Essential Death and Dismemberment

The Death Card in the Major Arcana, does not mean physical death. Rather, the Death card portrays symbolic death-a change or transformation. Often, it heralds the end of a familiar or more comfortable mode. It conveys a release which is necessary for growth and expansion. Perhaps it even brings a whole new set of principles which will guide you spiritually, emotionally, psychologically or financially. Joseph Campbell, author of A Hero with A Thousand Faces, describes times of personal change as periods when "The familiar life horizon has been outgrown; the old concepts, ideals, and emotional patterns no longer fit; the time for the passing of a threshold is at hand." The sunrise depicted in the background of the Death card holds the promise of the transformation which is about to take place: the death of the old self, but also the dawning of a new day. The Death card is a cue that you are at a "threshold"-a crossing into a new phase, unbounded by the past.

Death - Symbol for Change and Transformation
In This Life
by Heather Blakey

Jewish Gnostics declared that "When Eve was still in Adam death did not exist. When she was separated from him death came into being."

My life has been changing since my separation from loved ones, important others who were like pillars. Comfortable habits and routines have been irrevocably altered. With each day has come a full appreciation of what their death means.

Pulling the Death Card reminds me that life, transformation and change are synonymous.  I see it as a reminder that I am confronting a period of transformation as I come to terms with changing circumstances. It is amazingly painful, hard to shed old ways and adjust.

My personal experience colors the drawing I have done. It is not a traditional 'Death Card', although the obligatory skeletons are present. Memories rose as I sat drawing myself felled, like a big tree, by the presence of actual death. I am in a period of mourning, coming to terms with what now is and, the loss of what was. The path of readjustment is a slow, winding one.

After spending so many years as the primary carer for my husband and then my mother I am at a loose end.  In both the case of my mother and husband death appeared, not as some fata morgana, nor macabre skeleton priest. Death was not some hostile or revenge seeking tyrant, but rather came, simply, as a servant of life with a job to do.

Jung said that "to accept death like birth, as a part of life, is to become truly alive".

I have witnessed death up close and personal and sense that with it comes rebirth. For now it feels like I am still within the womb, biding my time. "Not wanting to live" said Jung "is synonymous with not wanting to die. Becoming and passing away are the same curve."

It is the becoming which is still a work in progress. Rather than awaiting the Great Transformation it appears that each day offers another door.

The 'Death' card reminds me to go on opening doorways! May I find portals in unusual places. May I go on in the spirit of our school anthem, 'Life is Adventuring."

References

Hymn to the Moon

The Queen of Heaven
Moon Goddess
by Heather Blakey

"The Moon is usually represented as the feminine power, the Moon Goddess, Queen of Heaven, with the sun as the masculine. The Moon is universally symbolic of the rhythm of cyclic time: universal beginning. The birth, death and resurrection phases of the moon symbolize immortality and eternity, perpetual renewal; enlightenment."

J. C. Cooper An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols.

My rational mind is not enough to sustain me, especially as I come to grips with the recent passing of my mother. Like the computer my rational mind processes the input it receives and calculates logical conclusions. Given that there is much that cannot be explained the rational mind has obvious limitations.

By contrast, the Moon is the portal to intuition. As a conduit, The Moon provides access to an infinite supply of information, enabling me to tap into an incredible storehouse of knowledge and wisdom. I sense that if I trust intuition I will gain entrance to an Aladdin's Cave of treasure.

So, tonight I stand before the Moon, keeper of the keys of fertility and the gates of birth, death and rebirth. I stand before 'she' who is the perpetual renewal, the bringer of the seasons, the controller of life giving waters.

Tonight I acknowledge her to be the measurer of time, to be the weaver of fate.

I put my trust in her clear light, even if it exposes aspects that have remained hidden within dark shadows. For it is this light which equally highlights a creative power that knows no bounds.