Metaphorical cards - Fire flickering in the vessel. Metaphor of the Self image

A vessel, filled or empty, is a widespread metaphor for a person and their state - spiritual, emotional, intellectual. “I feel fulfilled,” “this event has drained me,” “this is the last straw,” “the cup is overflowing,” “everything boils inside me,” are phrases we often say and hear when describing a person's emotional state. 

It is in vessels that fairy-tale genies and sometimes wizards reside. In these cases, the vessel serves either as a refuge or as a prison, but the incorporeal magical spirits live precisely in them. This is how one can metaphorically describe the specificity of this deck. It is primarily about a person and their state. The deck allows working with the self-concept, a person's representation of themselves and their possibilities; to explore different personality characteristics: boundaries, openness-closedness, flexibility-rigidity, etc.

This deck is somewhat unusual. Strictly speaking, it is not quite metaphorical cards. On the one hand, it has two components (cards symbolizing form and cards symbolizing content), from which one can create a certain associative image. On the other hand, it is structured in such a way that it opens up wide possibilities not only for traditional psychological work with metaphorical cards but also for art-therapeutic building of images.

How to work with the deck?

1. The main type of work is the combination of a figure (stencil) and a background (photograph). A person is invited to choose one of the vessels - the one that corresponds to their self-representation. Then, from a variety of backgrounds, they choose the one that can symbolize their inner state - this will be the “filler” for the vessel. The stencil-vessel can be overlaid on one background card - in this case, the vessel will have a homogeneous filling, or on several cards - then the “fillers” of the vessel will somehow combine.

2. Since the stencil is made of laminated cardboard, one can draw with special washable markers on it: change the contour of the vessel, redraw it, adding handles, supports, etc.

3. One can also work solely with the background photographs as traditional metaphorical cards.

Included in the set:

— 16 stencil cards (images of vessels of different shapes);

— 48 background cards;

— instructions.