health?

[Windhorse]

So here's an interesting spin.....

What about 'stress'?

This isn't a physiological problem, yet we know that there are numerous factors that can lead to stress, and the symptoms and ways that stress manifests itself as a physical illness are equally numerous.

I have often heard a 'doctor' say quite flippantly, "oh its JUST stress," as if to say their client's problems are all in the mind....

....which of course, they probably are.

There are however known cases of people dying from stress or stress-related illnesses.

How is something so invisible to western medical technological diagnosis so widespread in our community and treated so indignantly by 'health professional'?

stress cards:
9 & 10 swords?
10 wands
7 cups
7 disks?
any of the 5's?
the devil
death
tower

?????

something to ponder.....

mitakuye oyasin
P

 

[PlatinumDove]

Windhorse, apparently this isn't a subject we will ever come to a moderate agreement on, so let's just agree to disagree. I'm sure we've got enough stress going on in both our lives that we don't need to add anymore debating each our points.

Speaking of stress, I've been to doctors here. Not alot of them because I am a very healthy person, but alot moreso in the past 4 months than anytime in my life before because I am 5 months pregnant. One thing they have always told me, even before I was pregnant, was to get rid of the areas of stress in my life, to use relaxation and meditation techniques. I've seen my uncle, who is always sick it seems but always gets sick about the same times of the year, and that, I can promise you is stress-related. We both know it, but it isn't stress that he can just get rid of. My job is extrememly stressful, I joke all the time I'll end up going into early labor one day. I do my best to relieve as much stress as I can through relaxation and meditation techniques. Stress isn't tossed around lightly by the medical community, they know how much it affects the body.

Now, the reason why I would never attempt to diagnose a health problem with tarot is simply because I know how absolutely complex the human body is. If someone comes to me complaining of general tiredness and pallor and wants a reading, well, sure I could read for them, if I get alot of cups, I could say it was an anemia, it makes sense, it fits the profile. But what if I'm wrong and what if it was a bladder infection, that later goes up into their kidneys because they decide to just increase their iron intake? Or what if it was pernicious anemia instead of IDA? Two very different anemias with very different things to change in their diet.
The body is so complex, and we don't know what the querents do after the reading. I personally wouldn't want that hanging over my conscience.

 

[Windhorse]

Point taken, PD.

The whole responsibility thing is why midwives are shutting up shop down here - because they can't get insurance and they fear they will be sued.

Congrats on pregnancy by the way... we're expecting in4-6 weeks. We're having a home-birth with midwives we trust (who aren't insured) because there is NO way we are letting so-called 'health professionals' get their hands on our child. We live in a rural area, and our local hospital has a caesar rate of over 30%, there is no pediatrician, and the obstetricians prefer intervention than natural childbirth- -as if the female body hasn't evolved so it can give birth without men sticking their noses into the business. So again, forgive my inherent distrust of the western medical system.

Also your point on the vagueness of health readings...
My training comes from eastern medicine - its 180 degrees from how western med looks at the body, hence my gardener metaphor.
I believe - and from experience and success, mind you - that illness has a deeper/unconscious metaphysical root. Not so much 'cause & effect' as that is a simplistic western approach.
Given your example, why would a lot of cups suggest anaemia? That is an interpretation. In TCM, there could be any number of 'diagnoses' for tiredness. Perhaps they are drinking too much alcohol (7 cups)?
And as for what they do when they leave you.... well you don't have to fill out a prescription that a doctor fills out either. you do have the choice. Its just that we westerners are trained in believing that if we dont take the doctor's advice then we are harming ourselves. Does the doctor take responsibility if we haven't followed his advice and we get sicker? Of course not, no court would support that view. But if I as a natural healer suggest something and the client doesn't do it and gets sicker, am I liable? Of course not as well. This is the individual taking responsibility for their own health (or not in this case).

And if work is the cause of your stress, instead of treating that stress, why not just nip it in the bud and leave that place of work?! This is what a tarot reading would give me, not that you are suffering from some particular illness.

This is the difference between 'preventative medicine' and treating illness. one treats the problem, the other treats the symptom of the problem.

Can you see what I'm getting at here?

The cards give me a WHY answer, not a WHAT or HOW.
The first step in good health - be it physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual - is knowing why we have that suffering. Isn't this along the same lines as the Buddha's 4 Noble Truths?

This doesn't presume to dismiss the complexity of the human system - far from it in my opinion. Again, I would give yourself more credit as a healer. You have medical knowledge, a gift of reading tarot, and the natural intuition that women (especially mothers) have. Perhaps you should have faith in your own abilities, and worry less about what the medical system (ie, The Emperor) would think of you if you started leaning left of centre...

keep up the good work, and good luck with bubs...

mitakuye oyasin
p