Reversal As Misapprehension: Blind to the Obvious
AUTHOR’S NOTE: The oracular commentary for Hexagram 20 (Observation) of the I Ching includes the advice “Sometimes it is not the judgement that needs observation, but the judge.” I occasionally find that, rather than obliquely illuminating the matter itself, a reversed card in a reading will throw the spotlight back on the querent’s mistaken view of its message. This apparent misapprehension begs the question “Why are you not seeing this?”
In a recent reading I interpreted the Devil as indicating that the querent was deluding himself about the insincerity of his motives, and its reversal made that abundantly clear to everyone involved but himself. In other words, he was blind to it but it wasn’t a mystery to his acquaintances. It’s reminiscent of the “invisible elephant in the room” scenario in which everybody but its owner knows it’s there but nobody wants to acknowledge its presence so they pretend that it isn’t, thus feeding the individual’s self-deception. I want to expand on that idea by proposing that any reversed card can identify something about which the querent is oblivious but that may be an open book to the rest of the world because external observers are not usually that myopic.
We can become adept at fooling ourselves. On the r/tarot sub-reddit, someone asked “What was your most interesting ‘Fool’ moment?” It may well be that every time we misconstrue the aim of a reversed card, we are having just such an episode. We may completely miss the point and move blithely down the road (perhaps in the wrong direction) ignoring its intimation of a subtly altered landscape, however slight or nuanced the effect may be. The phenomenon of reversal doesn’t automatically mean something has changed in our situation, but it certainly merits being observed from a different angle to make sure we’re still on the right track and haven’t gone astray.
We owe it to ourselves to pay close attention since we may need to shift our focus to align it with the implied redirection rather than waiting to be led by the nose (or kicked in the backside). Otherwise, there is a chance we could overlook something crucial that only reversal can adequately convey. (As I’ve said before, it can point us down less-obvious byways in a situation that might otherwise go unexplored.) The veiled mode of delivery and skewed angle-of-attack can resist direct scrutiny, requiring a more impressionistic approach to interpretation, and popular opinion decrying its use as unnecessary can lull us into thinking that orientation within a spread is inconsequential; as I see it, both arguments for shunning reversals are faulty.
In my opinion, reversed cards should be handled with profound finesse and not dismissed as superfluous or irrelevant, particularly if they come “out of the blue” with no apparent frame of reference. As Yoav Ben-Dov said “Everything is a sign,” and reversal is definitely one that is thrown in our face with great regularity unless we carefully shuffle to avoid it. If we use them, we might as well figure out exactly what they’re trying to tell us.
For those interested, I’ve posted numerous essays on the subject over the last seven years that may be worthwhile to visit (or revisit) for a fresh perspective or two. The “Categories” drop-down menu in the sidebar lists them under the “Reversed Cards” heading. As a starter, here is the one that began the effort; it was published in the American Tarot Association’s monthly newsletter in 2017 and has since been updated several times:
https://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com/2017/08/06/the-significance-of-reversed-cards/
Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on August 3, 2024.
