My experience has been that the tarot does not deal in polarities.
It makes no value judgments about right or wrong.
Although it suggests ways through the various dilemmas of life, it has no agenda.
You can move on or stay where you are; you can be enlightened or at the beginning of your journey; either way, the tarot will help.
People, however, are less equitable.
A client I had a while back was struggling with judgements based on polarities.
In the reading the tarot made it obvious that it was the right time to manifest her dreams, and she said she had already begun a new healing practice.
However, she added, her old work kept growing leaving no space for the new.
That is usually a sign that for some reason you aren't ready to move on.
As the reading progressed, I realised that the main issue was an inner struggle between light and dark.
The client considered herself very much a light worker and, while she did not deny the presence of the shadow, she saw it in traditional terms - dark = evil, temptation, vs.
light = good, purity.
The problem came sharply into focus when she drew the Deva card Kali Dance.
This is a card of power - and shadow - indicating a huge amount of energy that is not being expressed creatively, in which case it can often turn back on you.
Illness, obstacles, psychological issues can ensue.
She then told me about her various encounters with the Shadow, and I could empathise completely - if you feel something is evil and a threat, your unconscious will comply, giving you images that are terrifying and dangerous.
It is difficult - if not impossible - to change that perception.
My work with the tarot and the Devas of Creation has confirmed time and again that having such fixed views on the different polarities can be very damaging.
The shadow (the dark) may well be demonic but, unless our actions make it so, it is not evil.
Anger, fear, envy, jealousy, rage - these are all natural feelings that need to be honoured, their origins questioned rather than suppressed.
In fact, if you journey into those feelings and dialogue with the shadow, you'll often discover that the challenge they contain is to expand your perceptions.
By ignoring the challenge, you become rigid, fearful, and limited.
By acknowledging it and taking it on, however, the Shadow becomes your Ally, which enables you to integrate it.
Thus you become more conscious and more unified - surely the goal of anyone interested in spiritual development.
It seemed to me that my client was holding back on making a commitment to her new work - her soul's calling - because she had stayed with just one polarity, the light worker consciousness.
The unification was missing.
It would take a leap of faith - and a lot of work - to get there.
Courageously, she asked what would happen if she did somehow manage to take on both aspects of herself.
The tarot card she drew for this question was the 7 of Cups - the card of vision and dreams, the culmination of the Grail Quest - which again emphasizes the amalgamation of light and dark.
The Deva energy was Emergence.
There seems little doubt that if she can let go of this very polarised way of thinking, the blocks preventing her new work will lift and she'll be able to channel a far greater degree of energy.