Multiple Reversals as “Covert Operations”
AUTHOR’S NOTE: I’ve written often about the myriad ways in which one can interpret reversed cards in a tarot reading; I now have over 200 general keywords in 15 major categories to describe it that go well beyond “blocked” or “delayed.” One common assumption is that reversal suggests a covert influence entering the matter, usually a surprise the querent fails to see coming until it insinuates itself into the narrative. But I’ve only rarely addressed their broader significance when they constitute a majority (or even a totality) of the population in a pull. The closest I’ve come is this quote from my original 2017 post on the subject:
“Numerous reversals in a spread may show an undercurrent working at cross-purposes to the main thrust of the reading, ‘for good or ill.’ They can also reflect a very complicated or difficult situation in which it is more important how the energies are received and processed than how they are delivered.”
Despite diligent efforts to randomize my decks for both sequence and orientation, many of my recent readings have involved spreads in which most or all of the cards are reversed, even when there are ten or more cards present. I began toying with the idea that this abnormal preponderance may indicate that the querent or another party to the situation is engaged in systematic “covert operations” (in military terms, “black ops”) that are intended to circumvent any staunch and (at least in the querent’s opinion) unfair opposition to the proposed agenda.
This premise opens up whole new avenues of inquiry for the phenomenon of reversal that I only alluded to in my earlier mention of a conflicting “undercurrent” of redirected purpose. Using this technique, it is possible to envision an alternate arc for situational development in which circuitous activities “fly under the radar” to the point that their denouement is completely unexpected by everyone except the instigator. In this scenario, the predicted outcome of the reading must be inflected with the overwhelming risk of experiencing missed signals and missed opportunities to prevent being blindsided (and perhaps “steamrollered”) by ulterior motives or clandestine circumstances during the course of the undertaking.
As a self-avowed student of human nature, I find this perfectly understandable when it comes to dealing with stubborn resistance to one’s objectives. We often take the “path of least resistance,” like water flowing around a stream-bed boulder, in order to get what we want. This can as easily apply to avoidance of the passive-aggressive kind as it does to oblique confrontation (one of my favorite definitions for reversal). The trajectory resembles a subterranean river that moves the affair along under cover of darkness until an astute diviner reveals its presence though the act of reading reversals. While there may be no reason to suspect that anything nefarious is going on other than self-preservation and self-promotion, reversal is a vestige of the “bad old days” of fortune-telling that carries a sinister connotation, one that plays right into this devious paradigm. A rational approach to the subject suggests that it doesn’t have to be this way, but it often is.
Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on September 8, 2024.
