Happy New Year,
everyone! I am happy that I finally have had a little vacation time to get back to writing.
Having undergone a recent illness, I have been reflecting on cross
cultural ways of celebrating healing—something which ties in with the theme of
New Year as a time for renewal.
Unfortunately, Western
medicine doesn’t draw a clear line between the state of being sick and the
state of being healed. For the more
common and curable types of illness, you just take your medicine and expect
that at some point your symptoms will have subsided enough for you to get back
on your feet. By contrast, many
traditional societies affirm a person’s return to health with special rituals. For example, a person might take a ritual
bath, put on a new set of clothes, and go to a shaman to be blessed. In Mexico and South America, the shaman’s
proclamation of healing may be followed by a “flowering” ritual to generate
good luck, (as luck is viewed as part of a state of health). In keeping with the idea that our community
helps to construct our identity, the public is often invited to a communal
feast as a part of these rituals.
Although it might be a bit
much for people in our busy society to stage a public celebration of healing,
this is something that can be quietly affirmed with a simple tarot rite. The following rite, (here illustrated with
the “Radiant Rider-Waite Tarot”), uses images of recuperation and revival, as a
way of signaling your Unconscious that you are ready to reengage with your
life.
To affirm your recovery,
first lay down the Four of Swords, (featuring a tomb with the effigy of a recumbent
knight) while recalling how your illness may have knocked you flat, enforcing
isolation and inactivity. Next, lay down the Judgment card, whose images of
arising can suggest a return to health after sickness—especially as a long
illness is sometimes experienced as a stay in the Underworld. Think about how much better and more energetic
you’re feeling, and then lay down The World card while thinking about how you
are back on your feet and reconnecting with your outer world.
By the way, it’s always
interesting to look at graphic relationships between cards in a rite or
spell. Using the “Radiant” Rider Waite
Smith cards as illustrated above, the first and second cards feature images of
tombs—contrasting the sealed tomb with the open tomb. There is also a contrast between the human bodies
portrayed. In Judgment, the rising
people are a bluish tinge, still retaining the coldness of the tomb, while The
World is used here to show a person restored to the ruddy pink of active health. (The original RWS deck doesn’t bring out the
same nuances in coloring.)
Note that because magic
involves affirming a desired state of being as if already achieved, you can
also use this layout as a tarot spell to promote healing for yourself or others
still convalescing. If performing this
spell for a child, use The Sun as the third card, as The Sun card often
features the image of a happy, healthy child having fun under the sun, (with
flowers in the background hinting at the quality of flowering).
If preferred, you could also
use The Sun for yourself or another adult, in lieu of The World. This begs the question, why not use The Sun and
The World, as both are auspicious cards with images of health? The reason for preferring a three to a
four-card spread is that odd numbers show activity, while even numbers promote
stability, and are therefore more gravid.
So, for restoration of health, we want to put the emphasis on the return
to activity.
So, now that I’m back to my
blog after such a long hiatus (due to the demands of holding down a regular
job), I will next have to get around to restoring all my dead links.
