Ask the Tarot about health

[JoannaCrystal]

Hi there everyone

So, my best friend wants me to do a reading for her regarding her mom's health!
I've been told that we shouldn't make questions about health to the cards..
Her mom is going to do some exams to know if what she has in her uterus is good or bad!

How can I help her on this?

Much light for all!

Sent from my GT-I9301I using Tapatalk

 

[AnemoneRosie]

Not many people read on health because, hey, do you feel qualified to give out medical advice? After all, I'm not a doctor - are you?
That said, I read on health. However, I don't read to diagnose - I certainly couldn't tell if someone's internal organ(s) are/were good or bad. So instead, I read on how they can best work with their doctors, or whether they're on the right track with their healing, or whether there's anything that their body is trying to tell them.

 

[Xeni]

That said, I read on health. However, I don't read to diagnose - I certainly couldn't tell if someone's internal organ(s) are/were good or bad. So instead, I read on how they can best work with their doctors, or whether they're on the right track with their healing, or whether there's anything that their body is trying to tell them.

Since you have experience on this, may I jump in and ask you how you approach the situation? Say, someone close to you is having health issues, but they don't know what they could be, and the doctors aren't very helpful. So you are using the cards to see if maybe you can uncover more information. In this case, the tarot would supplement the actual doctors, instead of taking their place.

I am a medical student right now, and I would like to be able to use tarot in some way in my medical practice in the future, perhaps to uncover things that I couldn't figure out with modern medicine. I'm just not quite sure how to go about it yet.

 

[AnemoneRosie]

Well, some people do it through chakras.
Some people (particularly Thoth-type people) have bodily correspondences for the cards. A common one is the 3 of Swords corresponding to ailments of the heart, for example.
I don't do it that way either.
I tend to ask about what the querent could do to help encourage healing, and that's because my approach to health care is trauma-informed. So it's not uncommon for me to hear stories of someone leaving their abusive ex and their health problems clear up, for example.

 

[CrystalSeas]

Here are some spreads I've found useful for health readings

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=55873
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=10823
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=150405

In the tradition I was taught, many cards have specific meanings about parts of the body, diseases, etc. But those aren't taught very frequently any longer, since most new readers use an "intuitive" approach that does not apply older meanings.

You might also check Benebell Wen's "Holistic Tarot". She has documented many of those meanings.

 

[delinfrey]

I never read about health issues, since I am taking on a responsibility for someone else's life - literally. If my unqualified or misguided advice will cost them, it will cost them badly. I am not interested in carrying that burden. I do however provide readings on "how could I support my XYZ, who is going through cancer" or "how could I cope with my //insert health issue//", so anything that helps empower and heal people on the spiritual or psychological level. In fact, a good rule of thumb is to imagine yourself as a therapist. Would you diagnose a person as a therapist? Would you guide and support their feelings and help them cope?

But now on to another pressing topic - would you ask a therapist to psychoanalyse your friend? Would they do it? Would they reveal details from a session, given in confidence?

I feel it is utterly misguided to ask about anyone else, especially in health matters. There is a reason why our health records are so well protected - have you considered perhaps this is knowledge the querent's mother doesn't actually want to receive? Has she been asked?

I recently had a situation like that when a mother asked me to read about his (adult) son, going through a rough patch (he is slightly autistic). I explained to her kindly, that I will not look into a third person's life, but I would be glad to offer guidance on how SHE could support and behave in this situation.

 

[uraszz]

I never read about health issues, since I am taking on a responsibility for someone else's life - literally. If my unqualified or misguided advice will cost them, it will cost them badly. I am not interested in carrying that burden. I do however provide readings on "how could I support my XYZ, who is going through cancer" or "how could I cope with my //insert health issue//", so anything that helps empower and heal people on the spiritual or psychological level. In fact, a good rule of thumb is to imagine yourself as a therapist. Would you diagnose a person as a therapist? Would you guide and support their feelings and help them cope?

But now on to another pressing topic - would you ask a therapist to psychoanalyse your friend? Would they do it? Would they reveal details from a session, given in confidence?

I feel it is utterly misguided to ask about anyone else, especially in health matters. There is a reason why our health records are so well protected - have you considered perhaps this is knowledge the querent's mother doesn't actually want to receive? Has she been asked?

I recently had a situation like that when a mother asked me to read about his (adult) son, going through a rough patch (he is slightly autistic). I explained to her kindly, that I will not look into a third person's life, but I would be glad to offer guidance on how SHE could support and behave in this situation.

This is exactly, word for word, my approach too. I feel that people should know the boundaries between the Physical and the Spiritual reality. There is a reason why medical students in Turkey study for seven years before even qualifying to specialise in a certain field or that Law students study a 4 + 2 year masters before truly being qualified to be a Lawyer, Judge etc. I have immense respect for the time and effort they put into these fields and I, as a Tarot reader, should not cross that professional boundary

Matters dealing with the mind and soul are where our strengths lie. We should focus on that

-uraszz

 

[RiverRunsDeep]

If you'd like to focus on health issues according to the chakras, I like this spread.

 

[Nemia]

There is a tradition assigning body parts ot the different astrological signs, from the head (Aries) to the feet (Pisces), so if you work strongly with astrological associations of the majors, you might take hints from there. The tradition says that these body parts are the "Achilles heel" of a person, e.g., I'm a Taurus, so my neck might be the reason why my head aches. And the Hierophant or a Disks card from the decans of Taurus might reflect that in the cards if I focus on health issues.

Another possibility is the Lenormand. There, the health aspect is part of each card's meanings.

In general, I agree that it's not advisable to ask for concrete health questions. Even if the cards are right, what if you as a reader don't read them properly? The responsibility is too heavy IMO. A querent might either skip a doctor's visit because he had such good cards, or see the Death card and panic.

And yes, it's much better to ask how to deal with health fears, how to work with doctors, how to inform ourselves, how to help our healing process mentally or emotionally etc, as others have said above.

I wouldn't try a diagnosis but I think I'd design a spread for the emotional side of the problem or pick one of those introduced here.

 

[Barleywine]

I tend to stay away from any kind of consultation that typically requires professional, academic and regulatory credentials to practice: good examples are medical, legal and financial advice that might be acted on blindly by querents to their detriment and, potentially, to mine. I might offer cautions based on what I see in the cards, but never strongly-worded recommendations in these areas. I make it clear that anything they choose to do with what I give them is entirely their responsibility, but I don't care to test the defensibility of the "It's for entertainment only" argument in court if real harm has been done.

I agree with Nemia about Lenormand; it also has a dedicated "health" card (according to some systems, it's the Tree) that can be used as one focus area in the Grand Tableau, or as the "charged" card in a smaller spread.