What has helped me and aided me in my journey was the fact that I have a postgraduate degree in psychology as well as cultural and religious studies. I have a strong research background, and I worked in a behavioural change team and mental health. That gave me a foundation for developing this framework.

But there is something else that shaped how I approach things. Most likely, because my personality type is INFJ, I perceive and filter information through my intuition—introverted intuition, to be precise. As a result, I tend to look at the bigger picture: what something is in principle, what the mechanism is underneath the noise. Moreover, I see and test how things actually work in practice, not only in theory. One of the central features of intuition is its capacity to synthesise information, quickly seeing connections among disparate pieces of data through pattern recognition. I am able to see seemingly separate elements and visualise how those pieces connect, converge, intersect and interrelate.

This ability allowed me to connect the dots. I could see how our inherited biological reality and the wiring of our nervous system are connected—the way the brain, body, and chemistry constantly interact, shaping how we think, feel and behave. But I could also see that spirituality is rooted in our biology too. By extension, so is our need for connection to something greater than ourselves and our search for deeper meaning. Furthermore, we are wired to see and understand the world through the lens of stories, themes, and pattern recognition, including archetypes. All of this is biologically rooted in us. We are literally wired for it.

When I looked at the history of analytical psychology, it became clear to me that these early therapeutic practices have roots in much older traditions, such as shamanic and occult practices. They incorporated esoteric and occult psychologies as well.

Both Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung recognised this. Freud used a scientific framing, but his work structurally mirrored esoteric ideas. Jung, more openly, studied and integrated alchemy, mysticism, and symbolic traditions into his thinking.

A number of elements found in therapy today echo earlier shamanic practices, where stories, symbols, and myth functioned as forms of medicine for the psyche. Dream interpretation and active imagination are just two examples.

Tarot, I came to see, operates in the same way. It can be understood as a symbolic map of psychological processes. The imagery presents archetypal figures and sequences that mirror the structure of the hero's journey: movement through challenge, transformation, and integration. These archetypes can be compared to Kabbalistic archetypal forces or emanations—structurally similar to the Sephirot—representing fundamental patterns through which experience is organised. That is why Tarot serves as an expression of these underlying structures.

The process itself resembles Jungian active imagination and symbolic work, where images are used to allow unconscious material to emerge and be reflected upon. The progression through the cards can also be understood as mirroring the individuation process—a movement toward psychological integration, comparable to the mystical ascent described in various esoteric traditions.

The symbols evoke spontaneous interpretations that draw material from both conscious thought and unconscious content. In this way, the cards act as a bridge between the analytical mind and deeper psychological layers, accessing what Jung described as the collective unconscious—a universal symbolic field comparable to the Kabbalistic idea of a shared underlying structure.

Over time, I came to understand that this journey can be approached in two distinct ways. The right-hand path follows a structured, evidence-based method, symbolised by Hercules and his twelve labours: disciplined action, external challenges, and measurable progress. The left-hand path is more symbolic and introspective, associated with Psyche's descent into the underworld: shadow work, engagement with the unconscious, and inner transformation. Both describe the same developmental arc, approached through different methods.

From my perspective, both paths are necessary and work best in combination rather than in isolation. They are not separate routes but complementary modes that can be used interchangeably within the same process.

All of this guided me and helped me put together this framework. It is where evidence-based findings converge with our personal journey—focused on finding meaning, purpose, and connection to something greater than oneself. Self-awareness, relationships with others, connection to the world, and the search for deeper meaning are all woven together here.