A common thread that has come up in both my tarot classes and Reiki classes is, How can we help others when we have so much healing to do ourselves? As passionate as we are about sharing our gifts, the more we learn about healing the more we see how long our own road is.
One of the first exercises I teach in my beginning tarot class is to tune into what our personal projections are so that we don’t confuse our own stuff with that of our clients. In Reiki the teaching is similar: we learn to step aside and be an empty channel for Spirit. At more advanced levels, the metaphor is slightly different, and we practice becoming aware of our connection to Divine Unity, and then being aware of the client’s connection to Divine Unity, so that there is no longer any separation from the perfect health and happiness expressed through Spirit. Either way we release our own limited understanding and ego-based existence and place ourselves in a state of knowing that all is perfect because all comes from Spirit.
I advise my tarot students also to learn to step aside and allow their readings to come from Spirit. It’s a Reiki approach to tarot that really works. Another way of looking at this is to do all readings from the heart. When I first started doing a lot of public readings at psychic fairs and such, I would start the reading by visualizing a horizontal ray of light connecting my heart center and my client’s heart center, and then seeing a ray of light from my heart up through my crown to Spirit, and a similar ray from the client’s heart to Spirit. The rays converged at the level of Spirit, creating a tall, narrow triangle linking my heart and my client’s heart to Spirit. Knowing that the reading was coming from the unity of Spirit and being expressed through compassion, I was able to read at a much deeper and more healing level.
It is easy to approach even difficult cards when we are confident that to speak these challenges will release them to Spirit so that they can be quickly and easily transformed. And when I’m working from a place of compassion, there is no judgment to get in the way of the reading, no overseeing societal sense of right or wrong, simply compassion for the immediate experience of the client and a clear connection to Spirit to provide the vast perspective from which insight and guidance arise.
The only problem I see with tarot is that words too often get in the way. Language comes from a part of the brain that is analytical, decisive, defining. Language limits. That is its beauty and its betrayal. I always start my public Reiki talks with the quote, “The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.” As soon as words are imposed on Spirit, we limit the unlimited and therefore are immediately mistaken. As soon as I open my mouth, I’m wrong. So how can I ever possibly help another person? When doing a Reiki session, it’s easy—I keep my mouth shut! I simply bask in the beauty of Reiki. I might be the one to open the window, but we all benefit from the breeze.
Most styles of reading the cards require the use of language. I have found that the more I release those words from what I might think they would mean for such a person in such a situation (my own limiting beliefs and experience imprisoning the reading!) and the more I allow the storyteller to spin the thread of the tale from the stuff of Spirit, the more accurate I become and the more I connect on a deep level to the querent. I am constantly learning to stop trying to be right or trying to be helpful and just tell the story in front of me, no matter how creative it may sound.
Creation comes from Spirit and our true nature is to express ourselves as creative beings. So how do we heal ourselves? By empowering ourselves to freely express our deep honesty, compassion, and creativity. How do we heal others? By sharing our own totally free selves.
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If you like this post, you might also like “Tarot and Reiki” and “Tarot as a Healing Art.”
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Joy Vernon is a Certified Professional Tarot Reader and Reiki Teacher in Denver, Colorado. Her specialty is the Empyrean Key Transformational Guidance, which combines energetic and esoteric modalities to help her clients break through blocks and align themselves with their higher purpose. For information on upcoming classes or to schedule an appointment, please visit JoyVernon.com.
© 2012 by Joy Vernon. All rights reserved.
