Shadow Work: Star of Recovery

Oh wow, I only chose one card for the Star of Recovery. I'm not going to post it, it got very intense and personal. In fact I've left it on the Shadow Altar because I'm still working with it. I did do the extended Star of Discovery where I laid a court and a pip card for each position to get more information.

I'll have a good thought for you that everything goes smoothly. If you lay a spread for every card in the first star I have a feeling it could get emotionally draining. *sends you waves of positive energy *feeds your inner coyote a Scooby Snack

Marie-Bernard said:

Oh wow, I only chose one card for the Star of Recovery. I'm not going to post it, it got very intense and personal. In fact I've left it on the Shadow Altar because I'm still working with it. I did do the extended Star of Discovery where I laid a court and a pip card for each position to get more information.

I'll have a good thought for you that everything goes smoothly. If you lay a spread for every card in the first star I have a feeling it could get emotionally draining. *sends you waves of positive energy *feeds your inner coyote a Scooby Snack

Click to expand...

Thank you so much , I will post my initial thoughts on all my readings but not all the after effects until I am done. and yes it is draining but thanks for the healing energy.

1. Focus: The Magician ( anger)
2. Past: The Sun( Inferiority in my discovery spread)
3. Present: Temperance
4. Need for clarity/insight: Chariot
5. Pain: Death
6. Gift of Wisdom: Justice

The first impression was yet another card from my discover spread make an appearance so I know which card is next. Also the coloring on the bottom of the star is real close as well as the middle, The top card justice has a robe that matches my quan yin statue .
The sun in my past effecting my anger shadow will take a little longer to understand. but I do feel inferior when asked to be the sole person responsible for something.
Temperance and anger I think go to my knack for overdoing and over thinking issues and then I get frustrated.
The chariot in my need for clarity is fitting. I want to be able to control as much as I can and force it to be balanced which usually does not work well.
Pain - Death this card accidentally popped up in my last spread when i drew to many cards it was death looks like she came up any way. many cards represent change in one form or another i think this might be me not letting go of what I need to in order to move forward hence causing pain and my lack of control causing anger.
Justiice and the gift of wisdom really fits , balanced decision making would fix a lot of this. Also as the magician is looking up there is a rather large sword pointing at her .

1. Focus: Sun( inferiority )
2. Past: wheel of fortune( anxiety from discovery)
3. Present: Heirophant( gift of wisdom from anxiety spread)
4. Need for clarity/insight: Moon( denial from discovery)
5. Pain: strength( pain again)
6. Gift of Wisdom: Death( from last spread)

A card did not show up telling me what my next card it. I have 2 more cards from my denial spread and all these cards have made a visit before . Strength in the pain location again is really trying to tell me something

Wheel of fortune I think is telling me anxiety /change is causing me to feel inferior

Heirophant I don't feel i know enough to be the go to guy.

Moon - I think my self talk is telling me I am not good enough when I really am.

Strength in the pain spot again. I think I lack confidence , intestinal fortitude to feel good enough

Death , i think if I let go of pat failure, feelings if inadequacy and make a leap of faith i can do more amazing things.

1. Focus: Devil( secrets)
2. Past: Emperor ( same spot he came up before)
3. Present: Heirophant( same spot he came up last time)
4. Need for clarity/insight: Moon( same spot as last time)
5. Pain: wheel of fortune( made many revisits as well as anxiety in the discovery spread)
6. Gift of Wisdom: Hanged man ( first new comer in a while)


First cards coming up in the same spot they were in already is creepy but insightful at the same time.

Devil and secrets initially this applies to 12 step recovery but also all the other way my addictive nature pops up. We have a saying in the rooms " you are as sick as your secrets"

Emperor the feeling of " in charge" was never a overweening thought in my head in fact it was usually the opposite.

Heirophant > I a thinking I need to apply the 12 steps to more parts of my life

Moon trust in my higher power and the un sen spirit will help me through this

wheel of : i am thinking my fear of change and not knowing the outcome causes me anxiety and pain as a result of the anxiety.

Hanged man . I need to find a new way of looking at things, sort of step back some " let go and let god" and I will be better off


so far there is a lot of control , and fear of the unknown , and not enough faith in my life that things will turn out ok. this Saturday I celebrated 12 years clean and sober this is a perfect time for this.

1. Focus: The Fool ( self loathing)
2. Past: The Devil( Secrecy from star of discovery and also the last card I worked on)
3. Present: The world ( one of two new comers to my recovery spreads)
4. Need for clarity/insight: The high priestess ( another new comer and both on the bottom of the star)
5. Pain: Judgment
6. Gift of Wisdom: Moon( denial also the first card I worked on for the recovery spreads)


Fool: Self loathing is a lot of my past decisions and consequences as a result of those decisions)

Devil: it is in my past and I think that is the fun part as judgment is on the other side of the star and looking away from the devil and fool

The World: Now is the moment of power and I always have had a problem with that. going in order it would seem letting go of my past and living in the now would help a lot

The High Priestess It would seem I need to use my intuition the unseen non book knowledge to over come the fool and all it entails

Judgment : something I learned from Robert Place is pay attention to the direction of the card and look at it in threes. in this case Judgment is looking away from the fool and devil. the pain is not moving forward and concentrating on my past to much.

Moon: This is the last of the recovery spreads and I think i will post a summery as my last post for here . The moon is telling me to feel safe in the shadows concentrate on the " now" by using the intuition of the high priestess and the moon . I have to trust what I cant see which is hard to something I need to learn.

working on the shadow play section following this spread. it is interesting to talk to the cards but as shadows. Some of them are tricky at first but so far all of them want to help.

So far the answer to most is balance, faith , and fear of change is just a lack of the first two.

I did some of the exercises and made a few of my own in the spirit of what the author suggested . I did a Star of Recovery for each card in my discovery spread . Then I did a guided meditation on each of those cards where I would to to the garden in my mind and interact with someone in that card

I used the woman in the DruidCraft Death card as my Dark Goddess and talked to her about the cards.

In the end the fool from self loathing and the dog in the moon(denial) card kept me company a few times . Also the Moon card face came down a few times as a silver haired lady and was helping, teasing a few times.

Some conclusions I have so far. All of the shadows are related just different guises . Most of my shadows come from holding on to the past, need for control, fear of failing, lack of control.


The guidance to deal with these shadows are follow my intuition and spirit side and do not relay on logic all the time and trust in my higher power . I need to have faith .


The Gifts I believe come from practicing the advice from the need for clarity , insight. I will have more faith and not stress about what I can't control which is a lot like the 12th step in AA/NA.

The deck I am using is the Mystic Dreamer Tarot
http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/mystic-dreamer/

Now to continue the journey..

Hello, thanks to coyoteblack for telling me of this study group.

I think I have misunderstood my shadow of anger, so I´ll meditate with to understand "him".


Star of Discovery spread

1. Denial: Temperance rx
2. Anxiety: Magician rx
3. Inferiority: Chariot rx
4. Anger: Hanged man rx
5. Secrecy: Emperor rx
6. Self-loathing: Star rx


All of them rx, urgent need to know and understand them.

Welcome to the group it is good to see someone else here. I know what helped me understand some of this besides creative visualization . I also posted here just stream of conscience and " went with it" so what are your opinions on those cards and what do you need an opinion on?