The Death Card---dum Dah Dum Dum!

[Grizabella]

I've been reading the cards since 1998 and in all that time, I've never had the Death card show up in my daily shuffle/lay out cards routine consistently. In fact I don't recall it ever happening. I'm going to be 74 next month so seeing the Death card cycling around makes me a little flinch-y to be honest. Especially if the the High Priestess is in the same spread because the High Priestess is both my soul and personality card. The Tower card cycling around has always meant that I was going to have to move again. For the past two or three weeks, it's been Death, and not just with one deck, it's been doing it with every deck I've used. And to make it even worse, sometimes with the High Priestess and the Tower in the same spread as the Death card!  Youch!

 

But my aunt died night before last. I guess that may be why Death has been stalking my practice spreads, although first thing this morning, my first seven cards included the Death card and High Priestess again.

 

To clarify what I mean by "my daily routine of shuffle/lay out cards", it's just something I do idly. I shuffle and then put out seven cards, shuffle and put out 7 cards over and over again when I'm not doing anything else. It's not doing self-readings because I don't do that. But in doing this, sometimes a card will show repeatedly over and over again and when that happens, it does have an impact in my life if it continues for awhile.

 

We always see people saying that the Death card seldom means actual death and, while that's true, we can't forget that sometimes it does actually mean physical death. For me, it has to be a combination of cards before I read it as actual death. For instance, if there were the Death card, the Chariot, the 4 of Swords, or 10 of Swords, Tower----warning of death by car accident?  Or plane crash? If I see that in a spread, then I'd advise the sitter to be careful when driving or if they were planning on flying somewhere, I'd want them to consider maybe changing their flight or something like that. Tower and Death= sudden unexpected death but Death without the Tower would be more expected like someone with a lingering death like from cancer.

 

Now, before any of the new people freak out if they get Death with any of the others in a spread, please don't do that!  It could just mean you're going to have relief from a painful back injury if it's Death and the 10 of Swords just to give a simple example.

 

I just thought I'd share with you all what the Death card meant in my own life. I don't mean to alarm anyone, but we do have to say what we see in the cards and I felt like this was a good time to share about the Death card and what it's meant in my own life.

[Saturn Celeste]

15 minutes ago, Grizabella said:

But my aunt died night before last. I guess that may be why Death has been stalking my practice spreads, although first thing this morning, my first seven cards included the Death card and High Priestess again.

Oh dear Griz, I am sorry for the loss of your aunt.  Perhaps she has attained the secrets the HP reveals to us and she has moved on in the higher plane of her soul's journey.

[Grizabella]

That's a good thought, Saturn!  I thought of that this morning, too, that the High Priestess might have indicated her. Her husband passed about a year ago and they were both in their 90's. I didn't think she'd linger once he was gone and I was right. They were married for a good 60 years and more and they never had children of their own, even though they wanted some. They were just so close all those years.  The day before she passed, her oxygen saturation was only fluctuating between 44 and 56 so I knew the end was close. She passed at 1:30am on Sunday morning.

 

My aunt was always there for us kids, though, helping to teach us stuff about canning and sewing and child care, etc. and at times she even took in some of my siblings for periods of time because my step-mother was an alcoholic and not a stable parent. We always knew we could count on Aunt Illa to be the repository of information, you know? Especially for young people. 

 

My father had six kids----my mom and dad had me between them but then divorced and then each had 5 kids after me with other spouses. When my father and my Uncle Ken were young, they were going up a ladder to the hay loft and my father was carrying a pitchfork, going up the ladder after Uncle Ken. There was a slip by Uncle Ken and the pitchfork ended his chances of ever having children of his own, so the kids my father had were kind of shared between them. Uncle Ken always took a place as someone stable that everyone could look up to and strive to emulate. My father died at 44 years old and Uncle Ken was kind of my father for 50 years or so after that.

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[Grizabella]

Now I'm going to update this just for enlightenment. 

 

When Death very first started showing and then I found out my cousin's wife had leukemia, I thought maybe that was what it meant but that didn't stop the Death card from cycling through. Then when my aunt died, I thought for sure that's what it meant and that it would stop, but it hasn't. Two other cards that have kept showing up are the Tower (which for many years has always meant I have to move again, which I hate and never would have expected to see again cycling around.) and the Ace of Pentacles. When I'd see the Ace of Pentacles I'd think "phfffttt!! yeah right!--like I'm ever going to have the whole potential of the Pentacles suit." lol   Well, maybe that's what's going on here---the cards were trying to tell me my Aunt Illa would pass and that I was in her will so that there's definitely potential for there being something of value willed to me. But Pentacles mean very practical things, so it may not be money or anything of extreme value monetarily----maybe a set of dishes or something useful like that. If the Death card quits cycling around, then that will be what the cards were trying to show me. Otherwise, who knows? I hope that's what it was because I can't help being a little bit wary of that Death card.

 

Oh---forgot one card. The Hermit cycles through, too, which is not something I've seen before.  I tend to live a sort of hermit kind of life, not because I don't like people but just because of my physical limitations and the fact that I like my own company and have so many interests of my own that I pursue.

 

I'll update again when I find out more. 🙂 

Edited October 29, 2019 by Grizabella

[espii]

Sympathy (twice had to change that from symphony) for your aunt, Griz.  

 

I'm new so I don't have any history here with anyone, but that's a familiar sting.

 

 

So.... move on....again?  

 

 

 

Maybe you're getting a new (old) hermitage?  

 

I'm curious to find out, now, too.

 

 

[DanielJUK]

oh Griz, I am sorry for your loss ❤️

You are right, I hardly ever get Death or Death reversed as my daily card, weirdly the reversed version is my card this week. I seem to get it a lot as metaphorical ending in my life, normally when a cycle is ending or something is changing. Of course I know Death can be literal but it's never come up that way for me yet. I have had cards that have pointed to someone dying but it's always really obscure and I only understood it with hindsight after the event! For example one person I knew died (this was almost ten years ago) and the card linking to him was the Ace of Cups. It fitted the situation perfectly but there is no way I could have got it before it happened. I am now open to the message coming from any card but Death has yet to be literal for me but I do always consider that!

[Ravensarcana]

I've been trying to not only introduce people to tarot, but also present different ways of thinking about or viewing (perceiving) certain cards for those who have some experience under their belt(s). I have some videos, one being about the death card, but I don't want to break any rules...