Pain Management

[BreathingSince72]

This is an exercise from the book “The Tarot Activity Book” by Andy Matzner.

Andy writes “Which card in your deck represents your pain? Which represents relief?”

I feel like this can relate to not only physical but spiritual or emotional pain as well. To represent pain, I selected (face up) Stagnation/Eight of Cups. I feel like this image rather beautifully encapsulates the worst effects of chronic pain...that sense of stopped movement...the fear that it will never go away. But I feel this card can also represent the kind of pain one feels when they feel uninspired and...meh.

In either case, relief is represented by Passion/Ten of Cups. Passion fills us with enthusiasm and knocks us out of complacency. It gives us a sense of purpose and direction...it shakes the lead out.

There are certainly unlimited pairings one could use for this activity as well as an abundance of other ideas.

Matzner, Andy The TAROT ACTIVITY BOOK San Bernardino, CA: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform 2013 print

[stronglove]

wow, thanks for sharing this! puts pain in a whole new perspective!
will surely try this out with some of my own decks
as it happens, this is an incredible meh day for me (moon is void of course too....) so it might be a good idea to get that 10 of cups out.....
or maybe the nine. i know the fountain tarot’s nine of cups has a truly healing effect on me and it’s on my table right now because i did tomatosauce’s 3 card reading with it yesterday..... oh blessed synchronicity.....
btw, from which deck are your cards? they are beautiful!

[BreathingSince72]

This was a deck I got in a trade! It’s called the Voyager Tarot by James Wanless. It is always such a pleasure to unexpectedly discover a treasure. I never thought myself one who would appreciate collage or surrealist tarot but this deck proved me wrong on the first and the Japaridze proved me wrong on the latter.

I also have the Fountain. When I first got it, it was like I was looking through a couded glass. I would pick it up and put it away, over and over. Then one day the images really started speaking to me. The glass cleared, the veil was lifted. Here is the card from that deck that is having to most profound healing effect on me right now.

[stronglove]

oh yes, i can feel that..... the colors and the lushness, so good to take shelter with her and let her tend to your wounds.....
today i found out that judgement is the card that, in most decks, best represents my (emotional) pain, but interesting enough, in the playa flame tarot it brought me relief....

[BreathingSince72]

Stronglove,

You mentioned the Playa Flame Tarot so I had to look it up. I thought Playa was pronounced like player. Boy was I off...so it’s a homage to the culture of Burning Man. I only started hearing about that about a year or so ago. Have you ever been?

The card that usually gets to me in any deck is the Devil card. It’s like telling me “You’re free, but...”I continually find that there are areas in my life where I could experience less bondage and more freedom. That card speaks to me a lot about balance, or being out of balance, and the deck where it seems least fearsome to me is the Gaian tarot.

Victoria

[I Sunshine]

As I have been dealing with sciatic nerve pain these last 3 weeks or so, I keep thinking I should do this exercise. I know there is a physical component to my pain but also a mental, emotional & spiritual component. Sigh. Well, anyhow, now that I am finally getting around to really addressing it on many levels, here we go.

I choose the AnnaK Tarot deck for this exercise. It is not a deck I am very familiar with but one I want to be. I went through it card by card, first looking for the cards that represented pain and then for the one for relief. Narrowed it down, went through the smaller piles. It was more difficult for me to choose the card for relief! Got that pile down to 4 and stymied for a bit. Interesting, huh?

In the end I picked the 5 of Cups for pain.... and the Ace of Swords for relief. (I will post pictures later).
I was trying to go only by the picture on the card, not what I know about the cards meaning. Not too sure how well I did on that with the 5 of Cups. But that poor guy looks like I have been feeling. I do know that grief is part of my pain. In fact, I have recently come to the conclusion that some of my shadow work I have been avoiding goes all the way back to childhood grief. (insert loud groan). As far as relief goes, the AnnaK's Ace of Swords is probably my favorite Ace of Swords ever!

[BreathingSince72]

I keep thinking I should do this exercise. I know there is a physical component to my pain but also a mental, emotional & spiritual component. Sigh. Well, anyhow, now that I am finally getting around to really addressing it on many levels, here we go.

I’m really glad you chose to try the exercise. Pain is something that can be hard to discuss. When we are in it, we don’t want to say it or sound whiny. We don’t want to seem weak. And if it’s chronic, then we don’t feel healthy. There are tarot exercises that can truly help us grow.

I look forward to seeing your photo.

[Lionsmane]

Background info is that I have had a chronic undiagnosed condition for four years that is pseudo-debilitating, where I wake up most mornings feeling like I've been inhaling enamel paint in my sleep, then I get strange other symptoms throughout the day.

I used the Navigator's Tarot of the Mystic Sea, which I'm not used to. I did need new decks, because I've become accustomed to reading the cards without even looking at them. It was initially confusing to receive the Empress card from this deck, but partnered with this card of 'verification', it feels like my suffering has a lot to do with not being able to put words to it. People generally don't believe me and don't acknowledge it. And doctors haven't even added it to my medical file. Perhaps this reading points to a potential diagnosis in the future. I think the condition was obtained from camping, and I intend to see a chinese doctor soon, so it could also be pointing towards the wilderness/wildness hair of the dog aspects of the empress. Also, the art card is the temperance card. I've often thought the karma of illness has to do with becoming one with the illness rather than fighting against it.

