Explore the Mini-Series
Kabbalah & Tarot: The Tree of Life
Explore the fascinating relationship between Kabbalah, Tarot, and the Tree of Life in this two-part MiniSeries from John’s Tarot.
Beginning with the history and symbolism of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, we examine how this ancient mystical system became connected with the 22 Major Arcana and the symbolic language of Tarot. Then we travel through the Tree from Malkuth upward, exploring the paths as a map of consciousness and human transformation.
Along the way, we consider the Pillars of Severity and Mercy, the symbolism of Boaz and Jachin in the High Priestess, and the importance of balance and integration. Rather than approaching Kabbalah as scholars, we explore what happens when these ancient symbols become practical lenses for understanding our own experiences.
For anyone interested in symbolic Tarot, psychology and Tarot, spirituality and Tarot, consciousness, or spiritual exploration, this series offers an accessible introduction to the Tree of Life—not simply as an esoteric diagram, but as a map for understanding the human journey.
Perhaps the journey isn’t about escaping the world. Perhaps it’s about returning to the same world and learning to see it differently.
The Disease of Addiction and Transformation
The Disease of Addiction and Transformation
This miniseries explores addiction, recovery, psychology, spirituality, and human transformation from both sides of the threshold—from the progressive loss of freedom and self-awareness to the possibility of recovery, growth, meaning, and purpose.
Drawing on personal experience, decades of recovery, and years of caring for people affected by addiction, John examines the disease within individuals, families, and the hospital setting. But the journey doesn’t end with simply stopping the addiction. It moves toward a deeper question:
What happens when survival becomes transformation?
These episodes follow the gradual awakening of awareness and responsibility as a person begins to see themselves, their relationships, and their place in the world differently. Recovery becomes more than abstinence. It can become an exploration of consciousness, spirituality, meaning, service, and the possibility of profound personal change.
For those interested in addiction and recovery, psychology, spiritual exploration, self-discovery, and human transformation, this series considers what can happen when we move beyond merely surviving our past and begin creating meaning from it.
Recovery doesn’t necessarily return us to the life we once had. Sometimes it allows us to become someone we could not have imagined becoming.
Tarot Meets the Nordic Runes
Tarot Meets the Nordic Runes
The Tarot reveals the landscape of the soul. The Nordic Runes speak with the voice of the ancient North. Together they form a symbolic language for exploring change, challenge, self-discovery, spirituality, and human transformation.
This miniseries brings Tarot and the Nordic Runes together as complementary systems of symbolic reflection. By exploring the relationship between Tarot imagery, ancient Rune symbolism, psychology, and spirituality, we can begin to see familiar experiences from different perspectives and perhaps discover something about where we are within our own journey.
These episodes are conversations rather than lectures. Drawing on my experience in recovery, my years as an ICU nurse, and over three decades of exploring Tarot, the I Ching, the Nordic Runes, Taoism, spirituality, and Jungian psychology, I simply share what I have found helpful. I do not claim to be the final authority—only a fellow traveler exploring these timeless symbols and the human journey.
For those interested in symbolic Tarot, psychology and Tarot, spiritual exploration, Rune symbolism, self-discovery, and consciousness, this series offers another way of working with ancient symbolic systems as lenses through which we can better understand ourselves and our experiences.
These are not predictions of the future, but invitations to see more clearly the journey that is already unfolding. I hope our conversations encourage you to reflect, question, and discover what these symbols may reveal in your own life.
The Death Series
The Death Series
Have no fear—this will not scare you.
Death is one of life’s great thresholds. Drawing from personal experience and years of nursing, this series explores mortality through the lenses of psychology, spirituality, consciousness, and human transformation.
What happens when we stop turning away from death and begin looking at it directly? Through personal reflection and spiritual exploration, we consider what confronting mortality can teach us about fear, courage, acceptance, meaning, and the way we choose to live.
The Death Series is ultimately less an exploration of death than an exploration of life—and the possibility that becoming more conscious of our mortality can help us see more clearly what matters while we are here.
Spirituality: A Three-Part Series
This three-part series explores spirituality, psychology, spiritual growth, and human transformation through one of humanity’s oldest questions: What is genuine spirituality, and how do we recognize the paths that can lead us astray?
The journey begins by asking what spirituality actually is, moving beyond beliefs and religious identity to explore spirituality as a process of self-discovery, greater awareness, and personal transformation. What happens when spirituality becomes something we experience and practice rather than simply something we believe?
The second episode examines Spiritual Bypassing—the tendency to use spiritual ideas to avoid necessary psychological work, emotional healing, personal responsibility, or the realities of everyday life. Genuine spiritual exploration should help us engage more honestly with life, not provide another way of escaping it.
The series concludes with a personal reflection inspired by the teachings of Father Chad Rippenger, a respected Catholic priest and exorcist. Rather than debating doctrine, the episode considers two sincere approaches to spirituality. While acknowledging Father Rippenger’s perspective, I explore why my own experience led me toward recovery, symbolic systems, the Tao Te Ching, I Ching, Tarot, and Jungian psychology as tools for understanding experience, developing consciousness, and encouraging healing and transformation.
