tarot card definitions – Just the Tarot

How Many Clarifier Cards Are Too Many in Tarot?

How many clarifier cards should you draw in a Tarot reading? Clarifiers can bring valuable insight to a confusing card, but draw too many and they may muddy the message rather than clarify it. Learn when to draw an extra card, when to stop, and how to recognize when the Tarot has already given you the answer.

How Many Clarifier Cards Are Too Many?

There comes a moment in almost every Tarot reading when you turn over a card, look at it for a while, and think:

“What the hell does that mean?”

So you pull another card to clarify it.

Unfortunately, the second card isn’t much help. You pull another. That one introduces an entirely new problem, so you pull another one. Ten minutes later, your innocent three-card spread has turned into a fifteen-card archaeological dig, and you’re considerably more confused than when you started.

Such are the perils of the clarifier card.

A clarifier is simply an additional Tarot card drawn to give you more information about a card already on the table. Used properly, it’s an extremely useful technique.

Suppose you’re asking about a new job opportunity and the Moon appears. That’s meaningful, but there are several possibilities. Is something being concealed? Are your own fears clouding your judgment? Is the situation simply too undeveloped for you to know what’s happening yet?

So you ask:

“What is the Moon referring to in this reading?”

You draw the Seven of Swords.

Now you’ve learned something. The Moon hasn’t disappeared or been replaced by the Seven of Swords. Instead, the Seven has narrowed the field. There may be information you don’t have, something occurring behind the scenes, or someone who isn’t being entirely straightforward.

That’s a clarifier doing its job.

The difficulty begins when we use clarifiers for something else entirely: trying to get a different answer.

Imagine asking whether a romantic relationship has a future and drawing the Eight of Cups.

You don’t particularly like that, so you ask for clarification.

Ten of Swords.

That’s even worse.

Another clarifier: Five of Cups.

By now the Tarot is practically standing on the table with a bullhorn, but you keep going.

And then—The Star!

Aha! You knew it! Everything is going to work out!

Except that isn’t clarification. You simply kept drawing until the deck produced a card you liked.

It’s an especially easy trap to fall into when you’re reading for yourself.

So how many clarifiers should you draw?

There isn’t an official Tarot rule, but mine is simple:

One clarifier is usually enough. Two should be the absolute maximum.

If the first additional card doesn’t make the situation clearer, I may occasionally draw a second. After that, I stop.

Because by then, the problem probably isn’t that there aren’t enough cards on the table. The problem is that I haven’t understood what they’re saying yet.

Five more cards aren’t necessarily going to fix that. More likely, they’ll give me five additional symbols, relationships and possible interpretations to sort through.

Sometimes the most productive response to a confusing reading is to walk away from it.

Write the cards down. Take a photograph. Go make coffee. Look at the spread again in an hour, or even the next day. Once you’ve stopped wrestling with it, the meaning will often become perfectly apparent.

Another way to avoid unnecessary clarifiers is to give the clarifier a specific question.

Don’t merely think, “Clarify this.”

Ask exactly what you need to know.

If you draw the Tower, you might ask:

“What area of my life does the Tower refer to?”

If you draw the Seven of Cups:

“What am I failing to see clearly?”

If you draw the Two of Swords:

“What decision am I avoiding?”

Now the extra card has a defined purpose rather than simply adding another symbol to an already complicated reading.

There’s also another possibility we sometimes overlook: perhaps the original card is ambiguous because ambiguity itself is the answer.

The Moon is a wonderful example. You ask what’s going to happen in a situation and draw the Moon. Naturally, you want to know more.

But the Moon may be saying that there isn’t anything more you can know right now.

You don’t have all the information. Events are developing out of sight. Emotion may be interfering with perception. The situation hasn’t settled into a definite form.

If that’s the message, drawing six more cards to force certainty out of the deck defeats the purpose. The Tarot may already have given you its answer:

You don’t know yet.

There’s one more useful question to ask yourself before reaching for another card:

“Am I trying to understand this reading, or am I trying to make myself feel better?”

Those aren’t the same thing.

A clarifier drawn because you’re genuinely trying to understand a card can be tremendously helpful. A clarifier drawn because the answer makes you anxious can easily lead to one more card, then another, then another—until eventually you find the reassurance you wanted.

At that point, you’re no longer listening to the Tarot.

You’re negotiating with it.

And Tarot is a lousy negotiating partner.

So before drawing anything else, give the original card a chance to speak. Look at its imagery. Think about its traditional meanings. Consider its position in the spread and its relationship to the cards around it. Ask yourself why that particular card appeared in answer to that particular question.

Quite often, you’ll discover that the clarification was already there.

And when it genuinely isn’t?

Draw one card.

Maybe two.

But if you’ve drawn eight clarifiers and you’re still confused, put the deck down.

The Tarot has probably already said what it has to say.

What Should You Do When a Tarot Reading Makes No Sense?

What do you do when a Tarot reading makes absolutely no sense? Before assuming the cards have failed, consider what they may be reflecting. Mental confusion, rapid life changes, hidden information, or simple denial can all produce a seemingly muddled reading. Learn how to recognize underlying patterns, step back from confusing cards, and trust that sometimes the best answer is simply: more will be revealed.

There are times, especially when you’re new to reading Tarot cards, when you lay out a reading and it makes absolutely no sense. Not only does it seem to have nothing to do with what’s happening in your life, but the cards don’t even seem to connect with each other.

So what do you do when that happens?

I’ve found that a good first step is to step back, look at the cards, scratch your head, and say: “What in the HELL does that mean?”

It doesn’t solve the reading, but it clears the air.

There are, however, some questions we can ask that may help.

HOW’S YOUR HEAD?

I’ve found that I’m most likely to get muddled readings when I’M muddled.

In other words, it’s not the cards’ energy. It’s my energy.

After all, when we lay out a Tarot reading, it’s a snapshot of what’s happening in our lives at that particular moment. It may tell us something about what’s happened in the immediate past, what’s going on right now, and what’s likely to happen in the immediate future.

