Analyzing Your ‘Normal’ — Shadow Work

Using cards can be a powerful and unique way to approach self-understanding and digging deep to learn who and how you are.

Shadow work is a way of getting in touch with your unconscious, the parts of you that are more hidden and unknown. Often this can be darker aspects, but not always. But I find it to be an important practice, as often there are answers there that you can’t easily find otherwise.

For this post, I thought we could take a step into one of my spreads and do some shadow work together. Feel free to read through and save it for later, or take this time to breathe, make space, get out your journal, cards, and explore.

Regardless if you follow along with your cards, I do highly recommend using a journal, one that is for your eyes only. That way, you can feel free to be as open and honest as you need to be.

What is ‘normal’ for one may not be ‘normal’ for another, but if we live our lives assuming nothing of it, what may be ‘normal’ for us might actually be hurting us. However, our ‘normal’ might not be something we have to keep as our ‘normal’.

Let’s walk through an example reading with this spread. If these cards spur something in you, by all means pause reading and journal your thoughts.

Deck: Celtic Dragon Tarot

What ‘normal’ is a part of your daily life? — Death

Unlike what the word may immediately draw up or is popularly assumed, this card rarely means a literal death. Most often it is a metaphorical one. The loss of a job, an old hobby, a move from a home. A change, transformation. Maybe too many changes, with no time to adapt? Perhaps you’re used to jumping from thing to thing, never needing to slow down or get settled. Maybe for you, it’s normal to not get attached to anything, knowing it’ll be gone the next moment?

What do you fear if your ‘normal’ was gone? — Six of Wands

If suddenly you would have the opportunity to stop and smell the roses, to get comfortable with those around you, to get close to people or interests, how would that feel? For some, that could be scary. The Six of Wands is tied with success, but specifically one recognized or acknowledged. But it can simultaneously be tied to failure, like failure to live up to expectations. Perhaps slowing down and taking the time to adjust to the changes in your life, to give things a chance to get friendly and familiar, is a risk of showing who you really are? If you constantly let relationships in your life die off due to fear of what those people might think if they got to know you, you can make that become your normal. How it’s normal for people to come and go. Normal for hobbies to start and stop. Normal for your interests to flow right through you. If you fear what will happen if you give them a chance. Maybe even fear that they will work out?

What is the most [positive] realistic outcome if it was gone? — The Star

I wrote this question with the word ‘positive’ on purpose. I know many tarot readers fear The Tower, for example, and I wanted this card position, no matter what card may come up, to be read through a positive lens. Every card has a light side, yes, even The Tower.

And here we have The Star — hope. This card signifies renewal, purpose, faith. Think of how we make wishes on stars. They’re a bright subject, sought after for growth and abundance. The most realistic outcome for taking a chance, opening up, or sitting with something for a while could be the refresher in life that you needed. Could grant wishes you didn’t remember ever having. It could be a chance to revisit things you once loved, and feel that love more deeply than before. Maybe you had secret hopes that you could get to know someone and have them accept you, and maybe being vulnerable could grant that wish?

Try imagining the lighter side. Maybe even take the card from the ‘fear’ position and put it on its head. How does that feel? This is a good time to picture your life without that ‘normal’ — the life you wish you had, and could have.

It can take a lot of strength to work through your fears and to make changes in your life. So don’t stress on doing everything at once. Even just taking this time right now is a step forward.

So go ahead, write in your journal. Take inspiration from this example reading, use your own cards, or free-write. But write!

Ask yourself: What might your life be like free of the known?

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Thank you for reading! I hope to continue to blog about tarot, mental health, and similar topics. Feel free to follow, or support me on Ko-Fi.

-LR🐇