(excerpt from Tarot Rapid Read Resource book)

Reading Tarot card reversals (upside down cards) is not necessary, but it can expand the potential for meaningful readings. There are many possible ways to interpret reversed cards, and this is one area in Tarot reading where you do NOT need to be consistent. Check in with how the reversal seems to shift the energy of the card within the reading. 

Reversal Reading: Light & Shadow

Life is both shadow and light, and lots of in-between. Every card has potentially positive/productive AND potentially negative/destructive nuances. Some cards, like Devil and the three of swords use upright imagery that focuses attention on the negative aspects of the archetype or the number/suit intersection. So for cards such as those, the reversed card may be indicating a more positive/productive spin on the card or the promise of resolution. For other cards in the deck like Star or three of cups, the opposite may be true.

Reversal...

Tarot is a deck of laminated cards with illustrations. The deck is not magic -- YOU are. Tarot is a tool for self-discovery, revealing what is unseen, and yes -- even good old-fashioned fortunetelling.

Research has shown that Tarot card draws done with intention are not random. Dr. Jane English, a PhD physicist, did a three-year study on whether Tarot card drawings were random or not. When she applied statistical analysis to Tarot cards drawn over a three-year period by Tarot readers, she found that there was a 99.97% chance the Tarot cards drawn were NOT random.

Using control groups, Dr. English found that the key to a meaningful Tarot card reading is INTENTION. In order to achieve a meaningful reading, the cards must be shuffled and drawn after a period of centering and quieting the mind, while focusing on a specific situation or question.

Dr. English’s study has been duplicated by others with similar results. Anyone who has worked with the Tarot for an extended time will...

The Tarot has two main parts: the Major Arcana, which deals with more overarching themes of personal and spiritual development, and the Minor Arcana, which deals with more with day-to-day life.

There are many beautiful decks which are majors-only decks (22 cards), and sometimes when an artist is creating a Tarot deck they may release the majors as a stand-alone deck before completing the entire deck. Of course, ANY Tarot deck can be a majors-only deck by separating out the Major and Minor Arcana cards.

There are several ways one might use a majors-only deck, and here are some of my favorites.

As a Deck for Small Spreads

For a 1- to 5-card spread, a majors-only deck can be used anytime, and it's especially relevant if the theme of the reading relates to a spiritual journey or personal development.

As a Deck for Deep Spreads

What needs to be learned from the situation at hand? Pull one card from a majors-only deck for insight. 

Or use a Majors-only deck for any reading...

Here comes the sun... Immediately the Beatles song starts playing in my head and I think of the Sun Tarot card, Winter Solstice and Summertime.

The traditional RWS Sun card shows a naked toddler holding a huge red banner astride a big horse with a wall, the sun and sunflowers in the background. Around the child’s head is a wreath of small sunflowers, and in his/her hair is a red feather. 

While the RWS imagery looks very similar to the oldest known Tarocchi deck (Visconti), the original decks hailing from France had two children and no horse.

Author Rachel Pollack offers some interesting food for thought about where the two children come from and why that imagery might be preferable.

Remember the story of Rapunzel? Most of us can recall the refrain, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair,” and the image of a dashing young man climbing Rapunzel’s hair to be with his beloved. But there is MUCH more to the story. Were they discovered by the Sorceress who...

I’ve always read the Tarot's Judgement card as “Discernment” or “Ascension.”  It is one of the cards in Tarot I’ve always felt was misnamed, and I think the name throws people off when they are first learning to read.  But today, the card was something else entirely.  This is the spread and the cards:

I was paired up with Juana in a Tarot Explorers’ Club breakout paired reading session.  I love when there are an odd number of people during paired readings and I get to join in the fun.  I find new insights are frequently sparked during these sessions, even though I have been reading Tarot for 25+ years – and today was one of those times.

I created this spread as a variation of the Celtic Cross, and the bottom card represents something under the surface of things that is having an influence.  Now, normally with Judgement in that position, I would go the direction of maybe it represents people in your...