Reversals :)

[Bera]

Hey guys !

I still have trouble in reading reversed cards and I would love to know what techniques you use to read them.

I've mostly seen reversals being interpreted as the complete opposite meaning of the upright card, as the card's energy being hindered, restricted or delayed, as the card upside down, as the card's meaning manifesting in the inner world as opposed to the outer world or as a dark expression of the card's essence.

My main issue is that I like to have a reliable system for my readings. Intuition is important, but we have card descriptions precisely because intuition is there to connect the dots and to do some extrapolating work and not to create a whole story on no particular basis.

So, do you use reversals? Do you have a certain upright - reversed ratio that you try to keep - like 50%-50% or 2/3 of the cards upright and 1/3 reversed? Or do you shuffle them randomly, without thinking about it?

Do you have a golden rule for reversals interpretation or do you simply go by gut feeling, having some general points in mind that you start from?

Do you have any interesting sources about reversals?

I liked this article and I thought it might be helpful :

https://valeriablack.files.wordpress...-reversals.pdf

It does not cover all possibilities but I think it's a good start.

There are also tarot decks that have meanings for reversals in the little book that comes with them...but others don't. I am currently using The Wild Unknown Tarot deck and I haven't found any good resources out there about reversals...though some of the cards are absolutely amazing when seen reversed ! I could go on about it for pages but I would like to keep this thread general and not go into specific decks yet.

[Animal]

I'm no expert, but I have done readings just based on intuition and reading the meaning of the card and putting it all together. I'm not claiming any expertise. But to me, what goes up must come down; there is no light without shadow and no shadow without light; the space would be "blank" to the eye without both sides. So I always read both sides of the interpretation and assume they both apply, because the energy as a whole incorporates both sides of the pendulum. This is generally how I approach things.

[Bera]

So I always read both sides of the interpretation and assume they both apply, because the energy as a whole incorporates both sides of the pendulum.

Oh, very interesting !! So, when you get the card upright, you read it taking into account both sides? Then you don't need reversals, I guess.

So for example, if you drew the Empress, you would read it as having a potential for both nurturing and smothering ?

But then you are reading the potential of the card, not the concrete manifestation in a certain situation. Which might actually be right...I am still figuring how close or far from concrete mundane details ideal readings should go. I noticed people seem to learn more when they are offered a larger pool of meaning.

Also, this is fascinating but a totally different topic - I think different enneagram (and also CT) types may have different preferences for styles of card reading (as in...how the meanings of the cards are expressed, how the story is being told...because there can be different takes - you can say "this, this and this will happen" or "this is the general theme that will be important in your life soon and here are some possible actions that you can take in order to improve your odds of winning/obtaining the promotion/starting that relationship/evolving spiritually etc." or " here is what you feel about what happened, but you can reshape your emotions by rearranging the cards. So, in what order would you put them?" or "the lesson to learn is ..." or "try to imagine you are in this card. What do you see, hear, feel, experience?" I mean there are A LOT of ways you can use tarot cards and maybe different types have certain preferences for one or the other. It would be awesome to be able to explore this with people who are typed !