Messages from the Tarot... the Death Card

In my last post I hinted at the suggestion that I read the tarot a bit differently from the suggested, traditional meanings of the cards, although sometimes the traditional meanings are quite spot on.

I draw a card almost every day. The card I draw always has some sort of message for me. Sometimes I can't quite understand what it is trying to tell me right away, but usually by the end of the day I have gotten the message. Let me give you an example from this week.

Yup. You guessed it. This week I drew the death card.

I will admit, when I drew it, I was a little anxious at first. I know that normally the death card does not have to mean that someone is going to die, but sometimes it does. When I was in Florida last month at my father's bedside as he transitioned, I never once drew the death card, but my sister did, maybe a day or two before he passed. Obviously, the apparent meaning of this card is that some sort of death is going to occur. But what does that mean? Well, it could mean a physical death, but usually it means that some part of your life is ending and something new is ready to be born. Now that I am writing this blog about the death card, I keep noticing the priest praying and the sun behind him that is either coming up or setting. The other day when I drew this card I will have to say I never noticed the priest.

My biggest tip on reading the cards is this:

Notice what you notice!!

The other day when I drew the card what drew my attention was what to me looks like a woman lying on her back on the ground. This to me represents surrender. Spirit told me that day that it was time to surrender all my plans, my intentions, and my goals to the Universe. Be open to change. Don't be attached to an intended outcome. I had to be willing to put to death anything that I want and surrender my will to Divine Will. Not always easy.

We all have goals, dreams, aspirations. We all come into this world with a creative mind, heart, and imagination. It is our right and our duty to dream, and then to put feet on our dreams and work towards bringing them to pass. But there is that fine line between manifesting our dreams and being willing to surrender our plans to the will of Spirit.

I had done a reading for a client this week and part of the message was that if you find yourself beating and beating a door and it won't open, maybe it is time to look for another door. In other words, if you are trying and trying to manifest something and it just continues to allude you, maybe it is time to surrender your goal or dream to Spirit and be willing to change your plans and even do something different. Maybe the cards were telling me the other day that it was time to surrender my plans. Be open to a different outcome. Don't be too attached to what I want to occur.

Why would they put a priest praying on the death card? Is that sun coming up or going down? It could be either one. What do you think?

When my dad was on his death bed, a minister came to pray. Well, actually  more than one minister came. Probably the priest showed up on this card because he had come to deliver "last rites."  Why did I not notice it until today? Must mean something.

The first time my dad's minister came to pray for him I left the room, but from outside the door I seemed to be hearing him compelling dad to wake up. I understand. Jesus commanded Lazarus and he rose up. This minister loved my dad. He believed that dad could be healed.

Not that I don't believe that dad could be healed. I used to believe that I could command things to happen in the Spirit world and they would happen. And sometimes they did.

Now I take a bit of a different view. 

I still believe in miracles. But I am more inclined to surrender my will to Divine Will. So I suggested to the minister that we just pray for whatever was best for dad's soul at this point in his journey. I figured if he wanted to pass I didn't want anyone's prayers getting in the way. After all, I do believe in the power of prayer. Sometimes I believe it is possible to pray and for things to happen that are not necessarily in our best interests. I was not sure if dad wanted to stay or go at this point. I just wanted what dad wanted. And what was best for him.

Have you been praying or setting intentions or saying positive affirmations for something that just has seemed like it was not happening?

Maybe today's message is that it is time to surrender your will to Divine Will. Be open to change. Be willing to change your plans or reset your intentions in a different direction. Ask for Divine Guidance.

You know, it is said that when Lazarus died, his sister had called for Jesus four days before and Jesus didn't come. Jesus apparently waited until Lazarus died before he came. Why? Would it not have been easier to heal a living Lazarus than to raise a dead one?

We don't always know what is best.

If something in your life is not working, maybe something greater is being born. Sometimes you have to let something die in order to birth something else.

It is okay to grieve over what is dying.

At some point, though, you just have to get up and go on living.

Whatever in your life is not working, I encourage you today to let it die a good death. Grieve, if you must. But after you have grieved for awhile, look yourself in the mirror and say, "okay, it is time to get up now and go on living." Allow whatever is ready to be born to come.

Remember that nothing really dies anyway. It just changes form.

Are you ready to give birth to something new in your life? I am available for consultations, by phone, skype, email and in person. Click HERE to set up your appointment today!

No One Likes to Get the "Death" card

This morning the card I picked for today's blog is the death card. Here is one depiction:

The good news is that the death card does not necessarily mean that someone is going to die a physical death.

In this card there is a skeleton riding a white horse. There is one dead beneath the feet of the horse, and a small child, an adolescent, and a bishop of some kind standing before him. He is holding a black flag as if to symbolize some sort of victory. There is the background of a gray sky, a setting sun, and two towers also seen in the "moon" card.

This card, like you may suppose, indicates that there is a final ending of a chapter of your life. However, all is not hopeless. Sometimes there has to be an ending before there can be a new beginning.  Sometimes we have to come to the end of our rope before we can see clearly to make needed changes.

