The
“Illustrated” Serenity Prayer
By
Geraldine Amaral
God grant me the grace
to accept with serenity
The things that cannot
be changed,
The courage to change
the things which should be changed.
And the wisdom to
distinguish one from the other.
They
say a picture is worth a thousand words. What
if we could take an inspirational prayer like the well-known Serenity Prayer and
give it more impact by linking images with it?
Could Tarot images be used to illustrate and enliven the Serenity Prayer,
thereby giving it a visual model to
implant in our psyche? The Serenity
Prayer is a succinct and encouraging prayer that has provided comfort to many
who have sought peace and strength in times of difficulty or uncertainty.
The intention of the prayer is straightforward:
to bring peace,
solace and faith to the mind and heart of those seeking spiritual connection.
It asks God for the wisdom and ability to gracefully accept “what is”
(i.e., what cannot be changed) and for the willingness to manifest, with God’s
support, that which is to one’s highest good (i.e., the courage to change the
things which should be changed).
There
is some controversy about who actually wrote the Serenity Prayer, but most
sources attribute it to the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr.
He wrote the prayer for use in a sermon, around 1934 (the date given in Bartlett's
Familiar Quotations). There are
also several different versions of the prayer, including an extended version of
the prayer (see the end of this article). The
prayer became widely-known, so to speak, and most people recognize it because it
was adopted (and slightly modified) by Alcoholics Anonymous to be part of their
12 step program. It has also been
used in Narcotics Anonymous and other Twelve step programs.
The principles
underlying this prayer are also found in Zen Buddhism. It
teaches that to experience true inner peace, one must live mindfully, in each
moment; to accept and even embrace one’s struggles and challenges; to
trust that the world is as it is for a reason, whether we can fathom it or not.
We accept the world as it is – not
as we would like it to be. How
much time and energy do you spend wishing for things, people, events, even
yourself to be different? We would
all like to change some aspect of our lives, or an aspect of people we know -- a
partner who withholds affection, a boss who is too demanding, or a co-worker who
is lazy. The Serenity Prayer invites
us to stop resisting, and accept all those circumstances.
In this prayer, we imply our trust in the universe’s wisdom and
surrender ourselves to the flow of
that wisdom.
The
message of the Serenity Prayer also reminds me of Key#10 in the Tarot’s Major
Arcana, the Wheel of Fortune. Each
card in the Tarot pack contains a special gift, a lesson or a message of
healing. This gift is not just in
the surface meaning of a card, or what the various symbols on the card portray;
rather, it is the deeper, esoteric doctrine of the card that teaches us about
the inner processes, strength and power, of the psyche.
When we meditate on a card or write about a card, we absorb that teaching
and amplify our own energy or vibration to improve the quality of our lives.
The goal is to "activate" the wisdom associated with the card
and embed its teaching into our unconscious mind.
In
the Wheel of Fortune card, that special gift is about achieving serenity, no
matter what. Symbolically, the
center of the wheel portrays the center of Serenity that is within us and
available to us. The message from
the Wheel of Fortune is one of the most important lessons that we can learn
about life. Generally, it has the
following meanings:
·
The card portrays a time of change,
movement, or a desire to progress and move forward.
· It may signal a turning point, a change of direction, or a period of growth and evolution.
· It represents the entire spectrum of life, from triumph to disaster, from success to defeat.
·
It depicts the continual cycles of life,
the flux of human events: birth, growth, death, rebirth, and all the irregular
phases in between – backtracking, stagnation, slow progress, and spurts of
energy.
These
cycles can be applied to any and all aspects of life -- health, career,
finances, relationships -- anything that is subject to cyclicity.
Furthermore, in numerology, the number "10" includes the
numerals 1 + 0. The number 1
indicates the beginning of a new cycle, and 0 represents the completion of a
cycle. Therefore, this means that
the number 10 signifies hope that the wisdom and life experiences gained in the
previous life cycle (0) will carry over to the new cycle (1).
In addition, each Tarot image operates as an archetype,
a personification of a universal human experience, and therefore has both a
negative "pole" and a positive "pole."
We think of the positive pole as the gift
of the archetype and the negative pole as the shadow
of the archetype. The gift of the
Wheel of Fortune teaches us to accept the
cyclical nature of life, and shows us that we can find both advantage and
benefit from each and every life experience, even the most challenging.
This gift reminds us to take responsibility for the course of our lives,
resist blaming others when things seem to go wrong for us.
With this gift we see ourselves as participating in the flow of life,
with all its ebbs and flows. In
other words, it encourages us to accept
with serenity the things that cannot be changed.
