How-to Guides · 8 min · 2026-07-18
Reversed Cards: From Ending to New Beginning
Reversed tarot cards are not harbingers of doom, but rather a process of transition. Understanding how the Major Arcana cards connect when reversed will help you read tarot with greater depth.
The Basic Meaning of Reversed Cards
Rather than viewing a reversed card as a "setback" or "negation," think of it as a turning of the page — a movement into the next phase. Each reversed card guides you from one state to another, from one card to the next within the journey of the Major Arcana.
The Journey Through 22 Reversed Cards
The Fool → The Magician
The Fool reversed: Release your vagueness and expectations of the infinite and unknown. Instead, use what you know and what limits you to build a future you can actually predict. This is the moment to step from chaos into purposeful creation.
The Magician → The High Priestess
The Magician reversed: Let go of what we might call "instrumental reason" — unlimited capacity springing from action alone. Turn instead toward observation and deep reflection, enriching your inner wisdom. This is a shift from doing to doing with consciousness.
The High Priestess → The Empress
The High Priestess reversed: Leave behind the mysterious, abstract knowledge that leaves you stuck. Open the door to sensation and instinct to find genuine pleasure. This is when you allow yourself to flourish, rather than sitting in restraint.
The Empress → The Emperor
The Empress reversed: Contain the excess emotion and indulgence that leaves you fragile. Apply planning and logic to hold the larger picture together. You need a skeletal frame — rules and boundaries — to support and sustain.
The Emperor → The Hierophant
The Emperor reversed: Surrender your autocracy and personal authority. Approach those wiser than you with genuine sincerity and integrity. This is about humility — merging yourself into community and shared understanding.
The Hierophant → The Lovers
The Hierophant reversed: Release blind faith and unquestioning allegiance to authority. Use your own discernment and desire for independence to make your own choices. This is when you reclaim autonomy.
The Lovers → The Chariot
The Lovers reversed: Drop the relationship sustained by unbearable compromise. Use your will to move forward with personal determination. It may seem self-centered, but this is how you recover your momentum.
The Chariot → Strength
The Chariot reversed: Let go of the stubborn drive to push through quickly. Instead, use patience and gentleness to heal wounds and reconcile conflicts. You need not strain — permit yourself rest.
Strength → The Hermit
Strength reversed: Release the resentments of past conflict. Use silence to shield yourself from the outside world, clearing your mind of scattered thoughts.
The Hermit → Wheel of Fortune
The Hermit reversed: Your quiet order is disrupted from without. No matter how much a person wishes otherwise, they cannot escape the current of fate.
Wheel of Fortune → Justice
Wheel of Fortune reversed: The chaos of information requires discernment and filtering. Your efforts and experience will be repaid. Unlike The Fool reversed (emptiness), here you have too much to process.
Justice → The Hanged Man
Justice reversed: The linear path of the past no longer holds. Suspend yourself for reflection. Unlike The Magician reversed (release), this is a conscious, intentional suspension.
The Hanged Man → Death
The Hanged Man reversed: Stop your rumination. It is time to power down and restart.
Death → Temperance
Death reversed: Release sharp, cutting decisions. Choose instead the middle way — the harmony of things coexisting.
Temperance → The Devil
Temperance reversed: Drop the effort to maintain outward propriety. Seek absolute control — sovereignty of your own.
The Devil → The Tower
The Devil reversed: Total control is shattered by force.
The Tower → The Star
The Tower reversed: After the barriers that bound you crumble, you see something fresh, ideal, and hopeful.
The Star → The Moon
The Star reversed: While pursuing an ideal, you wander into fog. Complex moods and emotions confound you.
The Moon → The Sun
The Moon reversed: Turbulence settles, clouds scatter, clarity emerges. Everything becomes simple, emotion clear and pure. This is straightforward personal joy.
The Sun → Judgement
The Sun reversed: In a moment of pure happiness, the call of fate sounds. This is when you seek meaning and spiritual awakening.
Judgement → The World
Judgement reversed: It cannot be delayed or extended any longer. The final ending must arrive.
The World → The Fool
The World reversed: The game is finished—now what? Let it go and begin again — a new day dawns.
How to Apply This Understanding
When you draw a reversed card, remember it is not an absolute warning. Instead, it invites you to transition from one state to the next. Ask yourself:
- What am I releasing from this card?
- What am I stepping into next?
- Is this shift natural or forced?
This is how you transform a reversed card into a tool for reflection rather than a pronouncement.
Read deeper
Source: zhihu.com — The Meaning of Reversed Tarot Cards