In my social media feed, which contains many new and practicing intuitive readers, I often see the same frequently asked questions about the Tarot pop up. One of the most common questions is “How do I read reversed cards?” .. or, even, “Should I read reversed cards?”
Allow me to begin my answer with a story – about my own life, and how my own readings have presented reversed cards to me over the last quarter century or so.
About ten years ago, I came to a juncture in life. My marriage no longer worked, and my work life needed to change, because it was beginning to burn me out. Productivity and work life success seemed to be the major focuses in my life, but I realized that very rarely did I consider or value my own feelings, emotions and heart.
Tarot readings and yoga were huge supports for me during what turned out to be seven years of upheaval and transition after transition. In all honesty, a lot about what I learned during my readings could easily be seen as “negative,” as it was a very challenging time on many levels, but reversed cards were not the source of the negativity in the readings. In fact, the reversed cards helped me work through and make sense of these times more than any of the other cards did! You see, when reading reversed cards, three key truths seem to always hold:
- A reversed card indicates an energy or experience in potential.
- A reversed card show you where to focus your attention and efforts.
- A reversed card gives you something to actually DO.
And so, when reading at a challenging, disappointing time, the reversals showed me what COULD be if I was attentive and mindful and focused enough to mainfest it. They showed me things that could happen if I worked hard enough, and also showed me areas that I could be sabotaging myself in if I wasn’t careful. What reversed cards NEVER seem to show me, however, is some experience akin to the exact opposite of a card’s upright meaning. I’ve come to think of a reversed card very similarly to an upright card, as for as what it “means” or represents, actually; after all, if a card has shown up in a reading, its’ energies are present. The first thing that the mind does when it sees an upside-down image is try to turn it the right way up, so that it can be understood. Similarly, when an upside down card appears in a reading, the question that you can always pose to yourself is “how can I work to turn this card upright in my life experience?”
Something that I had a much harder time with during my years of challenge was the absence of cards that I would have dearly loved to see show up in my readings. For the longest time, years and years in fact, for example, there was nearly a complete absence of cup cards in my personal readings. I knew that this was because I had neglected my feelings and emotions for so long, and I really wanted to see cups start showing up. When they eventually DID start showing up, they at first came into my readings as mostly reversed cards. I was overjoyed that they had appeared at all, though! I applied the three truths I just listed to these reversed cups when they began to appear. A potential for a more joyful, happy time was indicated by their arrival, even in reverse. Their positions often showed me where to focus my efforts, what to pay special attention to getting right, and showed me where to take action. By 2016, I had cleansed my life of nearly all negative influences and people who drained me energetically, and by 2018, I was on a new path, with a lot of emotionally satisfying and nourishing relationships and experiences finally showing up for me. The cup cards finally started appearing in my readings upright!
Thank you for reading my blog!
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