The Languages of Spirit

Embracing Divination with Archetypes and Tarot

Aug 25, 2024

Hello, Mentatrix readers, wise contemplators of our deep human nature!

Welcome to another guest post, by Substack authors here on Mentatrix, our themes: reflection, inner journeys, nature, human relations.

I’m happy to bring you

Jenna Newell Hiott

today. Jenna writes Spirit Connections with Jenna Newell Hiott, which she describes as the realm of relating with magic. Her main message is “that we are never alone, and we are profoundly loved by the spirits that are all around us.”

I’ll let Jenna introduce herself and get to what she has to share with you straight away. Enjoy the dive into the realm beyond!

I am deeply honored to be a guest author for Mentatrix today! My name is Jenna and I write Spirit Connections here on Substack. The message underlying most of my writings is that we are collectively moving towards a more relational way of being and this includes relating with what I call Spirit or Magic or the Great Unseen. It’s an exciting time to be alive!

As part of this, one of the things I mention a lot is the idea that:

Life is a dialogue with the Divine; and the Divine speaks in infinite languages.

In my opinion, one of the most fulfilling aspects of life is learning some of these languages so that we can more fully participate in every moment. There’s no shortage of ways to do this. In fact, every single being has its own unique language with the Divine. The important thing to know is that Spirit is always speaking to us. Always.

Divination is one of my favorite ways to spark a conversation with Spirit. It's not just about predicting the future—it's about enriching the present moment with deeper meaning. Through different divination practices, we can better understand what the Divine is asking of us and find guidance in shaping the questions we wish to ask in return.

Divination comes in myriad forms. (Here’s a fun list from Wikipedia if you’re curious to explore more), and these languages are available for anyone. To talk with Spirit this way, we don’t have to possess any special abilities other than our own natural curiosity and willingness to learn.

For me, personally, years ago I felt a special call to the language of archetypes and divination with cards, especially the tarot.

When I first began exploring ways to deepen my dialogue with Spirit, the Universe brought me to the teachings of Caroline Myss, a mystic and medical intuitive who developed an extensive system of relating with universal patterns. I can’t remember exactly what my first interaction was with her, but I do clearly remember that suddenly there I was, enveloped in the teachings of this spitfire of a woman with a Midwestern accent and an attitude the size of the Pacific Ocean. She transformed my life with her teachings. I learned from her the language of archetypes. The archetypes that Caroline teaches are largely based on those developed by Carl Jung with a whole lot of new ones thrown in.

What exactly are archetypes?

Archetypes are one of the ways the Divine speaks to us of power (aka magic). They are universal patterns of power. We actually recognize these in other people all the time, even if we don’t realize it. As we go about our days, passing by strangers, we are subconsciously labeling them. The Mother, The Beggar, The Victim, The Entrepreneur, The Influencer, etc. It’s not as judgmental as it sounds. It only becomes a judgment or criticism when we are unaware of the inherently neutral quality of each archetype. In other words, it’s only judgmental if WE think the archetype is in some way inferior.

Archetypes are neutral patterns of power. They are dualistic in nature, however, each having a light side and a shadow. If we’re feeling like an archetype label is a criticism, we are probably only seeing the shadow side of it.

So how is this language of archetypes useful?

By coming to know them, we get to reclaim an aspect of power and magic in our lives. That’s a pretty great reason.

An archetype is a pattern that has power over us until we are conscious enough of it that we can reclaim our power of choice from it. This pattern of power will act for us until we see it for what it is and learn its language. It is then that we can come into a conscious relationship with it.

We all have every one of the archetypal patterns within us, though some are usually more obvious. For me, The Hermit is way more noticeable and familiar than The Socialite, but both do exist within me (somewhere, maybe buried deep in a tiny corner of an underground cavern far, far away).

Another way I like to look at this is as though we put on archetypal glasses and view the world through that lens. This is a super potent form of clarity. When we realize, “Oh, I’m viewing this situation through my Prostitute glasses,” we have instantly reclaimed our power of choice in that moment. In that specific example, we can continue to sell our integrity for a sense of safety, or we can choose something else. In either case we have made a choice and are no longer at the mercy of circumstance. This feels like magic, doesn’t it?!

How does the tarot fit into this?

Because I loved this language of archetypes, and saw such value in it, I began facilitating a group of people through a year-long process of relating with specific archetypes. I kept hearing from people that they wished there was a way to clarify what the archetype was trying to teach them. The messages coming through the archetypes sometimes seemed too vast to get a handle on. Was there a way to home in on the particular guidance coming through?

In a flash of inspiration, it occurred to me: the tarot can help!

The tarot is all archetypes too—a very specific deck of archetypes. Through each card, Spirit tells a story, nudging us towards clarity and wisdom. I realized by pairing these two, we could pare down the dialogue with the Divine into a single, golden nugget of information.

Again, these languages are something every one of us can learn. And it’s a gift I especially enjoy sharing with all of you.

Here’s the way I like to do it:

For the week ahead, I ask Spirit to guide me to the archetype card that is most helpful to all of us right now. Then I ask to be guided to the tarot card that best informs that archetype for this moment in time. From there, I write up a post chock full of guidance for our upcoming week. Through this process we will explore a few of the things the Divine wants to tell us. We get to learn this magical language together, which, for me, is super fun and enlightening! 🤗💖

With each Archetype & Tarot post I also like to create a mini-ritual to help us implement, and put into practice, the week’s guidance.

Here is an example of one of these posts: