Practices to Stop Projecting

CharonMonolith

I've been getting concerned about projection in the far and few tarot reading I give, but I'm not sure if I'm being paranoid. Today, I was reading an article with a practice for clearing projection:

"Make sure you clear your cards with sage, prayer or by visualizing light around them before you begin a session. Imagine light running up your spine and out the top of your head and then feel the light coming down through the top of your head, down your spine and into your feet. Feeling yourself as a pillar of light will allow you to embody your highest self. Then clear yourself, breathe deeply, feel the energy in your heart, exhale anxiety or fear and inhale love into your heart. From your heart, ask that you be a channel for whatever the querent needs to know for their highest good. If you read from the heart you will always be in tune with the highest good."

Source: http://spiritualhealthresources.com...hension-brings-deeper-understanding-readings/

I'm curious what other methods you might use to prevent yourself from falling into the trap of projection?
 

violetdaisy

I'm a little different. I am A "Projector."...I know that's weird. But I really think some people lean more toward the absorbtion portion of the energy spectrum and others more toward the radiation portion of the energy spectrum. Not that you can't do both or Either at different times - but I've been around energy "vampires." (Negative connotation but actually they can be quite balancing for me).

Anyhow, where this is going is that I really believe that sometimes putting yourself in a spiritual "bubble"...only with a stronger barrier, can help you not project some aspect of yourself in a reading if you are finding that your emotions, thoughts, attitude, whatever are being spread among those near you. So, when I am feeling especially "radiating" --- to the point of influencing the atmosphere around me --- I take a minute to make sure *My* excess energy is only being projected into the earth and not chaotically around me.

It's taken a lot of practice. Years for me. Finding an individual way to not explode with my own energy without sending out randomly out into the atmos. I don't meditate in the way that most people think of meditation. But I do what I need to do to not be "too much" for some. Because I am *much* lol. Do some research (even in areas you think may not be helpful to you) regarding projection. Experiment and find something that works for you.
 

Barleywine

I'm a little different. I am A "Projector."...I know that's weird. But I really think some people lean more toward the absorbtion portion of the energy spectrum and others more toward the radiation portion of the energy spectrum. Not that you can't do both or Either at different times - but I've been around energy "vampires." (Negative connotation but actually they can be quite balancing for me).

Anyhow, where this is going is that I really believe that sometimes putting yourself in a spiritual "bubble"...only with a stronger barrier, can help you not project some aspect of yourself in a reading if you are finding that your emotions, thoughts, attitude, whatever are being spread among those near you. So, when I am feeling especially "radiating" --- to the point of influencing the atmosphere around me --- I take a minute to make sure *My* excess energy is only being projected into the earth and not chaotically around me.

It's taken a lot of practice. Years for me. Finding an individual way to not explode with my own energy without sending out randomly out into the atmos. I don't meditate in the way that most people think of meditation. But I do what I need to do to not be "too much" for some. Because I am *much* lol. Do some research (even in areas you think may not be helpful to you) regarding projection. Experiment and find something that works for you.

The best way I've found to not project my own subconscious preconceptions (the only kind of projection I'm concerned about) into a reading is to not know the specific question or the area of inquiry in advance. That way the cards "speak their piece" clearly in an unbiased manner. It has to be a face-to-face reading, though.
 

Carojulie

I've been getting concerned about projection in the far and few tarot reading I give, but I'm not sure if I'm being paranoid. Today, I was reading an article with a practice for clearing projection:

"Make sure you clear your cards with sage, prayer or by visualizing light around them before you begin a session. Imagine light running up your spine and out the top of your head and then feel the light coming down through the top of your head, down your spine and into your feet. Feeling yourself as a pillar of light will allow you to embody your highest self. Then clear yourself, breathe deeply, feel the energy in your heart, exhale anxiety or fear and inhale love into your heart. From your heart, ask that you be a channel for whatever the querent needs to know for their highest good. If you read from the heart you will always be in tune with the highest good."

Source: http://spiritualhealthresources.com...hension-brings-deeper-understanding-readings/

I'm curious what other methods you might use to prevent yourself from falling into the trap of projection?

Hello,

It's always good to remember that projecting is a trap that we should not fall into when reading cards (especially when reading cards for someone else)- and the simple fact of keeping it in mind will help us not fall in the trap.

The practice you describe sounds good except that, if it were me, I would smudge or white light myself instead of the cards, because I think the danger of projection comes from the reader, not the cards !

But that is only my personal interpretation - with this kind of suggested practice, I believe a good thing to do is take whats resonates with you, and feel free to drop or change the rest.
 

Tanga

I've been getting concerned about projection in the far and few tarot reading I give, but I'm not sure if I'm being paranoid. Today, I was reading an article with a practice for clearing projection:

"Make sure you clear your cards with sage, prayer or by visualizing light around them before you begin a session. Imagine light running up your spine and out the top of your head and then feel the light coming down through the top of your head, down your spine and into your feet. Feeling yourself as a pillar of light will allow you to embody your highest self. Then clear yourself, breathe deeply, feel the energy in your heart, exhale anxiety or fear and inhale love into your heart. From your heart, ask that you be a channel for whatever the querent needs to know for their highest good. If you read from the heart you will always be in tune with the highest good."

