Sarah's Musings on "Where is Spirituality in Academia?" ©

My first class when I returned to university at 44 (Wow, I'm just noticing the numerological significance there) was a tutorial for "Readings in Narrative," a 100-level English class. I had spent the day wandering around feeling vulnerable in my blue hair, thrift store skirt, and Roots backpack. I repeated to myself that I had done drastically harder things than being lost on a university campus, like a mantra I needed to get through a long hold warrior III pose or wild thing pose. I felt positively accused by the penetration of hundreds of sets of 18 and 19-year-old eyes. (Silly in retrospect, they probably assumed I was a prof.)

One of the TA's icebreaker questions was, "Tell us your name, your pronouns, something you hate, and something surprising about you." So, yeah, public speaking. Right off the bat. When my turn came, my heart was throbbing so wildly, I thought it impossible that the whole class of 25 couldn't detect it. I stammered, "Hey, I'm Sarah. I go by she/her. I hate animal cruelty and global warming. And I'm a professional Tarot card reader."

I hoped I might catch the eye of a kindred empath, intrigued by my statement. I was, in fact, proud of the thousands of people I've read for and guided in their healing journey over the years. But not a soul glanced my way. All sets of eyes remained downcast, and did I detect an air of embarrassment in the room? That's when I realized that my spirituality and tarot expertise wouldn't be a currency or connection point for me like they had been for my entire adult life. Not in this new land of academia.

Despite this demoralizing beginning, spirituality did trickle into the course material surprisingly over the following three years. Albeit sparse, I'll share what I gleaned about spirituality during my undergraduate degree in Psychology.

Finding the Sacred in Academic Spaces

1. Positive Psychology & Self-Compassion

In our readings about positive psychology, I encountered concepts that resonated with spiritual practices I'd read about for years. Neff's work on self-compassion particularly stood out:

"Self-compassion entails seeing one's own experience in light of the common human experience, acknowledging that suffering, failure, and inadequacies are part of the human condition, and that all people, oneself included, are worthy of compassion."

This mirrors what I emphasize in readings, that our struggles connect us rather than isolate us, and that self-compassion is as essential as compassion for others. Neff's research shows that those who practice a loving-kindness meditation reported greater mindfulness, more agency in thinking, and even reduced illness symptoms and need for sleep!

The intrapersonal benefits documented in their studies included enhanced self-insight, moral judgment, health benefits, greater well-being, faster information processing, and greater attention to positive versus negative stimuli. These are all outcomes I've witnessed in long-term clients who integrate with a spirituality of their understanding.

2. Human Sexuality & A Spiritual Lens

My sexuality course revealed fascinating historical connections between spirituality and sexuality:

• Taoist traditions viewed sexuality as akin to spirituality, a form of worship leading toward harmony with nature and immortality, producing detailed sex manuals as early as 200 BCE

• Indigenous perspectives honored non-binary gender expressions, often bestowing special status to third or fourth gender individuals who served as shamans, medicine keepers, and spiritual leaders

  
  

A University of Toronto study of 658 Indigenous people across Ontario found that 57% described sex as "magical," with many considering it "enjoyable, pleasurable, and some even went so far as to say spiritual." The traditional view was "that having sex was to touch the life force within us, and to touch the life force meant to touch Creation."

Unlike Western religious traditions centered on concepts of sin, traditional Indigenous spiritual thought approaches “moral transgressions” differently. When people go against teachings, they're seen as not having understood them and are provided an opportunity to learn and try anew.

3. Gender Studies & Literary Connections

In my 300-level Gender and Women's Studies course, I was surprised to encounter this quote from Maggie Nelson's "The Argonauts":

"Many years ago, Carson gave a lecture at Teachers & Writers in New York City, at which she introduced (to me) the concept of leaving a space empty so that God could rush in…It was like stumbling into a Tarot reading or AA meeting and hearing the one thing that will keep you going, in heart or art, for years."

Finding Tarot referenced in an auto theory text felt like a huge victory for my hungry heart. Spiritual tools can penetrate and provide comfort and inspiration even for intellectuals.

