Dusty White here with Cathy, and we're on a mission today. Just like I'm the world's first vegetable rights activist (remember kids: (and tell your mom!) "Love your veggies! Don't eat them!"), Cathy and I are the world's first reversals rights activists.

Reversed cards are your friends, and here's why.

What We're Covering:

Reversals Double Your Visual Cues: You're literally getting twice the information for free. Every card has a higher and lower energy, and when you use reversals, the deck just tells you which one it is. You don't have to guess.

Reversals Make Readings More Efficient: Here's the thing: if you're not using reversals, you have to decide for every single card whether it's representing the upright or reversed energy—higher versus lower meaning. That's an extra interpretive step you're doing in your head. With reversals, you skip that step entirely. The card does the work for you. If you're reading a Celtic Cross, that's 10 steps you don't have to take. You can spend that energy feeling into the spread instead.

Reversals Reduce Reader Bias: This is huge. I've read for tens of thousands of people, and I'll admit—sometimes I've twisted an interpretation because I emotionally didn't want something bad to happen to my client. Reversals act like a safeguard against that. It's like scientific processes that guard against subjective bias. The deck makes the upright/reversed decision for you through divine "randomization," not through your wishful thinking.

Real Example - The Magician Reversed: Cathy did a reading for a guy making a big move—new city, new job, everything. All the cards looked great. He was prepared, his mindset was clear, everything was lined up perfectly. Then the outcome card: Magician reversed. If she hadn't been using reversals, she might have read that as "You're making this happen! Everything's great!" But reversed? Something out of his control was going to derail him. Using reversals prevented wishful reinterpretation and prompted deeper investigation with clarifying cards.

Some Cards Get Better Reversed: Three of Swords? I'd much rather see that reversed. All those swords fall out—"I haven't got time for the pain." Ten of Swords? Same thing. Reversed can mean the worst is over, you're recovering, you're getting past it. The Devil, the Tower—these cards can soften when reversed, indicating you dodged a bullet or the intensity is lessening.

But Also: Some Cards Need to Be Negative: Life sucks sometimes. Most people come to us because something's wrong. We can't just have unicorns and rainbows. Cards have to reflect real life. And when a reversal flags a problem—especially in an outcome position—that's when you dig deeper with clarifying cards. That's the mark of a professional: you don't just do three cards and call it done. You investigate.

Practice Exercise: Pull the Four of Wands. Upright: celebration, connection, community, house party. Reversed: disrupted connections, cancelled celebrations, feeling separated. Pull the Ten of Wands. Upright: burden, grind culture, hustle mindset. Reversed: dropping the load, rejecting that whole "sacrifice everything for work" mentality.

Creative Interpretation: Here's a cheat sheet: if you come up with a meaning that makes perfect sense and nobody's done it before, look through your deck and ask, "Does some other card already answer that question?" If not, you're onto something. The Ten of Swords giving the benediction gesture? That could be forgiveness. Reversed? "I want him dead, I want his family dead"—no forgiveness whatsoever.

The point is to allow outside associations to connect with your cards. Look at a card and say, "This makes me think of . . . " and just have fun with it.

Using reversals isn't about cutting corners—it's about letting the universe make decisions instead of you. It's about getting clearer, richer, more honest readings. Worth the time to learn.

Thanks for being here. We'll be back with more soon.

Books mentioned in this podcast:

The Easiest Way to Learn the Tarot—EVER!!

The Easiest Way to Learn Astrology—EVER!!

Advanced Tarot Secrets

Website:

AcademyofDivination.com

Dusty White here with Kerri for another quick tarot lesson. This time we're diving into the four twos in the Minor Arcana—and I'm talking about the pip cards, not the High Priestess.

Here's the thing: most sources will tell you which element belongs to which suit. Wands are fire, cups are water, swords are air, pentacles are earth. Great. But they don't tell you what flavor of that element you're looking at. That's what we're doing today.

What We're Covering:

Moving Beyond Kindergarten-Level Tarot: Astrology isn't just for measuring people's personalities. It's a framework we can use to measure anything—including tarot cards. Each card has an inherent nature, and understanding whether it's mutable or fixed (not just what element it is) changes everything.

Important Note: Twos (on the tarot) are inherently mutable or fixed nature, but a card can represent cardinal action because of the situation or environment. What we're looking at today is the inherent nature each card is pointing to through its imagery.

Breaking Down the Four Twos:

Pull out your four twos and follow along.

