A common system reads a reversed card as the negation of its upright meaning: the Sun reversed becomes gloom, the Star reversed becomes despair. We do not read this way, and the reason is not stylistic.
Following Pollack, a reversal is the same card — the same energy — blocked, withheld, distorted, or channelled somewhere other than where it wants to go. The Star reversed is still hope; it is hope that cannot find its way in. The Fool reversed is still the leap; it is the leap held back. The card does not become its enemy when it turns. It becomes itself, obstructed.
This keeps the deck honest. A system of opposites doubles the deck into 156 meanings and quietly smuggles in the idea of lucky and unlucky cards. Reading reversals as blockage keeps all seventy-eight cards whole, and keeps the reading psychological rather than moral.