Healing Cards: A Daily Practice for Maintaining Spiritual Balance, A 50-Card Deck with Booklet [Cards]

According to the authors, these healing cards and accompanying booklet will help you create a daily practice that not only heals existing ailments, but also maintains spiritual balance in your life. Healing Cards offer both inspiration and a course of action and (according to them) a card a day keeps the doctor away!

Cute marketing...but does the deck live up to its claim?

I felt that the best way to review this deck would be to use it during times where I was in a position to receive healing--when I was dealing with sinus problems, fatigue, and bouts of IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome). So I used this deck over a period of months for those times of stillness where I welcomed Guidance concerning dis-ease.

Each time I sought insight, as well as comfort, I'd say a prayer, shuffle the deck, and draw a card. While a few of the cards contained quiet wisdom and inspiration, I didn't feel that they spoke to me on a deep level. At other times, the cards seemed almost accusatory. For example, one card says The root cause of all disease is a negative attitude about taking care of yourself. The booklet expands on this card saying "The Ayurvedic tradition of India teaches that the main reason we get sick can be reduced to a lazy or perverse mental attitude, which leads us to ignore the basic principles of good health...". Yet another card says All suffering stems from ignorance, hatred, or craving; the wisdom connected with this card says "...Passionate craving for material or sensual satisfaction inevitably leads to frustration and disappointment, which in turn leads to stress and illness."

However, other cards convey messages contradictory to the "it's your fault" message. For example, Illness is not a punishment, but a stimulation to life. The wisdom in the booklet corresponding with this card says "A large part of the suffering that accompanies any illness derives from the psychologically imposed belief that it represents a judgment. Some may believe it's a judgment from God, a punishment for bad deeds committed in this life or previous lifetimes, or even an unconscious choice we've made. None of those reasons has any more validity than saying a wild deer is responsible for developing a cancerous tumor...But looking on it [illness] as a punishment is counterproductive, since the implicit guilt can only create more stress." Then it goes on to talk about Friedrich Nietzsche and his idea of seeing illness as a great stimulant to life and how this is a far more empowering way to look at dis-ease: "In this case, his thoughts offer a far more wholesome understanding of illness than that of many traditional and New Age thinkers."

Indeed. I couldn't agree more.

I see this dichotomy among many New Age teachers: the idea that we're responsible for our own sickness and that we created it. Yet, in the next breath, we're admonished not to feel guilt about it because we may not be responsible for it after all. And then we're given a neat little ABC package of formulas designed to eradicate dis-ease and be perfectly healthy 100% of the time.

I'm reminded of this portion of the New Testament: "As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, 'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?' 'Neither this man nor his parents sinned,' said Jesus, 'but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.'" (John 9:1-3).

The wisdom shared in the booklet spans many religious traditions: Buddhism, Native American, Shamanism, Judaism, Christianity, Ayurveda, Islam and so on. Yet, I felt like it was more an intellectual lesson in comparative religion rather than a deck constructed to foster healing. I've had better insight into healing and health with The Oracle Tarot by Lucy Cavendish.

Review originally posted at http://NewAge.BellaOnline.com

Aurora Díaz, Puerto Rico

Don't be so attached to your expectations of what the cards are supposed to be like... just enjoy them for what they offer --- inspiring images, healing words, guidance for compassion and forgiveness for others and your self, exercises towards de-fragmentation and wholeness.