Tarot for Wellbeing: The Popess Workshop with Stephen McCabe

Welcome back to this new series exploring the individual cards of the Tarot and how they speak to us and our clients. These sessions are short and fun yet full of mystery, meditation and beauty. You don’t need to know anything about Tarot to attend these sessions, or to use Tarot with your clients – it’s enough to seek the Tarot’s wisdom.

This session’s card is The Popess – known in later Tarot decks as the High Priestess. In the old French decks, she sits with a mysterious book in her hands, looking away from the text. Her very name is blasphemous to a patriarchal church (a Popess, indeed!) so much so that the church demanded that her image be banned from early Tarot decks.

Her appearance in a Therapeutic Tarot session is often as mysterious as her history. As the second card in the Major Arcana, she comes after the initial spark of the Magician’s energy, yet by contrast, she sits still without action. She sits alone, clothed in many robes, representing an intuition that she is not necessarily willing to share. What might her silent, reflective wisdom represent for us or our clients in a Tarot session? Join us for this one hour exploration to delve into her world…..

You do not need to own a deck of tarot cards to attend this workshop, but if you have one, please bring it with you.

These sessions are standalone and open to everyone: you do not need to attend every session to benefit and it is fine to attend this session even if you don’t plan to attend others in this series. It is open to experienced Tarot practitioners and complete beginners.

More about this series Tarot cards are used all over the world for a variety of reasons: divination, self-support, journaling, creativity, and more. In recent years, their powerful, archetypal images – which depict the human condition so powerfully – have become popular as a therapeutic tool, both for self-reflection and for use in professional therapeutic work.

The Tarot is a deck of cards which was probably created in the 15th Century in Italy. Initially used as a gaming device – or perhaps for personal contemplation – these mysterious cards quickly spread all over the world and eventually became associated with occult practices and divination.

The images of the tarot are imbued with archetypal images; they depict a human journey towards enlightenment – or perhaps, from a counselling perspective, a journey towards individuation or the actualising tendency. It has an uncanny ability to reflect important insights about our lives to us – but only if we are willing and open enough to work with it.

It doesn’t matter if you see this process as a spiritual one or a psychological one: Tarot has the power to heal, and that in itself is significant. The cards can represent experiences that words sometimes fail to capture, making them a powerful tool for expressing difficult feelings and experiences. It can also offer us fresh perspectives on our lives, helping us to break old habits, as well as being a wonderful tool for meditation and creative inspiration.

During this series, counsellor, eco-therapist and tarot reader Stephen McCabe will introduce one card per session; we will delve into the card’s symbolism and explore how we might interpret this card in an open, person-centred way for ourselves or for others.

Learning Objective Participants Can Expect From This Event

• To learn a new and creative way of working with clients with a visual prompt.
• To learn how the Tarot can support a personal wellbeing practice.
• To learn about the history and symbolism of this Tarot card.

Who is This Workshop Appropriate For?

• This workshop is appropriate for everyone with an interest in Tarot; experts and beginners alike, as well as those who use Tarot professionally.

How May This Workshop Impact Your Practice?

• The workshop will introduce a visual and spiritual tool for wellbeing that can be easily used in client work as well as for personal support.