Reveresed cards

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cedars
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Post by cedars » Wed Jan 23, 2008 10:01 pm

Oh No, No, No my friend...... I hardly ever put the cards in their numerical order after a reading.  To put them in their original numerical order is almost tempting the cards to come out the way they have been put back together. I always shuffle them in their numerical disorder rather than Order. I do not want to tempt the spread to come out all major arcanas because all the majors happened to be in this or that side of the shuffle... or, by the same token, I do not tempt the cards to come all Wands or Cups or Pentacles because they were put 'back' in their numerical order.

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pirbid
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Post by pirbid » Wed Jan 23, 2008 10:06 pm

:) I only mentioned that way of "cleaning" the deck because it is recommended at the Tarot course. I was surprised to read it, because I never do it myself except for those decks that are "collector only" and not for reading.  :smt002
Sunshine from the islands of eternal spring ;)

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cedars
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Post by cedars » Wed Jan 23, 2008 10:09 pm

I am with you there Pirbid.... i.e. if you are collecting decks.

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eidhneán ini
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Post by eidhneán ini » Mon May 05, 2008 10:26 am

Reversed cards have been the bane of my tarot-reading existence since I was a teen.   :smt010  I was really excited when I saw this thread though! :smt003  

I thought reversed cards always spelled out doom and gloom and should be avoided at all costs.  I have a very annoying and nagging optimism clawing its way out of me though, so I decided that I needed to find out more about card reversals.  As was already mentioned, you do have to face the truth, even if it is unpleasant.  If you don't want to know, don't ask.  That was a hard lesson for me to learn.  But secondly, when I went searching for more answers in more books, I realized everybody's got an opinion on it.  

Some people disregard them completely.  Playing cards are so clever  --  they already take care of this whole upright/reversed problem.  If you were playing cards...well, a spade is a spade, no matter how you turn it around.  But tarot cards are usually designed to tell a story through a picture, not a mere number or symbol, so I think intrinsically it would be difficult to design a card that would read the same way upside down or not.

That's a reasonable idea, I think, but on the other hand, I believe that everything does happen for a reason.  I agree with people that have said that this card is supposed to pop out at you, it's calling for your attention.  Maybe it makes the meaning more, or it's meant to alert you to something bigger going on in the overall spread.  I've mentioned it before, imo, you should pay attention to those squeaky wheel cards that do something outside the norm of staying upright.    

I have a book that offers meanings for both upright and reversed cards.  It's called Tarot Plain and Simple written by Anthony Louis.  It's worth checking out, though his answers don't always add up to the other books I read.  He really goes into what he thinks about the reversal cards, though much of it goes back to much of what has been stated here.  I use his books in conjunction with others, and, by doing so I get some other perspectives.  Added to my own, they have cleared up many of my questions.  If I'm confused from there, I draw a clarification card and 9 times out of 10, I get a more definite answer to my question.

I also have a book that disregards reversals as nothing more than an attention-getting card.  However, they believe that every card is capable of giving a different answer for each question you're asking.  It's sort of complicated, so I'm glad they're the ones that researched it all, but it's very simple to read, and has been pretty spot on for me in many of my readings.  

I think what it all boils down to is that there isn't a good/bad, yes/no thing coming from a card reversal.  For example, some upright cards are not very positive (9 of Swords comes to mind).  But the answers are really all in the interpretations you make on your own, your gut feelings, the nature and conciseness of the question and the other cards surrounding your query.  Look at your spread as an entire painting, not specks of paint.   :)

Just some thoughts I've had on this.  I was glad to see that other people are thinking along those lines.  Whenever I've tried to keep the deck upright, I've had the same thing happen...I still get the "accidental" reversal.  Makes you wonder.... :smt020

Hope no one minds that I babbled on this so long.  It's just really interesting to me.

By the way, if anyone is ever interested in what the Louis book says about a particular cards reversal, and you don't have a copy of it yourself, please feel free to post the question here or PM me with it.  I'll type up Louis's interpretation for you.  :smt006

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