Tarot can offer cues to aid mental health journey
Contemplating cards can help us find the strength to deal with negativity
Sometimes it feels like dissatisfaction is the backdrop of modern living. The Canadian Mental Health Association reports that suicide is one of the leading causes of death for both men and women from adolescence to middle age.
How can society combat this epidemic? While there are medications to ease the effects of anxiety and depression, it is not a cure. Unfortunately, there is no simple solution for depression.
Everybody is sensitive to different things and has different thresholds. What barely bruises the ego for one person can be shattering to another person’s sense of self.
But just because depression can’t be eradicated doesn’t mean that we should admit defeat. Metaphorically speaking, sadness is an illness of the heart and the heart is a muscle. Therefore, we can train it to be stronger. Just as our bodies can heal themselves, so can our hearts. We just need to figure out how to confront and tame our pain.
Using tarot as a meditation tool can help us understand and take control of our emotions. Because tarot is a reflection of life, it contains cards that speak of life’s unpleasant events. Contemplating these “negative” cards can help us find the strength to face it with maturity. Studying their lessons can give us the determination to move through it.
The following cards reflect some of the rough patches in life’s journey:
Card: 3 of Swords
This card is about heartbreaks. It can be caused by anything ranging from dramatic betrayals akin to those found in soap operas to quietly repressed disappointment. It represents all those times we felt let down and not receiving the results we’d hoped for in spite of our best and most sincere efforts. If left unchecked, pain can hijack our emotions until it’s all we have room for in our hearts.
Although pain is something we try to avoid, when we do feel it, it’s important to remember that this is an important life experience. Pain offers us a chance to grow. Taking time to understand how our hearts got broken will make us wiser, making us less likely to commit to the same situations and people in the future. Also, because it can be frightening to face the things that hurt us, we gain strength and courage once we make peace with it.
Card: 5 of Swords
In this card, we see the end of a battle. The victor holds the spoils while the losers walk away with their tails between their legs. This card speaks about those times when we feel beaten and defeated. There was no glory in a good fight, only the bitterness and humiliation of failure.
During these moments, it’s easy to believe that nothing good came out of it. The irony here is that failure is a prerequisite to success. Every great figure in history has failed before. They say that whatever doesn’t kill you will make you stronger. I say that it can also make you better. Moments of failures are windows of opportunity to selfreflect in ways we don’t do when we feel good about ourselves. It forces us to confront our own weaknesses and arrogance.
Did we lose because we weren’t well prepared? Or did we choose the wrong fight altogether? Acknowledging where we went wrong will give us a better chance of getting it right the next time. So if we ever fall short of our goals and someone else beats us to the finish line, instead of wallowing in self-pity or assuming that the world is unfair, concentrate on how we can improve. Remember, those who refuse to see their own faults will never rise above the cycle of failure.
Card: Tower
When people are first introduced to tarot, many think that Death or the Devil are the most difficult cards to work with. Personally, I think the Tower is the most frightening card of all. Unlike Death, in which we gradually come to an end of a chapter, the changes brought forth by the Tower are sudden and unexpected. The lightning strikes the watch tower out of nowhere, destroying a structure that is supposed to protect us. It speaks about radical changes, often not in our favour.
So what good can possibly come from this? How can we grow and learn from tragic events beyond our own control?
In truth, words alone cannot offer enough comfort when the Tower pays us a visit. The loss and suffering must be endured seemingly without reason. It’s perhaps the most difficult lesson one can learn in life: sometimes bad things happen to good people.
The key to recovery is time, faith and determination. A forest fire may seem like a tragic event. During these times, we must remember that nature never destroys without purpose. With time, new flora will grow over the nutrient-rich ashes.
Just like nature, we must learn to salvage what we can and focus on rebuilding. Use this as an opportunity to consciously restart your life.