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Messages
from the Archetypes: Using Tarot for Healing and Spiritual Growth
by
Toni Gilbert
Reviewed by Sandra A. Thomson
Toni Gilbert suggests that Tarot is “one of the oldest known methods
of counseling.” Cute, but I'm not sure. If you consider advice-giving,
or fortune-telling as “counseling,” then I suppose this is
true. Gilbert also says that Tarot was one of the ways that people “passed
along their wisdom and philosophical beliefs.” Some Tarotists would
agree with this; many would not. Nevertheless, there is much to be treasured
in this book.
Although the deck presented in the book is the Rider-Waite-Smith deck,
Gilbert uses the Osho Zen and the Voyager decks in her counseling, allowing
the client the choice of deck.
Gilbert defines the cards as representing “psychological energies
inherent in the human species... which provide a point of focus that
assists us in accessing our own inner truths.” And, those of others,
of course, where her purpose as a Tarot counselor is to help “make
the nature of the client's challenge clearer.”
Gilbert considers all of the Tarot cards as containing archetypal messages.
Nothing mundane about the Minor Arcana. Now, here's where she gets
unique. Gilbert believes, and teaches this notion in her Tarot archetypal
counseling program, “that we operate from two levels of development:
the primitive personality, and the refined personality.” The former
operates at the lower levels of the archetypes, while the latter operates
at the upper level; hence, Gilbert has “lower” and “higher”
levels for the archetypal meanings of each Tarot card.
Part of Gilbert's counseling task is to ascertain the level at which
her client is operating. This understanding allows the counselor to
consider and be able to suggest directions in which the client may wish
to move to operate at more refined levels of archetypal functioning,
and to see the options that exist at the “higher” level. This
is based on Gilbert's idea that clients experiencing emotional pain
and problems in their lives “may be predominately operating through
the primitive personality, or the lower levels of their archetypes,
and the archetypes to receive counseling will turn up in the cards.”
“Higher” and “lower” levels of functioning also
pertain to the higher and lower chakras, so to be effective using Gilbert's
ideas, one must know something about the energy of the chakras, which,
unfortunately, is not included in this book. There are, however, plenty
of excellent books on the topic, and Gilbert said she did not want to
include material that others had already written so well. Rather, she
wishes to present her unique way of understanding the cards within the
counseling situation.
Gilbert perceives the hero's journey as a progression of the psychological
development we must all go through “to achieve the upper levels
and become a self-actualizing [think Maslow's hierarchy] and more
refined personality.” Here the Tarot cards are our guides; they
are a textbook of personality development. Take a Tarot card and decide
for yourself what it says about how you are functioning at the present.
Then use Gilbert's higher and lower levels to determine how this
card might guide you in growing up (Oh, no!) a little more.
There is an entire chapter on reading for yourself (“Getting Started
with Tarot”). Gilbert presents ideas for finding a personal deck,
and for finding yourself in the cards. She has a rather lengthy section
on Daily Card Study, which gives good guidelines for delving more deeply
into the daily card you draw.
Throughout the book, Gilbert presents exercises for a series of readings
and understandings about yourself. If you are honest in these exercises,
you will know much more about yourself, and how the cards function in
your life, when you have finished them. Gilbert believes you have to
know how the archetypes operate in your own life – at both higher
and lower levels – in order to help others.
Gilbert also presents a six-card daily direction spread, which gives
you a “self-portrait of the archetypal energies at the time of
the shuffle.” She demonstrates with an actual reading how to apply
her counseling techniques in a Celtic Cross spread. She also presents
a five-card counseling layout.
For those of us who have studied with Mary K. Greer, interactive reading
and interpretation of the cards is not a new concept. For those of you
who have not, Gilbert's ideas may suggest an entirely new way of
reading. No longer can you simply give your own understanding of the
meaning of the card and be finished with a querent (Chariot reversed.
“No, you will not go on a long journey in the near future. $15,
please”). Rather, you have to begin with how the client understands
the card – his or her associations – and move from there.
Gilbert writes, “When I read cards, I always help my clients access
their own intuitive wisdom. Only if it is needed will I give an interpretation.”
I cannot emphasize enough, however, that in order to be able to function
this way, you have to be very clear about how the Tarot cards operate
in your own life. If you never take up “Tarot counseling,”
you will still find the contents of this book extremely helpful in guiding
you toward your own healing and spiritual growth.
Messages
from the Archetypes (ISBN 1-883991-57-9) is published by
White Cloud Press in Ashland, Oregon.
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