Draft translation. This text was translated automatically and has not been proofread yet — if something reads oddly, it does.
Before every card, tune in: do the technique for opening the space, and after every card the technique for closing it. Two techniques of three or four minutes each. What they create is not a magical “atmosphere”: they switch your mode of perception and make a boundary. Inside it you can allow yourself what you would not allow in your ordinary state, and outside it the practice is over and does not follow you around.
What you need
Half an hour without hurry, a room where no one will interrupt, a notebook and a pen. Optionally a candle, incense, quiet music. Put the phone on silent — if the practice runs in the bot, leave only that.
Opening the space
This preparation moves attention out of everyday task mode and into active imagination, lowers resistance and gives the psyche a signal of safety. Read the text to yourself or aloud — slowly.
Find a place where you are alone. Sit with a straight back, feet on the floor, and close your eyes.
Breathe in deeply through the nose and out slowly through the mouth. One more breath in — and with the out-breath let go of the thoughts, worries and roles you have carried today. Feel the support beneath you: the chair, the floor, your own feet. You are here. You are safe.
Today you are going on a journey through the hidden corridors of your own psyche. You are going there to bring home the parts of you that were once locked in the dark to save you from pain. Your Shadow is your blocked strength.
Imagine an invisible but entirely solid protective cocoon building up around you — any colour, any density. Nothing from the past can harm you here. Everything that rises today — tears, fear, anger, shame — is lawful and right. Your room is safe. The space of the practice is safe.
Breathe in deeply, open your eyes and look at the card you have chosen.
Closing the space
This part brings you out of the trance-like immersion, so that you do not walk into the ordinary day with an open wound. Do it straight after you finish writing the story — not “some time later”.
Tell yourself: this written practice is complete. Close the notebook. Take a deep, loud breath in and let it out with relief: “Haaa.”
Silently thank the girl on the card for her story, and for how selflessly she protected you all these years. Give her an inner bow. Picture her image growing pale, shrinking, turning into a small spark that takes its quiet place in your heart.
Move your fingers and toes. Rub your palms together until they are hot and press them to your face. Feel your own edges.
Say, aloud or silently: “I am [name]. Today is [date]. I am a grown woman. I am in my own room, safe. The practice is over, I am back.” Blow out the candle.
If it did not close
Sometimes it is still loud inside afterwards. Then any simple physical action works: a walk, the dishes, a shower, a meal. Returning to ordinary things is part of the practice too. What to do if the state does not even out is in the safety rules.
Next: the exercises — the questions to ask a card and the resource-integration practice.