Three

The Topsy-Turvy World
of Tarot Reversals

Reading Tarot cards is really very easy. All you have to
do is look at the cards and say what you see! 40

Wilma Carroll, The 2-Hour Tarot Tutor

Even experienced tarot readers are puzzled by cards that appear upside-down in a spread. Some readers simply turn all the cards upright, as I did with Jane’s reading in chapter one. Robert Place, an advocate of this method, explains: “It is not necessary to confuse the reading with upside-down images.” 41 In contrast, Mary Greer has written an entire book devoted exclusively to the many ways to interpret reversed cards. 42 Etteilla found that reversed cards were in common use by Parisian cartomancers in 1753. My own preference has been to allow the cards to fall as they may, and I have never found any hard and fast rule about how to interpret inverted cards. Given the confusion that reversals can engender, turning all the cards upright has great appeal. Nonetheless, many cards, even in their upright position, contain inverted images. It is worthwhile, then, to probe the meaning of reversals in general.

The significance of an inverted card (or of reversed images on an upright card) depends on the particular spread, the position of the flipped card, its modification by surrounding cards, the question posed by the querent, and the intuition of the reader. It is overly simplistic to think that a reversed card simply means the opposite or negation of its upright position, though that is sometimes the case. In common English parlance, the term “reversal” can signify a setback, delay, period of adversity, or a diversion away from one’s goal. On the contrary, science fiction movies routinely employ a “reversal of polarity” to save the Earth from utter destruction. Thank God for reversals! Without them, the human race might fail to survive an attack by aliens.

The use of reversals to represent complementary or polar opposites has a long history. The alchemical symbols for Fire and Water are an upright and an inverted equilateral triangle—B and C—respectively. The ancient Greeks considered the element Fire masculine, and its symbol was patterned after the male genitalia—an upright phallus rising above two testicles. The inverted image signified Water, a feminine element whose symbol was modeled after the female escutcheon. 43 Historically, dairy herdsmen have used the pubic hair of cattle as a divination tool to foretell the capacity of a cow to give milk on the basis of the shape of the cow’s escutcheon. Perhaps amidst the next generation of tarot decks, the Dairy Cow Escutcheon Tarot will make its debut.

A phenomenon in astrology can aid our understanding of tarot reversals. Millennia ago, astrologers viewed the Earth as the center of the universe with the Sun, the Moon, and the planets in orbit around it. We currently theorize that the planets, including Earth, revolve around the Sun. From an Earth-centric viewpoint, the planets appear occasionally to stop and move backward with respect to the Earth. This apparent reversal of direction, called “retrograde motion,” is analogous to the inversion of a tarot card and has special interpretive significance.

For example, when fast-moving Mercury (the messenger of the gods) appears to stop and reverse direction in the heavens, miscommunications and misunderstandings capture our awareness. Many astrologers find that people with retrograde planets in their birth charts are inhibited in the outward expression of the energies symbolized by the planets traveling in reverse. Astrologers have also observed that retrograde planets relate to inner psychological characteristics of a person rather than the outer manifestation of the planets in mundane reality. By analogy, a tarot reversal may refer to one’s inner life rather than behavior in the outer world.

Just as astrologers regard retrograde planets as symbols of the inhibition of expression of a planet’s energy, tarot readers often view inverted cards as signifying blockages in the flow of a card’s energy. For example, Philippe Camoin interprets reversed cards as problems in need of resolution. He advises students to draw a “solution card” and place it upright above or below the “problem card.” The solution card “indicates the direction to take, what needs to be done to clear the blockage of the ‘problem card’: it is the card that heals the reversed card.” 44

Camoin also recommends noting which direction the figures on the card are facing and what or whom they are looking at. He is following the lead of the Golden Dawn, which recommends paying careful attention to the direction in which the querent’s significator is facing. Whatever lies ahead of the significator is entering the querent’s life, and what lies behind belongs to the querent’s past.

Donald Tyson is another author whose interpretations make use of reversals and the directionality of figures. Like many tarot readers, Tyson believes that “a card always has the same identity” although its inversion may weaken, obstruct or hinder the action of the card. 45 With regard to court cards, Tyson finds that if the figures on the cards face each other, they are in communication or agreement; but if they face in opposite directions, the people they signify may disagree or be concerned with different issues. If they are facing each other with one upright and other inverted, the individuals represented may be engaged in an argument. 46 And so on.

Teresa Michelson notes that the tarot literature views inverted cards in many ways. For instance, a reversed card can indicate issues that are in some way problematic, extreme, unresolved, blocked, imbalanced, hidden, deceptive, repressed, unhelpful, internalized, unlikely to occur, or better to avoid. Like Camoin, Michelson advocates reading reversed cards as obstacles to overcome and points out that the inverted card actually suggests a solution. For example, a reversed Magician trump suggests that the querent is not adequately tapping into his or her own skills to manage a situation. To avoid confusion, Michelson advises us to state in advance to ourselves and to the querent how we will be interpreting reversed cards in a spread. She believes that “reversed cards can actually mean anything you want them to mean, as long as you specifically define their meaning before you conduct the reading.” 47

Paul Fenton-Smith has a novel approach to reversals. 48 He believes that an inverted card implies a need to return to the previous card of the suit to learn a developmental lesson that has not yet been mastered, much like repeating a grade at school. Like many tarot readers, Fenton-Smith views the pip cards of each suit as a series of lessons to be learned in sequence from one through ten. Rather than viewing a card in isolation, he always considers the card of the same suit that came before it and the one that comes after it. What did the situation depicted on the card evolve from and where is it heading?

