Transforming Death with the Tarot
an article by Jennifer Moore originally printed in Spirit of Change Fall/Winter 1991
In the Tarot Death represents change and transition. Death is not usually a sign of a physical death or illness, but represents the death of a part of oneself and the birth of a new one. By learning to perceive Death as a process of transformation, we can affect our view of reality, seeing life as a continuum that is constantly shifting and flowing from one state of being to another. Nothing can be truly destroyed, only transformed into a new shape, a new life.
Death in the Tarot offers an alternative viewpoint which helps us find ease in accepting change in our lives. By considering its meaning, we can find ways to welcome change without feeling as though we might lose ourselves. This is a basic human fear, however true death does not bring loss but gain. It brings us deep knowledge, allows us to come into our power and returns us to the truth of our Selves. Ultimately, Death is about releasing that which is not truly you. Death distills us to our truest essence. Death brings us back to the core, to the basis of what we are. We change as we lose the unnecessary patterns in our lives, but we are not really changing so much as we are beginning to realize our truest self. The more we focus inward to our heart and soul, the less violent Death seems and the more it reflects the truth of our being.
Death can be a process of willing surrender to change, but we generally change only when we're sick and tired of being sick and tired. At that place of frustration, only when we're willing to accept all possible consequences, does change really come about. Life is eternal when we are willing to grow, but when we get stuck in meaningless tradition or old habits, we end up dying because we cease to move with the Life Force. Death is a card of following the Life Force. We must accept the natural pattern as it is. We sustain ourselves by yielding to the natural flow of the world.
During this process of change we might consider areas of possible resistance. What is our relationship to change? How much are we resisting it? How are we avoiding it? Frequently, our perceptions of change are of radical, churning, violent, 180-degree turns that leave us exhausted and raw. However, when we truly surrender to change it stops being a violent catharsis and we learn to accept life exactly as it is, on its own terms. Change can occur gracefully and gradually, like the slow growth of new plants in Spring. It's not change, but the resistance to change that brings pain. Praying for or seeking "the willingness to be willing" can dissolve huge amounts of resistance.
It is ironic that the fear of change or "death" is usually the thing that kills. When we are fearful of change, we become rigid and lose our connection to the shifting flow of life. For example, imagine a village located near a clear, fresh spring. For hundreds of years, the people of the village have flourished next to this spring. Their gardens were bountiful and the people were prosperous. One day, the spring started to dry up. Most of the people in the village decided to move and find a new water source. A few said to themselves, "This is my home, and I'm not going to leave here. I grew up here, my parents grew up here, my grandparents grew up here, my great-grandparents grew up here, and I'm going to raise my kids here. This is the way things have always been, and I refuse to move." They stay, and their water source vanishes. Their crops wither, and they die because they refuse to accept that things have changed.
As human beings with free will, the way we choose to deal with change is up to us. In this context, Death sharpens the experience of change by offering us the choice to either grow or die. Many people get so stuck in expectations of how they want their life to be that they are not able to surrender to a natural transformation, and the results of that process. When we are not willing to surrender, when we are not willing to change, we die. We cease to exist because we are not being replenished or allowing new possibilities to arise.
Instead of the traditional image of the Grim Reaper which is portrayed on most Tarot cards, I have sought to find an image that represented the continuum from life to death to rebirth. While leading a guided meditation, I discovered a view of the Death card which later manifested as an image for "The Healing Tarot". I saw Death as a huge gateway of bones which, once entered, would suck away all that was not one's truest essence. It distilled the soul to its core. Here is an excerpt from my guided meditation to Death:
"Before you looms a huge gateway made entirely of bones. As you walk towards the gate, the air becomes drier and drier, taking all the moisture out of your breath, drawing you out and towards the gate. Come towards the gate. Walk past the vast bones of the earliest creatures of this planet. Walk into the heart of this gate of transformation. Look around you at the bones of civilization, the bones that remain in Death.
Stand in this gate and allow all that is not your truest self to be taken from you. Feel the parts of yourself which you no longer need pour out of you. Allow yourself to let go to the power of the gate. Feel your truest essence, all that remains within you.
Move deeper through the gate and go to the very heart of the power, to the place where life and death begin and end and begin again, to the source of all life and beyond. Reach into this core and take what you need to complete your soul, to complete your change. Walk through the core. Let yourself be blessed and transformed by the power. Keep walking through to the other side, walk past this now-living gateway, alive with plants and flowers and the matrix of all living beings. Walk through this gate of life..."
In the image of Death in "The Healing Tarot," the Lady of Life and the Lord of Death stand in the vortex of the Death Gate where the spark of new life dwells. Here, Life takes essence and gives it form, and Death takes form and transforms it into essence. Life and Death dance with each other, inextricably woven together in the pattern of destiny. This is an image of Death as change, and of change as a natural process, an alchemical transformation.
The process of change, of death, is inevitable, but the way that change occurs is forever in flux. Our attitude towards change and our willingness to accept it dictates the ease with which our transitions happen. By contemplating the Death card in the Tarot, we can find new ways to accept change in our lives.
der Tod hat dich wohl heute zur Höchstform angetrieben
