Tiny Tarot Story
Read a short story inspired by the Death card.
She asked for help, not change. She wasn’t one to talk to the heavens but there was no one else to talk to, frankly. Might as well be the sky. The tree. She said: help me.
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There was lot to help from our point of view. Her heart had shrunk to the size of a pin prick. One day she closed her piano and never opened it again. The fellow she was seeing was did not see her. Though he liked how she looked. Her job — we saw she was good at that, with people often asking for guidance on technical details. After, her eyes often drifted toward the window, to the sky, to us.
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You might say our method are severe. We’ve heard it before. Why me, etc. Sometimes that’s what it takes to rattle a person to awake.
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Her job had to go first. That gave her time. TV broke next. That gave her space to be bored which gave her room to think. She had to feel like she was at rock bottom. That gave her only one direction to go in. Up, but different than before.
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She is different than before. For one she believes we are here. Otherwise how could she have come out of that, recovered, ended up where she is? She feels the world has a spine — something is holding it up. And it’s holding her up too.
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Death Reflections
Musings
I’m a frequent tarot reader for first-timers. I like to be the person who shows others that yes, these cards actually contain wisdom. Not on their own, necessarily, but the wisdom we pour into them — pass onto each other – share with each other – tell ourselves — but hey, maybe on their own – you get the drift.
Part of my spiel is saying: None of the cards are bad. I say that as a disclaimer in case the person happen to pull a trifecta of Death, Devil and the Tower. If something that extreme were to happen, the querent would probably not be surprised. The cards are like a mirror. They already know the face of their life. They might wave, laugh, smile back. No, it’s not the reflection you want to see, but it’s better than waiting around for a brand new face. Work with what you have.
We read the cards, but the cards read us.
The Death card is never one that people want to see come on their desk. It’s like a salad at a diner. You don’t want to see it! You want pancakes or a Western omelet. There are days when you pull the Sun card, though, and then there are days when you have to go through with the uncomfortable business of transformation.
Usually, changes happen to you. Have you realized this? Most change doesn’t come about because you wrested it from the bull’s horns? It’s because life decided to kick you a certain way and you decided to roll with it.
Death is an acknowledgement that things are changing — whether you were put there, or whether you put yourself there. I also wonder if the Death card is a call to hurry up the process. The same way wiggling a tooth is, or picking a scab, or peeling dead skin. Get rid of the old, so you can hurry up and heal.
If this is any comfort, know that by the time of the Death cardc comes into your life, its principles won’t be unfamiliar. You are only who you are today through transformation. There are people I know who seem to drink fear as a smoothie: Scary things fuel them. If you’re like me, scary things are worth crossing the sidewalk for; scary things are delayed until the last possible moment.
I guess what I’m saying is: Transformation doesn’t need to be scary. It is natural. It is going to happen to you. Harness the principle fact: Change is coming. Let it happen for you.
The Death card arrives to remind us that we are not dead. It is an uncomfortable reminder. Resist putting it back in the deck and reshuffling. Because we are not dead, that means we’re changing. I think the Death card is a chance to become who we want while we’re in the land of the living.
Journaling Prompts
What was the most significant change you initiated?
What was the most significant change that happened to you?
How did both play out?
Are you afraid of change? Why or why not?
What do you want to free yourself from?
Start a Story of Your Own
Write a story of your own inspired by the dynamics present in the Death card, starting with this sentence. If you email me your story, I’ll share it in the next newsletter.
He was a genie who granted endings. Name it, and it was over. But you had to pick something: Otherwise, you were ended.
Extra Credit
Listen to “Atlantic City” by Bruce Springsteen: “Everything dies baby that’s a fact, but maybe everything that dies someday comes back”
Consider whether you would want to be immortal if it meant nothing in your life, from this exact moment, could change.