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?

The post How To Read Reversed Tarot Cards to Benefit Your Fiction Writing appeared first on Tarot Writers.

One of my early novels – never published – was called Wind Harps of War after the story card associated with the 9 of Spears (aka Wands) in the Legend Deck. I used the wind harps as a plot device and continuing motif through the story, but not much of that had to do with the traditional meaning of the 9 of Wands card.

While I can’t pinpoint where tarot became a fiction writing tool for me, I’ve used tarot to write all of my currently published novels and the stories I’m working on right now.

How I Use Tarot To Inspire Fiction

Select The Right Deck

I’m privileged to have access to numerous decks, but you don’t need dozens of decks to use tarot for your fiction. One deck will suffice, and if you don’t have a deck of your own, you can use a site like Random Tarot Card to generate a basic draw.

If you can choose a deck for your stories, pick something that not only has a personal resonance with you, but has some kind of thematic relevance to the story you’re working with.

For my Witch Against Wicked books, I used the Witches Tarot by Ellen Dugan and the Gilded Tarot by Ciro Marchetti, both gorgeous modern decks illustrated with contemporary mysticism tied to traditional motifs. The art and general vibe of the cards suit my contemporary fantasy work well.

I also enjoy using The Golden Tarot: The Visconti-Sforza Deck by Mary Packard, which is a deck representing the fifteenth century Visconti-Sforza cards. I use this when I’m dabbling in historical fiction or if I’m looking to inject some ancient history into a modern context as it has a strong medieval aesthetic and doesn’t have any modern connotations of the RWS inspired decks.

Draw One Card

The one card draw is the easiest tarot card draw.

Hold your story issue in your mind while shuffling the deck. Stop shuffling when it feels right. Draw one card.

How does it apply?

How does it not apply?

Is this enough to start your writing? If you feel you could use more context or deeper message, draw a second card, and so on until you’re ready to write.

For example, here’s a one card (plus more) draw I did with a current novel in progress for a side character who I needed to shake up and have act in some way in a particular scene (otherwise she would have just been standing there in the background). 

The first card was the 9 of wands (total coincidence that I opened this article talking about this card!). 

A card about protection.

I couldn’t see how that obviously fit. 

I drew another card.

5 wands, a card about battles but not direct conflicts.

The context deepened.  

Protection from battles. 

So she wasn’t about to directly fight anyone. But what battles? The two spears cards lead me to think this had to be a battle about ideas, intellect, and intuition.

A new card. The Major Arcana Judgement card – or in the Witches Tarot deck, it’s called Karma. 

Universal significance and meaning. 

Protection from the overall battles and themes in the story.

I then thought of a now obvious connection, how I could have this side character try to protect the protagonist from the bigger battles they faced in the story arc, not so much the direct conflicts, but the personal battles they had with their own ideas about the world. So not only did I get a plot point, I developed and deepened the relationship between two characters, and reinforced my story’s theme – all from three tarot cards. Magic!

The foundation of creativity is connecting ideas and thoughts in new ways. We can only think what we already think. 

Tarot gives us new inputs, opportunities to broaden and deepen our thinking, sending stories into new directions and previously invisible possibilities.

 It might be random… That depends on how much magic you want to believe in!

The post How To Write Fiction With Tarot appeared first on Tarot Writers.