Reversals. Half the tarot world reads them with fixed, consistent meanings. The other half ignores them entirely and just treats every card as upright. And somehow, both camps are getting accurate readings. So I’m not going to tell you which approach is correct. I don’t think there is one. But there is a more useful question underneath the whole debate.
The question isn’t “should I use reversals?” It’s what a reversed card actually does for you. In this spread. With these cards around it. That’s what I want to dig into here, including some examples and how my own approach has shifted over the years.
Where I Started
When I first started reading tarot, I was heavily reliant on guidebooks. So I read reversals the way the guidebook told me to. I’d pull something like Temperance reversed and the book would say something about unfortunate combinations. So I’d ask about unfortunate combinations. Which, as I talked about last week, isn’t the best approach. We need to look at how cards show up holistically in a spread, not in isolation.
After I started moving away from the guidebook, I stopped reading reversals as consistently. Partly because I hadn’t built up the reversed meanings yet. But gradually I developed what I’d call a dynamic method. Not the same every time.
Daily Cards and Reversals
Worth a quick note on daily cards. If I’m pulling a single card for the day and it comes out reversed, that’s usually letting me know that energy is blocked in some way, or that I need to pay particular attention to it. When I’m reading in isolation like that, the reversal earns a bit more weight than it might in a full spread where other cards are doing some of the talking.
The High Priestess, the Hierophant, and Two Sides of the Same Coin
I see the High Priestess as being about inner wisdom. That internal connection to what the right thing is for you, where your knowing comes from inside. I contrast this strongly with the Hierophant, which is about collective knowledge: what’s passed down through tradition, through hierarchies, through what we’ve been taught. Two sides of the same coin. You can’t be completely reliant on your intuition, and you can’t be completely reliant on what other people tell you. The balance between them is where good decisions live.
When the High Priestess comes out reversed, I usually notice that as: what’s blocking my intuition? Or, where am I being overly reliant on it? Whereas if the Hierophant comes out reversed, I’m questioning where I’m relying too heavily on structures and rules and what I’ve been told.
I did a reading recently where both came out reversed, alongside the Two of Swords. Both sources of guidance blocked. That Two of Swords stalemate energy sitting between them. It was pointing to someone caught between being true to themselves and doing what their family expected. They weren’t acting on either.
The Dynamic Method
If one card comes out reversed in a spread, that draws my attention to it. It stands out. I’m going to be looking at that card harder than the others. If multiple cards are reversed, I start looking at how they connect, how they piece together into a story. I’m going to do a whole episode on storytelling in tarot in a few weeks, because that’s really the foundation a lot of this sits on.
Take three cards as an example: the Hierophant, the Seven of Wands, and the Sun. All upright, they’re saying one thing. But flip the Seven of Wands into reverse, and the reading shifts. That reversed Seven of Wands, that defensive energy, that sense of needing to hold your ground, might be pointing to why you’re defending this particular position so hard. Maybe you’re clinging to a structure or belief you don’t fully believe in anymore. Maybe the cost of defending it is the very happiness the Sun is pointing to.
But if the Hierophant is the reversal instead, the reading changes completely. Now it’s about resisting tradition, fighting against what you’ve been told to do. The outcome might look similar on the surface, but the dynamic is different. And if the Sun goes into reverse, the question becomes: where are you blocking your own joy? If all three come out reversed, it’s something else entirely.
Cards That Shift and Cards That Don’t
Some cards have a reversal meaning I return to consistently. The Four of Swords upright I read as: sleep on it. Breathe. Take the time you need to sit with this. Reversed, I usually read that as the opposite. Stop sitting on it. But even then, depending on what’s around it, I might read it as having slept on it too long. Context changes things.
Other cards barely shift at all when they reverse. The energy’s the same, maybe slightly muted or turned inward. There is no universal rule.
Some Ways to Read a Reversed Card
Not a fixed system. Options to consider in the moment.
Blocked or Delayed Energy
The most common. The Ace of Cups upright points to a new emotional beginning, a new relationship, an emotional reset. Reversed, that energy might be wanting to come through but something’s stopping it. You’re not quite letting it in.
The Shadow Side
The Ace of Cups reversed might be pointing to searching for emotional newness in ways that aren’t healthy. Shallow connections instead of real ones.
Internal Rather Than External
Where the upright reading points to a new relationship with someone else, the reversal might be pointing to a new relationship with yourself. An emotional shift turned inward.
Resistance
You’re holding on to something the card is telling you to let go of.
The Literal Image
Turn the card upside down and look at what’s physically changed. On some of the cups cards, the cups are emptying. That’s an image. Work with it.
The Only Rule That Actually Matters
My notes say: pick one approach and be consistent within a reading. But you don’t even need to do that necessarily. So long as you’re noticing and going with your gut in the moment, you’re in the right territory. I’ve had plenty of readings where something that seemed minor at the start got louder and louder as more cards came in. That’s not inconsistency. That’s paying attention.
Don’t ignore reversals altogether. Even if you’re not reading them in a consistent way, notice them. If you pull a nine-card spread and eight are reversed, that one upright card is screaming something. Don’t walk past it.
Ultimately, this comes back to what I think tarot is actually for: figuring out what these cards mean to you. How they connect to your life. What they evoke in you, and how you can piece that together into something useful. Reversals are one more way into that. Use them the way that serves your reading, not the way someone else’s guidebook decided they should work.
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