What does it mean when the majority of Tarot cards are reversed?

When the majority of a reading is made up of reversed Tarot cards, it can reflect a significant amount of blocked energy relating to the situation. There is a high level of confusion and misinterpretation and it is likely that the client is not seeing the situation clearly. As the reader, be mindful that your client may not be very receptive to some of the messages in the reading, particularly if these messages are not what they are expecting to hear. Subsequently, reversed cards encourage the client to reflect inwardly for guidance at this time. As Paul Fenton-Smith points out in his book Mastering The Tarot: A Guide To Advanced Tarot Reading And Practice, reversed cards indicate that the client needs to return to their past to learn an important lesson, before being able to move forward. Ask the client to reflect on what has been learnt from the past and consider how these lessons can be applied to the present and the future. By allowing space and time to reflect, your client will gain greater clarity and will be able to take control of the path ahead.

Some say that if the entire reading is made up of reversed cards, it’s best to postpone the reading to another time. This is because either the Universe isn’t ready to answer the question at hand or the client is not ready to hear the answer. I’m in two minds about this. Yes, I feel uncomfortable when I see a full reading of reversed cards and would love to just throw all the cards back into the deck and start again. However, I also feel that the Universe has presented those cards for a reason. Even if it signifies that there is a lot of blocked energy, confusion and misinterpretation, this in itself is an important message for the client.

An alternative option, as suggested by Mary K. Greer in The Complete Book of Tarot Reversals, is to lay out a new spread where the focus is on empowering the client to overcome current challenges. For example, if the original question was, “Where is my relationship headed with Paul?” and all cards in the reading are reversed, you may reword the question to “What will help me most at this time with regards to my relationship with Paul?”

Tags: Reversed Tarot Cards, Tarot Card Meanings

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 30th, 2010 at 4:36 pm and is filed under Reversed Tarot Card Meanings, Reversed Tarot Cards. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.