If I’ve got a head full of fuzz because I haven’t been taking care of myself energetically, that’s exactly what’s going to show up in the reading. If I’m anxious or a bit hyper, if my thoughts are bouncing all over the place like a pinball, the reading may bounce all over the place, too.

It isn’t that the cards AREN’T working—it’s that they are. They’re mirroring back to me exactly what my current reality looks like. If my thoughts don’t make any sense, neither will the reading.

ARE THINGS CHANGING IN YOUR LIFE?

There are times in everyone’s life when things change very rapidly.

We can be plodding along, getting up in the morning, going to work, doing our jobs. Life is perfectly normal.

Then suddenly we feel as if we’ve been thrown into a blender.

Perhaps we come home from work and discover that our partner has moved out. Perhaps we’re suddenly transferred to a new office and have to move. Perhaps we wake up one morning and think, “Man, none of this makes any sense. I’m starting over.”

When our lives are in flux, our readings may be in flux, too.

If things are changing so rapidly that we can’t keep up with them, the cards may simply be reflecting that reality. When things begin to settle down, the readings often will, too.

IS THERE A LOT OF RATIONALIZATION OR DENIAL GOING ON?

This can apply when we’re doing readings for ourselves, but it can be particularly important when we’re reading for other people.

It’s perfectly natural for all of us to try to present ourselves in the most positive light. Sometimes, however, we take that to the extreme of completely denying what’s really going on in our lives.

You may sit down to do a reading for someone who appears to have it all together. They’re well dressed. They’ve got a good job, a loving partner, and 2.5 beautiful children.

That’s what they’re projecting to the world—and perhaps to themselves. But underneath the image of the perfect life, they’re a mess. Their partner is emotionally abusive, their children are having trouble in school, their credit cards are maxed out, and they’re behind on their house payments.

So you lay out the cards. The reading reflects all of that.

And they look at you and say, “That’s not right. Everything in my life is wonderful.”

The cards may be telling the truth, but the questioner isn’t.

SO WHAT DO WE DO?

The solutions to all of these scenarios are fairly straightforward.

1. Wait and do the reading again later. If you’re extremely upset, physically exhausted, very anxious, or mentally scattered, you’re probably not going to get a clear reading.

Get some rest. Meditate. Do some EFT tapping. Clear your energy.

When you’re clearer, your reading may be clearer, too.

2. Accept the chaos until it settles down.

If everything in your life is upside down and sideways, you’re probably not going to get a nice, orderly reading.

If you don’t know what the hell is going on in your life, why should the cards pretend otherwise?

Once things begin to settle, your readings may begin to make more sense.

3. Remember that the cards may actually be one hundred percent accurate—but there are factors you aren’t aware of.

If the questioner is lying to you, withholding information, or simply unable to see what’s happening in their own life, a reading may LOOK as if it doesn’t make sense when it actually does. And if we’re lying to ourselves, we may genuinely be unable to see the patterns in our lives, even when they’re laid out in front of us.

The missing ingredient may simply be information.

LOOK FOR UNDERLYING PATTERNS

Another thing we can do with a muddled reading is stop trying to interpret every individual card and look at the reading as a whole.

Are nearly all of the cards reversed? That may indicate that much of what’s happening is internal, blocked, delayed, or being experienced subjectively rather than expressed openly in the world.

Is one suit predominating?

If you get a reading that’s almost entirely Cups, emotion and relationships may be overwhelming everything else.

If Swords dominate, there may be too much thinking, worrying, conflict, analysis, or mental agitation.

Too many Wands may indicate that you’re pushing too hard, trying to do too much, or running on nervous energy and sheer willpower.

And if Pentacles dominate, you may be overly focused on money, work, security, possessions, or the practical realities of life.

You don’t necessarily have to understand every card to understand what the reading is telling you.

WHAT ABOUT THE MAJOR ARCANA?

Are there a lot of Major Arcana cards?

This can be an especially important clue when your life has gone topsy-turvy. Any card from the Major Arcana can act like a bright, flashing light saying:

“Pay attention. This is important.”

If you have several Major Arcana cards in a single reading, you may be dealing with something larger than the ordinary events of the day. Major forces may be at work in your life. An old pattern may be ending. A new phase may be beginning. Something fundamental may be shifting.

And if that shift is still underway, it may be impossible to see exactly where it’s taking you.

BE PATIENT

There’s a saying in 12-Step groups: More will be revealed.

And that’s often true with the Tarot.

If a reading doesn’t seem to make any sense, wait a few days and look at it again. If it still doesn’t make sense, set it aside and come back to it later.

Very often you’ll discover that the cards were astonishingly accurate. There was simply a piece of the puzzle you didn’t have yet. As a little time goes by, the missing pieces emerge—and suddenly the reading makes sense.

If you’re a beginner, I’d actually encourage you to keep a Tarot journal.

Write down your readings—especially the ones that make no sense—and then go back and check them after a few days or a few weeks.

I think you’ll be surprised at what you find.

Can You Read Tarot for Yourself?

Can you read Tarot cards for yourself? Absolutely—but self-readings come with both advantages and pitfalls. Learn why reading Tarot for yourself can be remarkably insightful, how personal blind spots can affect your interpretations, and why repeatedly asking the cards the same question usually creates more confusion than clarity.

A question that many newly minted Tarot readers ask is, “Can I do readings for myself?”

And the answer to that is: Oh, hell, yes.

People have been doing Tarot readings for themselves for as long as people have been reading Tarot cards.

It’s not an unreasonable question, though. In all the years I’ve been doing Tarot readings, I’ve heard the same statement from several people:

“You can’t do readings for yourself. Everyone knows that.”

I’ve never been able to track down exactly who “everyone” is, or where they came up with this rule, but the idea is definitely out there.

So, just to be definitive about it: it’s wrong.

The Advantages of Reading for Yourself

The most obvious advantage of reading for yourself is that nobody knows you quite like you know yourself.

And that means there’s often much less guesswork involved in figuring out what the cards mean.