• Two of Wands (Mutable Fire - Sagittarius): This guy's elevated, looking out over the horizon with a globe in his hand. He's not taking action—he's planning, brainstorming, imagining possibilities. Look at all that variety in the background: mountains, water, village, bridge. Sagittarius energy is all about that far-range vision, that "what if?" quality. There's even playfulness here—like maybe he's going to drop that globe just to see what happens. Mutable fire isn't settled. It's exploratory.
• Two of Pentacles (Mutable Earth - Virgo): The whole thing looks unsettled, which is weird for earth, right? His body's at an angle like he's catching his balance. That infinity loop, the moving water in the background, maybe he's even standing on a boat—everything about this image screams constant adjustment. Question everything. That's Virgo. Mutable earth means you're balancing, weighing options, never quite stable. Even that ridiculous hat at an angle adds to the sense of "oh my God, what about this? But then what about this?"
  
  
• Two of Swords (Fixed Air - Aquarius): She's sitting on a stone bench. Arms crossed. Blindfolded. The water behind her is flat and calm. This is opinion. This is "I've made up my mind and I'm not changing it." Fixed air equals closed-minded—not in a bad way necessarily, just firm. She's blocking the ocean. You shall not pass. Very impersonal, very unemotional. The crescent moon shows there's no emotional bias here. It's just no. That's it. No.
  
  
• Two of Cups (Fixed Water - Scorpio, though it can read as Libra): Intense bonding. Look at how they're gazing at each other—it's almost voyeuristic to look at this card because it feels so private. She's wearing masculine garb, he's wearing something almost like a dress. They've opened up completely to each other. That caduceus symbol, the winged lion, the isolated house in the background surrounded by trees—this is sacred, ritualized, deeply intimate connection. Scorpio dream: your own home, lots of space, only your people. Forever.

Now, here's the thing: because this is a cup card, it has to be water. But sometimes the imagery screams Libra (cardinal air) because of that partnership, exchange energy. Feel free to read it that way if the image supports it. The rules are there to help you, not trap you.

The Big Takeaway: Look at the imagery first. Use astrology as a framework to deepen your understanding, but don't let it override what you see in the card. And yeah, swords don't always feel like air to me—they feel like death. But that's a different conversation.

This is about helping you move past simple element memorization toward actually seeing what's in the cards.

If you want to go deeper, grab a copy of The Easiest Way to Learn the Tarot—Ever!! or The Easiest Way to Learn Astrology—Ever!! on Amazon. Come to our free Saturday workshops at www.academyofdivination.com. Send me your questions and I will answer them!

The skills you develop from this work? They're priceless. Not just for professional readings (though yeah, clients are paying $200-$300 an hour), but for seeing through any situation in your own life.

Thanks for being here. We'll be back with more soon.

Books mentioned in this podcast:

The Easiest Way to Learn the Tarot—EVER!!

The Easiest Way to Learn Astrology—EVER!!

Advanced Tarot Secrets

Website:

AcademyofDivination.com

Dusty White here with Kerri for a quick 14-minute dive into something that's going to change how you look at the Aces in your deck.

Here's the thing: all four Aces are cardinal. Every single one. And that matters more than you might think.

What We're Covering:

Why Cardinal Energy Changes Everything: Cardinal energy is compressed, explosive, immediate—like a match flaring up or an auto accident. It all happens at once. The Aces aren't subtle. They kick the door down, do their thing, and that's it. Even when they look friendly and nurturing, they're still telling you what to do.

Reading the Images, Not Memorizing Keywords: Look, astrology is the measure of all energy on earth. So we can actually understand what's happening in a card by looking at the quality (cardinal, fixed, or mutable), the polarity (masculine or feminine), and the element (fire, earth, air, water). The image tells you everything you need to know—you don't need to memorize a bunch of keywords from some book.

Breaking Down the Four Aces:

• Ace of Wands (Cardinal Fire): That motivational coach energy—"Get out there and DO it!" Aggressive, invasive, passionate, physical.
• Ace of Pentacles (Cardinal Earth): "I provide for you. Stay here where you're safe and controlled." Nurturing but confining—Darth Vader saying "I am your father."
• Ace of Swords (Cardinal Air): Commanding, decisive, sometimes harsh. Luke Skywalker jumping into the abyss. Very "take this" energy.
• Ace of Cups (Cardinal Water): Emotionally overwhelming. The hand is offering, not commanding, but those emotions are still flooding over you.

The Visual Cues: Notice how the masculine suits (Wands and Swords) show hands grasping, asserting—very in-your-face. The feminine suits (Pentacles and Cups) have supportive, cupping hands. But don't be fooled—they're all cardinal, so they're all forceful. Just one does it the hard way, the other does it the nice way, but you're doing it their way either way.

This is part of a series where we're going to analyze each card based on what the image is actually showing us. If you've got questions, write me at dusty@academyofdivination.com, or come to the live Saturday class.

Pull out your four Aces and let's look at what they're really saying.

Books mentioned in this podcast:

The Easiest Way to Learn the Tarot—EVER!!

The Easiest Way to Learn Astrology—EVER!!

Advanced Tarot Secrets

Website:

AcademyofDivination.com