The Embodied Oracle
Psychic Work And The Power of the Body
—After returning from a two-week intensive Vipassana meditation retreat at a monastery here in Northern CA, I was reminded of the importance of the body and its place in our spiritual and psychic development and our capacity to find freedom in this incarnation. I’ve written about this before, but I wanted to remind myself and you of the importance of this teaching while I craft and write a new post on the beauty of solitude. That will drop next week! For now, this…
The Embodied Oracle
Spirituality is often depicted as neglecting or leaving the body behind. Yet, the body itself is the gate to deepening one’s insight and compassion. In the Tarot, we must also remember the body: How is it responding to the archetypes in a reading? What messages is the body transmitting to us while we do our psychic work?
Kāyā is the word for body in Pali, and the body is one of the four foundations of mindfulness. Many things in life take us out of our bodies; in fact, the entire internet seems designed to do just that! In my experience, coming back into the body has allowed me to reach deeper levels of insight and psychic power. Although the body can seem to be distracting from our spiritual practice, breath, blood, tissues, and bones hold the key to understanding ultimate reality. Weird, right? We don't need to transcend our bodies to achieve psychic power. Instead, the body itself is the portal; it is precisely in and through this very form that we awaken.
We often search for gateways to the mystical, believing revelation lies somewhere else. Yet, the most obvious portal isn't in distant realms, but in the very flesh and bone we inhabit.
My recent two-week Vipassana retreat at a Northern California monastery offered this in a direct experience. During a meditation, I experienced my body dissolve. It wasn't a mental concept, but a direct sensation happening in real time: a continuous humming that when dissected illuminated an expanse of trillions of particles, arising and falling away with each moment. This wasn't "my" body, but the universe itself, vibrating, dissolving, and re-forming. Mindfulness when refined, becomes extraordinary…one can see things at a microscopic level.
This experience, gained through the body, transformed my understanding of freedom and existence. Not through intellectual understanding, but from a direct experience, a true understanding. It revealed that to truly awaken, to clearly comprehend ourselves and others we don't abandon this physical form. On the contrary, we must learn to inhabit it more fully. The body is where our deepest emotions reside, where healing begins, and where we receive subtle energies. It's the primary portal, grounding our spiritual insights into tangible experience. The path to greater wisdom and psychic capacity isn't around the body, but directly through it.
Deciphering the Body's Psychic Messages
Here are some reminders when you’re doing psychic work or just good reminders to get back into the body. The body is constantly transmitting information, even when you're not consciously aware of it.
Gut Instincts: This is often your most immediate and powerful source of embodied intuition. A "gut feeling" about a card or a reading is often your body's direct assessment of the energetic truth. If something feels "off" in your gut, pay attention.
The Heart: The heart can register feelings of resonance, compassion, or even sadness. When a card truly resonates with your deepest self, you might feel an opening or warmth in your heart space. Conversely, a tight or heavy feeling could indicate emotional resistance or an unacknowledged truth.
Third Eye: While often associated with mental perception, physical sensations around the forehead or between the brows can indicate heightened intuitive activity or even a headache if you're trying to force an interpretation rather than allowing it to flow.
Grounding Sensations: Feelings of stability, rootedness, or instability in your lower body can offer clues about your connection to the present moment and your sense of security within the reading's themes. If you feel ungrounded, it might be a signal to take a pause and recenter yourself.
My Offerings: Clairvoyant Tarot & Oracular Mentoring
If you're ready to explore the shadows within and illuminate your path with Oracular guidance using art, tarot and clairvoyance, I offer psychic readings and personalized mentoring to guide you through the intricate landscapes of your inner world and help elevate tension and confusion from the trappings of the human mind. If you’re in a period of expansion I can help map a clear path forward to align your intentions and actions with.
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Laura Zuspan is an artist, dharma witch and oracle.
She is the creator of the Luminous Void Tarot deck, a divination tool for accessing the subconscious and igniting transformation. Featured in Taschen’s Library of Esoterica and selected for preservation at the MIT distinctive libraries. She is the illustrator of the Cantigee Oracle published by North Atlantic Books.
For last decade she has worked with individuals using the Tarot in healing through the lens of art, embodied awareness and symbolism. As a servant of the sacred arts, Laura acts as an intermediary between Spirit and the ordinary world. Her work teaches others to honor the invisible realm and to translate its wisdom and guidance so they can walk the path of their true self.
Laura’s practice is grounded in ancient Tarot, art, magic, clairvoyance, and the Buddha Dharma.
She is a student of Vipassana and teaches mindfulness (lineage MMTCP) and Buddhist psychology at the intersection of Tarot and art.
She lives on unceded Ohlone territory with her family in Oakland CA.