For instance, suppose a card like The Devil comes up in your reading. Someone who doesn’t know you can make a series of educated guesses based on the traditional meanings of the card.

“Ummm . . . there could be a problem with addiction in your life. Or perhaps there’s an unhealthy or obsessive sexual element involved. Or you might be refusing to recognize some pattern of self-harm . . .”

But they don’t really know, because they don’t really know you.

You, on the other hand, can look at the same card and immediately realize:

“Yeah, I’m drinking too much.”

Or:

“I really shouldn’t be having an affair with the neighbor’s wife.”

Or:

“I really need to quit sticking pins in that voodoo doll of my boss.”

That simple self-knowledge can make a reading much easier and clearer than one you might get from a stranger. You already know the cast of characters, the circumstances, and the history. The card doesn’t have to explain the whole situation to you. It only has to point at it.

The Disadvantages of Reading for Yourself

The major disadvantage of reading for yourself is that—guess what?—we’re all human.

We rationalize. We deny. We conveniently overlook things. And many of us have a somewhat inflated—or at least carefully edited—image of ourselves.

Sometimes we can look at cards that are giving us a very, very clear message and simply say:

“Nope. That’s not me.”

Psychologist Jennifer Freyd coined the term “betrayal blindness” to describe the way people can sometimes remain unaware of betrayal when recognizing it would threaten an important relationship or situation.

To use an extreme example, someone might be married to an absolute cheating horn dog—a partner who is screwing around with other women all week long and twice on Sunday—but she simply cannot allow herself to see it.

She finds the motel receipts, the lipstick on the collar, and the condoms in the glove box, but somehow there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for all of it.

That same person probably isn’t going to see the truth in the Tarot cards either.

She might lay out a reading that practically screams that her partner is a no-good, lying, cheating lowlife, and she’ll still find some way to interpret the cards differently.

And we all have areas of our lives where we deceive ourselves.

For most of us they aren’t quite that dramatic, but the blind spots are still there. Someone else reading for us may spot those inconsistencies immediately, while we unconsciously find ways to explain them away.

That’s the real danger of reading for yourself. It isn’t that the cards somehow stop working when you’re the person shuffling them.

It’s that you may not want to hear what they’re saying.

Don’t Obsess

There’s one other warning about reading for yourself that’s worth mentioning:

Don’t obsess.

In other words, don’t fall into the pattern of constantly reading the cards, looking for one more clue about what you’re supposed to do.

And that’s tempting. Believe me.

After all, when you’re reading for yourself, the readings are free and you can do as many of them as you want.

But realistically, Tarot readings tend to fall into two broad categories.

The first kind is crystal clear. It tells you, in effect:

“This is what’s happening. This is what you need to do. And this is probably what will happen if you don’t do it.”

The second kind—which is much less common—is muddled. The cards don’t seem to form a coherent message, or several contradictory possibilities seem to be in play.

In my experience, that usually means the situation itself hasn’t settled yet. Too many things are moving around, and you simply need to wait until the dust clears.

Either way, doing another seventeen readings probably isn’t going to help.

If you’ve already received a clear reading, the answer isn’t going to change just because you keep asking the question.

And if the reading is genuinely muddled, it probably isn’t going to become clear until the situation itself becomes clearer.

All you’re likely to get from repeatedly throwing the cards is frustration, confusion, and a big fat waste of your time.

Keep Reading

So, by all means, read Tarot for yourself.

Just be reasonable about it, and remember that self-knowledge cuts both ways. Knowing your own life intimately can make a reading extraordinarily clear—but your own biases and blind spots can occasionally make the obvious invisible.

Unless there’s a specific problem I need to address, I usually do one predictive reading at the beginning of each week. It gives me a general feel for the energies and circumstances I’m likely to encounter.

It’s a simple four-card reading:

1 — What are the current conditions?
2 — What needs to be done?
3 — What factors are working against me?
4 — What is the probable outcome?

And that’s it.

That gives me all the information I need to stumble through the week.

Sometimes the reading surprises me. Sometimes it tells me something I already suspected. And sometimes I don’t fully understand what a card was talking about until several days later.

But the point isn’t to consult the Tarot every fifteen minutes.

The point is to get the message, think about it, and then go live your life.

Why Do I Keep Getting the Same Tarot Card Over and Over?

Why does the same Tarot card keep appearing in your readings? A repeating card may point to stuck energy, an important person in your life, or something you haven’t been willing to see. Learn why Tarot sometimes repeats itself—and what that persistent card may be asking you to notice.

One of the spookier things that can happen to a new Tarot reader is getting the same card over and over again.

No matter how many readings you do, there it is. It may drift around to different positions in the spread. It may appear as an answer to completely different questions. You shuffle thoroughly, cut the deck, and perhaps even put the cards away for a few days.

And then you do another reading. There it is again.

It can begin to feel as though the card is glued to your aura.

Oddly enough, this can also be one of the most reassuring experiences in Tarot. There are 78 cards in a standard deck, so when one particular card begins appearing with remarkable persistence, it certainly gets your attention.

So what does it mean?

In my experience, there are three basic reasons a Tarot card may keep appearing:

1. Stuck energy — something in your life isn’t changing.

2. A particular person — someone important is being represented by the card.

3. Something you aren’t acknowledging — an important situation or energy needs your attention.

STUCK ENERGY

A Tarot reading doesn’t really “predict the future.” Instead, it gives us a snapshot of what’s happening in our lives right now and then suggests the probable outcome if those forces continue moving in the same direction.

To use a very simple example, suppose you get the Two of Cups—falling in love—followed by the Three of Swords—heartbreak.

That might suggest that the new romance you’re entering isn’t likely to work out. But that’s not written in stone, because nothing is written in stone. The cards are essentially saying:

“This is where things appear to be heading if nothing changes.”

And nothing changing is one reason certain cards may constantly reappear. If we’re stuck in a loop in which we keep doing the same things over and over, the cards representing that pattern may simply keep coming back.

