Tarot cards, astrology, the Book of Changes: why do psychologists need esotericism?

Indeed, professional associations and various classical schools are almost with contempt for those colleagues who use esotericism. Both sides have their own arguments. Some of our interlocutors agreed to openly admit to alternative methods of working with clients. Someone wanted to remain incognito. “I only work with them. Truly I tell you, as a person who graduated from both the Mechanics and Mathematics and the Faculty of Psychology of Moscow State University: psychology is closer to esotericism than to science, ”shared one of the supporters of the alternative. Someone from the camp of opponents, on the contrary, stated that he “expels such colleagues with an aspen stake” and happiness that Freud is already dead and will not see “psychoanalyst with a tambourine”.

But, despite the controversy and dubiousness of esoteric methods, even adherents of traditional techniques and tools have recognized that often «it works», for which there is a completely rational explanation. After all, even Carl Gustav Jung said that «the magical is simply another name for the psychological.»

We asked psychologists using non-canonical methods three questions:

1. How do esoteric tools help them in their work?
2. How do clients and colleagues feel about this?
3. And why do these methods, despite being unscientific, work?

Elena Kruglyakova, clinical psychologist, therapist, tarot master

“I know from practice that one of the fastest ways to access the unconscious of a client and patient lies through images and archetypes, for which I successfully use tarot cards. The attitude of colleagues is always different. But professionals in their field understand the importance of right-brain techniques in our work. The most popular customer reaction: “I don’t believe in tarot. And spread it out for me, please.» In my opinion, this is a very effective tool. Most of the client’s problems lie in the unconscious, where it is impossible to access through the logic of the left hemisphere, but through the «right hemisphere entries» — easily. Plus, the tarot is the archetypal path of the hero, which means that the entrance to the collective unconscious will also open. It will be possible to bring the client to an awareness of what stage of the journey he is going through and why he fell into a crisis.”

Timur Aminov, body-oriented therapist, practices psychosynthesis, Ericksonian hypnosis

“I associate myself with an auto mechanic: a car comes to me, and I know typical breakdowns. We know perfectly well why a person “breaks”, where he gets neurosis, phobias, traumas. But we do not always know why it is «repaired». We don’t know how conversation works, how psychotherapy works. We will never get into the psyche. Therefore, absolutely any instruments work — even if they are dances with a tambourine.

A client came to me one day, it was written on his forehead: a midlife crisis. I didn’t come by myself, my wife brought me. He is a man of mountains, a Caucasian, a horseman. For him, a smart bespectacled man is not an authority. I heard that he refers to shamans, and I realized that he is loyal to esotericism. I casually mention tarot at the first session, I see that he became interested. At the second session, I make him an alignment. I talk about the past, present and future. And that’s all — he already absolutely trusts me. And then we work in the usual psychotherapy. But without the tarot, I wouldn’t have gotten close to him. A person has defenses when he covers his pain points. The person will resist transformation. Dealing with resistance is a huge layer in therapy. As soon as I start tinkering with the survival mechanism that has saved a person for so long, his unconscious turns on resistance. And I need to somehow implicitly start changing. Tarot cards help to implicitly bypass resistance.

Natalya Kostornykh, psychologist, astrologer

“I don’t just use astrology as a tool for a psychologist, but rather I use psychology as a tool for an astrologer. When I first started consulting as an astrologer, I realized that I needed to get a psychological education in order to learn not to take on the mental states of the client, but to process and contain them. After all, it is impossible to help a person being in the same psychological state with him. Without the skills and theory of psychological counseling, there is nothing to do in my work with people. And in me, these two methods of help do not conflict.

Almost all, as one, fellow psychologists with whom life brought me together, learning that I was also an astrologer, were a little embarrassed, but over time, this embarrassment grew into interest. The fact is that psychologists are very smart and curious people, this is one of the essential criteria for the profession. Many of my colleagues have become my clients themselves or send their clients to me for astro-consultation.

How does it work for me? In sessions, the client and I, using astrological symbolism, seek and find the starting points of events and cycles of his life and study in detail their various relationships. After all, cycles are endlessly repeated (patterns of the movement of the Moon, the Earth and other planets). I think that in Jung it is precisely this pattern of movement that is called the process of individuation. Its essence is that every person, river bed or state will become what is potentially laid down in it by the so-called Universal plan. Often, even in an absolutely healthy psyche, an imbalance occurs at some levels. A person begins to collapse from the inside, not understanding what is happening to him. As if at some point in this maze of life, he chose the wrong path. In psychology, this can be compared to destructive cognitive filters. Here the task of the astrologer is to get these “filters”, to bring them out of automatism or from the sphere of incomprehensible, fantastic bad luck into the sphere of awareness.”