Fenton-Smith argues, for example, that if the Ten of Wands is reversed, the querent needs to revisit the lesson of the Nine of Wands in order to move forward. The reversed Ten of Wands might indicate feeling overburdened by responsibilities. By returning to the lesson of the Nine, the querent is able to reassess his priorities and shoulder his burden more effectively. Likewise, if the ace of a suit is reversed, Fenton’s advice is to return to the lesson of the ten of that suit. The lessons of the major arcana are also learned in sequential order. Thus, a reversed Moon card, which may indicate troublesome emotions emerging from the unconscious, advises the querent to return to the upright Star “to enjoy the lighter, less threatening aspect of your mind.” 49

In a workshop at the 2011 Readers Studio in New York, James Wells emphasized that the core meaning of a card remains unchanged regardless of its orientation. 50 Wells noted that the inversion of a card may alter the person’s experience of the energy of the card. In his view, upright cards represent the essence of the card in a way that is objective, overt, clear, public, conscious, external, accessible, straightforward, and evident. Reversed cards, in contrast, indicate the same core meaning of the card but in a manner that is more subjective, covert, private, internal, unconscious, indirect, inaccessible, vague, behind the scenes, or out of awareness.

Applying these ideas to our astrological analogy, we might say that upright cards resemble planets in plain view (near the Midheaven or the high-noon point) of the chart, reflecting our worldly status for all to see. Reversed cards are more like planets in the twelfth house of hidden affairs or planets below the horizon, obscured by the darkness of night. In planetary symbolism, upright cards resemble the Sun and Mars, which are clear, well-defined, evident, and direct, whereas inverted cards are more like the Moon or Neptune, whose effects are powerful but often amorphous, foggy, ill-defined, and unconscious.

While writing this chapter, I had a “eureka moment” during a bathroom break when I realized that we experience reversals daily in the way we hang our toilet paper. Whether a roll of paper is hung so that the first sheet emerges from the top or the bottom is often a matter of controversy. Entire marriages have probably ended in divorce over irreconcilable differences on this issue, and spouses tend to rub each other’s noses in it. The purpose and meaning of the toilet paper does not change whether the primary sheet is drawn from the top or the bottom of the roll, but the attitudes and feelings of the end users (no pun intended) run the gamut.

The definitive source of information about this topic is the Toilet Paper Encyclopedia. 51 A survey by the makers of the Cottonelle brand of toilet paper found that a whopping 72 percent of users prefer their toilet paper to come over the top, whereas a paltry 28 percent believe retrieving hygienic sheets from the bottom of the roll is morally superior. The ratio of “tops” to “bottoms” in the general population is 5 to 2, at least with regard to preferences for hanging toilet paper. In the end, both toilet paper and tarot cards have the same core function whether upright or reversed, but the user’s experience can be vastly different, depending on the orientation of the roll or the card.

Before leaving the topic of reversals, I would like to emphasize that the final outcome depends on how skillfully the querent uses the card’s basic meaning. In the following passage, the reader can substitute the words “tarot card” wherever there is a mention of bathroom tissue:

Toilet paper has a natural curve, a way of being that lends itself to certain orientations on the toilet paper spool. If handled with skill and knowledge, it can provide an abundance of both sanitation and comfort, quilted together in each square of pillowy ply. If handled with clumsy ignorance, or worse, carelessness, it will beset the user with pain, filth, and frustration. 52

Scatology aside, a study of the tarot cards with reversed images in their upright positions may provide further clues about what reversals mean. In the Waite-Smith deck, some of the trump cards that contain reversed images include the Hanged Man (trump XII), the Devil (trump XV) and the Tower (trump XVI). Among the pip cards, the Swords often display swords being held either upright or reversed. Readers who use different decks may wish to study the cards containing reversals in their deck of their choice.

The Hanged Man is suspended upside-down by his foot from a high tau cross. He looks comfortable and serene, as if enjoying the new perspective offered by his reversed position. He is viewing the world with a new orientation and appears gratified by the result. The term “inversion” is sometimes used as a euphemism for homosexuality because it involves a reversal of the usual sexual orientation associated with one’s gender at birth. The core desire for sexual union with another person remains unchanged, but the object of the desire changes. In a broader sense, a reversed court card could refer to any type of role reversal. For example, the Empress reversed in a reading for an unemployed husband might represent his role as a stay-at-home dad and a wish to return to the workplace

In early tarot decks, the Hanged Man was called the “Traitor” and lacked the airy-fairy halo of the Waite-Smith deck. Gertrude Moakley made a compelling argument that the prototype for the Hanged Man was Muzio Attendolo Sforza (1369–1424), who opposed the pope and was subsequently humiliated via “shame paintings,” which depicted him hanging upside-down by one foot. 53 The vindictive Holy Father ordered paintings of the disloyal “traitor” to be posted on the gates and bridges of Rome.

The Hanged Man
(Universal Tarot).

Some historians believe the impetus for the Hanged Man was Judas Iscariot who, for thirty pieces of silver, betrayed Jesus with a kiss. 54 According to the Gospel of Matthew (27:5), a guilt-ridden Judas returned the money and hanged himself. An alternate account in the Acts of the Apostles (1:18) has Judas using the silver to buy a field into which he fell headfirst, causing his bowels to gush out. In keeping with the modern symbolism of the Hanged Man, Gnostic Christian texts praise Judas for being the catalyst for Christ’s crucifixion, the end result of which was the salvation of humanity. The Gnostic view would consider Judas, as the Hanged Man, a traitor who fulfilled a higher spiritual purpose at great personal expense.

No doubt the Hanged Man can represent a reversal or a “betrayal” of an accepted view. A couple of “Hanged Man” moments spring to mind from my early days in psychiatry in which I was totally taken by surprise. While working in a hospital emergency room, I once interviewed a woman brought in by the police. She had been found wandering the streets, hallucinating and talking nonsense. During our interview, she told me that God had been talking to her and she was simply responding to what God was saying. I asked her what he was saying to her. She became irate and rebuked me, “What makes you think God is a man?” Despite her psychotic state, her keen insight and ability to embrace an alternate worldview forced me to confront my own blind acceptance of the cultural stereotype of a male deity.

Another “Hanged Man” moment occurred when I began working with a “chronic” patient in a psychiatric clinic. He had been treated by other trainees over many years, and every July he had to start anew with a beginning psychiatrist. In our first interview, I asked him how he felt about stopping with his previous doctor and starting with me. He responded: “It’s a real pain, doc; every year I have to train a new group of student psychiatrists.” His comments offered me a perspective on switching doctors that I would never otherwise have appreciated.

