Jill Brown – Compassionate Integrative Trauma Therapy
Warm, holistic, and personalised therapy – Suffolk/Norfolk border – 20 years experience
Thursday July 12th 7-9pm
This is a workshop for those who wish to discover more about the part of themselves that normally remains hidden within the unconscious mind. Using the tarot cards to connect with your inner self, you can gain a deeper understanding of yourself and teach your unconscious mind how to guide you towards becoming the person you know you could be.
I’ve been thinking about options this week and trying to reach a decision. Then I heard this little story …
The little bird had been in the cage for a very long time. It would sit on it’s perch and look through the window to the great outside world beyond.
It would gaze in awe at the birds flying free outside and wonder how it felt to spread your wings and soar. Sometimes another bird would rest on the sill outside and their eyes would meet. Then the outside bird would fly away and the little caged bird would feel more trapped than ever. But early one morning an opportunity came – the cage door was left ajar and the little bird could see that the window was open too.
His little heart pounded – this was his chance. He thought about how wonderful it would be to fly freely and as high as he wanted to go. He thought about resting on a branch and singing to his hearts content. He wondered what the earth would look like from high above and what it would feel like to soar. He thought about all these things for a very long time and his excitement grew. He thought about these things until the sun set and the moon came up. He could see her outside the window. Oh how she beckoned him. And just as he thought about answering her call the cage door was closed again. The owner had returned.
The following is an extract from a book I am writing about the journey of the Fool through the Major Arcana in the Tarot.
The chapter it comes from is called ‘of Stories and Symbols’ …………
I find symbolism fascinating. Perhaps that’s the reason I became interested in the subject of metaphor and maybe that’s why I like the tarot too.
Not that I believe
I can tell the future or anything, but I love the way the symbols can mean so many different things to different people.
There’s really no end to the many ways the pictures can be interpreted and I’m intrigued by the mystery that surrounds the cards.
No one knows for sure where or when or why they originated but they can be traced back at least as far as the mid 15th century and seem to have found their way to Europe via Egypt and Italy. It’s believed they started as a set of playing cards but over the centuries they’ve become many different things to different people.
Have you ever felt that your life was off track or felt stuck in a rut? Do you find that you frequently get side-tracked?
Or maybe you feel that life happens to you instead of being lived by you? Have you ever felt swept along on a tide of inevitability? Do you often feel as if circumstances are outside of your control?
The reason for this might be the metaphor you’re living.
Continue reading “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there. Lewis Carroll.”
Some people love to travel.
It’s in their blood, they’ll often say. They love to discover new places and meet new people. They find that travel broadens their mind and makes them feel alive. Their feet begin to itch when they’ve been in one place for too long, however long is too long for them.
Some are content to stay put. They feel no need to go beyond their own horizon and be it ever so humble, there’s no place quite like home for them.
Others are somewhere in between the two extremes. They like to go places and have a break from routine. Before too very long though, they like to return to familiarity and be king or queen of their own castle once more, however humble or palatial it may be.
But whoever we are and whether we like it or not, there comes a time for all of us to set off on a journey of one kind or other
We may be travelling for some time and for some distance and the journey might have a definite purpose, maybe to attend to business, or take a well-earned break, or to pay a visit to loved ones abroad.
For some that’s what it’s all about – to get from here to where they need to be, but there are also those who seek no particular destination, because the goal for them is the journey itself.
It’s said that life is a journey, so maybe we’re all travellers at heart and it’s just that for some the journey takes us inside instead of afar. And sometimes that’s even more of an adventure.