The Reverse Permission Question: Why You Should Choose Whether Reversals Exist

Today's Lesson Here's something no one tells beginners: you get to decide whether reversed cards are even part of your practice. This isn't about being lazy or avoiding complexity—it's about recognizing that tarot worked for centuries without a standardized reversal system, and many professional readers today never use them at all. The question isn't 'What do reversals mean?' but rather 'Do reversals serve my reading style?' Some readers find that upright-only readings push them to find nuance within the card itself—noticing that The Tower can indicate anything from catastrophic change to necessary breakthrough, all while right-side up. Others discover that reversals provide a helpful visual cue for blocked energy or internalized expressions of a card's theme. The trap is thinking you need to decide right now, or that your choice is permanent. Many readers start without reversals to learn the core 78 cards, then experiment with them later. Others do the opposite—learn with reversals, then strip them away to see what happens. What matters is conscious choice. If you're reading with reversals because a book told you to, but you freeze every time one appears, that's information. If you're avoiding reversals because they seem complicated, but you keep sensing something…