*With apologies to Ringo Starr for borrowing his song title.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: While discussing the implications of reversal in Tarot Master-Class, Paul Fenton-Smith noted that the reversed Death card can express unwillingness to endure the metamorphosis that its upright orientation portends. He then added “You need to trust that sometimes life has a greater awareness of what is good for you than you have for yourself.” In other words, good luck with your misplaced defiance when Death sneaks in the back door!

When a card is upside-down in a spread, resistance to any of the changes it normally delivers is as serviceable as the other definitions for reversal I’ve accumulated over the years. Putting my own spin on another idea from Fenton-Smith, if a beneficial card is reversed it could indicate that “mental clutter” is standing in the way of enjoying the promised advantage, while if reversal affects a detrimental card it could suggest the presence of unexpected traction that will prevent flying completely off the rails into full-blown adversity. This is the “friction” referred to in the header.

Unless the seeker has succumbed to the delusion of “confirmation bias” and is only interested in hearing predictions that support his or her private vision of the future, any card that appears in a reading can be viewed as a harbinger of some kind of change. As the old platitude has it, “Nothing is certain in life except change,” and there is no reason to assume that the situation conveyed by a tarot reading is any different: it will evolve apace. However, reversal can add a “twist” to the narrative that brings about that change in ways that don’t transpire without a little extra drama.

Those who profess to finding reversed meanings superfluous seem to have no feel for the stimulating off-script non sequiturs they can draw from the reader, who must decide whether the divergence they represent is a deterrent to progress in the matter or a necessary corrective for conditions that might get out-of-hand if not subjected to sub rosa “steering.” In the first instance, the implied friction can be a drag on advancement, while in the second case it may in fact be a constructive re-channeling of energy that might otherwise be wasted in futilely trying to fend off the negative influence. The atmosphere is one of grudging expedience that should not be allowed to degrade into resignation or fatalism.