Deeper Than You Realize: Reversals As Hidden Messages

AUTHOR’S NOTE: I just came across the intriguing notion that it could be instructive, after performing a reading that allows for reversed cards, to go through the rest of the deck and find additional instances of reversal that didn’t make it into the reading. (In other words, they didn’t surface during the pull.) The assumption seems to be that they can highlight even more deeply-buried aspects of the matter that would be good to know.

I’m ambivalent about this technique because I thoroughly randomize my decks for both sequence and orientation before each session, so I could conceivably come up with more than 50% of the cards reversed. It would introduce far too much extraneous information that would serve only as “background noise.” However, I could see looking just slightly below the top card of the remaining pile to see what almost percolated into the light of day that has something more to offer. I would limit this to any reversed cards in the second population since that’s where most of the hidden significance lies, and I would view the result as a form of auxiliary “shadow spread” that has similarities to looking at the bottom of the deck for the customary “base” or “shadow” insights, but in a more comprehensive way.

I would examine only as many additional cards as appeared in the original spread. So, for example, if I’m using the 10-card Celtic Cross, after the deal I would take ten more cards off the top of the shuffled deck and look for reversals. I haven’t decided yet, but it may be useful to tie any I find into the original spread positions of the same number as their order in the new sequence. This would turn them into individual “shadow” cards providing hidden messages for each of those positions, with the reversal making them just a little more mysterious. Technically, they are a form of “clarifying” card but they are all generated at the time of the original shuffle and not produced on-the-fly when the need arises. When I choose to apply clarifiers, I like to have them built into the structure of the spread and kept in reserve until — and only if — called on, so this approach works for me since it aligns with my reversed-card metaphor of “turning over rocks to see what crawls out from underneath.”

Here is an example reading that illustrates my thoughts. The question I asked was “How will I fare in an initiative I’m contemplating?” (All cards are from the Golden Art Nouveau Tarot, copyright of Lo Scarabeo, Torino, Italy, and all position meanings are from my “tweaked” version of Eden Gray’s Celtic Cross design.)

The first five cards of this Celtic Cross imply coming from an environment of low expectations, thwarted effort and constrained opportunity (I can almost hear Judgement reversed saying “Wait for it!”). However, the Lovers in the sixth position (Near Future) could mean being offered something I would really like to do (at least for a while). The Sun reversed in the seventh position suggests frustrated ambition, while the 8 of Wands in the eighth position conveys swift movement toward the goal once released to pursue it. But the 3 of Wands reversed in the ninth position indicates the need for further patience, and the same thing is shown in the tenth position, where the Star reversed puts hope in abeyance. Not a bad reading, but not a particularly inspiring one except for the near-term Lovers, which may just be a “teaser.”

The top ten cards from the rest of the deck yielded six reversed cards, which I set in their numerical positions in the spread. Although they should have been placed under the first set of cards as “shadow” influences, I laid them on top for clarity. It’s very interesting that all of the affected cards except the 3 of Swords were also reversed, and the reversed “shadow” cards just dig them a deeper hole. The sheer number of reversals in the final layout suggests a lot of second-guessing to me.

At the risk of overstatement, I’m going to hark back once again to an observation from Benebell Wen’s I Ching, The Oracle: A Practical Guide to the Book of Changes, this time regarding the “totemistic” nature of blackbirds. Her vision furnished two analogies: the first is from the English nursery rhyme Sing a Song of Sixpence and its mention of “Four-and-twenty blackbirds baked in a pie” (hopefully when my “tarot blackbirds” escape their cage they won’t “peck off my nose”); the second is “Pandora’s box” of Greek mythology, but I’m willing to court misfortune in order to gain greater insight into the subject of a reading.

The 3 of Swords modified by the reversed Queen of Pentacles shows a hard road beset by stiff resistance (Air and Earth are elementally hostile to one another); the Queen is exacting and won’t render her blessing lightly or indiscriminately.

The reversed Knight of Swords (the original “thwarted effort” card) is further stymied by the 7 of Swords reversed. Fortunately, this is a known “Recent Past” condition for which compensatory action can be taken.

Judgement reversed shaded by the 9 of Pentacles reversed gives the impression of stunted development. The woman in the image is confined to her garden and can’t leave despite the faint “wake-up call” from Judgement.

The seventh position was altered by Eden Gray to mean “Fears,” but I’ve changed it to show all manner of self-defeating attitudes and behaviors. The 10 of Wands reversed makes me think the bottled-up anticipation of the reversed Sun will be shoved even farther into the background. The “facing” of the man in the 10 of Wands has him pushing hard against its realization. He’s seems to be grunting through clenched teeth “Ain’t . . . gonna . . . happen.”

The Page of Wands reversed in the ninth position (Eden Gray’s “Hopes” and my “Aspirations”) implies that the man in the 3 of Wands will receive a clandestine “message” that gives him renewed inspiration and optimism.

The Chariot reversed paired with the Star reversed in the “end of the matter” position looks to me like “victory, but at a cost.” There may be just enough carry-over from the Lovers to win the day.

Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on June 8, 2024.