[Joan Marie]

Background info is that I have had a chronic undiagnosed condition for four years that is pseudo-debilitating, where I wake up most mornings feeling like I've been inhaling enamel paint in my sleep, then I get strange other symptoms throughout the day.
...
it feels like my suffering has a lot to do with not being able to put words to it.
...
Also, the art card is the temperance card. I've often thought the karma of illness has to do with becoming one with the illness rather than fighting against it.

This is such an interesting insight. I would have to say your description of how you feel when you wake up feels pretty understandable to me.

This idea of becoming one with the illness is interesting also. Someone told me many years ago, and it stayed with me, that one should never refer to an ailment with a possessive pronoun. It isn't "my arthritis" or "my depression" or whatever. The illness doesn't belong to you. I have a friend who had a stroke and he refers to it when he speaks about it as "my stroke." I had the feeling after a while that he'd developed almost an affection for it, as something very intimate.

One really sad thing I hear people refer to sometimes is calling a person who harmed them "my abuser" or "my rapist." That sounds so awfully sad to me that anyone would take possession of the worst person in their life, become that attached to them. I guess that's another topic, but it's a kind of pain also. And something as seemingly simple as using a possessive pronoun can really shape how we experience these things, how much we internalise them.

Of course we have relationships to our experiences, but we have to sort them out and understand what they really are and that really they have nothing to do with us personally. That's a hard thing to wrap your head around sometimes.

Thanks for sharing this Lionsmane.

[Nemia]

Dear Lionsmane, all the best healing wishes for you.

I have such a strange day today, so introspective, so fearful but also full of plans - somehow, I want to do this reading now. (I really like Andy Matzner's book!).

In order to let go of all pre-conceived card meanings, I chose my Kissa deck. I just went through the cards and chose my pain and hm, not precisely management, but what comforts me.

Oh dear, obviously, it's the 9 of Swords but I didn't look at the Swords at all - only at the poor fish longing for the sea. That image moved me very very much. That's really me, knowing the sea, longing for the sea, gasping for the sea - never getting there, no chance. Wow, isn't that a great deck? So expressive, so powerful.

And for healing, that's the 9 of Wands. This ladder - somehow getting to these angelic cats - they're waiting - the artist made this card totally her own.

Now I have a very very soft spot for the ninth sephira, and for all that green and purple, I even love the strange mustard borders which intensify the dark colours of the art (simultaneous contrast is what good old Professor Itten would have called it), and somehow this reading is just what I needed now. I'll put these cards on my mini easels and look at them some more.

Wanting to be there - getting somewhere else.

[Lionsmane]

Dear Lionsmane, all the best healing wishes for you.

(I really like Andy Matzner's book!).

Matzner is a psychologist? My condition isn't psychologically debilitating at all. If you want to know more about it, I recommend 'The Punk Singer' about Kathleen Hanna, or look at Stephen Harrod Buhner's work.

[Nemia]

I don't know Matzner's background but the reading comes from his book, as mentioned in the opening post. His book is full of ideas, and like Lynda Cowles and Alison Cross who have a similar action-oriented approach, I like this kind of work with the tarot, between the playful and the introspective. When I feel stuck tarot-wise, one of these books will get me un-stuck

[TheLoracular]

I found this old thread while browsing and it immediately caught my attention. I decided to add to it. I am not familiar with Andy Matzer's book but really open to the concept of activity-based tarot and tarot was personal development and therapeutical tool. I also used this as an excuse to start to get to know one my new decks: The Wheel of Change tarot which was a surprise gift from a new friend.

The card I picked from Wheel of Change to represent my pain was the 8 of Swords (and I'd probably use 8 of Swords in RWS too). My photo taking skills are lackluster and the picture barely does the cards any justice but the Wheel of Change deck does NOT have easy-to-read text on many of the cards. I do like the element-colored borders which helps but the card I picked to represent my relief, the 8 of Cups? The text blends into the art too completely for my tastes.

I didn't intentionally go looking for a pair of 8s or specific suits. I based my choices completely off what the individual artwork brought to mind in terms of what does my chronic pain feel like? What does it feel like when I have relief?

My fibromyalgia-based pain feels like living in a house of broken glass I get stabs of pain all the time, I move gingerly, I have to Willfully concentrate on staying positive and active and it is very easy to trap myself in unhelpful thinking patterns (like the girl with the blindfold... I can get stuck on "I can't" if I let myself go there and don't walk forward metaphorically and literally).

Relief from my pain comes from the tranquility of water, especially in a swimming pool. If I can just float physically and practice Mindfulness and other techniques to relax body and mind while buoyancy helps with the pain? It is impossible to word how different the sensations are, the release (temporary) from the chronic pain and the uplifting. I've only recently (as in two weeks ago) gotten the opportunity to start going to pool/gym again and its under covid conditions which makes things... stressful. I picture how the stormy sea depicted in the card is still definitely there but I'm able to create for myself this place of peace and it feels very yingyang or alchemical the whole thing.

I'm thinking about how to use the 8 of Cups in the RWS tradition the same way and I can picture it, actually. The figure walking away from the burdens, slowly, fits very well with the same kind of process of how ironically, when I am having the worst chronic pain, I'm better off getting up and moving around than just sitting and getting stiff and miserable. Moving hurts but it leads to feeling better afterwards, so long as I do it slowly and not too long.

[I Sunshine]

TheLoracular, Thank you for that post! I am so glad you have been able to get back to the pool. Your choice of cards makes perfect sense to me. I too like to use the Tarot this way.