Tarot, creativity and wellness

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 04 Jul 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Moongold	04 Jul 2003
I am carrying some thoughts over from the Living with illness thread as that thread is now so long and this seems a nice time to develop some other themes. Truthsayer was speaking about the importance of creativity in her own recovery from serious illness and her contentment in the way she now lives her life. Let's pick up from there: Quote: Originally posted by truthsayer the art came first in my recovery. being involved with color and shape helped me get in touch with my emotions. this involvement in painting as an emotional therapy comes thru in my story about the artist. i was burned out on writing for many years until i took a class in creative writing in january. since then, i feel that i get more and more in touch with myself thru the writing. moments long forgotten from times i felt hurt or confused or angry come to the surface. i put them in free verse and try to make the situation come alive again through the 5 senses. that's really healing. I think this is really worth exploration - the correlation between wellness and creativity; between recovery and creativity; between therapy and arts. Sometimes the creativity can be in relationships with other people. I may have a different view of life - I may be more considerate, more loving, more giving. I might laugh more and make whatever time people spend with me *good* time. I took up photography in my early 20's and have always loved it. Can do my own printing, but now use digital technology. The joy in photography is capturing the moment, whether it be a natural landscape or a picture of people. If one creates pictures with love, they generally turn out quite well, sometimes brilliantly. If I am light hearted and open I can be much more spontaneously creative. There is something about being creative, whether it be through painting, writing, photography or whatever that allows the inner self to surface that is so healthy and joyful sometimes. That in itself is therapeutic. I am struggling with poetry at the moment and I KNOW it is because I have some sort of spiritual blockage. So I simply have to let go and trust that it will come. Tarot provides us with the opportunity to be creative with thoughts, images, language, art. It frees up the spirit, gives startling insights, provides us with communities of like minded souls. My creative Tarot muses are High Priestess, Empress and Queen Wands. I'd really like to hear of others experiences of art in the way they live life, in healing, in communication, in expressing their inner selves. People are here because they are interested in Tarot. If it's appropriate, in what way does your interest in Tarot connect with your creative work?

Inana	05 Jul 2003
Creativity is one of the most important things in my life. I had the need to write and draw since childhood. And still do it... all the time i can. I love art and i believe is one of the ways people can make deep connections withouth knowing it. I mean, when you create something, you put part of your personality on it, an intention, a feeling. That feelings and ways to see the world are imbued in the creation. Then the other people is able to feel it inside and perceive a part of the personality of the creator when watching, reading or listening to it. But is in a deeper sense, cause theres a fast reaction of feelings:"i like it", "it disturbes me", "it makes me feel relaxed" or wathever. Hope is understandable what im trying to say. Creativity helps you to express inner feelings. And is specially good for people who, like me, have hard times when it comes to talk with others about our own feelings. Thats why its terapeuthic, helps to express yourself. And, very important too! Using imagination, creating something, is really really fun. About Tarot... i dont see where it fits for me related to creativity. Maybe the only thing is...well my head is always full of thoughts, and lately, when someones speaks or in some situations, i play inside my mind at choosing a card that fits with what is happening or with the attitude of the speaker. Fortunately they dont know about it, otherwise they probabily would think im not paying enough atention to them... I tried a couple of times to write stories based upon tarot cards, but this doesnt work for me. Also tried to draw a few tarot cards with better results, but are really weird. All i can say is art and creativity are very important for me.

truthsayer	05 Jul 2003
art is a visual language. there are no words to express it. it is a universal language that anyone can gaze upon and understand something of the mind of the creator. by creator i mean both the artist and that higher power some call god. i know when i am possessed by an artistic inspiration i feel content--a part of something larger than myself. i love photography, too but it feels more technical and harder to achieve the affects i want. but practice is the key. everytime i learn something new about making photos turning out better, i feel extremely gratified. i know for me when i could no longer do my job i had an enormous identity crisis. i needed my job to define me and tell me and others who i am. when people asked what i did, i could no longer say i work at such a place as blank. you just don't realize how much society depends on work to give us an identity. while i know housewife is honorable, i still felt humiliated to say it. now i'm still a housewife but instead of that i say i'm an artist and a poet. that gives a different view of who i am. i also feel like somebody when i say i'm am artist and a poet. i have an identity again. no matter what type of work i go back to, i will always be an artist and a poet because it is something that chose me. any other work or identity is secondary. i have done some art with tarot cards but it is confining to wwork within a specified structure. the soul cards are more abstract and easier to use. does anyone here use music to create and heal?

