u/cartoonybear

Since when did reading reverses become controversial????

I believe this apparently pervasive (and absolutely wrong) idea has come from three bad ideas: 

1. Misunderstanding of cards in general and randomness in particular
2. People who hate messiness (and see shuffling as “too messy” or messing up their card edges)
3. People who don’t understand negativity is part of life and therefore, part of any good card system.

 

1 and 2:

Readers who can’t shuffle, and/or OCD types who prioritize the “neatness” and cleanness of their cards; usually combined with people who can’t tolerate the randomness at the heart of any card-based activity. (I suspect these people haven’t played card games of any kind and treat their decks too preciously). 

Also, they may not actually don’t know how to shuffle or understand what shuffling is meant for. 

Reddit quotes:

“Fun fact: I never get reversed cards in a reading, because I always keep them neatly on the same side, shuffle them in the same direction, and never turn them over in my readings.”

[wtf???]

“Personally, I don't use them and I don't think I ever will. My shuffling is JUST becoming decent and I don't want to get it messy all over again”

“I'm far too OCD to shuffle my cards all willy-nilly like that.”

“There's no trueway to get cards reversed randomly by gently shuffling them. You have to intentionally take some cards and flip them around while you shuffle.”

• The whole point of shuffling is creating as much randomness as possible (ask any card player—I learned to shuffle from my grandma, a lady Elk who played a mean gin rummy). 
• The reason playing cards can be read from any direction is because they get turned upside down during a good shuffle. If not?  Guess what gurl, you aren’t shuffling. 
• The idea of “not messing up your cards” goes against everything a card player knows about creating randomness, also known in card playing as fairness. 
  • Imagine a poker deck where the card backs indicate up or down. 
  • Now imagine the game played where somehow the dealer keeps the cards in all one direction up or down.

   

• I’m gonna say that in Texas? They shoot you for that.

 

Point 3: No Negativity!!!

Readers who don’t understand that there ARE unfortunate cards in unfortunate places in unfortunate readings. 

Beware these people!!! They refuse to believe in “negativity” in a reading—therefore I guess in life?? As though all our lives are sunshine and light from birth thru death! 

Look, the cards are life and bad things happen. (In fact they happen more often than good things—sorry to warn you youngsters about this if your mommas didn’t do their job.) 

I’m pretty sure that readers who refuse to ever warn a client about bad things coming their way—those people probably make a mint!! But they are doing poor service to their clients, who need to know the best ways to avoid bad outcomes.

If you think negativity has no place in tarot and can’t read “negativity if kept on current path” you have no business reading cards. 

Reddit quotes: 

“I see each card representing both the good and bad and all reversed aspects can be wrapped into the cards meaning depending on context.”

[Exactly. One of the contexts is “is it upside down”. What kills me about this is there are plenty of cards which are BETTER when reversed!!]

“You don't usually go to an art museum to stand on your head to judge the composition”

[I also don’t go to art museums to discern clues about my future and how to live my life but maybe that’s just me.]

“To be fair, I’ve tried reversals multiple times before, and in all attempts, it never worked. There was always something wrong.”

[You have no idea what you’re doing.]

“I never awknowledge reverse cards and read them as normal”

[Good luck with life]

“One thing I think it would definetly help with is having less meanings to keep up with for each card. Keeping things simple might improve my intuitive abilities”

[Now you’re just being lazy. Come on]

SUMMARY

I’m sure I’ll be come at with basically the same exact arguments as above. Look. If you know you know. What kills me though is I never have charged for a reading yet people who do? Actually purport to believe this bullshit. 

Reversals are part of the reading. Learn to shuffle. Understand randomness. Quit babying your cards. Accept negativity— it’s part of life, there can be no good without bad. Stop making excuses because reading reversals is hard. 

You don’t wanna do it, fine. But at least don’t throw shade on those of us who have the skills and courage to read reverses. 

I‘ve been studying and practicing (mostly) western left-hand path for a decade or so. I‘ve worked with other practitioners here and there, both in group settings and as advisors, but I’m not much of a joiner—and it seems that often, groups dealing with mystical practice and the occult fall prey to groupthink, cultism, and false beliefs.

At the same time it would be super helpful to be able to access and contribute to a closed group online. I’m thinking there must be a group not filled with novices but which also is relatively “nondenominational” (I have no problem with wiccans, for example, but I am not looking for a Wiccan forum—I can find that easily.)

