Beginner Question On Tarot, upright cards Options

So I just baught my first deck "The Rider" and a book called "The tarot:History,Symbolism,and Divination" by Robert M. Place and I have a very simple and basic question: In order to get a proper reading do all the cards have to be pointed upright and if they do turn out to be downward then what do you do?

So I just baught my first deck "The Rider" and a book called "The tarot:History,Symbolism,and Divination" by Robert M. Place and I have a very simple and basic question: In order to get a proper reading do all the cards have to be pointed upright and if they do turn out to be downward then what do you do?

congratulations on your tarot purchase . . . that was the easy part (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

to get a "proper" reading . . . there's a million answers to that
but, no . . . in many tarot methods, the "downward" cards are considered reversed and that has a specific effect on thier interpertation.
Your book should go over that.

oh . . . you may want to pitch the book and buy a different one. Maybe Wang, Case or Gray's . . . other could probably offer MUCH better suggestions then I.
(did you know that Joseph Campbell had a tarot book . . lol)

This post has been edited by palindroem: Oct 8 2006, 02:21 PM

Well some decks are supposed to be used with the cards upright and if you have any instructions with them, they will say this somewhere.

Many decks have cards that can be used where the cards are a mix of upright and reversed or ill-dignified, if you have a little booklet with them , it should tell you both sets of meanings, one for upright, another for upside down cards.

If not, I recommend getting hold of Tarot, Plain and SImple by Anthony Lewis for many decks unless the card instructions mention a particular book that was written especially for that deck.

You can also check out these web sites, Aecletic Tarot and, Learning the Tarot, also a little more advanced but helpful,Supertarot. I hope these can help.

This post has been edited by redhand: Oct 12 2006, 05:44 PM

I have to agree with Radiant Star, and there are also systems of reading that omit reversals, and only read the cards upright, it's realy up to the individual. I personaly find that reversals help, and give more meanings to be interpeted, though some don't like neg. readings that can sometimes be found in reversals. Redhand (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blablabla.gif)

This post has been edited by redhand: Oct 19 2006, 03:31 PM

Yes the reversed or ill dignified cards are often harsher than the dignified and we don't want to know the whole truth in gory detail all the time.

On the other hand, a 'full' reading when you have someone in serious trouble around you is most useful.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/fish1.gif)

Yes the reversed or ill dignified cards are often harsher than the dignified and we don't want to know the whole truth in gory detail all the time.

On the other hand, a 'full' reading when you have someone in serious trouble around you is most useful.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/fish1.gif)

I think reversals are also more useful in certain spreads. If I'm doing one of my small day to day spreads, then there is no need to do reversals, but if I'm doing a Celtic Cross or a Tree of Life spread, I would definitely want to use reversals in my reading.

My suggestion is to start without reversals, and then gradually build your intuitions about what a reversal in that position surrounded by those cards generally means. You'll get a lot of the same cards every time when you read the same person, and this will help you get accustomed to what happens with those cards and this person, if that makes any sense. I recommend learning the attributions and forgetting as much of the in depth symbology as possible for readings, and then you're going to have to remember all the symbology for pathworking and ritual work.

I reccomend Tarot for Dummies by Amber Jayanti for a beginner. Wang's Qabalistic is not only hard to find but doesn't deal with the Rider-Waite, but the Golden Dawn descriptions instead. The Book of Thoth is a good one to just read through a couple of times to get that baseline of attributions sort of memorized, (as long as you don't try to analyze the book too much) but deals with the Crowley-Thoth Tarot. There is another one I'll try to think of that is a real "reading for others" book. I've read tarot for others maybe 12 times, and consistently use it only to better my approaches to day to day living and decision making.

Best of luck in your journey. Give yourself time to decipher the occult, it can take a long time to make sense out of it. Took me 3 or 4 years before the light bulb went on.

that's a hard question ... because yes, reversed cards do play an impotant role in most readings, but for a beginner, i would suggest always having the cards upright until you become comfortable in the cards and the spreads that you are choosing to use. take your time in learning. i do not know the book you are referencing, but check it out and see how it feels and works for you ... you often buy the precise book for the beginning of your own philosophy. one of the keys to tarot is to allow your own philosophy and understanding of the cards to develop and not attach too much to someone else's ideas on the cards.

personally, i too have the Case book The Tarot which gives some very esoteric and comprehensively obtuse, yet historical and specific, information on the cards, given them lots of depth and bredth as well as depth, if you desire to go that direction with tarot.

This post has been edited by business voodoo: Dec 12 2006, 02:48 PM

I have used tarot for a bit (thoth and a couple others). I still consider myself a noob and only use the 22 face cards and no reverses. It still has taught me very much.

This post has been edited by Enochian: Dec 12 2006, 03:15 PM

Here are two more books I can thoroughly recommend for anyone wanting to learn the Tarot:

The Complete Book Of Tarot Reversals, by Mary K. Greer- gives a comprehensive guide to card meanings, both upright and reversed, and is illustrated with the RWS deck.

78 degrees of Wisdom, by Rachel Pollack- looks more into the esoteric imagery and meanings behind the cards, and how they effect the card interpretations.

Good luck in your studies! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

A older and very accurate way to read the tarot is to place them upright, and to use their elemental correspondences to show whether or not they are dignified or ill-dignified. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wandwizard.gif)

I don't use reverse at all. I've worked Tarot for three decades, and started with reversed cards because all the RW oriented books said so, giving elaborate "indications" and so on. As I learned the cards, developed my own more intuitive interpretations (I believe everyone should develop their own Deep Mind interpretations of what the cards mean to them in a spread, and not rely on books and other people) -- I weaned myself off this erratic practice of using reversed cards. The beauty and rich symbolism of a card becomes almost impossible to interpret when reversed.

The majority of diviners, that is, my friends who use tarot strictly for divination, do read reversed cards, and only with the Rider Waite story-type cards. But most mages I know, don't. But that may just be people I know. The Tarot has always spoken eloquently to me, in a true voice, and I've never needed reversals. The mages who created most of our modern root decks (Thoth, Golden Dawn, etc) generally didn't believe in reversals. In fact, the Thoth deck can't really be used this way. When Crowley referred to ill dignified he was referring to the overall read, the other cards, the elements, not reversals. He was careful to point out that his deck was not to be read in reversals, and the design of the Rose Cross on the back reinforced this -- it's obvious you've turned a reversed card by the cross.

Reversed cards were actually invented by a divining artist in New York (his name escapes me--I could research it) as a way to confuse the too-curious. It's use doesn't go back particularly far. But, as long as you know you are reading -- or not reading -- reversed cards, a system of "blocked" or ill dignified meanings will work for you -- if you can intuit them. Personally, I mistrust the various "reversed" interpretations in tarot books. The serious books, such as DuQuette, Crowley, and so on, mention ill dignified occasionally (which doesn't refer to reversed) but not reversed cards -- for good reason. It's not really a long tradition. I also find it clouds the voice of the Tarot. The cards speak clearly to me every single time when I read the normal way, but I never get clear answers from reversed cards, personally.