The shadow of the Wheel of Fortune conveys the idea of
victimization, and lack of inner strength. Those
caught in the may:
·
Be chronic people pleasers
·
Feel destroyed by adversity
·
Feel stuck
·
Lack the energy to follow through on projects and challenges
·
Blame others for their problems.
People under this shadow often feel helpless about
problems, and exaggerate and overreact to difficulties.
Such individuals often get "snagged" on life's problems.
In the gift of the Wheel of Fortune, an individual operates proactively;
in the shadow of the Wheel of
Fortune, an individual operates reactively.
Thus,
like the Serenity Prayer, the esoteric
wisdom of the Wheel of Fortune invites us to take life as it comes, without
attachment, to simply observe. Through
the Wheel's symbolism, we can teach ourselves to practice non-attachment to the
ups and downs of life, to find our center of inner calm – no matter what. This
is a major challenge for most of us. Remember
the image -- the outside of the Wheel symbolizes our external environment, and
the center of the Wheel symbolizes the tranquility and peace that is inside each
of us. As the outer rim of the wheel
is moving, traveling over both smooth and rough terrain, the very center of the
wheel is where we learn to accept
circumstances and change, to gracefully accept with serenity the things that
cannot be changed. This is where we
learn to be a good "witness"; we learn to flow with the changeable
quality of existence. If the Wheel
spoke, it might say: "Today's
adversity is tomorrow's opportunity." And
like the Serenity Prayer, it might say, “God grant us the grace to accept with
serenity the things that cannot be changed.”
Like
our own spiritual core, the wheel's center holds serenity and peace just as does
the message of the Serenity Prayer. Both
pose such questions as:
·
What
have I learned from the challenges and adversity in my life?
·
What
have I gained from the challenges I’ve endured?
·
In
what ways have I grown from my experiences?
·
Have
my mistakes taught me to face my fears with more self-control and with faith in
my inner strength?
In
such a highly evolved state, you
decide how you will view events, encounters, people, circumstances and
experiences. The actual
circumstances are far less important than your attitude toward them.
You could perceive them as causing struggle and pain, or you could use
adversity to help you expand to new and greater aspects of yourself.
You cannot control what happens to
you (that which is outside of you),
but you can control your responses (that
which is inside you) to what happens.
Maybe you’ve had the experience of finding your highest spiritual self
during a bad time. Perhaps
you can recall an unpleasant event or tragic circumstance from which something
good emerges. I might be hard to
grasp, but even the most painful life experiences have something positive to
teach you, or that helps you expand your self-concept.
For example, my friend Carol got fired, and within two months started he
own business, which is now a success. A
client of mine had a very painful break-up, but in the course of healing found
her new husband. When you learn to
reframe life experiences such as these into the “big picture,” you see that
your life as it is now is part of a design that is promoting your inner
development. With this positive
perspective, you allow a higher force to enter your life and your character that
will lead you to a greater good, a stronger self-concept, and a sense of
well-being.
In Don't Sweat
the Small Stuff by Richard Carlson, there is a wonderful story about a
farmer who experienced a series of life's ups and downs.
First, his ox dies which prevents him from being able to plow his fields.
But then the next day, he found a strong healthy horse to replace the ox.
But then his son is thrown from the same horse and breaks leg.
Each time one of these events occurred, the farmer would run to the
village wiseman for advice and asks, "Isn't
this the worse thing that could ever happen?" or "Isn't
this the best thing that could ever happen?"
Each time, whether the questions were positive or negative, the wiseman
would answer the question the same way: "maybe
so, maybe not."
This is precisely the teaching of the Wheel of Fortune
and the underlying message of the Serenity Prayer.
In the big picture of life, we can’t know whether some event is the best
thing, or the worst thing to happen.
The village Wiseman showed great insight to "suspend judgment."
In the present moment, we can never know for sure whether any event is
either “good” or “bad.” The
conclusion of the story proves this point: When
soldiers come to take the farmer’s son away to war, they cannot – his life
is saved by the “bad” luck of having a broken leg.
It is a cliché, but nevertheless
true, every challenge is a blessing in disguise.
Tarot Images and the Serenity Prayer
The Serenity Prayer is a reminder to accept the
serenity within us. It is our cue to
pay attention to our inner wisdom and inner grace.
How can we illustrate this simple prayer with tarot images?
Below are the cards that I associate with the concepts of the prayer.
If you have a tarot deck, you may find it helpful to lay them out for
yourself.
The “Illustrated” Serenity Prayer
By Geraldine Amaral
God grant me the grace . . . This first
phrase of the Serenity Prayer reminds us that a center of peace and limitless
potential exists within us. With
this phase, we open a spiritual door and let in the first word:
God. We acknowledge God’s
existence and recognized that He is truly the only one who can bring us inner
peace, no matter what chaos may surround us. This
spiritual presence is what supplies
the serenity we seek. Each of us may have a
different understanding of what that word “god” means, so if you don’t
like the word “God,” choose another: Spirit,
Universal Wisdom, Beloved, Source of All. However
we define or name God, perhaps you will agree that God/Spirit is associated with
a vibration or an energy that is often associated with light.
