Re-Symbolization of the Self: Human Development and Tarot Hermeneutic

This groundbreaking book brings depth of meaning and intellectual scholarship to the field of human development while also lifting the human spirit by offering new dimensions of self-formation through the ancient medium of Tarot. It should be of great interest to health and human service professionals. JEAN WATSON, Distinguished Professor, University of Colorado Denver College of Nursing; author of Nursing: The Philosophy and Science of Caring and Caring Science as Sacred Science. Semetsky's book is a timely antidote for our current crises in education. Drawing on her empirical research with Tarot and her deep knowledge of Jungian psychology, she offers an approach to education that stirs the depths of the Self as it deepens mind into soul. Her Tarot hermeneutic opens a path toward a revolutionary pedagogy that, in its commitment to the complexity, fullness and fluidity of human subjectivity, recovers the ethical and therapeutic dimensions of education. A bold book, a daring achievement, a spark of illumination! ROBERT D. ROMANYSHYN, Senior Core Faculty, Pacifica Graduate Institute; Affiliate Member of the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts; author of The Wounded Researcher: Research with Soul in Mind and Ways of the Heart: Essays toward an Imaginal Psychology. This text elucidates the potential of Tarot well beyond its popular usage. It demonstrates how Tarot can become a pedagogical and counseling tool for enriching human experiences and the whole of culture with wisdom, integrity, meaning, and spirituality. A must to read! MARY K. GREER, author of Tarot for Your Self: A Workbook for Personal Transformation. Bringing together popular and academic cultures, Inna Semetsky presents Tarot as a system of transformative hermeneutics for adult self-education and cultural pedagogy. Her research is a decisive and intelligent step ahead from the reductive stereotype of Tarot as fortune-telling. The fifteen life stories at the heart of the book exemplify the author's commitment to alternative modes of education and counseling that transcend individual, cultural or language barriers. Assembling a rich array of sources, from Hermeticism to Jungian depth psychology, the philosophies of Noddings, Buber, and Deleuze, and the science of self-organization, this book opens a new path to personal and social revitalization. It should be widely read across disciplinary divides by scholars, students, and professionals alike. PHILIP WEXLER, Professor, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; author of Symbolic Movement: Critique and Spirituality in Sociology of Education and Holy Sparks: Social Theory, Education and Religion.