"Hoarders" and Tarot

© Copyright 2024 Fran Carey and Emily Jones, All Rights Reserved.

The television show Hoarders has been in production since 2009, and is still drawing viewers. It depicts attempts by a team of professionals, including psychologists or psychiatrists, organizers, and cleaning experts, to help a person trapped by the stuff in their lives. But it is never just the stuff that is trapping them. Sometimes it is a cascade of factors that lead them to accumulate the huge numbers of possessions. Sometimes it is a single catastrophic event. Most hoarders make the hero's journey successfully and clear the clutter. The major "plot points" of the show can be seen in the tarot.

The Tower card can be read as a lightning strike failure in one's life, whether a sudden job loss, a literal lightning strike or other natural disaster, or a mental or emotional loss such as the death of or abandonment by a loved one. This is the precipitating event that kicked off the acquisition phase of the hoarding.

The Emperor comes into play as Code Enforcement, the authority which says they must make changes or lose everything else, another Tower situation.

The Devil card warns us of the danger of self-sabotage and the ways in which the things we once held onto for comfort and security have actually become traps that keep us imprisoned.

The Eight of Swords depicts the feeling of being completely boxed in, but the reminder in this card is that there is a way out of our bonds if only we look up from the clutter to see the escape route.

The Hanged Man is the sacrifice of self to Self, or, as the hoarders seem to view it, Self to self, as they clear their precious treasures and dismantle the fortification that is their hoard. As in the everyday world those of us not on television inhabit, this includes outmoded ways of thinking and viewing the world, and dysfunctional attachments to people, places, actions, and things.

The Hierophant is the Hoarders assistance team, who show them a new way to interact with the bigger world, and with the smallest of their cache.

If the person is ready for the journey, the World is the fresh, clean house at the end of the show.

Our take away should be to look closely at what we have accumulated as we have gone through life. Examine not just the junk drawer in the kitchen, but the junk drawers in our brains. Some habits can be scooped up with the manure shovel and tossed in the trash, with the aid of the proper professionals - excessive alcohol consumption, procrastination, too much sugar - while some can be fine tuned - overwork as an escape from uncomfortable emotions, escaping uncomfortable emotions, holding onto worn out clothes or situational responses.

We can meditate on the Strength card to give us the fortitude to make the necessary changes, the Star to be our North Star and guide us to our destination, the Sun to illuminate the dark corners where we need to figuratively sweep out the cobwebs, or the Moon to bring to light the emotions, hurts, and pain we have built our fortifications to keep out.

The Queen of Cups can be a nurturing mother to help us deal with these painful feelings, and work through them. For the inspiration to dig in and start excavating and removing the things that no longer serve, the Temperance card asks us to remember that we have the power to create harmony and balance in our lives, both in our internal and our external worlds.

Most of us are hoarders in some fashion. The tarot can provide a roadmap in the Hero's Journey it depicts, and a reading can be the traffic report and travel guide to help you find your way through the labyrinth that is life.

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