Elena's Journal

I thought this article was really interesting and insightful. It makes a lot of sense to me and honestly just rationalizes the use of mediums like Tarot and Astrology more to me, but with a more realistic bent. I think that religion and spirituality may also fulfill these same processes.

The Psychodynamics Of Tarot Imagery

The belief that the Tarot works, in the mystical fortunetelling sense, rests on the postulate that we all create our own realities and hence our own destinies - this philosophy similar in many respects to that professed by Reality Therapy proponents. In a traditional Tarot spread, the final outcome card is believed to be mystically determined by all the preceding cards, which represent attitudes, emotions, thoughts, or circumstances surrounding an issue - and already known by the client, at some level of awareness. Therefore, doing a reading is somewhat like feeding all known information into a computer (in this case the subconscious mind) and tabulating or processing the most likely outcome, relative to that information...

Projective technique is based on the Freudian-Jungian assumption of subconscious mental activity within an unconscious part of the psyche, where memories and desires are kept hidden - not directly accessible to consciousness because of ego restraints. They believed the contents of the unconscious may only be brought into consciousness through the removal of these ego defenses...

This would indicate that sick behavior on the conscious level is mirrored by a sick unconscious. In our search for well-being there is a tendency to search outside ourselves for answers. We are bombarded with media information and popular opinion that cannot be effectively integrated, resulting in a sense of alienation and hopelessness in many. ... Exploring the unconscious is necessary... requiring a special approach designed to safely elicit repressed material.

Tags: culture, neat, symbols, the mind
Current Mood: thoughtful