AUTHOR’S NOTE: I try to limit my public essays to one a day (although I’m building quite a backlog). But this is a compilation that I think will bring value (or at least a fresh perspective or two) to the everyday practice of tarot reading, so I decided to present it as a “bonus” post. In reviewing it, I found that WordPress can only handle so many links in one post, so I had to split this into two parts.
Over the last five years I’ve made numerous forays into the subject of reversed cards. Most recently, I realized that Yoav Ben-Dov’s observation in his Tarot de Marseille book that “Everything is a sign” is perfectly applicable to the nature of reversal. That is, “If it happens, it must be portentious.” I thought it would be a good time to “roll up” in one place all of my essays that specifically deal with different ways to view the phenomenon. I started by linking my oldest post and then worked up to the one I made most recently. I’m surprised at how many there are; I’m sure it’s partly a reflection of my response to every comment I’ve encountered on the tarot pages and feeds that pointedly dismissed (and sometimes ridiculed) the premises behind using reversal, along with a number of insights I picked up in my reading. It will be interesting to see how many inconsistencies cropped up in my thinking over time, although it could just be an indication of its inevitable evolution. There is a lot here to ponder, but I think it all comes under the “Ben-Dov umbrella.” (I should probably acknowledge that I don’t use reversal with the Tarot de Marseille, so I’ve taken some liberties in shaping his ideas to my purpose.)
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 