Spiritual vs Logical Perspectives

Hello Tarot Lovers! I recently had a discussion with a good friend of mine who is also a healer and works with the tarot as well. I've been having a huge internal struggle where parts of me are conflicting and it is effecting my current relationship with my fiance`. She feels as if things that have been extremely hurtful in my past and personal blame is the source of all my conflict which i can certainly understand. She recommended I stop THINKING so much and do Soul Searching instead and engage in a self love practice which i am all for. But the other recommendation is what I'm stumped on. She has advised me to "put away my tarot" bc i may be looking for answers in them which they cannot provided. They are there to show me a visualization but not give me the answers to the conflicts. She says I may be looking for my spiritual self to give my logical self/mind the answers but that is not possible bc the spiritual self and the logical self are parallel but will never cross paths. I feel as if our spiritual self and the logical mind actually affect one another bc they can are ultimately connected, especially in our Higher Self. She says also, put them away bc it may be best not to put all of this conflicting energy I'm experiencing into my deck. What are your thoughts on this advice?

I agree in that, without a change in the situation, you've likely read all that there is to know on this given topic.
So until the situation changes in some way, you're better off not reading on the topic.

Well I'm no healer but I'm always surprised how self confident some people are when they give advice.

Spiritual self and logical mind go parallel but never meet? That's a nice metaphor from mathematics, nothing else. I haven't found this to be true at all. Why should one impact the other negatively?

I also don't believe that a deck of cards can be filled up and "dirtied" with negative energies. If you have problems, these negative energies are within you. You use the cards. They either help or you're not in a state of mind to accept their help or use them confusingly - then you're still stuck with the negative energy. But that doesn't work like bacteria IMO. That doesn't mean now your deck is "infected". You shuffle your deck and off you go for the next reading.

I'm maybe too simple minded but for me, all those beliefs border on superstition and fear mongering. Do you have to throw away your deck after every reading where difficult points come up? Of course not.

And we're not precious little snowflakes as humans. We deal with negativity all the time. We create it. We're not nice and pure, and the wish to create purity and balance all around us is understandable but can become obsessive.

I used to have a healer friend who didn't even allow me to voice one negative word because she was sure I was creating negativity by bitching about my impertinent daughter or my idiot boss. No, I wasn't creating it, I was reflecting it and getting it out of my system.

There are always negative things in life, and we have the resources to deal with them. For me, tarot is one of the resources. So if life is difficult right now, I'd say, take out your cards and use them. If they help.

Obviously, some people use their cards not in order to deal with their problems but in order to escape from them. Which is understandable but self defeating. Obsessive reading about the same question, not daring to make a decision without asking the cards etc. We all know that's not a good thing.

I also wonder what the difference between thinking and soul searching might be...

So, the question is, did your friend help you? Maybe healing and friendship don't go together too well. Maybe you should go to a professional who's not your friend and who can get a more objective picture of your relationship with your fiance? if this is where you need help?

I don't know exactly what your problem is but I must say I'm always suspicious when people give these apodictic speeches. Why shouldn't logos and spirit meet? They do all the time...

Well said, Nemia. I don't have much of anything to add, really, but wanted to add my "vote" on these things you've mentioned.

The fact that she's a healer really doesn't make her a huge authority on what you should or shouldn't be doing with your Tarot practices. And as Nemia said, decks don't get "dirty" spiritually.

Another point is that life consists of both negative and positive aspects. We all have them and we're built that way. If we try to be "oh happy, happy, joy, joy" and in denial of the negative, that's a destructive attitude just as seeing only the negative is. There's an old saying that without tears, we couldn't feel joy. Without shadows, the light wouldn't make a difference so the contrasts in life are there for a very important purpose.

The only way I could see that making sense is if she feels you're relying on tarot too much, instead of seeking/creating answers for yourself. I agree with her that tarot can't always give answers to conflicts, they can help you visualize possibilities, but shouldn't be relied on as an end all/be all answer. If that was her point, and tarot is something you're using as a crutch for your conflicts, then I could understand. I don't really agree with the part about conflicting energy being put into the deck, because I don't think decks permanently absorb energy from a reading. But, I do notice if I'm in a place in my life where I'm feeling conflicted or upset, my readings usually reflect that energy, so maybe she just meant to dial back a bit and not read when you're feeling conflicted?

