Reply To: Power of Personal Mythology: How sharks helped a woman through trauma
Hello Stephen, I am a teacher of personal mythology through the images of tarot, an art form that has, in recent years, exploded in diversity and depth, as hundreds of artists are creating their personal images of archetypal energies. Victor Daniels PhD, retired head of the Psychology Dept at Sonoma State University, calls a pack of tarot cards a pocket-sized Gestalt sand tray. The dream experiences you shared reminded me immediately of the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot Moon card, one which I often refer to as illustrating the approach to the Underworld in the cycle of the Hero’s Journey. The crustacean in the center foreground (the consciousness of the hero) rises up out of the deep subconscious where it’s been residing, heretofore asleep to it’s calling) and faces a path that leads between pairs of opposites. First the pair of canines, a domestic dog and a wild wolf. Then the pair of pillars, reminiscent of the clashing rocks faced by the Argonauts and onward to the rugged moonscape of mountains beyone. While above, the Moon and Sun appear in the same place in space which is clearly unnatural and signifies that the space-time referenced here is not in the Ordinary World. Thank you for your posting! (RWS card posted with permission from US Games Systems Inc.) 