The Devil
(Universal Tarot).

In the Waite-Smith Devil card (trump XV), the pentagram on his forehead is upside-down. Among other things, pentagrams symbolize the five senses and the human form with its head and four limbs. The humans on the Devil card, having reversed their moral compass, are now slaves to their five senses. In bondage to their material desires, they are heading in a wrong direction. The scene on the Devil card is the antithesis of the image on the Lovers card (trump VI) in which an angel hovers above two young lovers, perhaps symbolizing Adam and Eve.

Both the Devil and the Lovers trumps relate to making choices and joining with someone or something we love. Numerologists note that the number of the Devil trump, XV, reduces to VI (1 + 5 = 6), revealing an underlying numerological connection to the Lovers (VI). In a sense, the Devil is the Lovers trump turned upside-down. The basic drives are the same but the drives are being put to different uses, which lead to different outcomes. Perhaps when we see a card reversed, we should ask ourselves how and to what end we are using the basic energies of the card. What choices are we making about the issues reflected in the card? Are we headed in the right direction?

The Tower
(Universal Tarot).

In the Waite-Smith Tower card (XVI), two people fall headfirst from a height after a cataclysmic event. Their ordinary world has been turned upside down, yet this shock enables them to clear away what no longer serves them so they can make a new beginning. The theme is reminiscent of the biblical passage: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” 55

The message of the Tower is similar to that of the Hanged Man—a new perspective is needed so that we can get on with our life. Clinging to old views does not lead us to what we truly desire. In the Hanged Man, we seek a new way of viewing reality, whereas in the Tower card a new awareness may be thrust upon us. The basic message is a need to look at things differently or suffer the consequences.

These three Waite-Smith trumps with reversed images suggest that when we see an inverted card, we should ask questions such as: Do I need a new way of looking at this situation? What assumptions am I making and are they valid? Am I stuck in a rut or confined by some conventional view? Am I blindly accepting a cultural stereotype? What can I become aware of if I assume a different posture or attitude? Can I reframe the matter in a way that allows me to get on with my life? To what use am I putting the energies of the card? What choices am I making? Do these choices foster or hinder my progress? Am I looking in the right places? Am I going in the right direction? Is something causing a delay in my fulfillment of the promise of the card?

As I weigh this list of questions against the backdrop of how to hang toilet paper, it occurs to me that tarot reversals have to do with how to live a good life. Many authors believe the major arcana are patterned after the old morality plays that served to teach the Fool lessons about behaving with virtue to reach salvation. The four suits of the tarot are often paired with the four cardinal virtues: fortitude (Wands), temperance (Cups), justice (Swords), and prudence (Pentacles). When a card of one of the suit is inverted, we may be inadequately displaying the corresponding virtue. Inverted Wands may be too cowardly for their own good; inverted Cups, too self-indulgent; inverted Swords, too cruel or unfair; and inverted Pentacles, too greedy or imprudent.

Author Gareth Knight has another useful approach to tarot reversals. He teaches his students to meditate on the images in the cards so that they can “build flexible personal images around each archetype.” 56 Knight believes that inverted cards modify the normal expression of “the complex of forces that naturally channel through each card.” 57 Understanding the nature of the modification depends on the context of the question and the intuition of the reader.

A one-card reading I did back in 1999 illustrates these principles. On July 16, 1999, John Kennedy, Jr., together with his wife and sister-in-law, were reported missing after taking off in a Piper airplane from a New Jersey airport. The group failed to arrive at its destination on Martha’s Vineyard, and a search was begun. Upon hearing the news of the disappearance, I took out my Robin Wood tarot deck and asked what had happened to John Kennedy. I drew the Eight of Wands, reversed, and the image of a plane crashing into the ocean immediately came to mind.

The Eight of
Wands reversed
(Robin Wood Tarot).

The Waite-Smith Eight of Wands shows eight rods flying rapidly through the air. The Thoth deck labels this card “Swiftness” and associates it with the winged god Mercury who rules the first decan of Sagittarius (incidentally, Kennedy’s natal Sun is located in this decan). In the reversed position, the eight rods are still flying rapidly through the air but in the wrong direction! The outcome was alarmingly clear. On July 21, the three bodies were discovered off Martha’s Vineyard where the plane had crashed into the Atlantic. The National Transportation Safety Board ruled the cause of the crash to be pilot error, namely, the failure to maintain control of the airplane during a nighttime descent over water as a result of spatial disorientation. Kennedy was not certified to fly a plane by “instruments only.” Wands are phallic symbols representative of the element Fire. Upright, Wands signify boldness, daring, and enthusiasm; reversed, they can indicate choices based on an overestimation of one’s masculine prowess.

The writings of Aleister Crowley and Israel Regardie suggest that the Golden Dawn occultists did not alter the meaning of a card on the basis of being upright or reversed. The direction in which the figure on the card was facing, however, was of utmost importance. Regarding tarot reversals, Israel Regardie wrote:

In the laying out of the Cards, if any are inverted they must remain so and must not be turned around, as that would alter the direction in which they would be looking. A card has the same meaning and forces whether right or inverted … [italics mine]. 58

The Golden Dawn utilized the direction the figure on the card was facing and incorporated that view into the interpretation, especially with reference to the querent’s significator. 59 For example, a King looking toward the significator meant that a person or event was about to enter the life of the querent. On the contrary, a King looking away from the significator indicated someone or some situation was leaving the querent behind.

Left to right: The Ace of Swords upright and reversed (Universal Tarot).

In describing the Golden Dawn’s Ace of Swords, Regardie comments that reversing the sword per se changes its meaning from a heavenly force (an upright blade pointed toward the heavens) to an equally powerful but diabolical one (a blade pointing downward toward the underworld). To be clear, Regardie is referring to an inversion of the image of the sword on the card rather than a reversal of the card itself: “Raised upward, it invokes the Divine Crown of Spiritual Brightness. But reversed it is the invocation of demonic force and becomes a fearfully evil symbol … ” 60 Regardie’s equation of upright with heavenly, and reversed with diabolical, may be a source of the practice of giving a negative meaning to a card that has been inverted.