And here’s the deal: we’re not supposed to stay the same. Human beings are constantly learning, changing and evolving. If the Tarot keeps throwing the same card at you, it may be pointing toward a pattern that needs to change.

In the example above, perhaps you keep falling in love with people who eventually hurt you. At some point, stop looking at them and start looking at yourself.

Why am I doing this? Why am I repeatedly attracted to people who can’t fulfill me or meet my needs?

The repeating Tarot card may not be telling you what is going to happen next. It may be telling you what you keep doing.

PEOPLE

There are times when another person exerts a particularly strong influence on our lives, and we need to be aware of what they’re doing. When that happens, the Tarot may repeatedly produce the same card to represent that person and call our attention to them.

There’s nothing particularly unusual about cards representing people. The Court Cards have traditionally served that function, but other cards can do it as well.

For instance, if you’re involved with someone who is particularly loving and nurturing, The Empress may appear prominently because she embodies those qualities.

I’ve found, though, that repeating cards representing people can become particularly noticeable when there’s conflict involved—when someone else’s actions may be affecting you in ways you need to recognize.

For example, I was once involved in a contested probate, and the Queen of Pentacles reversed kept appearing.

In another context, the reversed Queen of Pentacles might suggest a need for self-nurturing, insecurity around material matters, or energies that have become overly focused on possessions and control.

But when she represents another person, the interpretation can be quite different. As Sasha Fenton rather memorably puts it:

“This lady will win if involved in a fight with the questioner, especially if money is involved.”

That was certainly an interesting card to have repeatedly appearing during a legal dispute over an estate. To me, the message was clear: pay attention to this person. Don’t underestimate her. Money and material interests are central to what’s happening.

So when one card keeps popping up—particularly during a troubled or stressful period—ask yourself:

Could this card represent someone in my life? Is the Tarot pointing a great big flashing neon arrow at someone and saying:

“Pay attention to this one.”

DENIAL

Human beings can go to amazing lengths to avoid seeing something when we really don’t want to see it.

Psychologist Jennifer Freyd coined the term “betrayal blindness” to describe the way people may remain unaware of, or fail to fully acknowledge, betrayal when it threatens an important relationship or situation.

Imagine, for example, a woman whose husband is cheating on her.

The evidence may be sitting right there in plain sight: unexplained motel receipts, long private phone calls, suspicious messages on social media. But somehow she doesn’t put the pieces together.

Then one day something happens and suddenly everything clicks and she asks “How could I have been so blind?”

As the old cliché puts it: “Denial ain’t a river in Egypt.”

And Tarot doesn’t seem to have much patience with denial. If there’s something in your life that is vitally important for you to acknowledge and deal with, the cards may keep pointing toward it over and over again until you’re finally willing to look.

In the situation we just described, perhaps the Seven of Swords—traditionally associated with secrecy, deception and things happening behind the scenes—keeps appearing.

At first, the woman may be genuinely puzzled. “What in the world does that have to do with me?”

But the card keeps coming back.

Seven of Swords.

Eventually, instead of asking what the card means, she begins asking a much more useful question: “What am I not seeing?”

And that’s when she may finally start noticing those motel receipts.

TAKE THE BLINDERS OFF

If we wanted to sum all of this up in one sentence, it might simply be: Take the blinders off.

Or perhaps: take off the rose-colored glasses.

When the Tarot repeatedly gives us the same card, the most useful response isn’t necessarily to reshuffle the deck and ask the question again.

It’s to stop. Look at the card.

And ask yourself: Why does this particular message keep coming back?

Am I stuck in a pattern? Does this card represent someone who is having an important influence on my life? Is there something happening that I don’t want to acknowledge?

Sometimes the card that won’t go away is precisely the card we most need to understand.

Tarot can be remarkably patient. It can whisper the same message very gently for a very long time. But it can also be remarkably persistent.

At a certain point, you have a choice: deal with the issue—or quit asking the cards about it.

What you can’t do is keep asking the same question and expect the Tarot to tell you something different.

Should You Read Reversed Tarot Cards Differently?

Should you interpret reversed Tarot cards differently—or simply turn them upright and read them normally? This post explores both approaches, including reversals as blocked, weakened, excessive, or inwardly directed energy, and shows how understanding the card’s basic energy can make reversals far easier to interpret.

You turn over a Tarot card and there it is:

The Empress—upside down.

Now what?

If you’re new to Tarot, reversed cards can make an already complicated subject seem twice as difficult. You finally begin learning the meanings of 78 cards, only to discover that some books provide an entirely separate meaning for every card when it appears reversed.

Suddenly it seems as though you’re expected to memorize 156 Tarot cards. Fortunately, you aren’t.

The real question isn’t whether you should read a reversed card. Obviously, the card is still part of the reading. The question is whether you should interpret that card differently because it appeared upside down.

Some Tarot readers do. Others simply turn the card upright and interpret it normally, allowing the question, its position in the spread and the surrounding cards to determine which aspects of the card apply. Neither approach is inherently right or wrong.

So let’s look at what reversals can add to a reading—and whether you actually need them.

WHAT IS A REVERSED TAROT CARD?

A reversed card is simply a Tarot card that appears upside down in a reading.

Some readers deliberately shuffle their decks so that cards can appear in either direction and consider the reversed orientation part of the message. Other readers don’t assign any special significance to orientation. If a card appears upside down, they simply turn it upright and read the card normally.

This doesn’t mean they’re ignoring the reversed card or rejecting its more difficult meanings. Quite the opposite. They consider those meanings to be already contained within the card.

For example, The Emperor can represent healthy structure, leadership and stability. But Emperor energy can also become rigid, authoritarian and controlling. A reader who uses reversals might associate some of those more difficult qualities with The Emperor reversed.

A reader who doesn’t use reversals may see exactly the same qualities in an upright Emperor, depending upon the question and the card’s position in the spread. The difference isn’t necessarily in what the card can mean. It’s in how the reader determines which meaning applies.

WHAT DOES A REVERSED CARD MEAN?

Here’s where things become interesting.

There is no single rule.

