How to Read Reversed Tarot Cards

A card that lands upside down is called a reversed card. Many people tense up when they see one, because they take it as bad news. A reversed card does not erase what the card is about. It shows how you are handling that same matter right now.

In this lesson you learn the two ways to read a reversal: too little and too much. You practice telling them apart with example scenes. When a reversed card turns up, you work out which one fits your situation.

When does a card come up reversed?

As you shuffle, some cards turn around. When you lay a card down and the top of the picture is not facing you, the card is reversed. With a physical deck, this depends entirely on the shuffle.

In the Moon Shine AI deck of 78 cards, about one card in three comes up reversed. So your Today's card shows up reversed roughly one day in three, and there is nothing strange about that.

When you get a reversal, read the reversed section on the card's page. Keep the upright meaning in view as well, because the reversed meaning is built on it.

First reading: the card's quality is missing

In the first reading, what the upright card describes is missing in you or stops halfway. You know the behavior the card points to, and you hold back from it.

Upright, Strength shows you handling a hard moment with patience. In the too-little reading of reversed Strength, your patience runs out. Someone bumps into you on a crowded bus, you raise your voice, and you stay annoyed about it for the rest of the day.

When The Magician comes up reversed, you leave your skills unused. If you sit in a meeting and know the right answer, you stay quiet, and someone else voices the idea. The card does not say you lack the skill. It says you kept that skill off the table.

In this reading, the advice is one small step back toward the upright behavior. For Strength, that means waiting three seconds the next time a moment gets tense.

Second reading: the card goes too far

In the second reading, the card's quality is not missing; there is too much of it. Behavior that works well in the upright card turns into a problem once it passes a sensible limit.

Upright, The Emperor shows you setting the rules and taking responsibility. In the too-much reading of the reversed Emperor, you want to control everything yourself. When you plan a trip with friends, you decide everything from the hotel to the dinner times, and the group grows tired of it.

Upright, the Queen of Cups shows you listening to someone with patience. Reversed, the listening takes over your whole evening. You hear out a friend's troubles for hours and never tell anyone how tired you are.

In this reading, the advice is to let something go. For the Emperor, that means handing one decision to someone else today and staying out of how it turns out.

Which reading is yours?

Every reversed card carries both readings. The card does not tell you which one applies; you find that out yourself. One question settles it: am I doing too little here, or too much?

The question works right away with a reversed Four of Coins. If you think for ages before every purchase and skip even what you need, the reading is excessive thrift. If your budget is gone by the middle of the month, the same card describes overspending. Either way, the card speaks about how you handle spending, not about what your money will do next.

The other cards in the spread point the way too. If the Eight of Wands, a card of speed, sits beside it, the too-much reading comes forward. If the Four of Swords, a card of rest, sits beside it, the too-little reading comes forward.

For hard cards, the reversal brings relief

Some cards describe a difficult situation when they come up upright. Their reversal shows that situation easing. A reversed card is not always the worse version.

Upright, The Moon shows a matter that will not come clear, and you feel confused. With the Moon reversed, the matter comes clear. One conversation tells you what a message you have puzzled over for weeks actually meant.

Upright, The Devil points to a habit that keeps you tied down. The reversed Devil is the day you take the first step out of that habit. The card does not speak of an evil force, danger, illness or disaster. It says you are letting go of something you wanted to let go of.

Upright, the Eight of Swords shows you stuck inside a limit you set for yourself. Reversed, you see that the limit is not as tight as you believed, and you take one step outside it. Here too, the card points to no harm and no illness.

Reversed cards in the three-card spread

In the app's Premium three-card spread, you first write a question or pick a topic. The cards then land in three positions: Now, What challenges you, and Your next step. How you read a reversed card also depends on its position.

In the Now position, a reversed card describes where you stand today. A reversed Chariot here says you have started several tasks at once and are moving forward on none of them.

In the What challenges you position, a reversed card shows that the thing wearing you out is exactly that shortfall or that excess.

In the Your next step position, the step is the fix for the reversed meaning. If the reversed Chariot lands here, tomorrow morning you set two of your three tasks aside and sit down with just one.

When several cards come up reversed

If two or all three cards come up reversed, the matter you asked about is stuck on your side for now. This does not mean a bad ending. It says you have approached the matter the same way for a while, and that approach is not working.

In a reading like this, you do not read each reversal on its own. First you look for the behavior the reversed cards share. If they all carry the too-little reading, you have been holding back on this matter for some time. If they all carry the too-much reading, you have been pushing too hard.

Once you find the shared behavior, you choose one action. If you have been holding back, you make one phone call about it this week. If you have been pushing too hard, you leave the subject alone for a full day.

Common mistakes with reversed cards

The first mistake is turning a reversed card upright and reading it that way. Flipping a card because you dislike its direction breaks the reading. You read the card the way it came.

The second mistake is treating every reversal as bad. As the Moon, the Devil and the Eight of Swords show, some reversals bring relief.

The third mistake is reading only the reversed meaning and skipping the upright one. To understand the reversal, you first need to know what the card stands for upright. Too little and too much only make sense against a standard, and that standard is the upright meaning.

Practice

If your Today's card comes up reversed this week, write two lines in a notebook. On the first line, write the card's upright meaning. On the second, write whether you are doing too little or too much on that matter today.

In the evening, open the notebook again and note where you saw that behavior during the day. After a few reversed cards, you tell the two readings apart without stopping to think.