Hi and welcome to our Wednesday Tarot class. This week we’re going to talk about one of the most dreaded cards of the deck, the one that scares everyone when it comes up in a reading. Death! Death is a word we don’t use much in our culture. Instead we say, “he passed,” “she crossed over,” or “he made his transition.” That’s one indication of how scared we are of the word death. However when we get the death card in a reading, it very seldom means the death of a person.
Do you want to see something interesting? Take a look at the death card XIII in your Rider-Waite deck. See the flag he is carrying? There is a blooming rose on the flag. Now take another look at the Fool card, number zero. The Fool is carrying that rose in his left hand. He brought it with him all the way through his life adventures. It represents his clarity of purpose that he desired to bring into his series of adventures. Now the rose is open on the flag of the Death card. It now signified life, the mystical rose of life – mars and life force.
Now see, you don’t have to be scared anymore. Death just means change. When we make any kind of change, something has to go – a habit, a way of saying something - which equals a little death. Look at the card again. Do you see the sun rising between the two pillars? This represents a new dawn, a new day and denotes immortality. We are eternal, and just because our bodies die, doesn’t mean our soul our spirit dies. Old ideas and old ways of doing things have to pass away because if the didn’t we’d all become stagnant.
Another exciting aspect of the death card is that it represents the departure of the age of Pisces where those who needed to control us through fear; rigid rules and secrecy ruled the world. This is represented by the standing figure of a bishop on the right side of the death card. His body language looks like the shape of a fish – Pisces. Now we’re in the first stages of Aquarius when secrecy begins to fall away, trust emerges and people start helping each other instead of being so greedy and mistrustful. This is where we are now- we are beginning to see the openness that is budding, we keep hearing how there is not enough money for different programs that could help humankind. But this, too, is passing. Greed is toppling – as we are witnessing the fall of well known companies. We truly are entering into a new age and you and I begged our Guides and Angels to be allowed to be here at this time to help usher in this new age of equality, humanness, love. They told us it wouldn’t be easy but we said we could handle it we were strong enough. Now here we are and things are looking a little chaotic and scary, huh?
We can find a lot of help from thinking and remembering the other Tarot cards we’ve been studying. The fool has the courage to strike out on his own, our magician lays his tools in front of himself and learns how to use them, the priestess goes within and communicates with her guides and angels before taking action, our empress nourishes her precious creative imagination, the emperor develops these ideas and shows his pioneering spirit and courage, the hierophant continues to grow and learn, and the angel protects the lovers who learn to communicate. The charioteer learned to move through adversity with is mind, leaving fear thoughts behind, our hermit goes within to rest, being patient and waits for guidance. The wheel of fortune continues spinning, teaching us what goes up eventually comes down and visa versa. We can always call on our inner strength and while we’re doing this we just have to hang around waiting for the next phase of our adventure while letting go of our hang-ups.
So instead of fearing what is happening in our lives and in our world, we can call on these aspects of ourselves that we learned in the other cards. Sure, there will be turmoil, confusion and yes, it can be a bit uncomfortable at times as we watch change unfold. What do you need to let go of in your life that scares you? Are you scared because you just turned 30, 40, and 50? What transformation are you preparing for in your life or career? Did you just lose your job or did a love you were counting on leave? Are you trying to hold on to people or situations that don’t work anymore? We experience many deaths in our lifetime, so think of the death card as change and begin to embrace change in your life. Don’t be afraid because change means growth, moving on. The Hebrew letter for death is Nun meaning Fish. Fish is symbolic of the powers to regenerate and the water sign of Scorpio rules death.
Death’s Advice:
Shedding old skin
Letting go of old ideas, beliefs, regenerating
Expressing our feelings so we can release them
Get rid of clutter in our minds, bodies and surroundings to make way for the new
Rejoice in your new opportunities.
Next week we will look at Temperance. Until then,
Angel Hugs, Jean Maurie
