What to do with rage

I did a reading recently for a woman who just had some severe betrayals in her life - her husband slept with her sister.  But she didn't want to talk about him or even her.  She wanted to talk about what to do with her feelings of rage, which feel all consuming to her. 

Of course she is right to be enraged.  Anyone would be in her circumstances.  But it is also right that she sees that being consumed by rage is not helpful to her.  So in the first instance I said she has to stop focusing on them,  and on their actions, and just focus on her,  on what she is going to do.  

But the second thing I said to her was far more helpful (as she said to me.)  I said that anger/rage is just energy and as she knows what caused it,  it's like an alarm shrieking, making her unable to think clearly,  so now it's time to turn off the alarm and deal with the issue.  

But how to do that?  If  anger/rage is energy,  she has to dissipate that energy.  Go to the gym,  do some kickboxing,  do some anger workshops (beating a pillow with a soft bat,  I've run those workshops,  it really does help)  Don't try to calm yourself without letting go of the energy.  Do furious dancing,  leaping,  running.  Let the energy out.  And then,  only then,  can you think of the next steps. 

She said I was the only one who gave her something she can use.   So I'm happy for that.  I told her to come again in 6 months and we'll see what the future will bring.  In the meantime,  we have to deal with the present,  and get that energy out, so she can fight for herself cleanly and sanely.  

Seven of Swords

These are the difficult cards in the tarot – not difficult to read, their meaning is clear, but difficult to bear. Here, someone is sneaking in and stealing swords. However, two swords remain, you are not defenseless and possibly you didn’t really need all 7 of those swords, so perhaps with hindsight, you can see that it wasn’t all bad. But in the moment, you feel the searing heat of loss but worse than loss, the sense that that things were purposefully/maliciously taken from you. You will feel betrayed or deceived.

Of course, you may be the one stealing the swords. You may think it’s just office politics, or how things are done, but you may need to look at your own actions – are you betraying someone? Are you acting in bad faith/taking things that you shouldn’t? Sneaking off? Shirking responsibility?

The Inner Child cards read this quite differently… there you are, trapped into being the good one, staying indoors, doing your work, looking longingly at the world outside. Lots of people relate to that image really strongly.