The Seven of Swords
(Universal Tarot).

In the upright Waite-Smith Seven of Swords (inspired by the 1491 Sola Busca deck), all the swords appear “reversed” (pointing downward). Nancy Shavick interprets the Seven of Swords as doing your own thing and establishing “your own beliefs, thoughts, morality, general philosophy, and preferred life-style.” 61 In Colman Smith’s drawing, a man tiptoes away from a camp. He is the only character in the entire Waite-Smith deck to carry swords by their blades in his bare hands, certainly not the proper or “upright” way to transport a cache of swords. In a matter of time, the sharp blades will slice open his hands, and his effort will not endure. This is the artist’s way of depicting the Golden Dawn meaning of “unstable effort” for this card. In a reading I once did for a man, the Seven of Swords came up when his heart went into atrial fibrillation and could only make an unstable effort to pump blood.

Swords are associated with the element Air, which symbolizes one’s thoughts, communication, philosophy, beliefs, and plans. Upright swords can represent ideas that are publicly shared. Reversed swords, in contrast, can symbolize personal or private thoughts about how to live one’s life. Shavick concurs with Gail Fairfield’s view that upright swords signify “ways in which you manifest your philosophy in obvious, public forms” whereas reversed swords symbolize the “personal philosophical ideas and ideals [that] lie beneath the opinions you publicly express.” 62

Tarot readers thus need to consider not only the orientation of the cards but also whether the images on the cards appear upright or reversed. Inverting a card may convert a public image into a private one, and vice versa. An upright sword can represent a shared view of a matter, while an inverted sword can signify private beliefs at variance with the norms of society. Similarly, an upright sword might represent what someone tells you to your face whereas an inverted sword might signify what they say behind your back.

Unlike Regardie and the Golden Dawn, many authors give distinct meanings to reversed cards. In his classic 1911 text, Arthur Edward Waite provided separate meanings for upright and reversed cards. Etteilla (Jean-Baptiste Alliette, 1738–1791), one of the first to popularize the tarot, also gave distinct meanings to inverted cards. Etteilla claimed to have learned tarot card reading from an Italian cartomancer in the mid-1700s, which makes sense since the tarot appears to have originated in northern Italy. His first book—Etteilla, or How to Entertain Yourself with a Deck of Cards (1770)—contained instructions for using regular playing cards for divination. 63 Etteilla included meanings for each playing card, both upright and inverted. He also introduced the use of a special card, which he called an Etteilla, to be used as a significator. One of his teachers, a card reader from Piedmont, Italy, apparently introduced him to the tarot in 1757; in his 1785 text, Etteilla extended his method of card reading to the tarot deck. Modern tarot decks in the Golden Dawn and Waite-Smith traditions have largely abandoned Etteilla’s divinatory meanings, but author Paul Huson has produced an attractive deck, The Dame’s Fortune Wheel Tarot, based on Etteilla’s interpretations from 1785.

Having reviewed a bit of the history of tarot reversals, let’s turn our attention to some readings that illustrate reversals.

Kevin’s Celtic Cross Spreads with Reversals

Kevin, an American living in Japan, consulted me about a spread regarding finding a job. During his career, Kevin had spent time in Japan, where he met and married a Japanese woman. They settled in America and started a family. Kevin worked as an IT professional until he got laid off in the economic slump of 2009. After nine months of searching for new employment in the States, Kevin and his wife decided to relocate with their children to Japan where his wife had a promise of employment.

Unable to speak Japanese, Kevin stayed home and took care of the children. Nonetheless, he wanted to support his family and eventually heard of an opening for an English teacher. He was nervous about applying because he was not trained as a teacher, but he decided to give it a try and asked the tarot what to expect. Kevin cast a Celtic Cross spread, which contained three reversals:

1. This covers you: Knight of Swords
2. This crosses you: Three of Cups
3. This is beneath you: Two of Wands
4. This is behind you: Eight of Wands
5. This crowns you: Judgment
6. This is ahead of you: The Devil (reversed)
7. This represents you in this situation: The Empress (reversed)
8. This is those around you—your environment: The Magician
9. This is your hopes and fears: Queen of Pentacles (reversed)
10. This is the likely outcome: Two of Cups

Kevin was puzzled by the layout and asked my opinion. He explained: “My biggest concern is not ever having taught before. Will my lack of those teaching skills hinder my progress here?”

It was late evening when his email arrived but I didn’t want to leave Kevin hanging, so I sent a quick reply:

Just a few initial impressions: The Knight of Swords covering you and the Eight of Wands in the recent-past position suggest that you are feeling rushed. The Two of Wands beneath you suggests that you are looking to the future and planning how you want to proceed. The Judgment trump above you suggests a new beginning as a potential or optimal outcome. The Two of Cups in the likely outcome position is positive and suggests emotional fulfillment. The Queen of Pentacles reversed, I think, is your anxiety about teaching. Pentacles have to do with learning and study. Queens are good teachers. You may be worried that you won’t do the job as well as a professional teacher. The Queen may even be a teacher that you had in the past and would like to emulate. This is in the hopes and fears position.

I’m not sure what to make of the Devil reversed in the near-future position. The Devil usually has to do with material desires and temptations. The Empress in position 7 signifies you at the time of the reading. The Empress and the Queen of Pentacles have a lot in common. They are both fertile, productive women. The Magician represents those around you. It’s a nice card and suggests that people in your environment have the skills and know-how to help you get what you want. The Three of Cups crossing you is some kind of challenge. Maybe you will have to give up some good times with your family to be able to teach. Maybe the pay won’t be what you would like and life will have less of a festive tone.

Kevin responded:

The spread now makes more sense: The Knight of Swords may indicate the manager who will interview me. Judgment could mean being accepted by this manager. The Three of Cups crossing may suggest that I will lose a lot of free time and the enjoyment of spending so much time with my kids? Or maybe it’s less pay or fewer hours than I would like?

