JoHari Window

I've been clearing out my study, and one of the things I came across was the a file about the Johari Window,  which is a tool I still refer to occasionally.  So I decided to go through it here.

Basically it was a way of describing personal information.  There are things about you that you know,  and that you are happy for others to know (open.) 

There are things you know that you wish to hide (hidden.)  

But there also things about you,  that others know,  that you may not (Blind.) 

 And finally there are things about you that you don't know, and neither do others (Unknown) 

What I love about tarot is that it immediately sees both the hidden and the blind panels,  but also,  with a bit of exploration,  you can start to see the unknown panel - what is there about me that is hard for both me and others to see but still drives me. 

Barbara V Evers has created a very cute window describing Harry Potter,  so you can see how the window works -

The healthier we are,  the larger the open window is.  The healthier we are,  the smaller the unknown areas and blind spots are.  Those are where we can trip over ourselves and wonder what happened... 

I really do believe that a deep tarot session can push through and let you see things clearly,  that have not been clear before.  Partly is it because I trust the cards so much,  that if they seem off kilter,  we have to pause and see what they are trying to tell you,  and from there,  the knowledge that was trying to seep out,  gets seen.  Tarot really is a very powerful tool. 

Using Tarot for Personal Gain

A while ago my sister sent me this interesting article… and in it Alexander Chee was writing about how Tarot no longer worked for him, because he had been leaning on it too heavily as he read for himself how lovers felt about him and then no longer felt the need to clarify things with them, and not surprisingly his relationships started to fail.


I have to say it’s been years since I’ve even tried to read for myself. I can read really well for others, but whenever I tried to read for myself, I got mud, and couldn’t see anything. One thing I think, without trying to sound too pure, is that Tarot works best in service. If I serve others, it works, if I use to serve myself, it doesn’t. And that’s the kind of tarot I’m comfortable with.


The author in the article was like the one eyed man in the kingdom of the blind, giving himself too much power and then everything got blurry. But if you understand we are all short sighted, but the Tarot helps us look ahead with more clarity, that’s how it works best.

Beautiful top painting is by Ariel Brearly