Source: http://spiritualhealthresources.com...hension-brings-deeper-understanding-readings/

I'm curious what other methods you might use to prevent yourself from falling into the trap of projection?

Sounds good to me :)
'Avoiding projection', 'grounding', 'clearing' - these all cover whatever that thing is that we do
in order to distance our own stuff from our sitter and therefore attempt to be as impartial in their service as is possible (i.e. making clear "where we end, and they begin"). :)

My way is to say a little chant - here in this thread post #4 -
Which is a version of something of what you describe:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=242721
Sometimes - I may do something simpler... 3 deep breaths and a vision of myself being rooted to the earth and facilitating a clear channel "from the stars".
Sometimes, just tapping the deck on the table and saying "Clean Up Now Please!"
:) (this one always makes me giggle a little :) ).
And for me - all these practices are not so much because I encroach into my clients space, but more for me - I too readily allow them to encroach into mine. :) Lol. It took me years - to learn to put up clear boundaries so that I don't allow myself to "take on their stuff/baggage/energy etc.".
So - They are on their path, and I am on mine - I am for that moment, just a facilitator for them.


... I've been around energy "vampires." (Negative connotation but actually they can be quite balancing for me).

"Energy Vampires" are not necessarily negative. :)

... I don't meditate in the way that most people think of meditation.

"Meditation" - has a myriad forms.

The practice you describe sounds good except that, if it were me, I would smudge or white light myself instead of the cards, because I think the danger of projection comes from the reader, not the cards !

I agree. :)
 

Nemia

Tanga, your blessing inspired me to write my own. It's written in my journal, my diary and it's before me on my desk. Thank you for that inspiration! I look at it all the time.

I don't know how far it's possible to steer clear from projection. I try to be aware of the need to do so but I still can't disregard who I am, what has shaped me as a person and a reader. I think the best way for me to guard against projection is not a ritual but self-awareness that makes it easier for me to substract myself from my readings for others.
 

Barleywine

And for me - all these practices are not so much because I encroach into my clients space, but more for me - I too readily allow them to encroach into mine. :) Lol. It took me years - to learn to put up clear boundaries so that I don't allow myself to "take on their stuff/baggage/energy etc.".
So - They are on their path, and I am on mine - I am for that moment, just a facilitator for them.

I had never heard about "projecting my energy" onto a client before, it's been more about not injecting my own preconceptions about the subject of the reading into the cards. Like Tanga, I tend to worry more about being a target of psychic vampirism than a perpetrator. I do protect myself and the sitter from negative external energies - like stray astral forms - through a kind of brief "white light" ritual, silently performed. The idea is to create a safe space to perform the subconscious, psychic or spiritual "opening" needed to access the source of the inspiration. As far as psychically or physically cleansing the cards, I may have done it once or twice years ago, but no longer see it as necessary.
 

Farzon

I simply try to focus on the querent, that's pretty much it. In some cases I do a short visualization where I ask my guides to protect the reading and lead me to the guides of the querent so they can help, too.
The best way I've found to not project my own subconscious preconceptions (the only kind of projection I'm concerned about) into a reading is to not know the specific question or the area of inquiry in advance. That way the cards "speak their piece" clearly in an unbiased manner. It has to be a face-to-face reading, though.
So, when do you ask your querent for their question then?
 

Tanga

Tanga, your blessing inspired me to write my own. It's written in my journal, my diary and it's before me on my desk. Thank you for that inspiration! I look at it all the time.

I don't know how far it's possible to steer clear from projection. I try to be aware of the need to do so but I still can't disregard who I am, what has shaped me as a person and a reader. I think the best way for me to guard against projection is not a ritual but self-awareness that makes it easier for me to substract myself from my readings for others.

Thank you Nemia - and my blessing - was inspired by a number of things that I put together... including asking Barleywine about his rituals. His comments were the "cherry on the top" - that helped it all gel together actually.
Thanks Barleywine! :thumbsup:
(and of course your input on the use of Latin, Nemia :) ).


Nothing can ever be perfectly clear IMO - we're all the sum of our experiences, and so that's how we know how to look at the world - but we can work on it and keep aware - to make things as clear as is possible.
 

Barleywine

So, when do you ask your querent for their question then?

I follow the method I learned from Eden Gray's book The Tarot Revealed a long time ago. She didn't really explain why she didn't ask for the question in advance, and I didn't question her advice; Aleister Crowley said to "tell the Querent why he came," which is another perspective on the same idea, and I don't do that either. Sometimes the specific question never comes out in the open unless the sitter asks for more details about my observations. If they're happy with that, so am I. Other times, bits and pieces are teased out during the dialogue. It's all about how much the sitter is willing to reveal. As long as the cards and the sitter are communicating with one another to the point that the former respond with an intelligible message, all I do is translate that message into words to the best of my ability. My job is to facilitate the sitter's ownership of the reading, not to stick my own oar in the water. I've never had a total rejection of my insights; if things start to veer in that direction, I just "explain" harder or change the focus (perhaps from practical to psychological).