The card that best symbolizes the reversed cards is the Hanged Man, which appears to be reversed in its normal position.
See below:
… what they are
… how to use them
… why to use them
… when to use them
✅ What are reversed cards
Tarot cards can be read using the cards only in their normal position, i.e. “standing up”, or using both directions: upright and reversed (upside down). According to Mary K. Greer, when the card is upright, in general the meaning is a little more active (yang), showing that the card reveals itself in its entirety and potency. When the card is inverted, in general the more passive meaning (yin) prevails, and the energy of the card is in some ways altered.
✅ How to use them
There are many ways to interpret reversed cards. Mary K. Greer presents 12 ways in her book “The Complete Book of Tarot Reversals”, but I recommend 5 ways, with the following acronym that I’ve formulated for easier recall: ABCDE.
ABCDE
A: Awaiting (effect takes time to happen)
B: Blockage (consciously or unconsciously the person rejects or represses the energy or message of that card)
C: Contrary (the opposite of the card, or its more negative side, prevails)
D: Decrease (effect appears diminished)
E: Excess (effect appears higher, excessive, or exaggerated)
Let’s suppose you draw a card and the result is the Sun reversed. In its standing position, the Sun represents success, optimism, vitality. Reversed, it can indicate:
A: Awaiting. Success will come, but it will take longer than anticipated.
B: Blockage. You are resisting – consciously or unconsciously – the achievement of this result. Possible self-sabotage.
C: Contrary. Lack of success.
D: Decrease. Success will come, but it won’t be as resounding.
E: Excess: Too much sun! It can signal excessive sun exposure, burns and even fires, for example.
Which of these meanings will you choose? In the same way you choose the meanings of a card when it is in the upside position: using your intuition and analyzing the card in conjunction with the others cards in the spread.
When most of the cards in a spread are upside down, it shows that there is some kind of blockage related to the question or issue being analyzed. It is as if energy is not flowing well – neither in the cards nor in the question asked.
✅ Why to use them
The advantage of using reversed cards in your readings is that you add new layers of depth to the spread, and multiply the possibilities of answers that the tarot can give to a given question. A single tarot card allows for 78 responses if the cards are read upside only, and 156 responses if you use reversed cards. A two-card spread, without using reversed cards, allows for 6,000 responses (78×77) and using reversed cards, 24,024 responses (156×154). And so on, with the possibility of responses increasing exponentially as the spreads get bigger.
✅ When to use them
Despite the advantages of using reversed cards, I recommend that you only use them when you are already reading the cards very comfortably in their normal position. Only then, little by little, incorporate the reversed cards into your readings, choosing the reversed meaning following your intuition and the context of the other cards in the spread.
A good analogy would be the following: when you start to study a new language, you first learn the most basic words and the most common usages associated with them. Only after some time of study, you learn the most difficult lessons and less common meanings, as well as expressions, which will allow you to read deeper and more complex texts and express more profound ideas. It’s like that for learning languages, it’s like that for learning the tarot, which is a symbolic language.
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