The Eight of Wands may suggest that I feel rushed to find a job as the money is running out. I would have loved to get back into IT, as the money is so much better, but not being able to speak and read Japanese is a huge obstacle here. Teaching for me represents the best way of getting out into the community, making friends, and interacting with the Japanese. I am excited to learn about their culture and language.

The reversed Devil for me is very clear. It indicates a release from bondage. I feel imprisoned here. Day to day I’m virtually housebound; I have very little interaction with people except for going to the gym and the grocery store. If I can teach, I will have much more interaction with the community.

Both the reversed Empress and Queen of Pentacles could show my doubtful state of mind and worries. The Two of Cups could mean a contract, a business deal, or mutual respect (perhaps with the Knight of Swords?).

Three adjacent cards, left to right: The Devil, the Empress,
and the Queen of Pentacles, all reversed (Universal Tarot).

Kevin and I continued to correspond as his situation progressed. He learned that he had to pass a rigorous grammar exam to qualify for the job—a test that we thought might be represented by the Devil card. The devil is in the details, after all. Because Kevin had put on some weight, he needed to buy some new clothes for the interview. Perhaps this was indicated by the Devil trump with its oversized naked demon and characters in need of clothing.

Finally, the day of the interview came. Kevin found the grammar test grueling; he was sure he failed. He also learned that the job required at least four months of teaching experience, but he had none. Still, Kevin was quite dismayed when he learned that he did not get the job. In his email he wrote:

There were two interviewers in the room. They conferred with each other every step of the way. So this answers the final Two of Cups (card 10) in my mind. The decision was between them.

In retrospect, the Two of Cups (the Lord of Love) was puzzling as the outcome card in a spread about a job interview. Because neither of us had a clear sense of what it meant, it would have been wise to follow Waite’s advice and “open up” the Two of Cups by using it as a significator for a new Celtic Cross spread. Because the Two of Cups has such a positive meaning for one’s emotional life, it seemed that, whether or not he got the job, the outcome would involve a growth experience that would bring Kevin and his wife closer together. When Kevin wrote to the interviewers to ask for feedback, they responded with encouraging and helpful advice about how to find employment in Japan.

About a week after being rejected for the job, Kevin wrote that he had now done a follow-up Celtic Cross spread in which he asked the tarot to “give [him] career advice.” Essentially Kevin “opened up” the Two of Cups (card 10) of his original spread. The accompanying table lists the cards in his original and clarification spreads.

Kevin’s Celtic Cross Spreads about Finding a Job
Position	Meaning	Original Spread	Clarifying Spread
0	Significator card	None chosen	Two of Cups (implied)
1	This covers you	Knight of Swords	Four of Wands, reversed
2	This crosses you	Three of Cups	Queen of Pentacles
3	This is beneath you	Two of Wands	Six of Swords
4	This is behind you	Eight of Wands	Six of Cups, reversed
5	This crowns you	Judgment	Ace of Swords
6	This is ahead of you	The Devil, reversed	Seven of Swords, reversed
7	This represents you	The Empress, reversed	Four of Cups, reversed
8	This is those around you	The Magician	Five of Pentacles
9	This is your hopes & fears	Queen of Pentacles, reversed	The Tower
10	This is the likely outcome	Two of Cups	The Fool

As a result of our discussions, Kevin was feeling more confident about his ability to read the Celtic Cross. He offered the following interpretation:

OK, so this reading is a pretty good one. It really seemed to capture the situation to a T. I reasoned that it is showing delayed but impending success (Four of Wands) and the need to manage meager finances (Queen of Pentacles and Five of Pentacles). The sneak-thief reversed (Seven of Swords) may suggest the need to get creative to solve my difficulties, hence the need for training and volunteering. The Tower scares me. Drastic change? More bad luck? The Fool and the Ace of Swords would indicate to me the start of a new enterprise or job, and great adventure. Oh yes and the Four of Cups seems to indicate the end of discontent, coming out of my shell, and new ideas, new people, and new experiences.

After pondering his experience in the job interview in light of both tarot spreads, Kevin decided to pursue training and become a certified teacher. This is an example of an excellent use of the tarot. Kevin asked a pressing question and used his intuition to relate the cards to his personal life. In doing so, he was able to see his situation in a new light, clarify his thinking, take responsibility for his life, and make an important decision about how to go forward.

Kevin volunteered to teach English at his daughter’s kindergarten and pursued contacts in his local community with people who might be able to guide him toward gaining teaching experience. The Two of Cups (the Lord of Love) in position 10 of the original spread now made more sense. The outcome of the job interview was not that he would be offered a job (as both of us were hoping) but that he would volunteer his services as a teacher out of the goodness of his heart. The second spread, which clarified the Two of Cups, advised him to become like the Fool and embark on the new adventure of learning how to teach.

The Subset of Reversed Cards in Catherine’s Reading

If the cards have been thoroughly mixed and randomly inverted, roughly 50 percent of them will appear upside-down in a spread. If only a small number of cards turn out to be reversed, they will stand out from the upright cards. In such a case, the tarot may be asking us to pay special attention to the few cards that have assumed postures so distinct from the rest. It is as if the inverted cards are forming a vocal minority (or better said, a “visual minority”) that demands our attention. Perhaps reading this noticeable subset of cards as a separate spread will yield important information. Consider the following example.

In their book Beyond the Celtic Cross, Paul Hughes-Barlow and Catherine Chapman discuss a reading in which three of the ten cards in the Celtic Cross spread are inverted:

• Card 1: The Heart of the Matter—The Eight of Cups, reversed
• Card 4: The Recent Past—The Three of Swords, reversed
• Card 10: The Likely Outcome—The Knight of Wands, reversed

The querent is Catherine (who coauthored the book). She had asked, “Will I meet the man of my dreams?”

I have omitted the seven upright cards of the Celtic Cross spread to focus exclusively on the three cards that are highlighted by being reversed.

The Eight of Cups
reversed (Universal Tarot).

