Reversed cards
A reversed card is a tarot card that appears upside down in a reading. Readers who use reversals take it to show the card’s energy blocked, delayed, turned inward or out of balance, rather than simply its opposite.
Also known as: tarot reversals
When cards are shuffled, some end up upside down. Many readers treat this as part of the message: A. E. Waite gave a reversed meaning for every card in The Pictorial Key to the Tarot. Others read every card upright and let the surrounding cards supply the nuance. Both approaches are accepted.
A reversed card is usually read in one of a few ways: its energy is blocked or delayed, turned inward and private, excessive or lacking, or just beginning or fading. The Hermit reversed, for example, can mean solitude that has slipped into isolation.
Context decides which reading fits, so look at the question, the position and the other cards. When many cards in a spread are reversed, the whole situation is often read as stuck or held back, a cue to slow down and look at what is being resisted.
Reversed does not mean bad. A reversed difficult card can bring relief, as when the Three of Swords reversed suggests healing after hurt. A reversed bright card can mean its gift is delayed, or blocked for now, which is why in a yes-or-no reading it often turns the answer to no.