Alright folks, pull up a chair. I wanted to share some stuff from my latest dive into the Tarot. Specifically, what happens when The World card decides to flip upside down on you. It’s one of those cards that, when upright, just feels like everything’s clicking—completion, success, feeling whole. But reversed? That’s where the fun, or lack thereof, starts.
The Initial Pull and Why I Focused on Reversals
I’ve been practicing Tarot for a good while now, but I realized I was glossing over the reversals. I’d see a reversed card and just give it the quickest negative spin—”Oh, blocked success,” or “Delay.” It felt lazy. So, I grabbed my decks—the Rider-Waite, of course, and a couple of modern ones—and decided to sit with the major arcana reversals, spending a week just on The World reversed.
My first step was simple: pulling the card repeatedly in different contexts. Not just in readings for myself, but asking specific questions about projects, relationships, and goals, forcing The World to show up reversed to see how the energy shifted.
- I started journaling immediately after each pull, not just writing down the typical meanings, but the gut feeling.
- I tried to link the reversed energy to real-life setbacks I was currently experiencing.
- I read through three different reference books, focusing only on the reversed section for The World, trying to find common threads beyond the obvious.
Breaking Down the Blocked Energy
What I quickly found out is that The World reversed isn’t just about failure; it’s about incompletion and feeling stuck at the finish line. You know that feeling when the whole project is 99% done, but you just can’t bring yourself to button up the last 1%? That’s this card screaming at you.
I realized the energy wasn’t external doom; it was often self-sabotage or internal resistance. I pulled it reversed when I was procrastinating on finalizing a big client report. Upright, it would signify the report getting signed off perfectly. Reversed, it was me re-editing the introduction for the tenth time because I was terrified of sending it out and facing potential criticism. The “success” was blocked by my own fear of moving on to the next chapter.
Key Insights I Scribbled Down:
The core message I walked away with wasn’t “you failed,” but “you haven’t finished the damn loop.”
First Takeaway: Lack of Closure. When The World is reversed, you are avoiding tying up loose ends. It screams, “Finish what you started before jumping to the next big thing.” I started listing every single task I had left hanging—from small emails to half-read books. Seeing them written down made the overwhelming feeling concrete.
Second Takeaway: Delayed Gratification Is Broken. Sometimes, the card showed up reversed because I felt undeserving of the win. It’s the feeling that the cycle should be complete, but you’re holding back the celebration or acknowledgment. I actually forced myself to celebrate minor wins just to shift this energy, even if it felt silly.
Third Takeaway: Stagnation and Fear of Transition. The upright World is about moving gracefully from one major phase to the next. Reversed, it’s like you’re glued to the spot. You know the environment needs changing, but the thought of moving past this familiar cycle is too daunting. I found that this showed up when I was clinging to old habits that no longer served me.
My final process was doing a “clarification spread.” I pulled The World reversed, and then pulled three clarifying cards to its left, top, and right. This often showed me the source of the blockage (left), the current impact (top), and the steps needed to right the card (right). This spread was gold because it turned a vague negative feeling into actionable steps.
So, the next time you see The World flipped, don’t just groan. Ask yourself: Where am I refusing to finish? And why am I scared of the next level? Usually, the answer is way more about you than the cosmos.
