Why reading with reversals will double your Tarot insight

Introducing reversed Tarot cards to your readings provides you with the opportunity to expand and deepen the insight drawn from your readings. Take 78 Tarot cards, reverse a random selection through your shuffling and suddenly you have doubled your Tarot deck to 156 different messages that you can possibly draw from. It is easy to see how reversed cards can add a whole new layer to your Tarot reading.

Reversed cards can be interpreted in many different ways and this is what makes their usage in a reading even more interesting. It moves the reading into a multidimensional space where there is light and shade, simplicities and complexities, highs and lows. It allows you, as the reader, to offer your client a balanced perspective that is targeted towards their specific situation, which will in turn help them to make the right decisions about their path forward. Reading with reversals is also a useful way to answer simple yes/no questions, with a reversed card signifying a ‘no’.

I first introduced reversals to my own readings in 2001, a couple of years after I had started to learn the Tarot. Yes, it was daunting in the beginning having to learn another 78 interpretations, but after a few more years of practice and lots of reading (books), I began to feel a lot more comfortable with the reversed cards and now couldn’t imagine doing a reading without them. Personally, I find that the reversed cards increase the depth and complexity of the reading and that I can be a lot more specific and targeted in my insight and advice for the client.

Of course, not everyone is comfortable with using reversed Tarot cards in their readings. Even seasoned experts choose to read only with upright cards, sometimes depending on the deck selected. For example, Mary K. Greer, author of The Complete Book of Tarot Reversals, still uses upright cards only when using the Thoth deck. If you’re new to the Tarot or just finding your footing with the cards, just having to learn the 78 upright interpretations is hard enough. In this case, it is best to focus your attention on the upright cards for the time being until you have a good grasp of each card. Nonetheless, don’t be afraid to try out a few reversals in your next reading – you may find it opens up a whole new way of looking at the cards.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, January 30th, 2010 at 4:45 pm and is filed under 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.