The occult is occulted for a reason—I suppose I’m sending up a beacon to find others who may welcome a knowledgeable practitioner who can contribute as well as learn.

If this exists please DM me. Also my reddit history is open so you can determine for yourself the kind of person I am. (Flawed but trying)

Thanks in advance, 93, 23 skidoo, 42 47 and all the rest.

and do you own editions of Telephone?

I started reading Stephen King in the 80s as a young teenager. I’ve always loved his work even after going to college for literature, and reading tens of thousands of books (both genre and literary). I just read “11/22/63” and I’ve enjoyed it but when I came to this passage I literally cried. I had to put the book down and cry. it’s that good

>“For a moment everything was clear, and when that happens you see that the world is barely there at all. Don’t we all secretly know this? It’s a perfectly balanced mechanism of shouts and echoes pretending to be wheels and cogs, a dreamclock chiming beneath a mystery-glass we call life. Behind it? Below it and around it? Chaos, storms. Men with hammers, men with knives, men with guns. Women who twist what they cannot dominate and belittle what they cannot understand. A universe of horror and loss surrounding a single lighted stage where mortals dance in defiance of the dark.”

Give yourself permission to put down on paper (or screen) your unedited thoughts. This takes practice to be able to do because we all feel watched or judged so you gotta keep doing it. Dont say “I’m writing a story” just say “I’m writing.” Give yourself permission to ramble and make no sense. Give yourself permission to write stupid, boring repetitive things.

Force yourself to write or type for five full minutes without pausing even if it means writing “I dunno I dunno fuck this” over and over. Do this every single day. Five minutes is all.

Your brain needs to be loosened up. You need to get what’s called “flow” and the only way theee is to train yourself to ignore all guidelines and rules and just spew on the paper or screen without being self conscious.

If you do this daily (five minutes! no pauses in typing or writing!) for one month (days off are okay!) I guarantee you will be better at writing and also at thinking. You will also become a better reviser. Because at the end of the day it’s as much about what you cut as what you keep. but it’s hard to cut if you don’t have anything freely flowing.

My sincere 2 cents.

And/or the original sub(s) being jerked have become indistinguishable from the jerk subs.

Its almost like the irony/sincerity spectrum has collapsed in a quantum wavefront which demolished both.

Concrete manifestations of the phenomenon include:

1. CJ posts which are both sauced and obviously insincere—meaning any vaguely sober Redditor should be able to suss “something ain’t right here”—whose commenters respond earnestly or in good faith, as though it were the main sub

2. Posts on the main subs for which there are CJs which are fundamentally indistinguishable from the CJ satires.

3. Jerkers who notice the above two phenomena and who then gleefully start posting their jerks on the main subs, since no one visiting the CJ gets it.

There’s got to be some kind of critical theory term for satire collapse, right?

This is confusion on the deBordian level: what’s even real any more?

I’m talking Radnor-Winston, Tuscany-Canterbury, Sabina-Mattfeldt, Pen-Lucy, Hampden-Woodbetry, etc.

This came up cos I was thinking how we don’t have enough fun, silly neighborhood names like other cities (e.g., Dinkytown, Cabbagetown).

Then I was like, why are so many of our neighborhoods double-barreled?

Having never lived anywhere else but the NYC suburbs (where I don’t recall any hyphenated area names) I’m wondering from transpants: is this normal?

Selling for over a year, enough volume that eBay is always asking me on my seller page how they can help me. 100 percent positive feedback.

Now I’m trying to switch my payment outlet from my regular checking account to Chime. Nothing works. Trued to switch BACK to my traditional bank and it gave me same message and banner.

And—there’s literally NO WAY to talk to ANY HUMAN at eBay now?

Im thinking this is a very bad sign about their business honestly.

Help! I’ve been running in circles on the Water4All website. Their forms are impossible to fill out—the validation is completely opaque.

Bottom line is I have a water lien I need assistance with and there appears to be no way to access the Baltimore water department to make an appointment—much less apply in any way to the Water4all program.

If anyone has figured out how or where to talk to a water dept employee could you let me know?

I don’t want to give too much away cos it’s obviously a brilliant idea, let’s just say that there’s a lot of choking and also poverty. 

I’ve tried to get beta readers but it’s like people have no attention span these days. I blame AI.

I always considered myself a pantser when it comes to writing. (I don’t know if you’re aware of this term’s origins, but it derives from an ancient saying “flying by the seat of your pants.”).