A reversed card might suggest that the upright energy is:

* Blocked or frustrated

* Weakened

* Excessive or out of balance

* Turned inward

* Delayed or incomplete

* Being resisted

* Expressing its more difficult or shadow qualities

Occasionally, the reversed card may even suggest something close to the opposite of its usual meaning.

That’s much more sophisticated than simply saying: Upright = good. Reversed = bad. In fact, some reversed cards can be quite encouraging.

The Devil reversed might suggest breaking free from an unhealthy attachment. The Eight of Swords reversed might indicate recognizing that you aren’t nearly as trapped as you believed.

Meanwhile, an apparently wonderful card such as The Sun reversed could suggest that happiness is available but something is preventing you from fully experiencing it.

Reversals aren’t necessarily negative. They can simply show us that something unusual is happening to the card’s energy.

REVERSALS AS BLOCKED ENERGY

One of the easiest ways to begin working with reversals is to think of them as blocked energy.

Every Tarot card represents a particular kind of energy or experience.

The Magician wants to create.

The Empress wants to nurture.

The Chariot wants to move forward.

The Star wants to shine.

When one of those cards appears reversed, we can ask: What is preventing this energy from expressing itself naturally?

The reversed Magician might suggest unused ability or uncertainty about your own power.

The reversed Empress might indicate difficulty nurturing yourself—or nurturing everyone else until you’ve exhausted yourself.

The reversed Chariot might represent plenty of effort but no clear direction.

The reversed Star might indicate that your light is still there, but you’ve temporarily lost confidence in it.

The original meaning of the card hasn’t disappeared. Something has happened to it.

SOMETIMES THERE’S TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING

A reversal can also suggest excess. Sometimes the problem isn’t too little of the card’s energy. It’s too much.

The Emperor’s structure can become rigid control.

The Hermit’s solitude can become isolation.

The Four of Pentacles’ stability can become possessiveness.

The Knight of Swords’ determination can become reckless action.

In this approach, the reversed card acts almost like a warning light: This energy has moved out of balance. That’s particularly useful in psychological or self-development readings because a reversal can reveal where an otherwise healthy quality has become exaggerated.

REVERSALS CAN TURN THE ENERGY INWARD

There’s another way of interpreting reversals that I particularly like.

Sometimes an upright card can represent energy being expressed in the external world, while the reversed card suggests that the same process is taking place internally.

The Queen of Cups upright might describe compassion and emotional sensitivity directed toward other people. Reversed, she might ask you to direct some of that compassion toward yourself.

The Magician upright might indicate using your abilities to create something in the world. Reversed, he might suggest discovering abilities within yourself that haven’t yet found outward expression.

This interpretation won’t work for every card or every reading. But that’s the point. Reversals aren’t formulas. They’re additional information.

DO REVERSED CARDS MEAN THE OPPOSITE?

Sometimes—but I wouldn’t make that the automatic assumption.

Consider The Hermit. Upright, The Hermit can represent solitude, contemplation and turning inward in search of wisdom.

If we simply reverse that meaning, does The Hermit reversed mean being sociable and going to a party? Probably not. It might indicate too much isolation.

Or perhaps the person desperately needs solitude but isn’t getting it.

Maybe they’ve found something during their period of introspection that now needs to be brought back into the world.

Instead of asking:

What’s the opposite of The Hermit?

Try asking: What has happened to the energy of The Hermit?

That opens considerably more interesting possibilities.

WHY SOME READERS DON’T USE REVERSALS

There’s a very good argument for not assigning reversed cards separate meanings: The Tarot already contains an enormous range of human experience.

We certainly don’t have a shortage of difficult cards.

The Tower, Devil, Three of Swords, Five of Pentacles and Ten of Swords are perfectly capable of telling us when something has gone wrong.

More importantly, every Tarot card already contains both light and shadow.

The Emperor can represent healthy structure or oppressive control.

The Hermit can represent valuable solitude or unhealthy isolation.

The Moon can represent intuition or confusion.

The Four of Pentacles can represent financial stability or fearfully clinging to what you possess.

You don’t necessarily need to turn a card upside down to access those meanings. The question being asked, the position of the card within the spread and the cards surrounding it can provide the context.

That’s why a reader who doesn’t use reversals isn’t reading only the “positive half” of Tarot. They’re reading the entire spectrum of meaning contained within each upright card.

BUT REVERSALS HAVE ONE BIG ADVANTAGE

They get your attention.

Suppose The Emperor appears in a position labeled: What’s preventing me from moving forward?

Even upright, that position tells us that some aspect of Emperor energy may be causing difficulty. Perhaps there’s too much structure, too much control or an unwillingness to deviate from the plan.

But if The Emperor appears reversed, we receive an additional visual signal: Something about this energy isn’t functioning normally.

A reversed card interrupts the visual flow of a spread. It makes us stop and look again. It’s almost as though Tarot has underlined the card.

And that can be extremely useful.

WHAT IF HALF THE READING IS REVERSED?

This is where reversals can become more interesting than individual card meanings.

If one card is reversed, look closely at that card. If most of the spread is reversed, look at the pattern.

Perhaps the situation is stalled. Perhaps there’s tremendous internal activity but very little outward movement. Perhaps someone is resisting change. Perhaps energy is being blocked in several different areas.

Or perhaps you accidentally turned half the deck upside down while shuffling.

Never underestimate the mystical power of bad shuffling.

SHOULD BEGINNERS USE REVERSALS?

I’d suggest learning the basic meanings of the cards first.

Not because reversals are especially difficult, but because understanding the fundamental energy of a card makes its reversal much easier to interpret.

If you understand The Chariot as directed movement, determination and willpower, you don’t need to memorize an entirely separate paragraph for The Chariot reversed.

You can simply ask: What happens when Chariot energy isn’t working properly?

Maybe there’s no direction.

Maybe determination has become obsession.

Maybe you’re trying to control something that can’t be controlled.

Maybe you’re pushing ahead when you should stop.

Now you aren’t memorizing another Tarot definition. You’re thinking about the card. And that’s ultimately a much better way to learn Tarot.

