Death Wisdom Reading

Again–The idea of 1 (or 2) spreads for each major arcana card is taken (as are the spreads) from Rachel Pollack’s excellent book Tarot Wisdom. As often as possible I am using the textual definitions from Ms Pollack’s book as otherwise there exists a possibility of skewing the meanings to serve my own ends rather than get any insight into what the cards are showing me. Recently I have also been taking (for the minor arcana) cards some of the textual definitions from Eileen Connolly’s Tarot: The First Handbook for the Master. Way back when I started working with the cards Ms. Connolly’s Tarot for the Apprentice was one of the first books I used.
Tonight tho, I had a new insight. That if the goal of these readings is a greater internal knowledge and understanding these forces then subjectivity may just be the way to go. Still I will give Ms Pollack’s and Ms. Connolly’s definitions because I feel it may be useful for anyone reading this to follow along.

Death Wisdom Reading

1) What is Death? The Hierophant (REV) Hierophant
2) What does it come from? X of Cups (REV) 10 of Cups
3) What causes it? 8 of Cups VIII of Cups
4) Why do we have to die? The World (Rev) The World
5) What Comes From Death The Magician [

The Magician

6)What will come after? VII of Swords Seven of Swords
7) What does it mean in a reading? The World (REV) The World

Interpretation.

1) What is Death? The Hierophant (Rev)

“suggests unorthodoxy. A person rejects the path laid out by our society or family and goes his or her own way”

“It can also lead to a lack of grounding or to gullability”

“The Hierophant reversed means freedom but with freedom comes the difficulty of choice”
<em>The Hierophant also represents the outer teacher of what we need to learn. He takes us into the path of learning so to speak. So reversed, the card can also mean a graduation of sorts as the student is finished with the current curriculum and ready to go on to the next course of study. That sounds like a workable definition of death to me 🙂 </em>

2) What does Death come from? X of Cups (Rev)

“Feeling depressed and out of touch. You need a change of scenery. You can pull out of this and start again”

“Time is the best medicine. A difficult situation yet to be understood”

“Need to separate yourself from an undesirable situation. How you feel is natural and to be expected. Forgive”

“Arguments are useless so are tears. Face the problem and see the truth. Frustration developing.  A need to re-evaluate and reconcile”

Well so Death comes when life has lived beyond its time.???? When one has gotten all they can out of a situation and now must evaluate everything that has gone before so that they can recommence.  I do love the change of scenery in context.

3) What causes Death? VIII of Cups

“You have come a long way. Now you will receive inspiration and guidance from the higher self. Patience is rewarded”

“You are being motivated by past life experience to complete a process of study”

“Move on and move forward. Being overly anxious will slow down your spiritual development. Relax and enjoy. Organize a new course of study You are going to be busy”

There you have it folks. Living life causes Death 😉 It is all part of the process. With some of these Major Arcana readings, I have found it to be difficult figuring out how the cards applied to the given situation. This one seems almost too easy. Also wise and thought-provoking. Also, it seems that as much is coming out about the nature of life as about death.

4)Why do we have to die? The World (Rev)

“Reversed the World card does not mean disaster or failure but simply stagnation”

“It can also mean a firm structure, as if situations remain the same rather than transform or give way to something new”

OK so we die because we have finished what we were incarnated on the physical level to finish. Being here longer would be purposeless. There is no real death, it is just the end of a cycle and now time to move on.

5) What comes from Death? The Magician I really like this

“…the Magician in a reading signifies consciousness will, and transformative or creative power” “symbolizes creativity itself”

So transformation and creativity come out of death? Again makes a lot of sense. Perhaps not only for the person who has transformed–but for the ones still incarnate who have manifested him/her in their lives in the first place. It seems, from my own experience, that the Death of someone close to us means that whatever part of our lives that they may have represented must now manifest in a new way.

6) What will come after? VII of Swords

“Intense focus on what has occurred will not eliminate present situation. Things may not look all that bad. But you are ignoring facts”

“Bad luck can change into possible solution if you apply instant effort”

“You can reach the top of the mountain if you unload some baggage. It has to be now.”

“If you do the same things, the same things will happen”

That last seems like as good a definition of an aspect of karma as anything I’ve come across. 🙂

Again there seems to be things here that apply both to the being no longer in the physical as well as the ones who still are who knew them. What has died needs to leave their lives  and whatever feelings they may have about them behind and the ones who are still in the physical need to do the same. In other words, move on, find new ways of doing things, grow and change.

7. What does it mean in a reading? High Priestess (Rev).

“Reversed the High Priestess may call on us to get involved again in the world. especially if we’ve spent a time cut off from people, exploring our inner lives.”

“There is a strong seductiveness in her silence, her separation, but if we stay too long in that state we find it hard to get back our lives, our responsibilities, our relationships.

“…remind us be passionate, to commit ourselves to something or someone”

Hmmm, so trying to put this into context, this would seem to be saying that when the Death card comes up in a reading, it is about life also and its connections. That so often when we go through a transformation, we loose sight of the importance of either making connections or maintaining the ones we have.

Thoughts, comments, Questions, anyone?




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