Maybe you have been putting up with bad behavior of a friend or partner and something happens that is the last straw. You finally decide to cut the ties. When you do, the door is opened for you to experience new relationships and new adventures that you would not have had the ability to experience if you had remained in this unhealthy relationship. For myself, I know that a couple of times in  my life I came to the point that I decided if I stay in this relationship I will die. That is the death card. Obviously, I am alive and well. Ending a relationship can be a gift for both parties. If a relationship is not good for one of the parties, it is not good for either one, despite what the other person might feel or tell you at the time. When you decide to end a relationship, whether it be a friendship, romantic, or business relationship, or even, as in my case, the ending of a relationship with an entire belief system, you are truly giving the other person a gift that they are not ready to give themselves. You are giving them the opportunity to forge new relationships with new people that will be more life affirming and beneficial for both parties.

Years ago I had a close friend. She was my best friend and mentor.  She taught me how to open my heart and ears and really hear from Spirit. More than once we had a parting of the ways. Although I loved this woman as if she was my sister, we always seem to have difficulty remaining close. We would have misunderstandings or other issues and would part ways, doing this several times until the last time about twelve years ago.  I asked Spirit once why we always seemed to have such difficulties and Spirit told me that if I remained her friend that it would hinder me from becoming the person I was meant to be. I would always have been dependent on her abilities, which were far beyond mine, and I would never have followed the path that I am currently on. When something is taken away from you, whether it is your choice or it is forced upon you, look at that "death" as a gift. Take the opportunity to move forward to new relationships and new adventures. The death of any relationship, after you have grieved over it for a reasonable amount of time, is the opening of a new door of possibilities for you.

Maybe you are ready to start a new career but are afraid to risk the security of the one you are currently in. Sometimes, if a new career is in your future, the Universe will force it upon you if you are afraid to take the step. You may get fired or layed off. Take this as a hint from the Universe that there is something better out there for you! There is a new birth waiting to happen, that could not happen until the death of the old one! One of my other mentors was fired from her job which catapulted her into going into her current career as a full time medium. The road has not always been easy, but it is the one that Spirit had in mind when her other job was eliminated.

If you are going through a death of sorts, the loss of a relationship or job, or perhaps some other ending, take heart! Death is just the door to new possibilities. At some point we have to face the grim reaper with fortitude and expectation, knowing that sometimes we have to go through the dark night of the soul in order to follow the path that is our highest and best destiny.

Hmmm The Death Card

http://tarotforlife.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/rwdeath.jpg

No one likes to get the death card. After a weekend off from connecting with the tarot and a wonderful excursion yesterday to a gathering of like minded individuals in Sperryville, Virginia, enjoying the mountains, the beautiful fresh air, my good friend Hali (in junior high her name was Halimah, my best friend in 7th through the 9th grade), and of course a great Spirit message from gifted intuitive Christin McCormack, I was sure my energy was replenished and for sure I would get a wonderful card for the beginning of this last week of messages from the tarot.

I connected with Spirit, cut the cards, and drew the death card. Now I had said from the beginning to my guides that I really wanted some of the cards that were traditionally thought of as "bad" cards so that I could show my readers that really, there is no such thing as a bad message. So maybe my tarot guide was calling me on that.

It is interesting to me that the death card is card number thirteen, also thought of by many to be a bad omen. Many hotels don't have a thirteenth floor. Friday the thirteenth is supposed to be a bad luck day. The three and the one of the number thirteen add up to four, which in old time feng shui was the number equated with death, which is interesting. It was considered bad energy to group objects in fours.

It is also interesting that a couple of days ago I had a dream in which my husband and I were in a head on car collision, the impact of which woke me up, so it was not determined whether we survived the crash. But let me assure you all that the death card and the number thirteen is not bad luck. Having a dream about death is not bad luck either. Why? Because there is no such thing as bad luck.

We are all sparks of the Divine Energy which some call God. The light within our soul is the light that in the Bible, in the beginning, God said, Let there be light and there was light. We all contain a portion of that light, no matter who we are. Even the rocks and the trees contain a spark of that light, that energy which is God. The truth is, there is no such thing as death. Even science says that energy cannot die, it just changes form. There is nothing in a number that makes it bad luck and there is nothing in the death card that should spark fear in us.

To me, the death card represents change. We all can say that we are going through changes. This year in numerology is the year of great changes. Many times in order for change to happen in our lives something has to die. A seed has to die in order for a flower to be born. Even when we die, our bodies decompose but our spirit is reborn into another reality. My husband, who is a paranormal investigator, has come to the conclusion many times over that the evidence he collects when investigating goings on in houses reported to be haunted is many times inconclusive as to whether there is an actual presence in the house or if the activity is the result of trapped emotions, the current occupant's mental state, normal settling of the house, or a combination of many other factors. The bottom line is that death is not the end. It is actually a beginning.

Today, put aside your prejudices about what is good and what is bad. Think about what things you would like to birth in your life and consider what needs to be eliminated so that you can bring forth those things into your life. It is impossible to add more liquid to an already full cup. What do you need to pour out of your cup in order to fill it up with the new stuff? Do you need to clean out your closets, both literally and symbolically? What things need to be put to rest?

In the tarot, the death card represents the final end of a chapter. Not the end of the book. Just a chapter. A new chapter is about to burst forth on the scene. This chapter may be ending, but new things are on the horizon. My shaman teacher says that when you are on the death stone, (in shamanism the divinity tool is a circle of stones) that you need to give everything a good death. Allow whatever is over to be over, in order to start anew. Be willing to put down what is no longer productive in your life. The opposite of that is holding on too tightly to things that are no longer life affirming or in your best interests. When you hold on too tightly to anything, whether it be money, a relationship, a hobby, or a multitude of other things, then that thing will run away from you. Open your grip. Let go. Death is not the end.