The Sun reversed.

January 7, 2019 by Anna

The Sun from the Gaian Tarot deck by Joanna Powell Colbert.

The Sun reversed is the card guiding us through the week of January 7 to the 13 2019.

The Sun is Major Arcanum 19 and therefore it reduces to 10 (The Wheel of Fortune) and to 1 (The Magician).

The Sun is a beautiful card. Being reversed its positive energy is present, but off balance. We may have too much of it or very little.

The card brings joy, vitality, exuberance, enthusiasm, innocence and passion.

We are in the element of fire, which brings creativity, confidence, intensity and action.

1+9 = 10 We have the result of the journey from 1 to 9.

The Wheel of Fortune usually brings sudden changes, shifts of fortune and a sense of destiny taking over. It comes up at those times when we are in the right place at the right time or in the wrong place at the wrong time. You can feel life speeding up.

1+0 = 1 The Magician.

This is a card that speaks of new ideas. Having a vision and the skills or tools to make it a reality. It is a card of strong potential that needs to be supported by hard work. It also represents manipulating people’s attention in a specific direction.

With the Sun reversed
you might be dealing with a new awareness.

The shining light reveals all that was previously hidden.
Such light might be tentatively starting to come in , or it might be so strong that you feel blinded by it.

There is progress. It may be slow, or so fast that you are having trouble keeping up with it.

You are also dealing with joy. Perhaps you are starting to feel more confident about the adventure you are on, or you start feeling out of control and burn out is a possibility.

Given that the energy of the Wheel of Fortune is also at work, I suggest you try going with the flow.

Don’t waste your precious energy trying to steer the course right now. Wait for the currents of change to settle. Figure out where you now stand, reassess your direction and use the energy of the Magician to figure out your goal and work toward it.

Good luck, go and explore!

Experimenting with Tarot reversals.

March 10, 2016 by Anna

Do you use Tarot reversals?

If you said yes, can you tell me why?

If you answered no, why don’t you?

Through my many years of reading Tarot I have gone back and forth with this.

Actually, when reading for others I have been consistent in not using them.

When reading for myself I am much more adventurous and I have given reversals a try many times, but I always gave up.

I wrote about reversals five years ago. You can check that posting here before we go any farther. Reversed cards. Do you use them or not? Why?

Since then I have read a lot of Tarot books and done many Tarot readings and I have learned a few things along the way.

1) How to randomize a deck when using reversals.

You can divide your deck in two equal piles, turn one up side down and shuffle a few times. Repeat the process 3 times.

Personally I divide the deck in 3 piles. Turn the one in the middle upside down , shuffle the deck for a while. I cut the deck again in 3 piles, turn the one in the middle upside down again and shuffle for a while. Finally I cut the deck again in 3 piles and proceed with the reading.

2) When looking at reversed cards I now think of instability and difficulty expressing the energy indicated by the card.

3) I notice how the reversal affect the dynamic with the surrounding cards.

Let me give you an example.

I have just pulled out five cards at random to illustrate my point.

Robin Wood deck

The Tower is the first card I dealt and it is in the central position.

We are dealing with a sudden disruption. A substantial loss is likely. Our client sense of security is shaken.

The 2 of sword is the second card.
He reacts to the shock by freezing. He doesn’t want to look at the big picture right now or listen to people’s opinions. He wants to absorb what happened first, before making any decision.

The ace of pentacles reversed is the third card.
The loss indicated by the tower was most likely financial.
Perhaps the ace reversed suggests the person lost his job or his main source of income.
Something might have happened to him physically that now prevents him from working and providing for himself.

The Knight of pentacles is our fourth card.
It suggests our client is a hard working, reasonable, practical individual.
He is now looking at the situation as calmly as possible. He is attempting to develop a strategy, to make plans to tackle the situation.

Death is our fifth card.
The knight is facing it. Indicating he is ready to make some difficult decisions. He will most likely let go of anything that is not strictly necessary. He will cut all superficial expenses. He will make some drastic, but necessary changes in order to find stability.

Now let’s say that all cards stay the same, with the exception of the Knight of pentacles.

Robin Wood Tarot deck.

The knight is now reversed.
The client has lost his usual confidence. He is the kind of person that looks at himself through his achievements. His strength is in his own ability of making money and taking care of business. He is a conservative person that likes his routines and does not like surprises. He is not the most flexible guy out there.
Being reversed the knight is now looking away from the death card and he is concentrating instead on the 2 of swords.

This could indicate that he is not coping too well with the sudden upheaval. He is stubbornly refusing to acknowledge his new reality. He is refusing to look ahead and start the downsizing that his new financial situation requires.

What is your view of reversals?
Please let me know.

Reversed cards. Do you use them or not? Why?

February 5, 2011 by Anna

This one is a hard for me.

I don’t use reversed cards and I never have consistently. I read using spreads. I often make them as I go along and I include positions for challenges, obstacles or weakness . I tend to interpret the cards in those positions as many would read a reversed card. Yet sometimes I still wonder if I am missing something by not using reversals.

I am a bit of a book worm and so I am always reading. Since I love Tarot is no surprise that many of those books relate to Tarot.

Often I find myself loving the interpretation of some reversed cards and that makes me wonder again if I made the right choice.

I am well familiar with the many views on reversed cards.

Some readers look at them as opposite of the upright meaning.

Others see them as the extreme of the energy expressed.

Nurturing when taken too far, as an example, can become smothering.

Another way to interpret reversed cards is as energy about to enter the situation or leaving it.

Either way the energy of that card is not as strong as when upright. I like this way of thinking, but I think it could be problematic when used it reading for others. I guess you could look at the elements to help you decide if that energy is growing or weakening. It sounds a bit complicated to me, particularly for those who may not be familiar with the elements and how they interact.

Last but not least, there are those who see reversed cards just as a scream for attention, look at me, kind of idea.

Therefore such reader would look at the reversed card carefully or first. He or she would give that card more attention.

I don’t know. I think there are pro and cons to read with reversed as well as to reading without them.

One of the reason I have never really taken to reversals is because I was never sure on how to mix them. Do you take the deck, cut it in half and turn one pile upside down? Would that be too much?

How do you decide? I know that some people suggest to spread the deck around and then move the cards all over the place like you were playing with sand. Personally I am not fussy on it, but it may work for you.

To sum it up. I read cards in the upright position. My meaning for them can change depending on where they are in the spread. I will interpret a card that is in a challenge or negative position as weak, or as an extreme of the energy it represents. As an example the Queen of swords , which I usually see as someone smart, brave, decisive and communicating clearly and directly, may become someone who can come out too critical and whose message can leave people hurt. Even when reading cards in regular positions, therefore as upright, I look at the full spectrum of their energies , from light to dark. I come up with my interpretation considering the overall energies present in the reading. Lots of Wands cards will make my interpretation for them strong and bold, much more let’s say than if a wand card was surrounded by many cups.

What about you?

Do you use reversed cards?

Why? What is your approach? What has been your experience with them?

I would love to hear what you think.

For a more recent post on reversals click here Experimenting with Tarot reversals