Blending Tarot & Shamanism

A couple of weeks a go I attended a workshop teaching me to carry out a Soul retrieval. (Part of a much longer year long course) This involves finding a part of the soul that was lost due to trauma or shock. Tracing the energy back to its source, and finding where in the body the energy is blocked.

It is a strange experience with stones, drum, rattle, journeying & pendulum. This is really diving deep into the shadow realms, to forgotten memories, lost ties, and often past lives,

The other day a client came to me for a tarot reading, and her question was perfect for a soul retrieval. She felt something from her past was blocking her enjoyment of her life. She wanted me to identify what it was so she could work on releasing it. Classic soul retrieval. So I decided to base the reading as if it was a soul retrieval.

We talked gently about her feelings, and what she thought was blocking her life enjoyment whilst I shuffled and let her words wash over me. Not identifying with her story, but using it to anchor the reading.

I lay out a Celtic cross for her as a child, and read for her emotions and life as if she was a young teenager (a point where she identified the feelings started).

The cards perfectly reflected her life stress at the time, and the key person that was causing that stress. The cards were very clear. She had internalized this person- who was acting out of love- and continued trying to live up this persons high expectations. This meant my client could never enjoy anything, because she always felt she was not quite good enough.

The curious thing about shadow work is my client was genuinely surprised when I said whose voice she had internalized. "No she said, this is down to an issue with some-one else" but as we worked through the reading she could see she had projected her problems on to this second person, created false rivalry to survive the hurt & protect herself. This false rivalry had developed and deepened, masking the initial problems.

The saddest thing about a case like this, is it was all done with love. There was no abuse, or intentional harm or hurt.

As soon as she accepted whose voice she an internalized she smiled. "yes" she said", running back through memories in her mind. "That's it"

I am looking forward to exploring more shadow work with tarot, very often people come to me in crisis needing clear direction and answers NOW. It was interesting to have the time to use tarot to help in this way.