Thus, for this first part of the “illustrated” Serenity Prayer, the Hermit card seems like a good
choice. The light that the
Hermit’s lantern casts is the light of Spirit, and he reminds us of the refuge
available to us in the spiritual realm.
The
“me” in the first phrase of the prayer, can be understood as the “I Am,”
the true self that knows that it is “that
I AM,” or the God within – the Higher Power which many people erroneously
believe is outside of themselves,
separate from themselves.
“to
accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed” With
these words we are reminded to put our trust in God.
We must trust the Source and live one day at a time, enjoying each
moment. With acceptance, we can see
conditions and circumstances without fight or resisting, and without our own
illusions of how things should or should not be.
Serenity
is achieved by staying in present time,
in the here and now. Here we see the
High Priestess sitting on her throne,
serenely accepting whatever is before her. Her
inner knowing keeps her in this posture of inner peace.
Also, the Hanged Man whose world is upside-down, is till and inactive, but the
ethereal light around his head tells us that he is at peace, trusting in God.
“Courage
to change the things that should be changed ….”
The
Strength and the Chariot cards are fit well here.
Strength because any change that we wish to make in ourselves or in our
environment must begin with compassion. We
can’t change ourselves with destructive negativity. When
we practice compassion, we stop resisting. It
takes strength to move from what is familiar to institute a change, and when we
do, oftentimes space opens up around us, enabling us to draw to us what we seek,
or better.
This “courage to change” is the
ability to decide, to accomplish what we must, in the face of unknown outcomes
and consequences. Our life is
determined by the decisions and actions that we take -- or don’t take -- and
the thoughts that we hold. Here is
the Chariot card, in the driver’s
seat. He has the determination to
change and persevere through any obstacle. He
is the ultimate example of an “anti-victim” posture.
He takes control and full responsibility for outcomes (the courage to
change things that should be changed). We
can change our lives through action, not reaction; and we can change our
perspective about reality. This is
the power of our own thinking and we can work toward better thinking in each
moment. The
Serenity Prayer offers us the courage to change the things we can, and to move
from victimization to action, from letting events control us to taking control,
from reactive to proactive.
Rather than bemoaning our fate, we ask:
How can I grow from this situation? What
parts of myself need healing in this situation?
What will I gain by moving through this situation in a new way?
“The
Wisdom to distinguish one from the other.”
Justice is a card that
portrays the notion of “discernment.” Through
the universal laws of balance and fairness, Justice sees the truth, and acts
accordingly. This is not an
emotional knowing; it comes from
clarity, rationality, wisdom, experience, diplomacy and a fearless willingness
to look at the truth. Wisdom is an acquired trait – acquired through the experiences of
life, by recognizing and remembering that which does, or does not work.
True wisdom, as depicted in Justice, requires that we be rigorously
honest with ourselves, and that we be vigilantly true to ourselves.
Metaphysically, the Serenity Prayer reminds us that seeking the
When we say the Serenity Pray it reminds us that
there are things that we cannot change, so we begin to let go of the need to
control. We realize that each
person in our lives has their own individual walk with Spirit – and it is not
our job to fix them or set them on the right path.
We have power to and courage to right wrongs.
With God’s help, we can use the experiences of our lives to generate
wisdom to know when to surrender to the inevitable, and when to take action. If
you want to have inner peace, this prayer can remind you to practice it every
aspect of our lives, every
circumstance.
If you find yourself being buffeted about by life's ups
and downs, or victimized by others or by fate, perhaps the Illustrated Serenity
Prayer can help. Lay the images out
in whatever configuration makes sense to you.
Meditate on these cards, carry one of them around with you.
Take colored pencils and draw your own versions of the cards.
Write a story or poem about them. Exercises
like these can signal the start of new ways to deal with both the triumph and
the disasters of life. You can begin
to raise your own vibration and energetic patterns to attune to the Serenity
Prayer and the Wheel of Fortune. Like
the village wiseman, you can find your center of serenity in which you may be
able to say, "Maybe so, maybe
not."
Other Versions of the Serenity Prayer:
O God and Heavenly
Father,
Grant to us the
serenity of mind to accept that which cannot be changed; the courage to change
that which can be changed, and the wisdom to know the one from the other,
through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
God grant me the
serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I
can; and wisdom to know the difference. Thy will, not mine, be done.
The expanded version:
God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
As it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
If I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
And supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.