Personally speaking, I don't think it's ultimately very helpful to separate a 'logical self' from a 'spiritual self'. As spiritual beings, we are on one hand, unbounded, timeless, but as individuals with a finite life span we develop a self that takes us through this wave of physical existence. As well as being connected to the spiritual 'ocean of consciousness', we are also subject to physical conditions and circumstances. We have to use our thinking brains to navigate our way through and make sense of these. Logic is a great tool. Not all there is of course, but has it's place. Harmonising the spiritual and more mundane aspects of physical existence is, for me, what a spiritual practice is ultimately about. I am genuinely confused and puzzled about these two 'never crossing paths'. I have no idea what that means. This kind of duality is problematic I think. So, seems to me if we recognise that our 'thinking mind' is not the totality of who we are, but a construction of self to facilitate this physical wave of existence, it becomes much easier to recognise the limitations of it and draw on higher / deeper sources of awareness and knowledge.

jerrissica said:

Hello Tarot Lovers! I recently had a discussion with a good friend of mine who is also a healer and works with the tarot as well. I've been having a huge internal struggle where parts of me are conflicting and it is effecting my current relationship with my fiance`. She feels as if things that have been extremely hurtful in my past and personal blame is the source of all my conflict which i can certainly understand. She recommended I stop THINKING so much and do Soul Searching instead and engage in a self love practice which i am all for. But the other recommendation is what I'm stumped on. She has advised me to "put away my tarot" bc i may be looking for answers in them which they cannot provided. They are there to show me a visualization but not give me the answers to the conflicts. She says I may be looking for my spiritual self to give my logical self/mind the answers but that is not possible bc the spiritual self and the logical self are parallel but will never cross paths. I feel as if our spiritual self and the logical mind actually affect one another bc they can are ultimately connected, especially in our Higher Self. She says also, put them away bc it may be best not to put all of this conflicting energy I'm experiencing into my deck. What are your thoughts on this advice?

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It's the biggest load of tosh I've ever heard. Logic and intuition or intellect vs spiritual is a fine balance, you can't switch off from one or the other as they're delicately interwoven. The decision we face in justice which is a very mature card calls for perfection of this fine counterbalance.

What is tarot supposedly showing you a visualisation of then if it's not reflecting you, warts, conflicts and all? Why does she feel you may be looking for answers that cannot be provided, perhaps she needs to work with the tarot a little more or go back to development class. And in light of this so called negative energy you're putting into your pack perhaps she thinks we all ought to stay in or not read during periods because we're unclean!

If this advice came from a tarot reading I'd be dubious around her healing claims and certainly wouldn't follow any advice from her.

jerrissica said:

Hello Tarot Lovers! I recently had a discussion with a good friend of mine who is also a healer and works with the tarot as well. I've been having a huge internal struggle where parts of me are conflicting and it is effecting my current relationship with my fiance`. She feels as if things that have been extremely hurtful in my past and personal blame is the source of all my conflict which i can certainly understand. She recommended I stop THINKING so much and do Soul Searching instead and engage in a self love practice which i am all for. But the other recommendation is what I'm stumped on. She has advised me to "put away my tarot" bc i may be looking for answers in them which they cannot provided. They are there to show me a visualization but not give me the answers to the conflicts. She says I may be looking for my spiritual self to give my logical self/mind the answers but that is not possible bc the spiritual self and the logical self are parallel but will never cross paths. I feel as if our spiritual self and the logical mind actually affect one another bc they can are ultimately connected, especially in our Higher Self. She says also, put them away bc it may be best not to put all of this conflicting energy I'm experiencing into my deck. What are your thoughts on this advice?

Click to expand...

There is a huge difference between logical thinking and being in doubt. Spirituality and logical thoughts can co-exist without any problems so long as one opens to possibility, for any logic or assumption to be wrong or incomplete. Those who are unable to look at both sides really got a significant way to go.

So I guess listen to you yourself. Your decision matter

Ps: by the way, you cannot exist without either logical thinking or spirituality, else you will risk your spiritual development, which is definitely not worth it

When you are already confused, it is possible that reading the cards will confuse you even more.

It would only be logical advice to stay away from your Tarot deck for a while; and dare I say, do just nothing.

If you're reading over and over on the same thing, then I can see the benefit of putting your cards aside for awhile. Obsessive re-reading doesn't really help anyone.

That said, I find that if I ask my cards what I need to do, then they're actually quite helpful in more concrete and logical matters. For me, tarot is less mystical woo-woo and more a way to clarify my internal state (and I don't think the spiritual and logical are incongruent) and find a way to make progress through whatever has me hung up.

As others said, negativity is part of life. It's dwelling in that negative place or reading cards with a biased perspective that becomes unhealthy.

In short, your friend was probably trying to help, but being didactic in that way and assuming that what you believe is the only right thing to believe isn't very good advice.