Irina Miller, astrologer, consultant psychologist

“I will immediately launch heavy artillery. Jung used astrology as a diagnostic tool for determining mental characteristics, including deviations. His theory of archetypes and synchronization is nothing but — in the language of astrology — the influence of planetary and zodiacal energies and the identity of the processes of micro- and macrocosm. Not to mention the collective and individual unconscious, which is described by the spheres of the individual horoscope. In psychology, I start from astrology. Now I am starting to combine transgenerational analysis based on maps of several generations, family constellations (mutual arrangement and interaction of various factors, coincidence). Then, based on the analysis (both left hemisphere and right hemisphere), psychological counseling begins.

It works because there are an infinite number of moves into the human psyche. Astrology is a strict thing (let’s forget the vulgar and primitive division of all mankind into 12 types), and a particular card tells a lot about a person. Astrology does not predict, as many people think for some reason. She is a navigator. And then it’s a matter of working on yourself with or without a psychologist.”

Gloria Moore, Existential Humanist Psychotherapist

“I have been practicing for 12 years, a fan of Jung and his theory. Tarot cards help to cope with cases when the client is in a difficult situation, does not know what choice to make, what strategy of behavior to prefer. As a psychologist, I have no right to tell you what to do. As a tarot reader, I can lay out the cards, tell how things are and which behavior model will be the most effective. My clients relate to this in different ways: someone with a bang, someone with suspicion. But no one has ever said that this is nonsense.

Cards, due to their connection with archetypal thinking, always show the true state of things, help to show some subconscious motives that the client may not want to recognize logically. Colleagues brought up on the classics and prone to scientific thinking are extremely negative about this, which, however, does not prevent some of them from coming to me for tarot layouts. We know that people are atheists before the first shake in the plane. I think that we simply do not yet know everything about the human psyche and the structure of the world. Once upon a time, ordinary psychology could seem like magic. A psychologist would be considered a sorcerer if he told a stranger at first sight about his character, inclinations and preferences. But any good psychologist today can do this even from a photograph. And this surprises no one. I think that esoteric tools will also be studied over time, and their symbolic connection with the human subconscious will be revealed. And we, esoteric psychologists, like any pioneers, until we endure the attacks of our scientific colleagues and gain experience.

Ekaterina, psychotherapist-sexologist, psychologist of family relations, Ericksonian hypnosis

“I have been working with tarot, the Lenormand Oracle, the ancient Chinese Book of Changes (I-ching) for 12 years. At the start of my passion for psychology, I also had a question: is there a connection between psychology and magic, esotericism? Are these things mutually exclusive? Or are they two sides of the same coin? Not all clients are ready to go to a psychologist: we still have a strong stereotype “psychologists treat mental patients”. But they are ready to go to the tarologist. My clients end up getting psychological counseling anyway. Cards and the Book remove the protective barrier, people begin to open up, understand the essence of their requests. I ask them to write down a list of questions they want to ask the cards before visiting me. After thinking for a couple of days, rewriting it several times, clients get a clear list of requests that I start working with. To be honest, the more I know Erickson’s psychotherapy, the more I am convinced that it is magic.

All psychologists are a little psychic. If you do not feel people, in my opinion, the profession simply will not work. Once, a professor with whom I studied, discussing extrasensory abilities, told us: there is a theory according to which people who have received a serious psychological trauma acquire such a refraction of the psyche that allows them to see, hear, feel things that are inaccessible to conditionally healthy people. I would agree with him. Of course, there is a very thin line between hypersensitivity and schizophrenia, and there is a possibility of slipping into pathology, but many manage to maintain a balance.

Svetlana Folomeshkina, Bachelor of Theology, Analytical Psychologist, Game Practitioner, Sinai Guide

“I immersed myself in psychology from the side of Jung’s analytical psychology. I communicate a lot with colleagues and know the analytical community well. We even teach tarot cards as a method and as a practice. This is considered esoteric by classical psychologists and «classical» clients. I find that everyone has different boundaries of the space within which people work, think, see the world. Esotericism is about something more than the earthly visible and generally recognized psychological. And each master has his own dimensions of this space. I also add a theological vision. So that it would not be some kind of crazy, incomprehensible magical esotericism, you just need to connect this knowledge with ordinary life and events. It is not necessary to dedicate the client to the whole picture. I usually look at his level and ability to perceive. I use tools such as cards in a different format — in psychological games. The work is the same, but people take it easier, since it’s a game.”