Experiential Tarot Group Work on Skype

[Justin Lawrence]

I'm about to facilitate an experiential tarot study/work group in my local area which will combine both elements of tarot work and psychodrama. The emphasis will be on direct experience and the group work seeks to provide a deeper inner connection with the images and underlying energies of the tarot as well as a greater understanding of how these energies actually manifest in our own lives and in the lives of those around us.

In preparation for the local group I wanted to try and get a small group together to do some work of this nature on Skype. I want to try and limit this to perhaps 5 - 6 individuals who would be interested in exploring the tarot in this way for a number of weeks.

Basically we would meet on Skype once a week for about an hour and the basic format would be as follows:

- Welcome and checking in with everyone.
- Preliminary process of relaxation.
- The group will then decide who will be the querent for that session.
- Once selected the querent will then present a specific question to the group and will then select cards for a simple, pre-defined spread. At least to begin with we will be working with the RWS or Universal Waite. As she does this she will let the group know what those cards and positions are. There will also be a significator card.
- The querent will then choose individuals from the group (based on their intuition) who they would like to embody those cards. So if we are working with a 3 card (past, present & future) spread then 3 individuals will be selected. The querent will then work with and embody their significator card.
- The psychodrama will then begin. Each image/person will then speak in turn and soon thereafter a conversation will begin between all participants.
- At the end of the session after a grounding period we'll have a group discussion regarding what has unfolded. Everyone, including those who may be listening in to that particular session will have an opportunity to talk about their experiences.

The above is just a basic outline to give you an idea and is by no ways set in stone. It is really just a starting point. There is no charge for this and I envision doing this for 4 weeks, so that would be 4 weekly sessions at a time which is convenient to everyone.

As this is also a learning experience for me I would be indebted to individuals who are willing to participate and also provide feedback regarding their experiences. This feedback would be completely confidential and would help me to make any necessary adjustments in the future.

If you would like to participate then please do let me know below this post and I will respond to you as soon as I can. I anticipate starting this in the next 2-3 weeks or so. Please do let me know your time zone and also what times would suit you the most.

Warm Regards.

Justin.

[OOnaOwl]

This looks interesting! To clarify, by psychodrama you mean that each chosen participant would be acting out the role of the drawn card, interacting with other drawn cards through the medium of Skype. Will this be an ongoing group or for a predetermined length of weeks/months?

[Justin Lawrence]

Hi OOnaOwl, thanks for your interest and questions. I hesitate to use the term acting but yes you could say that. Personally though, I would prefer to use the terms role play or even embodiment.

I didn't mention acting because I'd like to avoid situations where one adheres strictly to intellectual understandings/meanings of the cards and then artificially tries to act those out or in this case vocalise those qualities. So in other words, I want to steer away from someone going, "Okay I'm playing the Emperor Rx so I'm going to dominate this whole dialogue and yell at everyone". That energy of course has many different ways of being expressed and the approach here is to work from the inside out as opposed to the other way around.

We will be doing some initial prep work such as relaxation exercises, meditation etc. in order to connect with the underlying energies associated with each card. The idea is to cultivate a process which is much more instinctive and spontaneous and which arises from deep within rather than acting out qualities based on our mental understanding of them. I hope that clarifies the acting question.

To answer your other question at this stage I'm not sure whether it will be an ongoing group or not. I would like for the initial group to try and commit to doing four sessions, one a week so for a month in total. Depending on how everyone feels at that stage then as a group we can make a decision as to whether to continue or not.

[eurydicesdreams]

I would really love to engage in such a group discussion! Though I live in an area where tarot & such are extremely welcome, it's very hard to find others who do the work I do. I'm starting my own business reading & teaching tarot and would really like to have the engagement & energy of other likeminded individuals to discuss with. I'm in Ithaca, NY (EST) and I can do pretty much anything that is 8-5 my time I look forward to hearing from you, Justin!

~eury

[Justin Lawrence]

Hi Eury,

Thanks for your interest in the group work. You are more than welcome to join us and I will send you a PM with more details once we have a few more participants. Thanks also for letting me know your time zone and availability and I'll keep that in mind when putting a schedule together.

Congratulations too on starting your own reading & teaching business. I hope that the work we do in these sessions will enrich both your teaching and individual work with clients.

It's interesting you mention the business side of things because I'm in the process of organizing a master-mind group for professional readers with a focus on working online but will post a separate announcement about that at a later date.

In the meantime though I look forward to your participation and will send you a PM soon.