The Tarot

Upright and Reversed Cards

The Cards in Upright and Reversed Positions

How do you distinguish if the energy of a card tells of good or bad events? In general, this problem is resolved by differentiating between positive and negative cards. Hence, when we see the HANGED MAN (12) or the TOWER OF GOD (16), it will be bad. To react in this way presents for these cards an obvious disadvantage: their principle is presupposed negative. What is bothersome is to think that the humanist and helpful principles of the HANGED MAN are bad; or that to acquire a house, in the principle of the TOWER OF GOD, is harmful. Of course some will find this explanation primordial, but that is what goes on in the fact.

The obvious advantage is that the Tarot reader should never be perturbed when he sees these cards in their vertical position, and it will be up to his instincts to dose the degree of positivism or negativity, depending on the client and his capacity to accept bad news.

To make up for these different inconveniences, some Tarot readers decided that there are positive and negative cards, but to decide if their principle is really negative or positive, it is important to consider their immediate environment.

For example, let us take a positive card such as THE WORLD (21), THE SUN (19), and THE STAR (17), and some negative cards like THE NO-NAME-ARCANE (13), THE FOOL (22), and THE DEVIL (15), and put them in the following order.

We can say that THE DEVIL is well placed because surrounded by positive cards like THE WORLD and THE SUN. THE SUN is badly aspected, because negative cards, THE DEVIL and THE NO-NAME-ARCANE, surround it. The NO-NAME-ARCANE is well placed, because it is next to THE SUN and THE FOOL. On the other hand, THE FOOL is completely mixed up, because a negative card, THE NO-NAME-ARCANE, and a positive one, THE STAR, surround it.

The clear inconvenience resides in the style of draws used. These draws are closer to traditional cartomancy.

As mentioned earlier, the different techniques of drawing cards have their advantages and disadvantages, but one should not try to justify a technique to the detriment of another, by saying that to use the cards in a reversed way is satanic or that it will attract, for instance, evil spirits… It is indeed ill spirited to spread such nonsense !

The major flaw of the upright and reversed positions is that it is very upsetting to see a draw fully reversed.

The beginner panics at first, thinking the draw is bad. 

While its principle advantage is that all the divinatory qualities are regrouped and can truly be expressed.  

Hence the purchase of a property represented by THE TOWER OF GOD is not necessarily bad and the passion of THE DEVIL becomes legitimate. To access the fact that all the reversed cards do not imply a bad game, the beginner must master his apprehensions and understand that the energies of a card are ALWAYS GOOD. When a card is reversed, it expresses the lived difficulties and when a card is upright, it signals that all’s well in the best of worlds. To say this means that nothing is bad in itself. It is up to the client to reverse the trend for things to go in a better direction, even if the cards are showing difficult events. Whether or not the events turn in his favor, is a matter of attitude.

Number 22 indicates the end of a cycle. If it is upright, the client usually accepts it and stays vigilant regarding all that is upcoming. Reversed, the client might panic, refusing to see what is coming and suffers the end of the cycle. But the FOOL always symbolizes the end of a cycle. As soon as we master this way of working, the advantages become obvious. It is with the cards upright and reversed that the predictive methods will be used on this site, as opposed to the methods mentioned earlier.

Without going into details, here is what is important to know :

The Tarot is a magical tool and as such, it should not be lent. Talking about magic does not signify that it a diabolic. The world of fairies and elves is magic one.

In fact, the Tarot is an instrument of energy. As it was said earlier, the word Tarot is the anagram of the word ROTA, meaning the wheel, associated with Kabbalah. We can also say that the Tarot is the wheel of energies, forming a whole.

Consequently, a deck of Tarot cards, when not being used should always be kept in numerical order.

You may have seen clairvoyants who have given you a deck where the cards were left in the order used by the preceding client. If his energies had drawn the card representing death, there would be a good chance, if you wanted to know about the future of your couple, that the card indicating the end of your relationship would appear.

It has already been shown that the objects you touch keep your energy imprint. It is possible to prove this with infrared imagery. But a more subjective experience can be enough to explain this phenomenon. If at the end of a difficult reading, you keep the deck on yourself the whole day, you will be surprised to find yourself moody, feeling a sense of sadness and melancholy. In the case of a happy event, you keep the cards on yourself, you will find feel happy, light, seeing life in pink. Pay attention to this, this is not to live the client’s events but to get attuned to different mood swings.

For all these reasons and many others, when a deck is not being used, it is put in numerical order (1 to 22). It is as resetting to point zero and a way of neutralizing the diverse energies in a Tarot deck.

If a game calls upon energies and a Tarot reader doe not want clients de-harmonize his game of Tarot, he must magnetize it. Touching it as often as possible and even keeping it in a pocket, notably on his solar plexus, does that. It is his deck and apart from certain circumstances, no one else should use it!

The best way of preserving a deck is to keep it in a pouch, of velvet for example with a string. Any one can find make one or find one in a shop.

Avoid holding the cards with a rubber band. It will eventually damage the edges of the top and bottom of the deck, and would be a shame to waste a good deck like that.

Last but not least : a Tarot deck cannot be washed. With excessive use, the cards can end up with black spots on them, due to hand stains. In order to clean them, you should not wash them, but de-magnetize them by using talcum powder. Talcum powder removes stains and humidity from the cards, and will nourish them. The result will be surprising: the cards will have a patina, making them look very old.

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