By Sarah Taylor
The idea of projection in tarot, and the different ways it can affect the readings we do for others and for ourselves, has been a theme I’ve returned to several times here on Planet Waves. (See When you’ve got it, when you haven’t, and knowing the difference, Two approaches to tarot — and why it’s tricky reading for yourself, and Step away from that tarot deck!)
“Projection” is one of those terms from psychoanalysis that has found its way into the mainstream. You can read a longer explanation of the term here, but for the purposes of this article it is the phenomenon whereby we unconsciously disown a part of ourselves (either positive or negative) by putting it out into the world and onto another person, object or situation.
In this article below, James Wanless, writer, trainer and creator of the Voyager Tarot deck, shares his own view of projection and tarot, and suggests ways that we can strive towards a sense of objectivity in our readings.
I found this a lucid and thought-provoking article, and it offers a perspective that sometimes coincides, and sometimes diverges, from my own. I’ll touch on two things here. First, while I agree that it can help significantly to ask some searching questions of ourselves and our tarot reader (because there are some readers who act from a place of deep wounding), I’m not sure we can escape projection altogether. Projection, by its very nature, is an unconscious process, and, if that’s the case, then our conscious minds are not equipped to identify it and avoid it — or at least to identify and avoid all the projections at play at any one time. Life is a process of unpeeling projections, layer by layer; and I don’t believe that process ever ends.
Second, I’m not sure that all projections from a reader can be construed as ‘negative’. In the same way that everything has a light and a shadow aspect, I think there are aspects that a reader brings of themselves to a reading that can be as helpful as others are a hindrance. I don’t believe the idea of the collective is an unfortunate accident that needs to be fixed; nor do I believe, then, that where a part of my unconscious becomes interwoven with someone else’s that it is always something to be avoided as an obstacle to personal development. It might be that, through the process of tarot, we tap into something that is both unknowable and mutually beneficial.
But, like James’s thoughts below, this is purely a particular viewpoint. Therefore, without further delay, I invite you to read what he has to say, try it on for size, and see how it fits for you.
— Sarah