SILENT VOICES

Many people still have the impression of the tarot as simply a tool for fortune telling but in actuality the tarot goes much much deeper in terms
of the human psyche than simply letting us know that we'll meet a new partner or get the keys to a new house. In this series of articles
I'm hoping to expand people's knowledge of the tarot and hopefully you will be able to then relate the images of the tarot to your own psychological
and emotional experiences and indeed to your life in general.

First of all I'd like to explain what sub-personalities are. Many of us feel that “this is me”, in other words that we are always the same “personality”. However once we delve deeper into this area we find that actually we are all a number of people inhabiting the same body. We will have days when we feel extrovert and sociable and just want to go out and have fun and meet people and other days when we just want to hide away from the world and feel a bit down and lonely. So these two aspects of the same “person” would be known as sub-personalities. The term originally derives from the spiritual psychology Psychosynthesis, as first pioneered by Roberto Assagioli, originally a follower of Jung, in the early to mid 20th Century.

Now you may ask what has this to do with the tarot. Well as you may know the tarot has a lot of people cards, known as the Court cards which have four suits:
Pentacles – which relate to the material world, physical sensation and the body – the element of earth
Swords – which relate to the world of mind, thought and intellect – the element of air
Cups or Chalices – which relate to the world of feelings and emotions – the element of water
Wands – which relate to intuition and intuitive action – the element of fire

The Court card characters range from the Pages to the Knights to the Queens and then the Kings and all of them, when you look at the images carefully, appear to have their own individual personalities. However the tarot is ONE, it is a Whole not a part and so we could properly call these Pages, Kings etc sub-personalities. Therefore it is possible to work with the tarot in order to discover and evolve our own sub personalities and so come to a greater understanding of our own psyches.

Here's an exercise you can do.

Firstly take out all the Court cards from your tarot deck and lay them out in a horizontal row in front of you. Look carefully at the pictures, taking not of the imagery, the colours and also of your feelings and thoughts about each one. Once you have concentrated on this for a while pick out one of the Court cards which you feel particularly drawn to and place it in front of you. Take note once again of all the imagery of the card – what is the person in the card doing?, why might they be doing it? How might they be feeling? What might they be thinking?

Now, once you are feeling comfortable with your particular card try this little visualisation:

Now this figure, on a par with the figure in the card you've chosen is one of your sub-personalities. As you stand there greet this sub personality. Does he/she respond? Or do they remain silent? Ask the sub personality to walk along the beach with you. Do they go happily? Or are they reluctant? Walk along the beach a little way together until you come to a rock where you can both sit down comfortably. Once you're seated you can then begin a dialogue with this sub-personality/tarot figure. Ask him/her what he/she brings to your life and how he/she acts in your daily routine – what positive things, and indeed what negative things. Does he/she spur you forwards in life or does he/she hold you back. Ask the sub-personality what it is that he/she needs from you. Take a short while to listen to your sub-personalities' needs. Now, tell the sub-personality what you need from him/her. Take a moment to do this and to wait for his/her response. Keep going with this dialogue for as long as you wish to. Once you have finished your conversation with your sub-personality let him/her know that you are going now but that you will continue to be available for further dialogue in the future. Now say goodbye and open your eyes.

Now take a quiet moment to reflect on what has just gone on and the conversation that ensued.

If you feel about this sub-personality that “oh yes this is me; this is who I am” it may be that you are too “identified” with this particular aspect of your own psyche so you may need to explore this further (more of this in future articles)

You can also repeat this exercise by choosing two Court cards which feel to you as though they represent two different aspects of yourself (sub-personalities) which are in conflict with each other and meet both of them on the beach in order to attempt to resolve those differences and to explore what has come about for them to be in conflict in the first place.

Also as you progress it is not necessary to use just the Court cards; in fact you can use the entire deck. For instance, if you are having a day when you are feeling fed, up, bored and just generally out of sorts you might want to choose the four of cups/chalices and explore the sub-personality associated with that card and find out why it is so bored and fed up and what the solution may be.
Equally if you are feeling on “top of the world” one day take out the World card and explore that sub-personality and all its aspects and how it helps you or otherwise at times.

So, as you can see tarot is so much more than just a system of divination or “fortune telling” - it is a very complex system which compares very much to the human psyche and indeed therefore to the Universe as a whole, given that we human beings are simply a microscosm of that Whole. I will be going further with my articles on tarot and psychology in future but I hope you have found this interesting and hopefully illuminating. In future articles I will be exploring more of these aspects of the tarot and indeed delving even deeper into this marvellous system and indeed the human psyche.

Copyright Karen Dawson 2010

Close your eyes and see yourself on a beach at twilight. What does this beach look like, is it warm and welcoming or is the sea stormy and grey. Are there any landmarks around you?. Are there any animals or birds? Notice the whole environment and also notice how you are feeling and what you are thinking and sensing about this environment, and also take note of your intuition, your gut feeling if you like, about this scene in front of you. Now after you have noted these things you also notice that you are not alone on the beach and that there is a figure in the distance walking towards you. This figure is the person in the tarot Court card you have previously chosen and still hold in your hands. Once again how do you feel, what do you think, what do you sense and what is your gut feeling about this “person”, as they draw closer and closer. Now they are close enough for you to see every aspect of their appearance – do they look like the image in the card? Are they smiling and welcoming? Are they solemn? Are they sad? Notice everything you can about them.

About Karen

I'm a professional Clairvoyant Medium and tarot reader.

I spent several years working on a voluntary basis with TABI (Tarot Association of the British Isles) and am an endorsed reader with them and was also a senior reader with the American Tarot Association. I also took courses in counselling skills, psychotherapy and the spiritual psychology psychosynthesis.
Karen is available for mediumship demonstrations, private readings & house parties in the north east. Karen is available worldwide as well as UK. Contact http://karendawsonclairvoyant.ning.com/  Tel: 07904521687