Carl Jung And The Psychology Of The Tarot
The Swiss psychologist, Carl Jung, was one of the first in his profession to investigate the links between the subconscious and the cards of the Tarot. His research unearthed a number of ‘archetypes’ common to both the Tarot deck and the psychological profiles of his subjects. As a result, Jung was able to formulate his theories on why the Tarot could be useful tool for psychological analysis.
The Five Archetypes
Jung’s theories were based on his identification of psychological archetypes. An archetype, in psychological terms, is a generic aspect of someone’s personality. For example, describing someone as a ‘mother figure’ identifies certain qualities present in a number of people, but do not define them as individuals. In his work, Jung identified five main archetypes:
● The Persona: the aspect of our character that we present to the world
● The Shadow: a part of us that remains unacknowledged, but is integral to our character
● The Self: the essence of the psyche or a person’s ‘core’
● The Anima: the female part of the male psychology
● The Animus: the male part of the female psychology
A Psychological Profile
These archetypes can be found in certain cards in the Tarot. In fact, Jung went on to say that he believed each card to be representative of an archetypal aspect of an individual’s personality. He developed a theory that, on a subconscious level, a seeker or querent identifies with the cards they draw; that it is less about randomly choosing cards and more a series of communications guided by the psyche. By viewing the cards in this way, he believed that it was possible to draw up an accurate psychological profile of someone, simply by looking at the cards they chose.
Just as the cards are broken down into the Major and Minor Arcana, Jung broke the Tarot down into two main groups: the objective and the subjective cards. His belief was that objective cards appealed to our higher selves on a personal level, while the subjective cards allow us to contextualize thoughts, feelings and emotions against the backdrops of our lives.