Therapeutic Tarot/Therapy: defn

[Sophie]

I think they try to find other names for themselves because they're not willing to be seen as a lowly fortune teller. They're afraid to just stand in place, firmly planted, working to bring the term "fortune teller" out of the realm of scam artist and into the light of being seen as a legitimate and honorable profession.

I think people who adamantly insist on trying to force tarot into the mold of "therapy" don't understand what harm could be done, or else they just don't care in their campaign to be able to tack the word "therapist" onto their titles.

I have a problem with these rather black-and-white statements, and others like them you have made, Grizabella. People who read tarot come in all shapes and colours, and their motivations vary enormously. Far from forcing anyone to practice therapy, or push tarot into "the mold" of therapy, what I see here is you pushing it in the mold of fortune-telling. Fortune-telling is only one thing that can be done with tarot cards. The Golden Dawn - who after all reinvented the esoteric tarot for us - found very different uses for it, including how to reach God by ascending the Tree of Life using Tarot cards. Part of the initiation into the Golden Dawn went through being taught how to do that by high-level initiates. Should we be leaving "reaching God" to the sole priests and assorted Hierophants?

Then there are those who don't like to predict. They are uncomfortable with it, don't believe the future (or even the present) is that easily definable or don't think their talent lies there. Yet they can be great tarot readers. They can look into your soul and help you see there for yourself, using Tarot cards.

Some use tarot cards to brainstorm. "Which job would be best for me" - and go through all the options.

Some use the cards to meditate and pathwalk, inspired by the Golden Dawn or other esoteric movements.

Some read tarot purely as a joke, for fun.

Some read tarot to predict the result of the races.

Some to enter into a deep conversation with the querent.

And some use tarot for therapy - in either of the ways outlined by Mary.

Why is therapy alone singled out? Of all of these actions I have listed, some are considered "lowly" and some "high", but all are in current usage. No doubt I've forgotten a few.

I put my cards on the table. When I read tarot for someone, I will sometimes predict, sometimes enter into a deep conversation, sometimes help the querent spiritually, and sometimes, I will do therapy, using the method Mary outlines - to encourage the querent to look at the cards, describe them himself how it touches him. We can go quite deep in that way. Sometimes - often - I will do all of these in one single reading. I don't start off the reading deciding what I want - I will flow with the querent and with the cards. What does the querent need, right now? Do they want to be told if and when they'll meet the man of their dreams? OK, let's look at that. But if during the reading a deeper question arises, it can be very useful to get them to describe a card and their feelings about it and follow that deeper question down the rabbit hole. In any case, I never go where a querent doesn't want to go. I am a facilitator, a midwife, for their lives. You know, sometimes I tell them a story, using the cards as a launch pad. Stories are amazingly powerful. Should storytelling be left out of tarot?

And you know - I can do all that without cards. Sometimes, a simple conversation with a friend will become a form of therapy - and its result will be therapeutic on the friend (or on me, if I'm the one in need of healing at that moment).


I came to tarot thanks to a reader who was quite frankly and honestly, a therapeutic reader. I met her by chance, and I had never had a professional reading before. I was a student, in the middle of a deep turmoil, I didn't want antidepressants, and I couldn't afford therapy - but my decision to see her was very much taken on the spur of the moment. I wanted answers and I wanted to be told I'd be OK. It's not too much to say that that woman saved my life, with that one reading. It opened the floodgates for many things - not only in the present, but in the past too. I have no idea if she was a professional psychotherapist or not - she simply advertised as a tarot consultant, like Elven. But man, she was a therapist and a half! I had to do a lot of work on myself after that - emotionally, mentally, spritually - but I will never forget that reading, and what came out of it. I saw her a few times after that, and I always found her incredibly helpful in a therapeutic sense.

So forgive me if I find your views a little simplistic and not really a reflection of what so many tarot readers actually do. There are tarot readers out there - whatever they call themselves (and for their title, they might be constrained by law) who do splendid therapeutic jobs. And others who are splendid fortune-tellers, and yet others who are spiritual advisers, creative advisers, life coaches, entertainers - you name it. Some do all of that or a combination. I wouldn't want to create a ranking among them, because all of these modes of reading have the potential of being empowering for the querent, if done well.

