Healing from Trauma

From the Prisma Visions Tarot, the Star; from the Secret Language of Color, Sapphire:

          Look closely, and you will see the darkness of the night sky is the silhouette of a head with the neck in orange. Inside is the gray outline of a woman falling. According to the booklet, she has fallen from the Tower. The intellectual safety of her ideas have been exploded, and now she gets a wide view of life as it is. Lilies, often associated with death and resurrection, twine about her body. If she continues to fall, she will travel out of the head and into the watery body, a world of rawness and physicality. Awakening can be a shock, but the insights gleaned can be a life changing experience. The Star's association of healing and rejuvenation is reflected in the Sapphire, which is associated with regeneration of the body. To regenerate means to reform what has been lost; what is reformed may look the same, but it is different. Emotional trauma cuts us off from our bodies, and the key to healing lies in coming back to its physical sensations (and the present moment) within a cushion of safety. Patience and gentleness will be required as well as acceptance of feelings.

Those who have survived learn that their sense of self, of worth, of humanity, depends upon a feeling of connection with others. The solidarity of a group provides the strongest protection against terror and despair, and the strongest antidote to traumatic experience. Trauma isolates; the group re-creates a sense of belonging. Trauma shames and stigmatizes; the group bears witness and affirms. Trauma degrades the victim; the group exalts her. Trauma dehumanizes the victim; the group restores her humanity. ~ Judith Lewis Herman