Because I’m a pantser, I am always pantsing jn my fiction. I consider this a real strength in my writing.

A “plotter” (which doesn’t sound at all like “plodder”) may actually attempt to outline a “plot” (“plod” anyone? am I right?) or may just be a person who doesn’t randomly write shit.

But when I pants, I’m letting my creative juices soak through everything—I’m just letting go, I’m pantsing!

Recently was a post on a popular writing sub that questioned this term and we were all like “A-duhhhhh!” Evidently this idiot had never heard of, uhhh, “flying by the seat of your pants”??? which is a really old saying?

We were like “okay miss superior fancy PANTS how bout you try WRITING WITHOUT PANTS” and then she made dum comments

Makes me not even want to keep not writing

I came across a 1969 copy of the Grove Press erotica reprint “Suburban Souls” and I find it interesting no one’s been able to pinpoint authorship on this. I think it’s a pretty great example of its genre—the 19th c. sex novel at its finest.

Theres mention in the Grove Press archives of payment to a Kronhausen or Kornhausen. I didn’t go down the rabbit hole enough to determine who this was or what relationship to the text he had.

Normally I’d be super skeptical of the internets claim that only 150 of these were privately printed—I’d be more likely to believe that was a myth cooked up by Grove in mid 20th century.

But I’ve read the book, and I have also read a LOT of 19th century Western European literature, and—okay, there are a few places it rings untrue, but they’re very few, and I’m inclined over all to believe the document was written in late 19th c.

At the same time though, where are these 150 original, privately printed copies?

Lit detectives, can you help?!

Single proprietors! Not being able to edit post title is terrible.

I’m not talking about the Bauman’s of the world, but the Tom Aylings.

who are the big “names” in the book world? And do they have YouTube videos or substacks or other content to learn from?

I’m a complete beginner and have some basic questions I figured could be answered by searching the sub—but weirdly didn’t really find answers. Maybe I’m asking the wrong questions but after perusing the results I got from searching, I came up with a whole bunch of new ones! (Which also aren’t answered by searching!)

First—My goal is to do a 3 minute open mike, without stumbling all over myself and forgetting my words. Is this a realistic goal for a beginner? (I’ve written the material) 

Second—Everyone on here talks about jokes and memorizing jokes. I’ve noticed in a lot of younger comedians that there seems to be a shift away from the storytelling thing and a return to a kind of one-liner approach. 

Is this what’s cool or expected at an open mike? Because, my routine is a whole cohesive story (that has jokes in it, but it’s not one liners or whatever). The funny parts are dependent on the context and to some degree depending on my physical presentation to come off. 

Will this work in a 3 minute open mike? I’ve timed it so it definitely fits time wise but is this the wrong approach? If so I probably won’t do it because I’m not a “jokester” like a Clare O’Kane type. 

Third, given all this, what is the best practice method and how do I critique myself or get other people’s feedback? 

Thanks for your patience and any info you can offer. 

I’ve built a meticulously crafted world centered around worship of a mystical snail (hermaphroditic, as most aquatic snails are). My world has an incredibly abstruse political structure involving complex quasi-parliamentary, multi-planetary feudalism, ruled by dragons, but definitely medieval Western European, despite being not at all set in the “real history” of the world.

I haven’t created the language the characters will speak yet (still working on this, between my bouts of staring at the wall—I’m a chronically ill shut-in whose parents didn’t allow me to use the internet or read anything on paper until I was 20 years old, so, sorry if this is beginner stuff, I literally don’t know basically anything.)

The problem is as I delve into deep research into each of the 400,025 words I’ve written by hand in my beautiful paper journal thus far—I find that for instance, zucchinis weren’t even a thing in the medieval Europe that my custom-built world is based on. So when I say “The duodecimo’s face turned the color of a zucchini” am I taking the reader out of my world abruptly?

Im a pedantic person myself and very detail oriented so when I’m reading a fantasy novel set on another planet and they describe something as “sepia colored” and I don’t think they mentioned that their world has photography? I get very upset, and my Nursey has to come give me the “special manouver“ to dislodge the stones from my long, slender, very white throat.

Also, how much does it cost to publish my book At a mall bookstore? I’m about to interview a bunch of literary agents to see who I want to hire, but if they can’t tell me how to publish at a mall bookstore I don’t want to give them the time of day.

like a microwave but for cold.