DOLread-VSB

Healing Dance Spread Reading with the The Dance of Life Tarot - Reading by Valerie Sim-Behi

I chose to use the Dance of Life Cards because I feel that they adequately address health, happiness and holistic healing. In fact, it occurred to me that I must use this deck as I came up with the idea of dancing into the
center of the holistic circle of health.

1) Path to ailment/illness/injury and how a study of this path can lead to a healing in the future

Fulfillment (10 of Wands) - In the past, the querent felt overloaded, overburdened, and had become discouraged. She had always felt that the weight of the world was upon her shoulders. I suggested she release that weight. The way to healing is by the savoring of one happiness/victory/fulfillment at a time. She needn't forge onward blindly carrying her burden, but should put it down at each crossroads, at each resting place, or whenever she was too tired. I advised her to stop to smell the roses, plant a few, and press several for her keepsake album. I told her to ask herself: "What do I savor?"

Positions Two through Five are the beginnings of the healing process on all levels. Positions One and Six are stepping stones on the path culminating in position Seven, the central and centered point from which the healthy dance can occur.

2) How can I help heal myself intellectually?

Death (Death) - This is her struggle with change. That struggle needs to die. She needed to free herself psychologically and realize that there can be no Life without little Deaths. Change is good. "Everyone wants eternity but the only way to achieve it is through death of the old and rebirth of the new. In other words, change." --Audrey Savage, "Dance of Life Cards" p. 70 I suggested she ask herself: "What 'unknown' am I afraid of?"

3) How can I help heal myself emotionally?

Ring of Life (Wheel) - The querent needs to gain the courage to listen to her inner guides. The Wheel of Life always turns. She shouldn't bank on any individual turn, but understand that cycles are a part of Life, and realize that emotional/relationship losses may lead to deeper and richer connections with new companions. I recommended she ask herself: "Where am I on this Wheel of Life? What is ending for me now, and what is beginning?"

4) How can I help heal myself spiritually?

Goddess Harmonia (Temperance) - When asking about spiritual health it is hard to imagine getting a more positive card than this one! This is the emergence after the Death the querent so feared earlier! This presages the beginning of a new and improved dance with Life! This tells the querent to seek creative discovery and balance and create a new dance out of the best of the old.... And never stop dancing. This card suggests she ask herself: "How am I creating a stronger and more balanced self?"

5) How can I help heal myself physically?

The Dancer of Life (Empress) - This is the realm of the passionate feminine, symbolizing passion, emotion, sexuality and sensuality. The querent needed to make sure that she was not repressing emotion and/or suppressing desires. Physical healing will come through restoring passion to her life. She should approach life through feeling and pleasure rather than thought. A question to ask: "How well do I appropriately express my emotions?"

6) A stepping stone on the path to total healing

Pain (Eight of Swords) - Pain comes into a life for a reason, something is amiss. When pain sends a message: Listen!!!! (And at this point the querent should be able to *listen* on all levels.) She will be able to step free from the pain once she listens. The querent needs to ask herself: "What message am I receiving?"

7) Additional advice/synthesis - the "dance" of Life and health

Lover/Loving (Q of Cups) - If she truly loves herself, she will love all others. The client needs to learn to love herself, and learn this lesson well. Dedicated self-love and honesty will lead her to the kind of health of which she had never dreamed... All four aspects [elements] of the self are compatible here. This is empathy; this is acceptance of positive and negative love; this is the feeling woman. Question to ask: "How do I love?"

Valerie Sim-Behi is the founder and moderator of Comparative Tarot, an email list devoted to studying cards of different decks in comparison to each other. She has worked with the tarot for over 30 years. Valerie created a spread that will appear in the book accompanying the Victoria-Regina Tarot by Sarah Ovenall, and has written various articles, including one on the Comparative Tarot method that will be published in Llewellyn's Tarot Calendar 2002. You can visit Valerie at the Comparative Tarot website.