AUTHOR’S NOTE: The r/tarot sub-reddit feed is turning out to be a gold-mine of inspiration now that I’ve dumped my Facebook account. Here is an essay based on a thread about reading reversed cards in an integrated way that looks at their interaction with the rest of the cards in a spread.

First a condensed quote from the OP (with my bolding for emphasis):

“Basically the energy of that card is out of sync. In order to determine exactly why you need to read the interactions between the rest of the spread.

The first step in learning tarot is memorizing and internalizing the individual meanings of the upright cards.

The next step is reading the interactions between the cards. Reversals are a more advanced method of reading interactions.

The possible interactions between all the cards (even in a simple 3-card spread) is astronomically high. Reversals are a meaning derived by interaction, not a meaning as an individual card.“

This post made a strong impression on me, even though I’ve already written over two dozen essays on the subject of reversed cards. I’ve also commented on the “flow” between the cards in a spread, with the idea that reversed cards can represent a “trough” that offsets the “crest” of adjacent upright cards. It’s a moving line of energy that undulates rather than being flat-lined at one level of intensity. Another way to look at it is as a topographic map with peaks and valleys; I also use this analogy with favorable and unfavorable cards in series, and reversed orientation could dig an even deeper trench in the latter condition. I’ve found this to be one of the most enjoyable ways to read reversals.

It’s all part of framing the context of the reading as a function of the cards pulled, not necessarily as a key element of the question itself (which, by personal preference, I don’t want to know in advance). The spread offers a self-contained narrative, and anything that interrupts the progress of the story is worthy of extra emphasis. Treating a reversed card as being “out-of-sync” with the others is just such an interruption that can add considerable nuance to the overall interpretation. At worst, it can be like getting unexpectedly “sucker-punched” when everything else is just optimistic “cheerleading.” At best, it offers cautionary advice about “watching your back.”

I once wrote an essay proposing that reversed cards will often “insinuate” rather than loudly proclaim their purpose in a reading, and this premise would be especially applicable when they are pushed into the background by more insistent cards. It supports a wide range of traditional meanings for the phenomenon of reversal.

Flipped Missives: Reversals As Insinuation