Healing Burnout with Astrology & Tarot by Jackie Hope
Healing Burnout with Astrology and Tarot by Jackie Hope may sound extremely New Age to some folks, but I’ll advise you to remember this title when you’re desperate to find yourself again. Because sometimes burnout creeps up on you and sometimes the only solution is taking an unconventional approach.
Burnout occurs when our set point has deviated so much in a way that our body starts shutting down.
Life is a nonstop rollercoaster ride with failing brakes, and for some of us, there’s only one outcome: derailment. Accompanying this never-ending ride is a whole lot of stress, which means increased cortisol is released into the bloodstream. Too much cortisol consistently being released can ultimately lead to an array of both physical and mental ailments that aren’t always fixable through conventional methods. I mean, sure you can get medication to help alleviate your insomnia, depression and anxiety symptoms, but that’s just treating the symptoms of burnout, it’s not treating the actual cause of your burnout.
As someone who recently dealt with a bad burnout — and who is still on a path of healing — I can attest to how helpless I felt at the height of it all. Even the various medical doctors I visited told me that crawling out of the wreckage after my rollercoaster cart crashed and burned was up to me …
Finding Balance
Burnout occurs when we have become so set in a certain pattern that we have no option but change.
Change is hard, confronting your personal beasts head-on while you’re barely surviving is harder. But finding balance is crucial. Healing Burnout with Astrology and Tarot is an essential guide to both identifying and healing your burnout. There’s a gentleness to the book’s tone which is necessary to spark that desire for change, but Jackie Hope also gives off an almost “I can only lead the horse to water but I can’t make it drink” motherliness.
As a Libra, I loved the balance between gentleness and sternness. What’s more, I appreciated the approach between the New Age ideas mixed with traditional methods of introspection and the exploration of how the modern world affects us on a psychological and emotional level. Readers can expect exercises throughout Healing Burnout with Astrology and Tarot — affirmations, devotionals, and a zodiacal calendar (among other things) — to help them on their healing journey.
Exploring Astrology and Tarot
Instead of clinging to a single perspective, we can expand our horizons by embracing alternative viewpoints.
Healing Burnout with Astrology and Tarot takes readers by the hand and shows them how to explore and interpret the spreads. It teaches a kind of intuition to read the cards, and also ourselves, through gentle guidance. What’s more, every zodiac sign is covered in an individual section that’s specifically compiled to that particular sign’s personality, desires, and needs. And if you don’t know how to find out where to start with your astrological sign, the author is right there to assist you in finding your natal chart.
Honestly, this book is a great way to dip your toes into both astrology and tarot while simultaneously finding your way out of the pit of despair that is burnout.
A Personal Journey Awaits
Jackie Hope didn’t write a book for readers who want to finish reading it in one sitting and be miraculously cured of all their burnout-induced symptoms. It takes time, deep thought, and dedication to realign yourself and find balance at the end of the day.
While Healing Burnout with Astrology and Tarot is full of information, the book is crafted in a way for even beginners to understand and enjoy the basics of astrology and tarot. It won’t be an easy journey to heal yourself, but if you’re exhausted of finding a stranger looking back at you in the mirror, your medical bills are piling up because managing your stress feels impossible, and you’re eager to try and find a way out of the darkness, this book could very well be the light you need to set you back on your true path.
Jackie Hope is a civil rights attorney, tarot reader, and astrologer. As someone who has come through the dark night of activist burnout, Jackie guides changemakers engaged in the helping professions, social justice, and other advocacy work through their dark nights using tarot and astrology, so that they can continue to impact their communities for the better. She is a 2010 Teach for America alumna who has worked in education reform, climate change, and mental health services. Follow her on social media @healingburnoutbook
