I’ve been asked a lot lately about how to shuffle tarot cards and incorporate reversed tarot cards into your deck. Many people are concerned if they have too little or too many and how to manage this when shuffling tarot cards.
Here are some questions you may have about shuffling a tarot deck when you use reversals.
How many of my cards should be reversed?
Should I turn some cards around when starting with a brand-new deck?
What do I do when all or most of the cards in the spread are reversed?
Let me start by saying that I’ve never worried about this and managed it just fine. So will you.
Here are my tricks that can help you.
There Is No Magic Formula
There is no right or wrong number of reversed cards you should have in your deck. When you start using a new deck, don’t worry about changing the orientation of any cards; just start using it. Eventually, reversed cards will work their way into the deck just from you using it. After a reading, gather the cards and put them back in the deck. When you do this, some of the cards will change their orientation, and that’s how you get your reversed cards.
Your Shuffling Method Makes a Difference
When it comes to shuffling tarot cards and maintaining tarot reversals, how you shuffle is what makes the most significant difference and also why I don’t worry about the card’s orientation in my deck! I use jumpers! Have you heard about jumpers before? This is a technique I learned from my friend Kim over at Abundant Life Tarot. When you use jumper cards to select the cards for your reading, you use them in whatever orientation they are when they land. Sometimes they land upright, and sometimes reversed. You also decide if they are sideways and how you want to orient them. For me, unless they are obviously reversed when they land, I treat them as upright cards.
OK, You Don’t Want to Use Jumpers
I totally understand if you don’t want to switch to using jumper cards. It takes patience and practice to learn that skill. I still say there’s nothing to stress over. Just shuffle the tarot cards as you usually do and lay out the cards. Don’t pick them up one at a time when you collect them. Just gather them together, and don’t pay attention to the orientation when you put them back in the deck. In my riffle shuffling days, this is how I managed reversals, which worked fine for me. Now, occasionally when you riffle the cards, you may inadvertently turn one side over, making all of those cards reversed. No worries, just go with it! It’s all synchronicity!
When You Get Too Many Reversed Cards
Sitting across from your Querant, you turn over the cards they chose one by one, only to find most or all of them are reversed. What do you do?! It’s happened to me, and I don’t make it a big deal. I interpret this as deep, internal work needed regarding the situation. They are fighting what is happening in their life and need to release some blockages before things can change for the better. Then I flip all the cards upright and read for them. After the reading, I may pull a few more cards or oracles designed for inner work to give them some direction on what type of inner work is needed.
Once in a While, do a Reset
I enjoy this process a lot. I always re-order and set all my cards upright in my decks. It’s a great way to cleanse them of old energy and start fresh. I’m touching and looking at every card and thinking about their pure energy. I highly recommend this process to everyone.
Last But Not Least
You need not worry about tarot reversals, whether it’s how to interpret them or how you are shuffling the tarot cards. If using reversals isn’t sitting right with you, don’t use them. They are entirely optional. As a matter of fact, when using decks with a lot of busyness in them, I recommend you don’t use reversals. The readers who don’t use reversals usually argue that they don’t need to because they always consider the full spectrum of the card’s meaning and don’t need reversals to point out anything. Personally, I prefer reversals, and in the end, what’s most important is using whatever method works for you!
Hey! If you like the deck I use in this post, it is the Superlunaris Tarot by Jacob Schaffer and Jess Schuler. Use this link and go give them some love!
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