Cerulean	05 Jul 2003
...actually creativity studies are dear to me. Visual art for me wells up from a place that is similar to visual imagination. But suspending judgment can be hard if I start trying to articulate my first efforts. I do have different responses to visual art and poetry. I find that poetry is about articulating and a response that is written or meant to communicate. Since for me this implies judgment and refining, I have to cut through more to do it. When I am ready to plug into a structure and respond to it, my tarot studies come into the mix and help me--at least I find it both a refining and interesting structure for art and poetry. But again, it has a communicative aspect for me. If I can do one tarot related topic or look at one card, etc., at least in a day, then I feel I've had some creative balance. I think it's a feeling that I followed up one interesting thing for me. So I find little successes or steps in tarot related topics very fun and fulfilling.

Moongold	05 Jul 2003
I discovered the Tarot at quite a grey time. I’d been doing what Michael Dransfield calls treading water through the solitary abyss of deprivations. . Miserable time, stuck in the tunnel, unable to remove the walls of self–imprisonment, or so it seemed. The discovery of Tarot was a gift. It brought interest, hope and energy back into my life. This is how I became curious again. It’s amazing really. The Tarot images are startlingly colorful and demand examination. People generally don’t like the RWS 10 Swords but it stopped me in my tracks and I thought What IS this all about ? I flipped through every card with mounting excitement. The colours, the silkiness of the cards to the touch, the graphic questioning images, all of this in my hands, inviting me to look at them again and again. It became a little compulsive. I ploughed through Rachel Pollack’s 78 Degrees of Wisdom and Illustrated Guide to Tarot . I purchased one deck and then a couple of others. Now I have a number of decks that I love and dozens of books. I spend a couple of hours a day reading books or cards, not only about Tarot but also numerology and astrology, discovered through their connection with Tarot. The use of the cards was a turning point. I trusted immediately and they began to awaken my mind and spirit. I was at Aeclectic by now, discovering this wonderful purple and gold world, swimming with ideas and friendliness, meeting people and becoming involved. The cards became the key to another world and continue to provide ideas and insight in an ever unfolding way. These ideas and memories take form and demand articulation and the words came back. I write something every few days now and know that soon I’ll be able to write poetry again. Just a few weeks ago I bought another camera and have started to take pictures again. The excitement mounts. So for this person the Tarot has been a healing ride into a new dimension where where everything is bursting with energy. :) One hope and many paths.

Belladonna	05 Jul 2003
I beleive that all creative arts, but especially those directly related with pictures, colours, shapes, whether that be through painting, drawing, photography or even funnelled through creative writing is so healing because it makes use of a greater part of the brain. We are funcioning more WHOLLY, if that's a word. And anything that encourages our wholeness increases our potential as human beings exponentially- emotionally, spiritually, mentally and physically. Symbols encourage communication with the other part of ourselves and what better or more beautiful language of symbols is to be found than within the Tarot. I've always been drawn to painting (every wall in my house has a mural on it!) and have done a fair share of drawing and a little bit of sewing, quilting, and other crafts. One of my earliest paintings was of a joker turned merman! Oh, what is it about the Tarot that inspires such passion? Besides for the beauty and mystery it holds, I believe it is the promise of what it contains. I think I can sum it up with the common phrase "a picture is worth a thousand words!"

Belladonna	05 Jul 2003
I just wanted to add something. I think my initial and continuous emotional reaction to the Tarot could be likened to how it might feel to find someone who speaks your language when you've been lost in a foreign country for your whole life. It's like you'd just be so excited you'd want to sit down and talk to them for hours!

Myrrha	06 Jul 2003
I have not done any tarot-related artworks on purpose, however many of my drawings are non-intentional and for a time many of them were turning out to be related to tarot in some way, I could look back at the drawing and see "The Moon" or "Strength" Art and tarot do seem connected though, as they are both ways to connect with some part of me that is not the every-day part, a deeper self. Art is how I talk to the spirits and make magick. Myrrha edited to add: I have seen books of alchemical engravings where the purpose seems to be that looking at the symbolic pictures will have an uplifting or enlightening result, also think of saints' cards and medieval altarpieces. It doesn't seem so strange that looking at beautiful or symbolic images could be healing.

The Tarot, creativity and wellness thread was originally posted on 04 Jul 2003 in the Spirituality board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Spirituality, or read more archived threads.