SO—SHOULD YOU INTERPRET REVERSED CARDS DIFFERENTLY?

You don’t have to.

If a reversed card appears, you can turn it upright and interpret the full range of meanings contained within that card. The question, spread position and surrounding cards can tell you whether its constructive or difficult qualities are being expressed.

Or you can leave it reversed and treat its orientation as one more piece of information in the reading.

Neither method gives you a more “authentic” Tarot reading. They’re simply different systems.

If you do choose to use reversals, however, I think there’s a much more useful question than: “What does this card mean upside down?”

Ask instead: “What has happened to the energy of this card?”

Is it blocked? Weakened? Exaggerated? Turned inward? Delayed? Being resisted?

Once you begin thinking about reversals that way, you don’t have another 78 definitions to memorize.

You simply have another way of looking at the 78 cards you already know.

THE DEVIL CARD AND FREEDOM

Exploring the element of choice with The Devil card.

It’s always a little scary to get The Devil card in a Tarot reading. Based on the famous illustration of Eliphas Levi’s Baphomet, we see a large, horny critter with bat wings looming over a hapless couple in chains. Not only do they look miserable, but their tails are actually on fire.

Which has always seemed like a bit of an overreaction to me. It’s bad enough to take away their clothes and chain them to a black altar. Lighting their tails on fire is just plain mean.

When we get this card in a reading, we can assume that (a) we are personally in a really bad, low-vibration place or (b) we’re involved with someone else who’s in that sort of a space.

There’s also a school of thought that The Devil card can indicate black magic. Perhaps we pissed off someone and they whomped a hoodoo on us. Maybe that person we broke it off with romantically is spending their Saturday nights burning black candles and sticking pins into a picture of us.

And that can be true. I don’t want to downplay that possibility, but it tends to miss one of the most important messages of this card, which is CHOICE.

When we get involved in or stay in a really dark place, it’s the matter of whether we choose to be there that determines whether it’s evil.

THE CHAINS AROUND OUR NECKS

There are so many things that we think of as being, “evil,” that can feel like chains around our necks.

Drug addiction.

Alcoholism.

Abusive relationships.

Codependency.

All of those can feel as if we’re literally enslaved. We may know in our hearts that we’re in a really bad space and feel constant misery over it. But, without help, we may be powerless to escape from the bottle, the needle in the arm, the slap across the face.

Sadly, there are many people who casually assume that people in those situations just don’t want to be free of them. We saw that in the so-called, “war on drugs,” where the advice was, “just say no to drugs.”

The reality of being an addict, of course, is that you CAN’T say no to drugs. That’s why we call them addicts, right?

We also see it in the judgment that people ladle out to women who are enmeshed in abusive relationships. “Why don’t you just leave him” we ask. “What’s wrong with you?”

What’s wrong with them is that they don’t know HOW to leave an abusive relationship.

And codependents may lose their entire lives “saving,” other people because they haven’t got a clue about how to set up healthy boundaries.

So, in all of these situations, there’s one element in common: a lack of choice. And you can’t make a choice to be evil if you can’t make a choice at all.

HOW LOOSE ARE THE CHAINS?

When we zoom in a little closer on The Devil card, we make an astonishing discovery:

Their hands are free and the chains around the couple’s necks are so loose that they could easily be lifted right over their heads.

In other words, their apparent slavery is entirely a matter of choice. They could, at any moment, remove the chains and walk away, but they CHOOSE not to do it.

This was actually a major change in the way that this card was designed. In the older, Marseille deck we see the same couple, but their hands are bound tightly behind them and the ropes around their necks can’t be moved.

A.E. Waite and Pamela Coleman Smith deliberately decided to incorporate the element of choice in portraying evil when they designed this card.

Why did they take this radical step?

MENTAL ILLNESS AND EVIL

The Waite-Smith Tarot deck was released in 1909, which was the tail end of the Victorian Era in England. This period saw massive changes in the way humans lived, mainly brought on by the Industrial Revolution and mass manufacturing.

One of the areas that saw the greatest changes was the legal system and the ways in which we think about crime. In particular, what emerged was the concept that a person couldn’t commit a crime if they were insane.

In a nutshell, if a person was so deranged that they didn’t know what they were doing was wrong, or if they had an irresistible impulse that made it impossible for them to NOT act in a particular way, then they weren’t making a CHOICE to commit a crime and couldn’t be found guilty of it.

For us, that notion is completely commonplace. Not guilty by reason of insanity is a phrase that we hear all the time. But that idea of choice determining evil wasn’t in play until about 150 years ago and I’m guessing that’s why we saw the change in The Devil card.

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT

Now, you may be wondering what all of this has to do with doing an actual Tarot reading and that’s a fair question.

There’s a subtle nuance here that’s important to recognize and that has to do with freedom. The people portrayed in The Devil card are free to walk away from what they’re doing.

Which really feels counter-intuitive. When we look at the card, we see that they’re chained and completely dominated by the Devil critter. At first glance, it seems that they’re not free at all.

But they are. They’re not insane. They’re not compelled to be there. They choose to be there.

And so, when we pull this card in a reading, we can emphasize that. We can actually look at this card and tell a client, “Yeah, you’re in a bad space, but you can change all of that. You don’t have to go on being miserable. You can walk away from it and be free.”

And that’s HUGE. That gives the client agency in a situation where they may feel totally trapped. It tells them that their freedom is in their own hands, if they decide to take it.

ALTERNATIVES

Now, again, I want to emphasize that this isn’t the only interpretation of The Devil card. If, for instance, we saw the Devil paired with The Moon, then we might actually be looking at issues like insanity or serious delusions.

If we saw The Devil paired with The Magician reversed, we might infer that there really IS some black magic going on. Always look at the surrounding cards.

By far and away, though, The Devil is a card of choice, of choosing to live in negativity and low vibrations. That’s not good news, of course – no one wants to exist like that. But freedom grows out of choices and that IS good news.

“Just the Tarot,” by Dan Adair. Available on Amazon.

