Tarot for protection with the death card
The Card of the w/c 12th December is Death. Here's a Reflection, journal prompts and a tarot spread.
Dear you,
I hope you're doing well!
Jack Frost is finally in town and yesterday he gifted us beautiful tall crystal palaces on every nettle, spider’s web and rosemary needle.
Death
This week we're diving into the the Death card because I like a bit of Christmas cheer!
So, go gently if you need to.
Just to put your mind at ease this card isn't about predicting a death. I don't deal in fortune telling.
It's about death in a broader sense, symbolising transformation, change and impermanence.
However, the card CAN and dare i say MUST include reflecting on physical death and our relationship to that at some point.
The emergence of this death card from the Pagan Otherworlds tarot is poetic as the Tarot often is.
Here in East Anglia we are immersed in the season of rotten leaves underfoot and bare trees with a touch of snow at last overnight last night. Now it’s turning to slush and ice.
We are also moving steadily towards the end of a calendar year and the moon is waning.
Death surrounds us. Renewal is a natural part of that cycle.
The numerology of the death card
The death card is the 13th archetype in the major arcana.
1+3 = 4 so this card is a number 4, a number of protection and structure in numerology according to Meg Jones Wall.
Not what you’d expect perhaps.
Surely death is something we need protecting from?
But what if it could protect us from complacency, a life without meaning and a life without beauty?
Protection from complacency
Consider this!
If there were no notion or care for endings, would we take life for granted and live with complacency?
Death protects us from complacency as it gives us the opportunity, if we dare, to understand that THIS moment and THIS life is precious and to open more fully to it.
Protection from a meaningless life
Death protects us from a life without meaning as it is a motivation to create a framework from which to live with purpose, knowing that our time here is limited.
Remember that in numerology the number 4 is a number of structure and routine or discipline.
We put those structures into our lives to make meaning.
We find structure and routine in meaningful work, family, education, community.
We celebrate the seasons of our lives, with ritual and celebration.
We look for a direction and a path rather than meandering through life chaotically.
Protection from a life without beauty
Beauty is only possible because of impermanence.
A sunset moves us because it's fleeting. We can't hold on to the ball of fire sinking into the horizon.
Not even the best iphone filter can ever capture the moment like the real thing in real time.
Even death itself, though painful and unbearable has a certain beauty as it shows us the tenderness we can feel towards others and the uniqueness of the life of a person we have loved.
Journal prompts for the week
This week go gently with the questions as they may be stirring. Always offer yourself a kind heart when you reflect on these matters.
Tarot spread of the week
As always i’d love to hear about your spreads or any insights you've gleaned from them in the comments below.
Finally
Over on my Instagram @the_moon_shed_tarot I did a poll about next week’s final newsletter of the year. Follow me there for more updates.
You chose “letting go” as a theme so i’ll enjoy working on this for you over the course of next week.
There will be plenty of prompts to help you let go of 2022 so tune in.
Don't forget to spread the word about my newsletter.
I write for pleasure rather than business these days but I love to share my thoughts with others otherwise its like baking a birthday cake and eating it all yourself which I could easily manage but i’d feel sick at the end.
Enjoy the snow!!
Lotsa love
Claire