Inner Child Cards Workbook

Inner Child Cards Workbook
Further Exercises and Mystical Teachings from the Fairy-Tale Tarot 

INTRODUCTION
FAIRY TALES AND THE ODDYSSEY OF THE HUMAN SOUL

Many people attending my classes on the use of The Inner Child Cards over the past nine years have encouraged me to write a companion book, one that would serve as a guide and workbook to the material in that book. This current effort is my response to the many requests I have received in that context, but it also stands very well on its own. Here, I have woven new material on the archetypal meaning of fairy tales into a workbook format, offering the individual a deeply mystical and profoundly therapeutic journey through fairy tale symbolism. The Mystical Meaning of Fairy Tales offers new layouts, teaches new divination methods and creates a list of suggested personal growth exercises that correspond to each Major Arcana card, including visualizations, affirmations, questions and suggested ways one can actualize the fairy tale teachings into one's life. . . .
   My lectures and workshops on the Inner Child Cards have led me to conclude that many people are now ready to grasp the deeper meaning of "childhood stories," whether their own or others, and to glean from them the true mystical teachings. Of the various aspects of our memory and childhood imprint, the fairy tale has served to open the door to a vast world of imagination and dream. Identifying the stories that were important to us as children helps us identify the resonant themes in our own lives and also gives us strength. We are reminded that the quest for individuation is a universal matter, and that there are certain difficult challenges and stages of initiation we all must enter into. In an archetypal way, fairy tales lay bear the vast territory of the Soul, and if we listen with our hearts and are receptive to the magic of the story, we come face to face with the beautiful essence of our own life's journey. Our quest for a full human existence requires that we embrace and integrate all aspects of human development into our daily lives, even those involving suffering, abandonment, and fear.
   My life has been transformed through the process of delving deeply into the mystical meaning of fairy tales. As I've applied the insights gleaned in this way to my own circumstances and life-passages, I have found the pathway to my destiny cleared. My life has become increasingly enchanting and beautiful. Looking deeply into my own suffering and fear, I, like many a fairy tale protagonists, have pushed forward into the unknown, entered the depths of my own Soul's journey and found solace in the stages toward maturation and truth.
   For example, as you will see in the workbook, the story of Little Red Cap is a mystical exploration of the process of individuation and increasing freedom. Little Red Riding Hood is one of the few fairy tale main characters endowed with a loving mother who cares for her and watches over her. Her proverbial red cap is a symbol of her innate wish to be enlightened and awakened to the greater wisdom of the world. She must meet the wolf, symbolizing the shadow of her past, her fears, her dark side, and undergo the initiation he brings to her as he attempts to fool her and devour her unformed wisdom. This is the part of herself that must be found and brought to consciousness. 
   Little Red Cap journeys to grandmother's house, the ancestral cottage of transformation, where she learns about the deceptive side of life (the wolf dressed as grandmother). There, she is eventually graced with enlightenment and rebirth when the woodsmen cuts open the belly of the wolf and sets her free. Ultimately, she is awakened to a new level of being as she learns to outsmart the Big Bad Wolf and meet the many challenges life has set before her. 
In some essential way, we are all Little Red Cap and her story is our story. So, if what you're looking for is a better understanding of yourself and your story, in the context of fairy tale mysticism and universality, then you've come to the right place. What follows is your story, told in a magical, poetic, epic terms with a cast of characters, all of which are different aspects of you!

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Fairy Tales and the Odyssey of the Human Soul

1. The Feminine in Fairy Tales 
2. Initiation, Enchantment, and Awakening
3. The Archetypes of the Soul and Karmic Imprints
4. Fairy-Tale Mysticism and the Major Arcana
5. Mirrors to Humanity
6. Additional Ways to Use the Inner Child Cards: 
7. New Layouts
8. The Twenty-two Major Arcana
9. The Minor Arcana

Bibliography

Isha Lerner, has been working with astrology, tarot, and the healing arts since the early 1970s. She is a therapist who interweaves astrology, tarot, fairy tales, and flower-essence therapy into her life and practice. She is also the author of The Triple Goddess Tarot and The Power of Flowers book and deck sets. She lives in Eugene, Oregon.

"I recommend this book to students serious about learning more than they already know about themselves."
Tarot News, January 2003

TAROT / SELF-HELP

Inner Child Cards Workbook is a companion volume to the bestselling Inner Child Cards tarot deck. Based on ten years of research, this thorough guide to the archetypal symbolism of story, myth, and tarot deepens the connection between fairy tales, the Major Arcana cards, and the odyssey of the human soul on its mystical journey from birth to death.

For many of us, the fairy tales we listened to as children served to open the door to a vast world of imagination and dream. When we revisit these same stories as adults, with an awareness of their deeper universal meaning, we open a door into our own souls and clarify our own life’s journey.

Inner Child Cards Workbook provides five major components for further work with the Inner Child Cards.

- An advanced exploration of the mystical meaning of fairy tales and the Major Arcana as they relate to the journey of the soul.

- An analysis of the feminine in fairy tales, delving into the meaning of such archetypal characters as the Wicked Stepmother, the Innocent Maiden, and the Wicked Witch.

- A synthesis of the tarot with the mystical study of enchantment, imagination, and transformation.

- An exploration of the significance of numerology in tarot and fairy tales.

- Advanced exercises that extend the use of the Inner Child Cards, including past-life regression, dreamwork, and interactive questions associated with each card in the deck.

ISHA LERNER has been working with astrology, tarot, and the healing arts since the early 1970s. She is a therapist who interweaves astrology, tarot, fairy tales, and flower-essence therapy into her life and practice. She is also the author of The Triple Goddess Tarot and The Power of Flowers book and deck sets. She lives in Eugene, Oregon.