REVERSE ENGINEERING A BAD READING

Changing a negative reading to a positive reading by using the lesson that needs to be learned.

If we read Tarot cards for long enough, we will eventually pull a bad reading. Sometimes it’s a really, really bad reading. You know: Death, The Tower, 10 of Swords, and maybe a few other horrible seeming cards thrown in.

After all, everyone has ups and downs. Everyone goes in and out of the light. Bad things happen to good people and vice versa.

The completely natural reaction to that is to freak out and think, “Oh, I’m so screwed.” And then we may batten down our psychological hatches, load our pockets full of protective crystals and charms, and go forth into the world, fully expecting to be hit by a bolt of lightning.

IT’S NOT CARVED IN STONE

A better approach is to remember that Tarot readings are never carved in stone. They’re a snapshot of the present moment, a prediction of how things are going to turn out if they continue along the present course.

Yes, they are eerily reliable. If the Tarot predicts that something is going to happen – good, bad, or neutral – it usually does.

But that’s primarily because we forget that we have free will and we can make choices. By acknowledging what’s happening right now and getting to work on it, we can alter the outcome of those readings. In a phrase, we can look at the problems that the Tarot is predicting and reverse engineer them so that they don’t happen.

HERE’S AN EXAMPLE

Let’s look at a simple three card reading. The question of the reading is, “Where am I aligning with my life’s purpose?”

1 – Where does the energy flow most freely? – The Tower reversed.

2 – Where does the greatest resistance occur? – The Empress reversed.

3 – What lesson needs to be learned at this point? – The Three of Swords

Now, if we were to just look at that sequence of cards as they lay on the table, it’s not a very positive reading. The Tower reversed warns of serious destruction. The Empress reversed is a loss of abundance. The Three of Swords is heartbreak.

If we were just reading this predictively, we’d say, “Okay, this person is going to get hit by something heavy, he’ll lose his abundance, and it will break his heart.”

When we look at it symbolically, in the context of the actual reading, though, we see a far different message.

The energy is flowing most freely where the person is consciously dismantling false foundations and lies in his own life (The Tower, reversed.) He’s unable to receive abundance because he can’t open to it (Empress reversed.). AND the reason that he can’t open to it is because his heart, his trust, has been seriously wounded in the past (Three of Swords.)

REVERSING IT

Now, as I said, none of this is carved in stone and all of this can be changed. So, what does this person need to do to flip the reading to something more positive?

We look directly at the last card – what lesson needs to be learned – for guidance. This person needs to heal his heart. When he heals his heart, that will enable him to trust the world and receive the abundance that he deserves. When he heals his heart and learns to trust the world, then the false foundation of The Tower reversed becomes a real foundation that’s based on love.

If we were to put in purely energetic terms, this person has been deeply wounded emotionally, resulting in his heart chakra being blocked. His heart chakra being blocked has kept him from being able to receive abundance. His inability to receive abundance has caused him to question the basis for his existence, which is the falling Tower.

CAUSE AND EFFECT

When we use this approach, we cease to look at a Tarot reading as if it’s just a prediction and we start to look at it as a puzzle that can be solved. We don’t just see that bad things may be about to happen – we see WHY they’re about to happen.

And if we can change the WHY, we can change the HOW.

There are about a kajillion different Tarot spreads out there, but most of them will have a, “lesson card.” That card may be called:

– what needs to be learned;

– hidden forces;

– causal factors;

– opposing forces, etc.

That’s the card that we want to focus in on when we’re trying to reverse engineer a bad reading. We don’t want to take an attitude of, “Well, shit happens.” We want to figure out why it’s happening and then reverse those forces with an opposite energy.

In the example above, the client had a broken heart (AKA, a blocked heart chakra) and so the solution was to bring love into his heart. A simple Metta meditation, done every day, began to cultivate more compassion, understanding, and love.

The, “lesson,” will probably be different with each client, of course. It may be that their issue is addiction (The Devil) or a need for more solitude (The Hermit) or a lack of direction (Seven of Cups.)

Whatever the lesson card may be, that’s the keystone that holds the whole reading together. Figure out what the client needs to learn, and you figure out what’s happening to her and why.

Don’t just look at the effect – look at the cause. And that will change the effect.

The Fool’s Journey and the Dance of Synchronicity

When The Fool appears in a tarot reading, it may be more than a call to begin—it might be a sign that synchronicity is already at play in your life. In this post, we explore how The Fool’s symbols—from the cliff to the rose—mirror the way meaningful coincidences guide us toward growth, transformation, and spiritual alignment. Learn how to recognize The Fool’s invitation to trust the unknown and follow life’s hidden rhythms.

There are moments in life when something just clicks. A random conversation, a song on the radio, a recurring symbol—these aren’t just coincidences. They feel charged, alive, timely. These are the moments that Carl Jung called synchronicities—meaningful coincidences that seem to guide us, gently but unmistakably, toward the next step in our journey.

And there’s no better symbol for that mysterious push into the unknown than The Fool in the Tarot.

Jung and Synchronicity

Swiss psychologist Carl Jung coined the term synchronicity to describe those uncanny moments when something in the outer world perfectly mirrors something happening inside you—without any logical cause. Like when you think of an old friend you haven’t heard from in years, and just then, the phone rings and it’s her. There’s no rational explanation, but it feels too precise to be chance. Jung believed these moments point to a deeper, hidden order—a mysterious connection between our inner lives and the unfolding world around us.

The Fool as the Signpost of Synchronicity

In the Tarot, The Fool is often misunderstood as naïve or aimless, but in truth, The Fool is the sacred wanderer—the soul on the brink of transformation. When this card appears in a reading, it may be more than a call to take a leap of faith; it may be a signal that synchronicity is actively at work in your life. Like a cosmic green light, The Fool shows up when invisible forces are aligning to open new doors, push you out of old patterns, or introduce the exact people, signs, and nudges you need to move forward. It is the Tarot’s way of saying: “Pay attention. Something meaningful is unfolding, even if you don’t yet understand it.”