Card 1

The Eight of Cups reversed “covers” her. The Waite-Smith Eight of Cups shows someone walking away from an unsatisfying situation in search of something better to satisfy her needs. A simplistic interpretation of the reversal would be that she ought not withdraw from the situation but rather should stay with it. My gut feeling about the reversal of this card, however, is that she has already moved on and is unsure about what to do next, or is questioning what will happen as a result.

Card 4

The Three of Swords
reversed (Universal Tarot).

The reversed Three of Swords (a heart pierced by three swords) occupies the recent-past position, suggesting that she has already experienced emotional pain, perhaps due to a loss or breakup and is trying to get over it (a possible meaning of the reversal). I have found it useful to consider the astrological attributions of the Golden Dawn and Crowley’s Thoth deck. Though this process can be a bit tedious, it often produces deeper insights into a situation, so bear with me as I go through some astrological details.

Crowley labels the Three of Swords “Sorrow” and links it to the planet Saturn, which rules the second decan of Libra (the sign of partnerships, ruled by Venus, the goddess of love). Saturn, as a symbol, has both “light” and “shadow” aspects.

It can mean hardship and loss but also seriousness and responsibility. Perhaps the Three of Swords (Saturn in Libra), reversed, refers to getting serious (Saturn) about matters of the heart (Libra). In Regardie’s view, the individual swords on the reversed Three of Swords card all have their blades pointing upward and thus possess a “heavenly” rather than a “diabolical” significance.

With regard to the covering card in position 1, Crowley calls the Eight of Cups “Indolence” and associates it with the Saturn decan of Pisces (roughly the last ten days of winter). Saturn slows things down; Pisces is the emotional Water sign that ends the zodiac cycle. Catherine may feel stuck, as if immersed in stagnant water, a metaphor for her emotional state. The querent is suffering from a double dose of Saturn in the reversed cards of this spread, as the leaden planet appears in the cards of positions 1 and 4.

The Knight of Wands
reversed (Universal Tarot).

Indolence (the Eight of Cups) suggests inactivity and inertia; there is something she needs to overcome so she can get moving again. Saturn is a planet of restriction, delay, and deprivation. Pisces is associated with dreams, visions, fantasies, and illusions. The reversed Eight of Cups may mean that she needs to overcome her inertia and step out of the world of illusion to find the man of her dreams. It also raises the question of whether that man might simply be a Piscean fantasy. Undoing her indolence and getting unstuck from illusion are the means of escape from this winter of her discontent.

Card 10

The outcome card is the fiery Knight of Wands reversed. Catherine is looking for a man of the nature of Fire—vigorous, enthusiastic, creative, intelligent, and spirited—a chivalric Knight in shining armor. His reversal poses several questions. Will there be a delay in her meeting this Knight? Is Catherine pursuing a dream instead of a reality? Does she need to adopt a more realistic view of who she wants to be with if she wishes to find him? Is she looking right at him, perhaps unaware that he is the man she has been seeking all along? Does she need to “reverse her polarity” and view him in a different light to be able to see who he really is?

Crowley associates the Knight of Wands with the fiery part of Fire and assigns it to the last decan of Scorpio and the first two decans of Sagittarius. Catherine’s fiery Knight may be a person with his natal Sun or Ascendant in one of these signs, particularly the span from 20 degrees Scorpio to 20 degrees Sagittarius, or he may be someone with the characteristics of these signs (emotionally intense, ardent, adventurous, philosophical, broad-minded, living at a distance, of foreign background, etc.).

The Waite-Smith Knight of Wands is a dashing young man in search of adventure on his galloping steed. His Sagittarian motto could easily come from Star Trek, “to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.” The peripatetic Knight of Wands often implies swift movement, travel and even a change of residence. Could the reversal of this Knight in Catherine’s reading mean she will need to endure a stressful move to find him? Reversals can mean hardship, delay, or extra effort to reach one’s goals.

Although I regard Knights as youthful adult men, Arthur Waite, designer of this deck, identifies Knights as men older than forty. If we follow Waite’s lead, the man of her dreams could be someone older, possibly of fair complexion with yellow or auburn hair and blue eyes. 64 Modern authors tend to ignore Waite’s age attributions (Kings as men under forty, and Knights older than forty years old) and instead view Knights as adult men who are younger than Kings. Could the reversal of this Knight be saying something about his age? Should we reverse Waite’s age attribution and regard him as a man under forty? Could he be of a different age than the man she is imagining?

If card 10 indicates the timing of the outcome, the Knight of Wands highlights the period from November 13 through December 12 in the tropical zodiac preferred by Western astrologers. 65 If the reversal of card 10 refers to timing, it could be telling us to use the sidereal zodiac, which begins at the start of the constellation Aries. This was the preferred method of MacGregor Mathers of the Golden Dawn.

In the sidereal zodiac, Catherine would have to wait until the period from December 6 to January 5 to meet her man, or perhaps her Knight of Wands was born during that period. Another possibility is that the inverted card in the outcome position points to a time directly across the zodiac wheel. The Knight of Wands, reversed, may refer to its zodiacal complement, the Knight of Swords, who rules the period from May 11 to June 10 in the tropical zodiac.

We might also say that the inversion of the Knight of Wands as an outcome card could mean that events will not manifest as she expects. The upside-down Knight could refer to someone she knows in another capacity but whose relationship to her will “turn” into something different, namely, the romance that she desires when he “flips” for her. The Waite-Smith Knight of Wands is riding his horse toward the querent, which means that in the inverted position he is riding away from her. How will they meet if he is speeding in the opposite direction? Will she have to go after him? And if she does pursue him, where will he lead her?

