As I delved into psychology and intuitive healing my openness to all the different methods the universe uses to connect with us expanded.
This study is based on research conducted between 1992 and 1994. In the current global climate permeated by diverse beliefs, disparate values, and cultural conflicts, an integrative approach to therapy is paramount for maintaining public mental health. The purpose of this paper is not only to contribute to the desensitization of some preconceived ideas regarding Tarot, but also to share some practical knowledge which can be used as a means towards improving people’s well-being and emotional security.
Pictures as extra-linguistic structures, are also symbolic and can be used to make inferences, sure enough, pictures are worth more than many thousands of words. We do not know what we may find if we ever ‘open’ a human’s mind, but we may find something if we operate upon the mind projected through quite tangible properties of tarot or oracle cards, with their picturesque meanings that carry powerful symbolic meanings. And it is in these inferences that we might find our messages.
A reading, very much like a traditional therapy session, is a dynamic process towards awakening one’s conscious awareness. The interpretation per se is of secondary importance, the primary factor is what this interpretation triggers in a subject’s mind and how they are going to respond to it – and this is the turning point at which Tarot acquires therapeutic value. The beauty of the Tarot is such that in the course of even one session the amount and quality of information available for the person and the associative feedback that this information triggers for the subjects is great enough to lead to successful therapy. And if a client’s concern has been validated, well-being addressed, and emotional security achieved, should a therapist wish for more?
Arcanum (or arcana, plural) means that which it is necessary to know, to discover, so as to be fruitful and creative in one’s possible endeavors. If and when made manifest in a client’s conscious awareness it may become a powerful motivational force to facilitate a change for the better at the emotional, cognitive, and behavioral levels, and thus accomplish the important therapeutic objective. In an intuitive reading, we don’t just deliver the meaning of the cards, we discuss them and engage in healing conversations around their messages. These types of sessions also lead to an “awakening” if you will, the bit of insight that the interpretation triggered in the subject’s minds happened to be the most natural intervention. It rises up from the depth of a client’s unconscious, which – as aligned with the Jungian collective unconscious – acquired the power of transcending itself. When you do a tarot or oracle reading and start to connect the dots on your own and dive into all the thoughts and emotions we face constantly, you heal yourself, and that’s the greatest type of healing to occur, it leads to experiencing empowerment and thereby demonstrating an important therapeutic objective. When your mind is able to lock down on your empirical notions, you open up a creative consciousness.
The study goes on to highlight instances in which persons had 4+ more years of traditional therapy, and were able to get the much-needed opportunity for healing after just one intuitive tarot reading session. During a reading, a client’s affective world, when amplified and reflected back, becomes an important step in the process of change because you not only talk about your feelings, you experience them first hand. Intuitive Tarot Readings combine deep analysis with an intense relationship, and the relational model of psychotherapy is indeed not to stay outside the unfolding mind. The psychoanalytic objective of making the unconscious conscious is addressed during readings and is probably what drives this the most.
I have to truly thank Honorary Research Associate Inna for this study as I was greatly enlightened by both this and the research shared. Overall, is this a viable form of psychotherapy? I truly think so, and with so much going on today, it doesn’t hurt for us to take the time to stop and spend time with ourselves and ancient understanding, this is the greatest difference I think tarot readings provide. It did demonstrate an inclination to meaningful; communication and its therapeutic value for the clients. It did empower subjects with new information as a source of potential knowledge and emotional healing leading to a possible therapeutic change.
Please view the full study here -> https://www.academia.edu/442956/Integrating_Tarot_Readings_Into_Counselling_and_Psychotherapy
PhD, Inna. (2005). Integrating Tarot Readings into Counselling and Psychotherapy. Spirituality and Health International. 6. 81 – 94. 10.1002/shi.52.