4. Health Psychology & Spiritual Coping

In Health Psychology, we studied coping methods extensively. Skinner et al. (2003) documented over 400 methods to assess coping, organizing them into 12 core families. Among these were explicitly spiritual approaches:

• Prayer: Typically considered emotion-focused coping within the religious coping family, helping regulate distress in uncontrollable situations

• Seeking Spiritual Support: Generally falls under support-seeking or religious coping, used to gain comfort, guidance, or a sense of connection

• Faith: A belief system that informs emotion-focused coping, helping with finding purpose or meaning in adversity

Seeing spiritual practices validated as legitimate coping mechanisms in academic research was affirming. What I'd been facilitating through Tarot, helping clients find meaning, connect with broader wisdom, and regulate emotions, was being documented in peer-reviewed studies as effective psychological support. #winning

5. Tarot in Academic Projects

Pg 25 Copy from Diary of an Enraged Girl (Zine Project)

Perhaps my greatest integration came in a 400-level English course, where I incorporated Tarot cards into my final project exploring emotional narratives. The professor's enthusiastic response surprised me; she loved the symbolic language of the cards and how they could structure narrative understanding.

Dr. Alexopoulos’ feedback included: “The overarching theme of tarot was powerful and very meaningful in the context of the relationship adolescent girls often feel to such forms of divination…Thank you for this generous, vulnerable, and important work. I felt and learned many things while reading it, and I know that others who have picked it up will have the same experience…this [is] beautiful, sophisticated, and brave work. I'm so glad it's in the world.”

Pg 16 Copy From Diary of an Enraged Girl (Zine)

Bridging Two Worlds: Reflections on My Journey

Looking back on my academic journey, I've come to realize that spirituality and academia aren't as separate as that first awkward classroom experience made me feel. Both are, at their core, attempts to understand the human experience, they just tend to use different languages and methodologies.

Tarot speaks in symbols and intuition; academia speaks in theories and evidence. Ultimately, both seek truth, meaning, and understanding. Both value reflection, critical thinking, and the expansion of perspective.

What I bring to my Tarot practice is now wholly enriched by my academic training, a deeper integration of psychological processes, cultural contexts, and evidence-based approaches to wellbeing. Upon reflection, I realize that I brought something to academia too: an openness to intuition, symbolic thinking, and a spiritualist's perspectives. I have learnt that it had value, even if it wasn't always recognized.

For those of you walking similar paths between spiritual practice and formal education, I encourage you to see yourself not as divided between worlds but as a bridge between them. Your spiritual insights can inform your academic understanding, and your academic knowledge can widen your spiritual understanding.

The cards have always taught me that apparent opposites contain and complement each other. Perhaps that's the most important lesson of all, that the Hermit's lantern can illuminate the pages of research journals just as effectively as it lights the spiritual seeker's path.

How has your spiritual practice intersected with other areas of your life? I'd love to hear your experiences in the comments below.

References

Bandura, A. (1990). Perceived self-efficacy in the exercise of personal agency. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 2(2), 128-163. https://doi.org/10.1080/10413209008406426

Damon, W. (1995). Greater expectations: Overcoming the culture of indulgence in America's homes and schools. Free Press.

Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1995). Human autonomy: The basis for true self-esteem. In M. H. Kernis (Ed.), Efficacy, agency, and self-esteem (pp. 31-49). Plenum Press.

Harter, S. (1999). The construction of the self: A developmental perspective. Guilford Press.

Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. Springer.

Nelson, M. (2015). The Argonauts. Graywolf Press.

Newhouse, D. (1998). Magic and joy: Traditional Aboriginal views of human sexuality. Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 7(2), 183-187.

Neff, K. D. (2003). Self-compassion: An alternative conceptualization of a healthy attitude toward oneself. Self and Identity, 2(2), 85-101. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298860309032

Seligman, M. E. P. (1995). The optimistic child. Houghton Mifflin.

Skinner, E. A., Edge, K., Altman, J., & Sherwood, H. (2003). Searching for the structure of coping: A review and critique of category systems for classifying ways of coping. Psychological Bulletin, 129(2), 216-269. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.129.2.216

Swann, W. B., Jr. (1996). Self-traps: The elusive quest for higher self-esteem. W.H. Freeman.