Tarot Healing Part 1 My Journey To Becoming A Tarot Healer

"You are what your deep, driving desire is. As your desire is, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny." - Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.5My desire to become a Tarot Healer probably started when I first heard a series of Greek mythology programmes for children on Swedish radio late in the summer of 1978. I resonated deeply with all of the stories without quite understanding why, and I especially loved how each of the programmes ended with how the star constellation was put in the heavens for all eternity to remind us of the story. I have been a star gazer for as long as I can remember, always feeling a great sense of peace and connectedness when I look up at the stars. There was no place better for star gazing than my nan's. She lived up north in Sweden, and the nearest neighbour was half a mile away.A year or two later, I found a book called Sibyllan's Hemligheter (Secrets of the Sibyl) at my nan's. My nan was a natural psychic and used to tell peoples' fortunes until she got badly spooked by 'seeing' one of her friends lose her baby. She chose not to tell her friend but carried this dark secret with her, and unfortunately her prediction came true. She stopped reading coffee grounds after this, but remained sensitive to Spirit and would, for instance, put the kettle on a few minutes before unannounced guests would arrive since she knew they were on the way. "Sibyllans Hemligheter" gave me a system for using playing cards for divination, and it also detailed some of the common ways that people in the Swedish countryside used to do divination with whatever they had at hand. Some of these oracular arts probably date back to the Viking times and even further back. I was so fascinated by this book that it fast became my 'best friend' at my nan's where there weren't many children around to play with.When I was 15, I found my first Tarot Deck; a magazine cut-out of the 22 Rider Wait Majors, and started experimenting. I somehow managed to spook myself quite badly by seeing that one of my friends was being sexually abused by her stepdad. She had not told me this, and we had a very emotional moment when it came out. I was ill prepared to handle what transpired, and this was a big lesson for me. Sensing that I was not quite ready for this, I binned the cards. A few months later, I was on vacation in the South of England (little did I know then that this was the country I would end up living in). I felt strangely drawn to walk in to a dark little bookshop. I had no idea what I was looking for. As soon as I stepped inside, the woman behind the till gave me a startled look and announced that I would be a tarot reader one day. Not knowing what to say, I turned around and walked out of the shop. The words of the woman in the bookshop remained with me, but it was not until I was in my mid 30's that I started in-depth studies of the Tarot and by this time another interest of mine had become my first love and passion - "healing".When I was 27 I was diagnosed with sarcoidosis. At the time, I had two children under the age of 2, a dysfunctional marriage and practically no social network to help me cope with the reality of being severly ill while being the primary caretaker of two young children. As my physical health deteriorated to the point where I struggled to get out of bed in the mornings, I reached a point where I thought I was losing my mind - I could not see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I remember asking God for my life to end as the pain was unbearable, both physically and emotionally.This was a turning point in my life, and the healing crisis lead to my palms beginning to heat up - the sign of the gift of healing. What I didn't realise then is that the gift of healing is the gift of realignment with Source, and that as much as I wanted to share this gift with the world, I wouldn't know how until I figured out that all healing is self-healing. We are all healers, but some of us are better equipped to facilitate realignment in others. In hindsight, the real gift was the disease that led to my realignment.A few years down the line I went on to study both Reiki and Spiritual Healing. Not long after receiving my Reiki Master attunement, I decided to 'de-attune' myself though, as I couldn't ignore the voice in my head that said that I didn't need those symbols to do my healing. The spiritual healing I undertook with the National Federation of Healers here in the UK was invaluable, as I was able to connect with the local healing community. In short, it made me feel less of a freak.When I finally started studying the Tarot again, I was drawn to a few different aspects of this wonderful spiritual tool. Part of me really enjoyed the divination side of things. It seemed to come naturally to me, and for a while I even worked as a tarot reader for a psychic phone line.However, the other part of me grew in strength as I saw what a powerful healing tool the tarot could be, and also as I learned more about the chakras, meditation and vibrational medicine. As I read about how water crystals change shape according to exposure to subtle energies such as music, words and images, I started asking myself how the archetypal images of the Tarot would affect the healing properties of water. If crystals, flowers and even written words could be used to charge water for healing purposes, then why not Tarot archetypes?Other questions that popped up were what music would fit a certain card and how would I dance if I were, say, the Empress? I have a background in dance, being one the last students with the Royal Opera Swedish Ballet school before it was completely transformed into the Swedish Ballet school back in 1983. My mother always used to say that I danced into her womb. In 2000 I completed training as a dance teacher with a specialisation in Character Dance at the University College of Dance at Stockholm, Sweden. Knowing the wonderful healing effect movement in general and dance in particular can have, it did not take long for me to begin hearing the music of the cards and their invitation to express the archetypal spaces in movement. Being a keen observer of human nature and also a student of psychology and councelling (I gained a level 3 Certificate in Councelling in 2005), I knew straight away that the Tarot images and archetypes could be used as prompts to achieve greater self-awareness as well as resolving relationship issues. I found evidence of combining councelling with the cards in existing Tarot literature, but always felt that there was a dimension missing. I wanted my healing practise to be completely holistic and to address not only the emotional and intellectual concerns of the seeker. After all, there are four suits in the Tarot, and the Majors cover all the spiritual 'exams' we humans have to pass in order to become fully individuated and realigned with Source. The seed thought of an all-encompassing healing system based on the Tarot had been sown."I do not know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve." - Albert SchweizerClick HERE to get to part 2