Book Review: Learning Tarot Reversals

If you've read Learning the Tarot: A Tarot Book for Beginners and worked through the exercises and remember at least one keyword for each card, you'll be able to do effective readings. To take your readings to the next level, you can add depth by knowing how to handle reversed cards. This is where Learning Tarot Reversals by Joan Bunning comes in. This book is not for beginners. There's nothing about spreads or even how the cards work, so it's not for you unless you're already comfortable doing readings, at least for yourself.

Unlike some Tarot systems which take reversals to mean the opposite of what the card would mean upright, Ms. Bunning's system keeps the upright meaning, but takes reversals to mean that the energy represented by the card is not fully present. What's unique about her book is the concept of energy phases. The energy of each card starts low, increases, then decreases again, roughly in the form of a sine wave. Reversed cards represent the beginning and ending of the wave. They can also mean that the energy isn't perceived at all (denial).

Every Tarot reader has a different way of using (or ignoring) reversals. Ms. Bunning's system has given me good results, and it should also work for you.