JohnsTarot

What happens when recovery begins to move beyond survival? In Episode 2 of my Transformation Series, I explore the middle stage of transformation—the period when life becomes less about simply maintaining a new structure and more about asking a deeper question: Who am I becoming? I share my own experience of moving through this period of recovery and transformation. Although my life had changed, t...

What happens after addiction? Is recovery simply learning how not to drink or use—or can it become something deeper? In this first episode of Recovery Transformation, I explore the difference between managed recovery and personal transformation through my own experience. For me, sobriety required more than behavior modification. It meant building an entirely new structure for living: working, atte...

During my years working as an ICU nurse, I've watched the substances people use change—and I've also encountered patterns that deeply concern me. In this final episode of Faces of Addiction, I discuss my personal clinical observations involving kratom, polysubstance use, prolonged critical illness, and patients who were extraordinarily difficult to wean from sedation and mechanical ventilation. I...

Faces of Addiction — Episode 3: The Consequences of Addiction | Professional Experiences in the ICU ⚠️ Viewer Advisory: This episode contains frank and graphic discussions of the medical consequences of alcoholism and addiction, including critical illness and death. Some viewers may find these descriptions disturbing. What is the real price of addiction? When I was actively drinking, I understood...

How does addiction take hold of someone's life? In this second episode of the Faces of Addiction series, I share my personal journey into alcoholism and addiction—not as a "drunkalog," but as a reflection on how addiction gradually narrowed my world, distorted my judgment, and consumed my life. Growing up in an alcoholic family, I unknowingly became part of a multi-generational pattern. What began...

The Disease of Addiction – Episode 1: How It Affected Me Growing Up What is it like to grow up in a home shaped by alcoholism? In the first episode of this four-part series on addiction, I share my own experience of growing up in an alcoholic family and the lasting effects it had on my identity, emotions, and relationships. We explore the common family roles that often emerge in homes affected by...

In this concluding episode of my three-part series on the Elder Futhark Runes, we explore the meaning of all 24 Norse runes and discover how these ancient symbols continue to speak to modern life. Rather than viewing the runes as simple fortune-telling devices, we examine them as a symbolic language rooted in mythology, psychology, and personal transformation. Each rune is explained in clear, prac...

In this episode, I share the story of how I first discovered the Elder Futhark Runes and why they became an essential part of my spiritual practice. Guided by the I Ching, I found that the Runes revealed another symbolic language that complemented Tarot in surprising and meaningful ways. Today, I explain how I combine Tarot and Runes during a reading and why I believe the two systems together prov...

In this first episode of the Nordic Runes Series, we explore the history, mythology, and symbolic meaning of the Elder Futhark. Originally developed as an alphabet nearly 2,000 years ago, the runes gradually became a profound symbolic system describing the patterns of human experience. We examine their historical origins before exploring the legendary story of Odin's quest for wisdom at Mímir's We...

What can facing death teach us about how to live? In this final episode of my three-part series on death, I reflect on what decades of experience—as an ICU nurse, as a family member witnessing loss, and as someone who has personally confronted mortality—have taught me about life. Death has taught me that courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is being afraid and doing what needs to be done an...

There are moments in life when we are forced to face our own mortality. In this deeply personal episode, I share three experiences that forever changed how I understand courage, faith, and what it means to truly live. I reflect on: • The decision to get sober when I realized my life was heading toward certain destruction. • Open-heart surgery and the symbolic dream that gave me a new understanding...

Death is one experience that every family will eventually face, yet few of us are ever taught how to navigate it. In this first episode of my new Death Series, I reflect on what I have learned after witnessing death from many different perspectives—as a son, a family member, and after more than two decades as an ICU nurse caring for patients and families during life's final moments. This is not a...

In this episode, I reflect on the teachings of Father Chad Rippenger, a respected Catholic priest, theologian, and exorcist, whose warnings about Tarot, symbolic systems, and spiritual practices stand in sharp contrast to my own lived experience. I share why I respect Father Rippenger's commitment to his faith while also explaining why my own path led elsewhere. Growing up in a multigenerational f...

Spiritual Bypassing: When We Mistake Talk for Transformation What is spiritual bypassing, and why does it so often appear at the beginning of a spiritual journey? In this episode, I explore the tendency to use spiritual ideas, beliefs, or practices to avoid the difficult emotional and psychological work that genuine transformation requires. Drawing from my own experience in recovery, Buddhism, and...

What is spirituality? Is it religion... or is it something deeper? In this episode of John's Tarot, I explore spirituality from a psychological and experiential perspective rather than a religious one. Drawing on over three decades in recovery, my work as an ICU nurse, and years studying Buddhism, Taoism, the I Ching, Tarot, and Jungian psychology, I discuss spirituality as a natural function of t...

Stranded in the Mountains, broken car, what to do? What I did

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Welcome to John’s Tarot. This week, John reflects on a simple but profound question that emerged after a trip to Los Angeles: Why do some people overcome chaotic beginnings and build meaningful lives, while others continue to struggle? Drawing from his own experience growing up in an alcoholic family, decades of recovery, Buddhist practice, nursing, and spiritual exploration, John examines the rol...

In the final episode of the Sophia Trilogy, we explore what it means to activate the Sophia archetype in our lives and what that activation may mean for our personal, spiritual, and collective future. Sophia—the ancient embodiment of Divine Wisdom—has appeared throughout human history in many forms. From Athena and her sacred owl, to Isis, to the Wisdom traditions of the ancient world, this archet...

In Episode 2 of the Sophia Trilogy, we move beyond the original encounter and explore a deeper question: What if Sophia is not merely a figure from mythology, religion, or personal experience, but an archetype that lives within the human psyche? Drawing upon Jungian psychology, Tarot symbolism, Gnostic traditions, and my own experience, we examine Sophia as the embodiment of Divine Wisdom and Divi...

Several years ago, I had an experience that profoundly changed the course of my spiritual journey. During an altered-state experience in the mountains, I encountered an entity that identified itself as Sophia—the ancient embodiment of Divine Wisdom. At the time, I knew very little about Sophia. Yet after the experience, I discovered references stretching back thousands of years through Greek philo...

Hero's Journey: The Return What was all the struggle for? Why do we endure hardship, face uncertainty, and push through life's most difficult transitions? In the final installment of the Hero's Journey series, we explore Joseph Campbell's powerful concept of The Return—the stage where the hero comes home carrying a gift earned through experience. The journey changes the person. The return changes...

🎙️ Hero's Journey: Crossing the Threshold What happens after the call to change? In the second installment of the Hero's Journey series, we explore one of the most important stages of transformation: Crossing the Threshold. The old world has been left behind, but the new world is not yet understood. This stage is often marked by uncertainty, fear, confusion, and doubt. Yet it is also the point whe...

What is a spiritual awakening? Is it a single event, a mystical experience, or something much deeper? In this episode of the Soul Awakens Series, I explore awakening as a process of transformation rather than a moment of enlightenment. Drawing from my own journey through addiction recovery, Carl Jung's concept of individuation, and Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey, we examine how profound change o...

Symbolic Containers | How Meaning Emerges from Symbolic Systems Why do symbolic systems work? Why do Tarot, mythology, sacred geometry, archetypes, and ancient wisdom traditions continue to resonate across cultures and throughout history? In this episode of the Soul Awakens Series, I explore the concept of the Symbolic Container—a structured space where meaning can emerge through symbols, attentio...