Beyond the Celtic Cross. Paul Hughes-Barlow

way I see it. You may see it differently, but neither way is wrong.

      Much ink has been spilt on reversed meanings. Some of this I can relate to, some I can’t. But none of it is wrong; the interpretations were correct at the time they were interpreted by that reader.

      The problem, as I see it, with Divinatory Meanings is they usually belong to someone else. They are an expansion of an author’s or reader’s repertoire and may never have that same significance to anyone else.

      This shows us that we have a grey area. Should we read reversals? If so, then how? Alternatively, we can choose not to read them at all. I read both ways, depending on how it suits me at the time.

      When I read reversals, however, I do not see them as the opposite of the upright card. This is too narrow an approach and doesn’t allow for a broader interpretation. I prefer to see the meaning of a reversed card as fading away, or not fully expressed. Perhaps there are blockages preventing the message of the card being given. Another option is that the Querent has a choice with the message of the card. If it is reversed and negative, then some work may be required by the Querent to turn the card the right way up. Conversely, if the reversal has more pleasant connotations, then the Querent must look to themselves to see what they can do to secure this more pleasant aspect.

      Bearing that in mind, let’s look at the three reversed cards in my original spread: the Eight of Cups, the Three of Swords and the Knight of Wands.

      Upright, the Eight of Cups can mean leaving, moving on, and abandonment. This card, though, is about choice. The Querent has not been abandoned, but has chosen to leave. Leaving the many other layers of meaning aside, how does this translate as a reversal? To me it relates to the choice of leaving, and whether I should really do that. In the Celtic Cross reading it was in the ‘Heart of the Matter’ position. Splitting up and getting back together again had been a familiar theme in the relationship that appears in this reading, so this card really did sum up how I felt. As it turned out, we weren’t getting back together, so there was some finality to it this time. There was no sadness, though; more a sense of inevitability, and in some ways relief as—on this occasion—it really was time to move on.

      As Paul says, seeing the Three of Swords can really fill you with dread. In this reading, though, when I first laid out the cards and saw the Three of Swords, I had to smile. This card had been a familiar bedfellow for some time. Sitting in the position of the Past was where it belonged and, significantly, it was reversed too. For me, this reversal signified the fading of the pain associated with this relationship. It confirmed how much I had already begun to let go in order to allow healing to begin.

      It was a bitter-sweet moment seeing the Knight of Wands, a male court card, in the Outcome position, but then realising he was reversed. What did it mean? I have to say I was not sure; it’s what led me to contact Paul in the first place. Having one Knight in the Near Future position and one in the Outcome was a little confusing to say the least, and I worked through various scenarios of what it could mean.

      These ranged from seeing two sides of the same person, to assessing that perhaps this Knight was someone who was currently unavailable to me. Maybe the blockage was my own. As I said earlier, a process of healing had begun, but was the past preventing me from finding the future? There is, of course, the traditional option of this person being undesirable, or a bad influence.