Editor's Page

Cover Card

      One drop has just fallen off the lotus leaves in the early morning. It is a precious moment, and one that is full of poignancy. In surrendering to gravity and slipping off the leaf, the drop loses its previous identity and joins the vastness of the water below. We can imagine that it must have trembled before it fell, just on the edge between the known and the unknowable.

      When this card is chosen there is recognition that something is finished, something is completing. Whatever it is---a job, a relationship, a home you have loved, anything that might have helped you to define who you are---it is time to let go of it, allowing any sadness but not trying to hold on. Something greater is awaiting you; new dimensions are there to be discovered. You are past the point of no return now, and gravity is doing its work. Go with it---it represents liberation.

Individuation A Jungian concept, it refers to the process of bringing unconscious, divided elements---notably the anima, animus and shadow---into consciousness so that a person moves toward inner integration. We seek to become all that we can be, "to render fruitful our [perceived] negative dimensions," and to become whole within ourselves. As an ongoing process, individuation may never be fully realized or finished. It often is highlighted as a "midlife crisis," where one realizes that old goals are no longer appropriate or achievable and must be changed or reconciled with the remaining years available. Individuation is a kind of alchemical rebirthing, continually adding a new dimension to our lives. Ideally we become one with Spirit or the Self---a construct that represents an overseeing composite of all the elements of the psyche---and make our decisions with that awareness. When their messages are taken as "nudging" teachers of wisdom, Tarot cards and spreads can serve as one path toward increasing Self-realization. -- Thomson, S.A. (2003). Pictures from the Heart: a Tarot dictionary. New York: St. Martin's Griffin.

Editor's Notes

      Toni. What a nice journal. I thought your husband's experience was very powerful and lovely. Being licked by wolves, WOW! Keep up the good work!
Tom Rucker

      Toni, Thank you for all I have accomplished this year. You, Christine and tarot.com have given me the courage to survive and thrive. I was diagnosed with Huntington’s disease last April and I feel I owe it to you three for me still to be alive and have even shown improvement. Now I have a new outlook on my last few years here on earth. Bless you. I hope to learn all I can and bring only good to my new search for my new future. Lucy

      Toni, Some readers may question the relevance of Johnny Lake’s article on Strom Thurmond for publication in a nursing journal. The Alternative Journal of Nursing is designed for holistic practitioners of nursing. Florence Nightingale, the first holistic nurse, developed an interest in the social issues of her time and influenced both the social conscience of her era as well as the development of the nursing profession. Holistic nurses of today should follow her example and welcome commentary on a wide range of subjects outside of the nursing profession, especially those that influence the attitudes and lifestyles of the clients we treat everyday and the evolution of the society in which we all live. I found the article provocative. Thank you, Johnny Lake, for your thoughtful and timely contribution.

      The interview of Dr. John Nelson by Mark Waldman was very interesting to me. I have never understood the significance of the seven chakras. Comparing the chakras to the stages of human growth and development made the chakra system easily understandable and has motivated me to learn more about Eastern philosophy. Thanks to both of you for an interesting interview.
Mary Amdall-Thompson RN MS CNS

      Dear Toni, If you're interested in race in this country, you might like a book called "How the Irish Became White." It shows whiteness as the highly politicized social construct that it is.
David Spero, BSN, RN