Cool Tarot Spread to Explore Your Shadow

[Xiao Rong]

As y'all probably know, one of my favorite subject is The Shadow. I came across this really cool article on Patheos about a "personality test". The writer warns that this particular Tarot test, while illuminating, requires that the querent is REALLY ready to face the truth about herself.

CARD 1 tells us something about what the person submitting to the test knows about herself. This is, however, something that others also know, and therefore the conscious level of the person’s expression of the self.

CARD 2 discloses what rules the personality from the inside. This is the unconscious level of the person’s self. In other words, this card indicates something that the person herself has no clue about. Nor does anybody else suspect that this is a strong force ruling the person from the inside, exceeding her conscious control.

CARD 3 tells us something about a personality trait that the person is conscious of possessing, but would not like for others to know about. Often this is a nasty card, so I warn anyone out there trying this one out in public that this card may reveal some knowledge that can be disturbing, embarrassing, or surprising.

CARD 4 tells us something about the person’s blind spot. This card reveals what others know about the person we read the cards for, while the person has no idea. In other words, while it is plain to everyone in the person’s circle that the person may exhibit certain traits: good, bad, generous, sarcastic, cynical, and so on, the person herself will be in denial of any such manifestation. This is an equally as potentially nasty card as the one above.

In short, while the mechanics of this spread is simple, the implicit suggestion is that we heed attention to how we act in the world and on what premise. How often do we pose these questions to ourselves, related to what we know and what we don’t, but we would like to know? What do I know about myself that others also know? What is hidden? What do I know about myself, but would rather keep a secret? What do others know about me, which I, however, am unable to recognize?

I conceptualize this as a 2x2 matrix spread:

[some of the text is taken from Camelia Elias's article, "Personality Test"

While the author didn't explicitly describe this thread about the Shadow, I see a lot of similarities. What I find particularly interesting about this spread is that it explores the multiple layers of Shadow we have: the traits we try to hide, the traits others see in us but we don't see in ourselves, and the traits that remain hidden both to ourselves and others. (that's why I've shaded them gray in my graphic)

I'm really interested in trying out this Tarot spread soon.

[Kassandra]

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Interesting. I'll have to give this a try. Saw this post for the first time today, lol.

Thanks Xiao.



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