💀What is the Death card trying to tell you?
Notes from Death 🤍
While this isn’t meant to be a deep dive into the card’s meaning, it IS intended to share with you a message you may need to hear.
👉Rather than picking a card this Friday, I hope to explore what this card wants you to know from its perspective. Energetically, let’s say.
A quick note to set the tone
The Death card has been misrepresented for a long time (thanks, Hollywood) and is usually used to represent some kitschy, doom-and-gloom scenario for the querent.
It sets heads spinning: “Who’s going to die? Am I going to die?”
The whole thing is blown out of proportion completely for the sake of the vibe the movie is trying to create.
A few terms associated with the death card
Endings, change, mortality, transformation, suffering, inner purging, transition, conclusion
My favorite contemporary summary of this deeply layered card is from The Holistic Tarot by Benebell Wen. She says:
“The card depicts the end of a phase of stage in the Seeker’s life and the beginning of a new one.
The Death card is about change.
It assuages the tendency in human nature to resist change. Change is generally uncomfortable.”
Of course, this is scratching the surface, but I wanted to set the stage for today’s message.
This letter is not intended to be a deep exploration of the card’s history and meanings; that’s for another time.
How to receive today’s message
Find a place where you can read quietly for a few minutes. As I said, this isn’t meant to be a super long read but rather more on the potent side.
Think of something where you might be seeking guidance. Sit with it for a few breaths.
Then ask:
What might Death want me to hear today about ____________? (insert your query)
Let’s begin
Death, what might you want me to hear today?
As much as your sweet heart craves them, Earth School has no guarantees.
Wouldn’t that be a nice trick?
Your beautiful, racing mind convinces you it knows the way, the answers, the way to be in every situation. It knows what you should say and how others should be and how the world would be better if only…
But the most wonderful magic and joy and the answers you seek are far from your sweet, churning mind, worried one.
Instead, look to how you can make it through this challenge or period in your life without needing to know what is on the other side of it.
I see you charting your map, picking the exact place where you will pull your canoe ashore and continue with the careful plans you’ve made.
I see you working so very hard to get there, trying your best every damn day just to stay alive and keep those you love alive and to figure it all out and make something of all of this.
You’re so, so tired.
I see you paddling that heavy-as-hell canoe upstream with all your might, day after day, just plugging away because you are absolutely set on where you need to go. Because that’s how you were taught, and that’s just how it is.
But what if you just pulled your oars in for a sweet minute?
What if you let that canoe slowly turn and go with the current?
What if you went straight over those monster falls, deep into that whitewater, and in a totally new direction?
What kind of person follows their gut before their mind?
Change is scary because it is always unpredictable.
Change doesn’t allow you to take the wheel and control the outcome.
Change can force the movement of energy like stored-up pain and sadness and anger.
But it also offers you the gift of transformation.
Of coming out the other side a stronger, wiser, and more experienced person than the one paddling in place.
I know I might seem scary to you, but don’t allow fear to hold you back for one more second. One day, you won’t get to smell those flowers, feel that sunshine on your skin, drink wine, or sleep.
Trust me, I miss every mortal delight there is. Just the breeze is heaven.
Life is everything you could ever want if you allow it to be while you’re still here.
What are you afraid to let go of for fear that something else won’t come in to take its place?
My point, sweets, is that sometimes the only way out is through. Drop the oars, coast over the falls.
On the other side of ease is what you’re looking for.
xo,
Death
I look forward to your emails every week! Thank you for the much needed pause.