The Invitation

I first came across this when I was working as a psychotherapist at South Pacific Private Hospital. I loved it then and it hasn't lost its perfume over the years, it's still wild and untamed and joyous...

Enjoy



The Invitation

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain! I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it, or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul; if you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see beauty even when it's not pretty, every day, and if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, “Yes!”

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up, after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you, from the inside, when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

by Oriah Mountain Dreamer
copyright © 1999 by Oriah Mountain Dreamer.

What do the cards bring

I have worked as a psychotherapist in both London and Sydney, and often wished I could bring my cards into a session there.  I never did, (the hospitals I worked in would not have like it) but I’ve always thought that a good deep tarot reading can cut through 6 months of therapy. The cards don’t lie, and they don’t hide. Often people tell me that they hadn’t planned to talk about an issue, but the cards just brought it up...

The cards also talk about the difference between one offs and patterns.  Sometimes when asking about love the cards indicate that you are in a repetitive cycle, and that while this person is very different from the last, the pattern of the relationship is the same. 

 

Sometimes the cards show that this man is the exception, and he is not good for you but other men have been and will be again. 

Sometimes the cards say that this relationship is worth investing time and energy in, that even though nothing can be guaranteed, the cards like him, like the energy he is bringing into your life. 

All this is something I couldn’t necessarily tell from one therapy session, but the cards always know…