potential we had once we encountered a problematic scenario.

[Guest]

For me, there definitely are positive interpretations to negative cards. It depends on the cards that surround them though, so a bit of combinatorial analysis is in order. 

 

Even if the whole draw is dire, I simply take it as a timely warning, and just pose another query as to how optimally approach and thus resolve the situation. After all, it's better to be warned and be given the chance to avoid or mitigate impending misfortune than to be utterly gobsmacked when it unexpectedly rears its head. 

[Misterei]

On 11/8/2019 at 2:05 PM, ArmadilloAmor said:

One of my friends told me today that she was concerned because the Tower card kept popping up in all of her readings. Personally, the Tower is one of my favorite cards in tarot.

I take a Vedic Astrology approach to this question with Tarot. For example, I relate Tower to Ketu. Now Ketu is a malefic disruptor. The Tower/Ketu experience is generally not pleasant on the material plane ... but Ketu is karaka for spiritual Liberation. Moksha. In a spiritual context, Tower is profoundly positive. This resonates not only with my Vedic Astrology model ... but also with the original imagery of the Tower in Tdm and old Tarocchi decks. Tower is quite positive b/c we need to experience this disruption of our mundane egoic "business as usual" on the path to spiritual realization.

On 11/28/2019 at 9:32 AM, Grizabella said:

... everything depends on question, positional meaning, context, etc.

Yep. For example I read Tower as profoundly positive for someone on a spiritual path where they're actively engaged in sublimating the limited personal ego. It's GOOD in that person's spread. I generally read Moon as negative using RWS deck ... BUT I read it positive for dancers, drag queens, costume designers, makeup artists ... anyone who makes a living on illusions and/or females. Many cards are totally contextual as I read them.

On 12/11/2022 at 2:06 AM, Nemia said:

... the Death card is unpopular because it puts its bony finger on the painful spot. By calling it Compost, it's easier to let go of the dead stuff

I actually agree with your comments about compost. But I must say I get so triggered on "renaming" the Death card. SO MANY people want to re-name Death as "rebirth" or "regeneration" or "tickles from the easter bunny and rainbow unicorn cuddles" or whatever. I've become this angry banshee harridan screaming: DEATH IS DEATH. PEOPLE DIE THINGS DIE. GET OVER IT. DONT FEAR THE REAPER. Ok ... that felt good. I'm at an age where our parents have all died and now our friends are dying. And you know what? I talk to dead people and they're mostly MUCH happier than us living ones. Go figure.

On 12/11/2022 at 3:47 AM, Bodhiseed said:

I heartily agree with all that has been posted. Those negative cards - even though they often include some sort of suffering - are what can transform us in beneficial ways (for instance, we learn to ask for and accept help), even more so than the positive cards.

Yes, this is the great lesson I learned from Astrology. Even the Malefic planets want to help us spiritualize our lives, learn and grow. Sometimes that growth happens through malefic experiences.

2 hours ago, Akhilleus said:

For me, there definitely are positive interpretations to negative cards. It depends on the cards that surround them though, so a bit of combinatorial analysis is in order.

Or negative side to a positive card. Empress + 10 cups = happy family life, maybe new baby or pregnancy if you want children. Empress + Devil = better quit eating too much or spending too much before you get fat or go bankrupt. Anyway I have my system for this ... perhaps you do as well. Context is everything (as i see it. ymmv)

Edited December 15, 2022 by Misterei

[Nemia]

Totally agree, I also think that what comes after Death is actually better than what we have now. Sorry if my "renaming" triggered you. I know what you mean but for me, under the cloud of my Christian upbringing where Death is the punishment for the original sin 😉, calling it Compost is actually a good way of widening my concept of Death. 

 

I also confess to sometimes feeling in need of some sugarcoating. I'm a Crone, too, but I go through times where the hard stuff is too difficult to face. 

[Misterei]

21 hours ago, Nemia said:

... calling it Compost is actually a good way of widening my concept of Death. 

... I also confess to sometimes feeling in need of some sugarcoating. I'm a Crone, too, but I go through times where the hard stuff is too difficult to face. 

Well I certainly prefer "Compost" to "fluffy bunnies" };>

I think we all have moments we can't face the hard stuff. This is why sometimes I can't read for myself. I'm good at putting a positive spin on malefic issues for clients - no sugarcoating - but a healthy sprinkle of tact and compassion. But myself? Sometimes I just have blind spots and denial. *sigh* Human condition.

[Guest]

I like The Tower. It can be scary, but it looks like a bungee jumping - it's terrifying for a brief period of time, then the truth comes to light and nothing is as it was before. Maybe it can teach us that losing control over circumstances can do some good? Even if it's painful, at least we are not living a lie, right?
The Death is a necessary change. And so far in my readings it mostly signified internal or external transformation or big steps in life.

But what really perplexes me is 10 of Swords... no matter how long i look at this card (Rider Waite deck) i can't see anything positive about it. Even the sunlight at the background looks more like a glow of fire in the sky... 😞