Do You Need Reversed Cards?
Simply Tarot reads every card upright. Not because reversed cards are wrong, but because we believe each archetype already contains its full range of light, shadow, balance, resistance and possibility.
One of the questions we are asked most often is whether Simply Tarot uses reversed cards. The answer is simple: no. Every card on Simply Tarot is read upright. For some readers, that may come as a surprise. Reversed meanings appear in countless books, courses and online guides, and many experienced readers would not consider working without them.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with that approach.
It simply is not ours.
At Simply Tarot, we believe the cards already contain everything we need.
A complete language
Every tarot deck contains seventy-eight extraordinary archetypes. Each card is capable of expressing confidence or uncertainty, balance or imbalance, growth or resistance, harmony or conflict.
Human experience is rarely one thing or another.
Neither are the cards.
The Fool can describe hopeful beginnings. He can also reveal naivety, avoidance or unnecessary risk. The Emperor can represent healthy authority, structure and protection. He can also become rigid, controlling or inflexible.
None of those possibilities requires the card to be upside down. They already exist within the archetype itself.
We do not see upright meanings and reversed meanings. We see complete meanings.
The story provides the nuance
Imagine reading a novel. The word light can describe hope. It can describe weight. It can describe a flame. It can describe understanding.
The word itself has not changed. Its meaning comes from the sentence around it.
Tarot works in much the same way.
A card never appears on its own. It appears alongside a question, within a spread, surrounded by other cards and interpreted through the circumstances of the subject’s life.
That context provides the nuance. We do not believe turning the card upside down is necessary to create it.
The cards are the vocabulary
One of the ideas we return to throughout Simply Tarot is this:
The cards are the vocabulary. The spread is the grammar.
The vocabulary does not need to change. The sentence tells us how the words are being used.
A card appearing in a position labelled “Challenge” naturally reads differently from the same card appearing as “Advice”, “Strength” or “Outcome”.
A card surrounded by hopeful, supportive energies will feel different from one surrounded by fear, conflict or uncertainty.
The story is already there. Our task is to read it.
Every card contains its shadow
Sometimes people ask, “But how do you show blocked energy without reversals?”
Our answer is simple: every archetype already contains both its strengths and its challenges.
The Empress can nurture. She can also smother. The Hermit can offer wisdom. He can also withdraw too far from the world. The Sun can represent warmth, clarity and joy. It can also point towards overconfidence or a refusal to acknowledge what remains in shadow.
The card’s less balanced expression is not a separate meaning added by reversing it. It is part of understanding the card fully.
The Empress
Her care can be nourishing, generous and life-giving. In another context, the same instinct can become overprotection, interference or care that leaves no room for independence. Both belong to The Empress.
We read the situation, not the orientation
If somebody is resisting the lesson of Strength, we do not need a reversed Strength card to tell us that. The surrounding cards and the spread position will often reveal the struggle.
If The Star feels difficult to access, the reading will usually show us why. If the energy of the Queen of Cups is blocked, the cards around her can explain the nature of that blockage.
Rather than asking, “What does this card mean upside down?” we ask:
“How is this energy being experienced in this situation?”
For us, that question leads to richer and more natural readings.
Simplicity creates depth
One of the unexpected benefits of reading only upright cards is that it encourages understanding instead of memorisation.
Instead of learning two separate definitions for every card, we learn the archetype itself. We come to understand its strengths, challenges, gifts, blind spots, potential and shadow.
Eventually the card becomes a living symbol rather than a list of keywords.
Once that happens, readings become more intuitive—not because we have memorised more, but because we understand more.
Different readers, different traditions
Tarot has always contained many traditions. Some readers swear by reversals. Others never use them. Neither approach is inherently right or wrong.
Every reader develops a language that feels authentic and consistent to them.
At Simply Tarot, we have found that reading every card upright produces readings that are clear, nuanced and coherent.
For us, the richness comes from the conversation between the cards—not from doubling the dictionary.
A moment for reflection
The next time you draw a card, resist the temptation to ask for its reversed meaning.
- What qualities does this archetype naturally contain?
- Which expression best fits the question and spread position?
- What do the surrounding cards suggest?
- Is the energy flowing freely, being resisted or moving out of balance?
- What story is the spread already telling?
The card does not need to be turned upside down. Sometimes, all we need to do is look more deeply at the story it is already telling.