Ariadne’s Thread

When someone is lost

In the myth, Ariadne gave the hero a thread so he could find his way out of the labyrinth. In my work, people also come when they’re lost: when they’ve hit a dead end, when they need answers. When they’re tangled up in themselves, when they have problems. When they don’t know which way to go.

The thread: seeing your own story

When a client can actually see their story laid out, they understand what’s happening to them faster and more accurately, mapping the symbols onto their own life. Tarot shows a person what it looks like: which events led to what in their life, and how it played out.

A psychologist’s eye helps to see, behind the front a person puts up, what they haven’t said themselves. When I see that in a reading, I ask: “What happened? What’s gone on over the last few years? What are you grieving? What keeps pulling you back? Tell me.”

I guide a person through their own life, going by their questions and their answers — not pulling information out of thin air.

The person holds the thread

But I can’t walk out for them. If someone has understood it all, seen it all, admits it and accepts it, but keeps living exactly as before — nothing works. Nothing in life changes while you sit on your hands.

When a client asked about her prospects at work, the cards showed a leap forward that would mean dealing with her dark thoughts. And I told her: it’s really important to help yourself — go to therapy, art therapy, or start a journal. Get all those thoughts out on paper, sit with them, read them back and see how you feel afterwards.

Cutting the knot

I lived inside the same scenario for a long time myself, until I saw that I was repeating my mother’s. I decided to cut that knot. And since I cut it, my life has gone completely differently — not the way things were done in my family.

Ariadne’s thread isn’t magic. It’s the moment a person sees their whole story and takes it into their own hands.