Card #184 – Tormented Isolation

Solitude can be a very powerful and creative zone of possibilities, but in this card it is being experienced as a form of imprisonment. Although circumstantial factors can play a part — solitary confinement in prison, for example — more often the tormented isolation is the result of neurosis and the dark night of the soul.

Usually we feel tormented isolation because we didn’t get, or aren’t getting, what we want from others. A key to unlock the prison of egocentrism is to shift from internal considering to external considering. Instead of focusing on how we feel, what we want and aren’t getting, our loneliness and deprivation, etc., we should shift empathic focus onto others, see how we can help others who feel isolated, and in general become more sensitive and aware of what others are feeling and find ways to take compassionate action.