Reversal
Tarot glossary · also reversed card, inverted card
A reversal is a card that lands upside down. Readers who use reversals read it as the card's meaning blocked, weakened, delayed, turned inward or taken to excess, rather than simply its opposite. The practice is recorded from Etteilla's writings in the 1780s and was taken up by later occultists and by Waite, whose 1910 guide gives a reversed meaning for every card. It is optional: many readers keep all cards upright, and some use elemental dignities or neighbouring cards instead. A common worry, that a reversed card is always bad news, is not how most guides use it. See reversed tarot cards.