If the Knight of Wands refers to a person involved in the outcome, there may be clues about him in the pip cards associated with the decans covered by this Knight in the Golden Dawn system (see appendix C):

• Third decan of Scorpio—Seven of Cups—Venus in Scorpio—“Debauch”
• First decan of Sagittarius—Eight of Wands—Mercury in Sagittarius—“Swiftness”
• Second decan of Sagittarius—Nine of Wands—Moon in Sagittarius—“Strength”

Which, if any, of these three cards is significant? Perhaps they all are. I find court cards in the outcome position difficult to interpret and usually ask the querent to draw a clarification card. Waite recommended doing an entirely new Celtic Cross spread using the court card as significator to clarify its role in the outcome. In this case, Catherine drew trump XIV Temperance, upright, as her clarification card: a harmonious blending of opposites. A good omen for a relationship!

Temperance
(Universal Tarot).

Temperance is linked to Sagittarius, a Fire sign ruled by Jupiter, spanning the period from November 23 to December 21 of each year. Again we have a reference to Sagittarius. Will her Knight be born under Sagittarius or have a personality like the man-horse archer of the zodiac? The Temperance trump also suggests a need for patience, moderation, and inner balance. The English word “temperance” comes from the Latin temperare meaning “to mingle in due proportion.”

On the Waite-Smith card, the archangel Michael is pouring water from one chalice to another. He has one foot in water and the other foot on earth and wears a solar disc (a Fire symbol) on his forehead. Presumably the angel is blending diverse elements into a harmonious amalgam as part of his mission to guide souls on their path to spiritual enlightenment. This path is seen on the lower left of the card leading from the pond to the mountaintop where the sun is beaming.

Temperance is a positive card linked with Sagittarius whose ruler, Jupiter, is called the Greater Benefic. Because Temperance is a major arcana card, most readers regard it as highly significant. The reversed Knight of Wands as the outcome card, in combination with Temperance as its clarifying card, suggests that Catherine may indeed find the Sagittarian man of her dreams, someone with whom she can blend harmoniously (Temperance), but only after a period of patient waiting (Temperance combined with the inverted Knight of Wands).

Reversals and Astrology

Let me further elaborate my ideas about reversals and the astrological associations of the tarot cards. This material can be a bit detailed; if astrology is not your cup of tea, feel free to skip this section. By way of review, the horoscope is divided into twelve houses, six below the horizon and six above. Each house is paired symbolically with its opposite house directly across the wheel. Thus, the first house represents the self and the opposite seventh house signifies one’s intimate partner or complementary other. The second house refers to one’s money and income and the complementary eighth house (across the wheel) stands for the money of others. This pattern continues around the wheel in such a way that each house below the horizon “looks at” its complementary house above the horizon, and vice versa.

What does the pairing of the zodiacal houses have to do with tarot reversals? Occultists, especially the Order of the Golden Dawn, have linked each tarot card to a planet or a position on the zodiac circle. Thus, each card “looks at” a complementary card directly across the horoscope wheel. A detailed account of this idea of the complementarity of opposing signs and houses can be found in my 1991 book on horary astrology. 66

Upright cards on one side of the wheel appear to be upside-down with respect to their complementary cards that lie opposite. Wands look at Swords of the same number (for pip cards) or rank (for court cards), and vice versa. Cup cards look at Pentacles of the same number or rank, and vice versa. The major arcana, which are associated with the twelve zodiacal signs, look at the trump card linked to the opposite zodiac sign. The trump cards that are paired with planets are an exception in that the World (Saturn) looks at not one but two other trump cards: the Sun (associated with the sun) and the High Priestess (associated with the moon).

The accompanying tables illustrate the complementary sets formed by the trump cards associated with the zodiacal signs and planets by the Golden Dawn. Readers who use alternative systems to correlate astrology with the tarot will need to work out their own sets of correspondences. The Golden Dawn attributions are widely accepted—and in my experience give good results in practice.

Complementary Major Arcana Viewing Each Other Across the Zodiac
Major Arcana & Zodiac Sign	Major Arcana & Zodiac Sign
The Emperor–Aries	Justice–Libra
The Hierophant–Taurus	Death–Scorpio
The Lovers–Gemini	Temperance–Sagittarius
The Chariot–Cancer	The Devil–Capricorn
Strength–Leo	The Star–Aquarius
The Hermit–Virgo	The Moon–Pisces

Planetary Pairings of Major Arcana by Sign Rulerships
Trump–(Planet & signs ruled):	Looks at:
The Sun–(Sun, ruler of Leo)	The World–(Saturn, ruler of Aquarius)
The High Priestess–(Moon, ruler of Cancer)	The World–(Saturn, ruler of Capricorn)
The Magician–(Mercury, ruler of Gemini & Virgo)	The Wheel of Fortune–(Jupiter, ruler of Sagittarius & Pisces)
The Empress–(Venus, ruler of Taurus & Libra)	The Tower–(Mars, ruler of Scorpio & Aries)
The Tower–(Mars, ruler of Aries & Scorpio)	The Empress–(Venus, ruler of Libra & Taurus)
The Wheel of Fortune–(Jupiter, ruler of Sagittarius & Pisces)	The Magician–(Mercury, ruler of Gemini & Virgo)
The World–(Saturn, ruler of Capricorn & Aquarius)	The High Priestess & The Sun–(Moon, ruler of Cancer and Sun, ruler of Leo)

If my hunch is correct, reversed cards refer us to their complementary partners across the zodiac, perhaps as a way to resolve the upset implied by the original reversal. If we apply Camoin’s idea that reversals indicate problems to be solved, then a reversed card’s complement across the wheel may hold a key to the solution. In Catherine’s spread we see:

Catherine’s “covering” card, the reversed Eight of Cups (“Indolence”), is linked to the Saturn decan of Pisces. Its complement across the wheel, the Eight of Pentacles, is called “Prudence” in the Thoth deck and refers to the Sun decan of Virgo. The Eight of Pentacles suggests the diligent use of one’s creative skills in one’s daily work. The gloom of Saturn in the Eight of Cups is turned upside-down and connects us with the light of the Sun in the Eight of Pentacles.

In the recent-past position, the reversed Three of Swords (“Sorrow,” the Saturn decan of Libra) looks across the wheel at the Three of Wands, which the Thoth deck names “Virtue” and links to the Sun decan of Aries. The Three of Wands refers to an enterprising project in collaboration with others. Again, the gloom of Saturn (Three of Swords) is reversed and points toward the brightness of the Sun (Three of Wands). If she wants to deal with the heaviness of these reversed cards of the original spread, she may need to apply the lessons of their upright complementary cards (Eight of Pentacles, Three of Wands) across the wheel.

