The Brain, Identity, and Tarot
The Brain
The right side of the brain is “the realm of imagery, holistic thinking, nonverbal language, autobiographical memory, and a host of other processes” (Siegel, 2010, p. 72).
The left side of the brain is “dominant for language, logic, linear and literal thinking…” (Siegel, 2013, p. 171).
Tarot enhances our intuition or “how we receive the wisdom of the body’s input from our muscles, our hearts, our intestines” (Siegel, 2013, p. 172). When I am called to engage in logical thinking, writing, and linear ways of communicating, my left brain processes dominate to accommodate these daily demands. When dominated by the left brain processes, my ability to see the world as a series of interconnecting possibilities lessens (Siegel, 2010, p. 109). The use of images and metaphors ignites the right, early developing part of my brain to enhance sensation, emotion, and wholeness. The complexity of life is gifted to me through the horizontal integration of both the right and left hemispheres of the brain.
The practice of tarot helps me access this horizontal integration creating the possibility that “this AND that can be true” (Siegel, 2010, p. 109). My capacity to see myself or a situation moves from a purely binary, divisive understanding of “either/or” to a more rich, creative understanding of “both/and.
Identity Formation
Dr. Beverly Tatum, a psychologist and author, and Erik Erikson, a psychoanalytic theorist, discuss the usefulness of identity formation in their work. Both authors discuss the complexity of identity highlighting how individual experiences, social forces and cultural influences shape identity development throughout a person’s life span inviting the question of “who am I?”. Examination of this question requires both observation and self-reflection and over time, “integrating one’s past, present, and future into a cohesive, unified sense of self” (Tatum, 2018, p. 101).
Mary Greer (2019), an author and tarot scholar, discusses how the practice of tarot aids in identity formation through self-reflection and observation creating a “meaningful connection between the past, present, and future, between ourselves and everything that exists” (p. 27). Identity forms and shifts as our understanding of our past, present and future emerges and integrates within our consciousness. Greer (2019) names the three-card spread of past, present and future as a “powerful tool for feeding back information about your own processes of making decisions and dealing with situations” (p. 56). Pulling three cards is an approach to problem solving, reminding one of how they approached an experience in the past, how one feels in the present, and expectations about the future integrating and creating a new way of understanding one’s self (Greer, 2019, p. 56).
References
Greer, M. K. (2019). Tarot for yourself: A workbook for an inward journey. Weiser Books.
Siegel, D.J. (2013). Brainstorm: The power and purpose of the teenage brain. Penguin Group.
Siegel, D. J. (2010). Mindsight: The new science of personal transformation. Bantam Books.
Tatum, B. (2017). Why are all the Black kids sitting in the cafeteria?: And other conversations about race. Basic Books.