The Sacred Zero: Becoming an Empty Vessel

The Fool is the only card in the Major Arcana marked with the number zero—a symbol of pure potential, of being open, unformed, unburdened. In many ways, zero represents the exact state in which synchronicity becomes most alive. When we release the ego’s need to plan, predict, and make sense of everything, we create space for the unexpected to enter. The logical, linear mind wants control; it wants cause and effect. But synchronicity belongs to the language of the soul, not the intellect. It speaks in symbols, dreams, chance encounters—and The Fool, with heart wide open and eyes on the horizon, is its perfect interpreter.

The Dog as the Spirit of Play

One often-overlooked symbol in The Fool card is the small white dog trotting at his side. While some say the dog warns The Fool of the cliff’s edge, it may also represent the playful, instinctive energy that keeps us open to life’s hidden magic. Synchronicity rarely happens when we’re tense, overthinking, or trying to force outcomes. It arises when we’re relaxed, present, and in tune with the moment—much like a happy dog on a walk, open to whatever comes. The dog reminds us that joy, spontaneity, and a sense of wonder are not distractions from the spiritual path—they are the path.

The Cliff: The Edge of the Known

The Fool stands at the edge of a cliff, one foot about to step into the great unknown. It looks dangerous—foolish, even. But from the perspective of synchronicity, the cliff represents the threshold between what we can predict and what we can’t. It’s the edge of logic, the border of the familiar. To experience synchronicity is to step beyond the rational mind and into a world that operates by deeper laws—hidden patterns, Soul timing, and symbolic meaning. When we reach the edge of what we know, we’re invited to trust what we feel. The Fool doesn’t fall; he flies—because synchronicity has a way of catching those who take a leap with an open heart.

The Satchel: What the Soul Already Knows

Slung over The Fool’s shoulder is a small satchel—light, almost weightless, but significant. It contains the inner tools The Fool brings into the unknown: intuition, past experiences, hidden wisdom. In moments of synchronicity, we often feel a sense of recognition—as though some part of us already knows what’s happening, even if we can’t explain it. That’s the satchel at work. It’s the symbolic storage of our soul’s memory, the part of us that is quietly guiding the journey even when our conscious mind is unsure. The synchronicities we encounter may feel random, but they often resonate with something we’ve carried with us all along.

The White Rose: Presence, Purity, and Attunement

In the Rider-Waite depiction of The Fool, he holds a single white rose. In a world obsessed with control and destination, this simple act—pausing to experience beauty fully—is radical. The white rose symbolizes innocence, spiritual purity, and being fully present. And that’s exactly the state in which synchronicity most often occurs. When we are truly attuned to the now—our senses open, our heart soft, our mind quiet—we become receptive to life’s subtle signals. The Fool’s rose is not a distraction; it’s a compass. It reminds us that paying attention to beauty, wonder, and fleeting moments may be how the universe whispers its guidance to us.

Following the Fool’s Footsteps

The Fool is not just the beginning of the tarot’s journey—it’s an invitation to live with openness, curiosity, and trust in life’s mysterious choreography. When The Fool appears in a reading, it may be a signal that synchronicity is stirring, that the universe is aligning unseen threads on your behalf. It asks you to stay present, to pay attention, to sniff the rose, listen to the nudge, follow the sign. It reminds you that the unknown is not empty—it is alive. So next time you draw The Fool, don’t just think of risk or adventure. Think of magic. Think of timing. Think of how the world may be conspiring, right now, to lead you exactly where you need to go.

King of Pentacles

The meaning of the King of Pentacles in a Tarot reading with definitions for both upright and reversed positions.

A man wearing a crown sits on a heavily carved throne adorned with carvings of bulls heads. He wears a flowing robe embroidered with grape vines and holds a globed scepter in his right hand. His left hand holds a pentacle which rests upon his leg.

Upright: A very successful and probably fairly wealthy man with an abundance of good business sense. This isn’t someone who’s striving for success – he’s already there. And, in keeping with the old cliche about how the rich get richer, he just keeps on making more money.

The bulls on the throne show that he has a strong sensual nature but probably also feels a need to dominate those around them. The grapes indicate that, like his queen, he enjoys the finer things in life and expects nothing but the best.On a mundane level, look for a dark complected, heavy set or muscular man who is conservative and close to his family. Solid but fairly boring.

Reversed: A businessman who is capable of being vicious and very hard hearted who may be after the questioner in some sense. Alternatively, a businessman who looks rock solid but may be totally undependable or secretly down on his luck.

EXAMPLES: The CEO of a major company with a heavy stock portfolio.

The patriarch of a very successful family business.

“Just the Tarot,” by Dan Adair – a kindle ebook available on Amazon

Queen of Pentacles

The meaning of the Queen of Pentacles in a Tarot reading, with definitions for both the upright and reversed positions.

A crowned woman sits on a heavily carved throne adorned with goats and cherubs. She is surrounded by a lush garden and gazes down at a pentacle which she holds in her lap. A rabbit is hopping by in the lower corner of the card.

Upright: This is a very sensuous, materialistic woman. Since this is the Queen of Pentacles, the suit of money and possessions, we know that both of those are very important to this woman. Beyond that, though, there is an awareness of the fact that money really represents the good things in life that money can buy. This is a woman who enjoys – and expects – the finer things in life. A nice car, a lovely home, a good income, and, yes, probably a very nice garden.

And with the goats on the throne and the rabbit at her feet we can interpret that there is a very strong element of sexuality to this woman. Among the other fine things she expects and enjoys are good lovers and slow, delicious love making.

On a mundane level, look for a woman who possesses and excellent business sense and knows how to turn money into more money.

Reversed: A tough, resilient business woman who is willing to get down in the ditches and fight it out hand to hand. Very good with money but there is a hard, materialistic edge to her soul.

EXAMPLES: A middle aged business woman who lives happily alone in a beautiful home and enjoys sharing her bed with the occasional lover.

A sensual, beautiful wife who EXPECTS to be supported in a luxurious manner because she’s damned well worth it.