Together, these three episodes invite a deeper question:
What kind of spirituality helps us become more fully human?
Throughout the series, the emphasis is not on defending a particular religion or philosophy. It is about exploring spirituality with discernment, psychological maturity, openness, and a willingness to test spiritual ideas against lived experience.
For those interested in spiritual exploration, psychology and spirituality, symbolic Tarot, consciousness, self-discovery, and human transformation, this series asks us to consider not only what we believe, but what those beliefs are actually producing within our lives.
How does a person pursue genuine spiritual growth without becoming lost?
How do we recognize a path that is genuinely transformative?
Ultimately, this trilogy steps back and asks:
What is all of this for? What kind of spirituality actually helps human beings become more whole?
The Hero’s Journey
The Hero’s Journey
The Hero’s Journey is one of humanity’s oldest maps of human transformation. Through mythology, psychology, spirituality, recovery, and personal experience, this series explores the universal journey from ordinary life, through challenge and awakening, toward greater consciousness and a more authentic and integrated self.
The Hero’s Journey is more than an ancient mythological pattern. It can become a lens for understanding the transitions occurring within our own lives—the call to change, the uncertainty of crossing a threshold, the challenges that transform us, and the return with a deeper understanding of ourselves and our place in the world.
For those interested in psychology, spiritual exploration, self-discovery, consciousness, and personal transformation, these episodes invite us to recognize that the stories found in ancient mythology may also describe patterns unfolding within our own experience.
Whether you are facing a major life transition or simply seeking deeper meaning, the Hero’s Journey offers a symbolic map for recognizing where you are, understanding what the journey may be asking of you, and walking forward with greater awareness.
Hero’s Journey
Sophia: Wisdom and Awakening
Sophia is the ancient symbol of Divine Wisdom—the quiet voice that calls us toward greater consciousness, compassion, self-discovery, and wholeness. Through mythology, psychology, spirituality, symbolism, and personal experience, this series explores how wisdom emerges not simply as information, but as a lived relationship with reality.
Drawing upon Sophia as an archetype of wisdom, these episodes explore the relationship between spiritual awakening, Jungian psychology, symbolic wisdom, and human transformation. Rather than asking us simply to acquire more knowledge, Sophia invites us to become more aware—to recognize the deeper patterns operating within ourselves and the world around us.
For those interested in spiritual exploration, psychology and spirituality, consciousness, archetypes, self-discovery, and personal transformation, this series considers how ancient symbols can continue to illuminate modern human experience.
These episodes invite you to look beneath the surface of everyday life, cultivate greater awareness, and consider the difference between knowing something intellectually and actually living what we have come to understand.
Wisdom is more than knowledge. It is what knowledge becomes when it transforms the way we see and live.
How Tarot Works
How does a deck of cards become a tool for insight?
This series explores how Tarot works through psychology, symbolism, mythology, spirituality, and consciousness. Rather than approaching Tarot primarily as fortune telling, these episodes examine symbolic Tarot as a visual language that can help us reflect on our lives, recognize emerging patterns, explore the unconscious, and engage more deeply with the questions shaping our journey.
Through the relationship between psychology and Tarot, we explore how archetypal images and Tarot symbols can stimulate reflection and reveal meanings that may not immediately be available to ordinary conscious thought. The cards do not necessarily tell us what will happen next. Instead, they can help us see more clearly what is already happening within ourselves and our experience.
For those interested in Tarot symbolism, symbolic Tarot meanings, Tarot and psychology, spirituality and Tarot, self-discovery, consciousness, and human transformation, this series offers a different way of understanding why these ancient images continue to speak to modern lives.
The series concludes by introducing the concept of Symbolic Containers—a framework for understanding how systems such as Tarot, the I Ching, the Tao Te Ching, mythology, and dreams can create meaningful spaces for personal reflection, spiritual exploration, psychological insight, and transformation.
Tarot does not have to predict the future to reveal something meaningful. Sometimes its greatest value is helping us see more clearly what is already here.
Finding Direction in Uncertain Times — An I Ching Reflection
How do we find direction when we cannot yet see what comes next?
This episode offers an accessible introduction to the I Ching, or Book of Changes—its history, origins, development, symbolism, and use as an ancient system for reflection and understanding change.
Rather than approaching the I Ching simply as a method of divination, we explore it as a symbolic language for self-discovery, spiritual exploration, and greater awareness. Its hexagrams describe patterns of change—times of advance and retreat, difficulty and opportunity, waiting and action—and invite us to consider where we may be within a process that is still unfolding.
For those interested in the I Ching, spirituality, consciousness, symbolic systems, personal transformation, and finding meaning during uncertain times, this episode offers a basic starting point for exploring how an ancient wisdom tradition can continue to illuminate modern human experience.
My style in this episode may seem a little clumsy, but so is life. As the Tao Te Ching reminds us, “Great perfection seems imperfect, yet its usefulness is never exhausted.” My hope is that the ideas themselves speak more clearly than my delivery.
Sometimes finding direction doesn’t mean knowing exactly where we are going. It means learning to recognize where we are now and how the situation is changing.