When I read the cards -- I draw on all that I am, all I have experienced, all I have lived, all that I have read, studied & absorbed.... across a WIDE array of subjects.

Now you can put it in various boxes with various labels on it but that doesn't change what I DO when I read the cards.

Yes, exactly!

 

[mac22]

This is exactly what I do and how I feel about it, thank you! I don't want someone else limiting what I do in any way. It's the main reason why I never completed my psychology phd—I didn't want to be held to some standard by the pscyhological community or state licensing board for the way I work with tarot (and I have friends who do both that do feel very restricted). I equally don't want any group to restrict tarot in this way. I hold myself to a standard of ethics that I created myself but that is not that different from what you'd find elsewhere. I have also set boundaries for what I do—but these are based on what actually works for the benefit of my client pool.

Mary

I have a PhD [Religious Studies] and several other degrees -- but I don't let them get in the way of how I read the cards. I am a member of ATA so that clients can see that I have a verifiable ethics code.

Mac22

 

[mac22]

I have a problem with these rather black-and-white statements, and others like them you have made, Grizabella. People who read tarot come in all shapes and colours, and their motivations vary enormously.

...

So forgive me if I find your views a little simplistic and not really a reflection of what so many tarot readers actually do. There are tarot readers out there - whatever they call themselves (and for their title, they might be constrained by law) who do splendid therapeutic jobs. And others who are splendid fortune-tellers, and yet others who are spiritual advisers, creative advisers, life coaches, entertainers - you name it. Some do all of that or a combination. I wouldn't want to create a ranking among them, because all of these modes of reading have the potential of being empowering for the querent, if done well.

Well we all start at different places with the Tarot. Also my views about Tarot modified & grew over time. I now see many more ways to use & read with Tarot than when I began. I'm happy to say AT has been a part of that growth.

As I grow in maturity [and hopefully wisdom] what I see in, do with, and expect of the Tarot has changed greatly.

Mac22

 

[Mi-Shell]

Hi Everyone!
I am quite pleased to see this new board here on AT and have tried my best to chew myself through all its posts so far.
I am by training a licensed therapist and a Registered Nurse specialized in Mental Health counseling and licensed to practice in Ontario.
I have, what you could call a private practice.
Among other things - - I use Tarot and Oracle cards with some of my clients to access and explore a wide variety of physical, mental and social health issues as well as issues pertaining to personal growth and spirituality.
I would welcome an exchange that is focused on these issues and that would give me an opportunity to "talk shop" with other readers that also use imagery in counseling.
M.

 

[The crowned one]

I think they try to find other names for themselves because they're not willing to be seen as a lowly fortune teller. They're afraid to just stand in place, firmly planted, working to bring the term "fortune teller" out of the realm of scam artist and into the light of being seen as a legitimate and honorable profession.

*How I am seeing it only*

Isn't that interesting, I felt strongly attached to the romantic idea of a reader as a seer/divinationer and felt it was worthy of honour. I worry sometimes we are taking the best use of tarot out of the cards with so much new age stuff. Divination or fortune telling is what the cards have been used for over the last 200 years or so, perhaps starting with Antoine Court de Gébelin, and I still feel that is their best use. But I find these side paths worth exploring with a open mind, but I would miss the romance of the "fortune teller" were we/you/us/them ever pushed aside. This is only a discussion and exploration, not something to feel threatened by or to get your back up over. Tradition IS good, so are new idea's. Lets explore and have some fun and learning. It is way too early for judgments.

Therapy and therapeutic are medical terms now, I use them daily in my work. The English language is a living language, meanings of words change, the dictionary may say one thing under definition #3 but popular culture rules the true meaning. It is right to consider these words in a medical sense, but it is not wrong to look at them as the words they actually represent in their root. As such they are what we readers do, or in the case of therapeutic try to do.

I get the sense some are finding this forum either threating or offensive. It is nether. It is fun and exciting or boring and not worth posting on...you decide. It may prove that tarot is not "therapy" as some see the word...a reason we were hashing out the meaning to have a common ground to perceive and start from. Or it may show a way of adding a new dimension to tarot. Tarot managed to go from a game to divination so why not divination to therapy? And it is still played as a game and lives in peace with divination

Therapeutic tarot is simply a reading that does more good then harm. We are all looking at how we are using the cards, and giving that use titles.. not what the cards are actually doing... in my mind.

 

[Sophie]

Isn't that interesting, I felt strongly attached to the romantic idea of a reader as a seer/divinationer and felt it was worthy of honour. I worry sometimes we are taking the best use of tarot out of the cards with so much new age stuff. Divination or fortune telling is what the cards have been used for over the last 200 years or so,

But you forget a very important way in which tarot has been used - namely the occult tarot, first with Levi, and then with the Golden Dawn. From the time of Levi, tarot has been used magically in order to effect change, and spiritually as a path for initiates to access the godhead. Though not everyone uses the tarot in these occult and spiritual ways, nobody disputes these uses - because they predate everyone alive today practicing tarot of any kind. I think part of the problem with therapeutic tarot (the title of the forum, which I prefer, by the way, to "tarot as therapy", which makes it sound medical) is that it's new. People are scared of it. "Don't touch my tarot!" "You're not licenced!" The reactions of Debra, Grizabella and others of that opinion - some strong, heartfelt reactions - show that. I have no doubt that similar reactions were felt when the occult tarot was born - both among those who used tarot for games or divination, and Kabbalists who couldn't bear that their beloved Tree of Life be associated with a lowly card game and who were afraid it would be debased. There weren't internet forums back then, but the history is rife with debate all the same.

Fear and rejection of the new and of evolutions in trends is part of human nature. It's right that people should be able to express those fears. I also think there are ethical concerns at play here, in how therapeutic tarot is practiced. But evolution and renewal mustn't be held back by fear: rather, they must proceed ethically, and so a constructive dialogue is useful. However, we will likely never reach full consensus on matters tarot - let's all agree to differ at least. Evolution will happen whether we like it or not. There are some evolutions that gall me too - I live with them, and go my own way in my own practice.

But to those who have those fears and concerns about therapeutic tarot, I shall remind you that the occult tarot in no way did away with fortune-tellers, or with card games. I see no reason for therapeutic tarot to do so. I expect that in 25 years time, straightforward divination with tarot will be alive and well, because divination is a basic need of human beings, every bit as much as therapeutic acts.

 

[Sophie]

The concerns about the seemingly loose use of the term "therapy"--concerns echoed by many, including me--have apparently been heard. There's talk of changing the title to something less divisive

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet

Although I have to remind you, the title of the forum is not Tarot as Therapy, but Therapeutic Tarot. "Therapeutic" is a very common word, used widely outside any kind of medical or licenced environment. I have a beloved book called Therapeutic Gardening, but I assure you, it was written by a gardener, not a therapist

 

[Moonbow]

Moderator Note

I have had to removed off topic posts from this thread. Please can we get the discussion back on target and to do that I quote the initial post by Teheuti:

Is it time for definitions of therapeutic tarot and tarot therapy? These could vary a great deal depending on the kind of practice and the background of the practitioner (or if doing it for oneself). We might need to distinguish our definitions among:

LP - licensed professionals
TC - tarot consultants (or coach?)
P - personal use
or, if appropriate, specify a particular therapy that tarot is to be used with: occupational therapy, dance therapy, aromatherapy, hypnotherapy, etc.

Some of the definitions we already have for THERAPY are:

1) a treatment or process that tries to promote physical and/or mental healing.

2) to attend or support someone with the intent of nurturing well-being and awareness.

3) the provision via external means or by a facilitator, of addressing a problem and effecting a positive change or outcome where no adverse reaction is intended.

4) an honest attempt at solving an issue using the help of a "proven useful" frame

5) a beneficial act (of treatment) with the intention to ease dis-ease.

ADDED: 6) healing the rift within humans themselves so they can heal their rift with the divine.

_________
A licensed health/counseling professional might use one of the above and append something like "using tarot as one method."

A tarot consultant might need to be more circumspect where therapy is legislated by law - especially when using the word "treatment."

As an example, many Life Coaches already use tarot in their practice:

• "Life coaching is a practice with the stated aim of helping clients determine and achieve personal goals."

• "Coaching is partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential."

Colorado determined that coaching is unlike therapy because it does not focus on examining nor diagnosing the past. Instead coaching focuses on effecting change in a client's current and future behavior. (Interesting distinction, but how helpful is it to us when so many spreads have positions called 'the past'?)

Mary