The Knight of Wands reversed, in the outcome position, refers us to his zodiacal complement, the Knight of Swords, which rules the first decan of Gemini and the two decans immediately adjacent to it (from 20 degrees Taurus to 20 degrees Gemini). Gemini loves to write and communicate. The Knight of Swords is often a man of haste, acerbic wit, and clever intellect. Perhaps such a man will be important in the outcome.

The clarification card, Temperance (associated with Sagittarius), though not reversed, is linked to its complementary trump across the wheel, the Lovers (associated with Gemini). Sagittarius has to do with higher learning, publishing, prophecy, and affairs at a distance. Its complementary sign Gemini is connected with communications, writing, study, and transport. In the modern world, these complementary signs can refer to the Internet, which allows us to communicate at a distance. One outcome of Catherine’s question was to write a book with Paul Hughes-Barlow via e-mails over the Internet. The themes of writing, publishing, learning, teaching, and distant communication were all present in her outcome.

To avoid stealing Catherine’s thunder, I refer the reader to Beyond the Celtic Cross for the remainder of the story. It is a book worth reading for a deeper understanding of the use of Golden Dawn techniques such as card counting and elemental dignities for interpreting the cards.

Tarot Reversals and the Heartless Queen of Hearts

The Queen of Cups
reversed (Universal Tarot).

Let me conclude this chapter with an “aha!” moment I experienced when a Google search about the tarot and playing cards made reference to Lewis Carroll’s Queen of Hearts. The reader will recall that the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland (1865), a member of the royalty of a pack of playing cards, behaved anything but like a queen with a heart. “The Queen had only one way of settling all difficulties, great or small. ‘Off with his head!’ she said, without even looking round.” 67 No doubt this Queen of Hearts must be “reversed” in the deck she governs. As one would expect, the Queen of Hearts is ruled by her emotions. The love symbolized by “hearts” is inverted and manifests as wrath and vindictiveness. Fortunately, the Queen’s demands to execute anyone who displeases her are rarely carried out. When his wife is not looking, the “upright” King of Hearts remains true to his nature and pardons those whom the Queen has condemned to death.

[contents]

40 . Wilma Carroll, The 2-Hour Tarot Tutor (New York: Berkeley Books, 2004), p. 8.

41 . Place, The Tarot: History, Symbolism, p. 274.

42 . Mary Greer, The Complete Book of Tarot Reversals (Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn, 2002).

43 . J. C. Segen, The Dictionary of Modern Medicine (London: Taylor & Francis, 1992), p. 199: “The patch of pubic hair; the normal female escutcheon is a triangle pointing downward, sharply cut off at the level of the pubic symphysis; the male escutcheon is diamond-shaped with both downward and upward angles.”

44 . Philippe Camoin, “The Law of the Solution Card,” http://en.camoin.com/tarot/Law-Solution-Card.html (accessed 11 Apr. 2011).

45 . Donald Tyson, 1*2*3 Tarot (Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2004), p. 7.

46 . Tyson, 1*2*3 Tarot, pp. 21–22.

47 . Teresa C. Michelson, The Complete Tarot Reader (Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2005) p. 178.

48 . Paul Fenton-Smith, Tarot Masterclass (Crows Nest, NSW, Australia: Allen & Unwin, 2007), p. 14.

49 . Fenton-Smith, Tarot Masterclass, p. 223.

50 . James Wells, workshop “The Minor Arcana,” 2011 Readers Studio Workshop (New York, 30 Apr. 2011).

51 . The Toilet Paper Encyclopedia, “toilet paper statistics,”s.vv. http://encyclopedia.toiletpaperworld.com/surveys-stories/toilet-paper-statistics (accessed 1 May 2012).

52 . “Essential Life Lesson #1: Over is Right, Under is Wrong,” Current Configuration, http://currentconfig.com/2005/02/22/essential-life-lesson-1-over-is-right-under-is-wrong/ (accessed 4 May 2012).

53 . Ronald Decker, The Esoteric Tarot, (Wheaton, IL: Quest Books, 2013), p. 109.

54 . The name Iscariot may derive from the Latin sicarius meaning “dagger-man,” a term used to describe a group of Jewish assassins around 40 CE who carried concealed daggers to drive the Romans out of Judea by stabbing them in the back. The Romans considered these Jewish assassins to be traitors, but the Jews revered them as saints. The themes of the Hanged Man card are clearly present in this story.

55 . John 12:24 (New American Standard Bible).

56 . Knight, Magical World, p. 29.

57 . Ibid., p. 81.

58 . Israel Regardie, The Golden Dawn (Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 1989), p. 568.

59 . According to Paul Huson (Mystical Origins of the Tarot, Rochester, VT: Destiny Books, 2004, p. 68), Mathers simply copied Etteilla’s divinatory meanings and applied Etteilla’s negative interpretations to inverted tarot cards.

60 . Regardie, The Golden Dawn, p. 543.

61 . Nancy Shavick, Traveling the Royal Road: Mastering the Tarot (New York: Berkley Books, 1992), pp. 68–69.

62 . Gail Fairfield, Choice Centered Tarot (Smithville, IN: Ramp Creek Publishing, 1984), p. 42.

63 . The original title in French is Etteilla, ou manière de se récréer avec un jeu de cartes.

64 . Waite, Pictorial Key (1959), p. 299.

65 . These dates are based on the tropical zodiac. The Golden Dawn, however, used the sidereal zodiac, which gives the dates for the Knight of Wands as December 6 through January 5. See appendix C.

66 . Anthony Louis, Horary Astrology Plain and Simple: The History and Practice of Astro-Divination (St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 1991).

67 . Lewis Carrol, Alice in Wonderland, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11/11-h/11-h.htm#link2HCH0008, chapter VIII, (accessed 3 Sep 2012).