How To Read Reversed Tarot Cards to Benefit Your Fiction Writing

When a card lands in an upside down position, it’s called a reversed card or a reversal.

How do you interpret reversed cards?

Do reversed tarot cards have special meanings?

Different tarot readers approach reversals in different ways. 

Ignore Reversed Cards

Some readers choose to ignore reversal and simply flip the right way up, using one meaning for each card.

Reversed Cards Have Reversed Meanings

Others believe a reversed card has an entirely different meaning, often a negative reversal of the traditional meaning of the card. In this sense, the card takes on a note of warning. For example, with a reversal of the 0 Fool card, instead of a card about the blissful naivety of new beginnings and expansive possibilities, we see this card more as idiocy than innocent foolishness, and a warning about not looking with caution where you are about to tread.

Reversed Cards Are Blocked Energies

For other readers, a reversed card indicates that there is a blockage in the querent surrounding whatever they’re asking about. Sticking with the Fool example, if you draw a reversed Fool card, this blockage philosophy might suggest that there is something holding the querent back from stepping off into a new adventure and embracing the unknowns of new beginnings. 

When I encounter a reversed card, I like to combine these ideas depending on how it best serves the reading. 

I take the reversal of the traditional meaning and consider how it’s not happening for me or for my story worlds, how it might be blocked, and what might be blocking it.

Might that blockage serve as a warning?

Reversed Cards as Shadow Selves

I also tend to imagine reversed cards as messages from our shadow sides. 

These are the darker sides of personality that each of us has. This might not be a “bad” personality trait, as it might simply indicate that it’s a hidden part of ourselves, something we avoid facing and cast to our deepest internal world. Shadows are the parts of us that we keep from others, even those closest to us, and sometimes even from ourselves.

Inner Vs Outer Meanings

You might also think of a reversed card as the internalization of the card’s meaning, as opposed to an externally projected energy or experience. For a reversed Fool this might indicate a new project or undertaking you’re keeping secret from others, or an internal psychological journey you’re undertaking in complete privacy from others.

Using Reversed Tarot Cards For Writing Fiction

When you’re reading for your characters or a particular plot point, playing with reversed cards can be a lot of fun, and provide a great depth to your thinking and work.

A reversed card for a plot point might indicate a negative consequence for a character’s action or reaction, or a bad choice.

A reversed card might show you a shadow side of your character’s internal world that you hadn’t before considered that will influence how they react to a situation.

A reversed card for a character might indicate the character’s wound or ghost, that troubling aspect of their past they are trying to run, grow from, or change.

A reversed card might simply show you two ways of looking at a plot advancement. Will the character achieve or fail in this scene? You can also play with reversals as simple Yes/No answers.

How do you consider reversals in your tarot reading?