When the Death card comes up in a reading, I can't help but sigh. I understand as a card, despite the skeleton riding the pale horse, that it seldom represents actual death, but I find that of little comfort. Metaphorical deaths are painful, maybe just as painful as the real thing, maybe more. Material beings that we are, endings are as much a part of us as beginnings, death all part of the cycle, our cycle. And yet ....The last few years have been full of endings, changes. I came close to death in the form of several heart attacks and bypass surgery. At this point, to be confronted by death once again, to face just one more major and transformational end seems nearly overwhelming. "Again? Really?" To everything there is a season and the wheel turns and that's supposed to provide comfort, and yet ....
In the Jane Austen Tarot, the Death card depicts Henry Dashwood, the patriarch of the novel Sense and Sensibility. The novel actually begins with his death. From this one event, devastating to the women in his life, his daughters, his second wife, a novel unfolds and while because it is a Jane Austen book we can assume there will be weddings by the end, the how of it and the who of it, the when and where of it, are the stuff of story, of us. It's easier to remember looking at this card, that the pain of endings can lead to remarkable and unimagined beginnings, that though we may "see" our future stretch before us as an unalterable course, it is only our imagination and anything and everything is possible, things we never even considered.
The Death card also talks about legacies, suggesting maybe it's time to think about them, plan for them, because you never know. I had my lesson this last year on sudden and life altering changes, on how quickly and irrevocably, things can happen, ends can come. Have I said what needs to be said to those I love? Have I given them all I wanted to? We need to expect the unexpected, or at least prepare for them. They're going to come, unexpected gifts, hurts that may be blessings in disguise, that's a given. We best be ready to ride out the storms.
What Would Jane Do?
"While death is not a subject one enjoys discussing, it's a subject that employs -- and enjoys -- the final word. Death is an aggravating reminder that preparation for the future must be both thorough and far-sighted. that our legacies are uncertain, and that none of us are immune from its bony fingers....Unalterable change may seem a bitter pill on initial ingestion, yet as the stages of the meal of life are placed upon our table, we may find the resultant foodstuffs unexpectedly to our taste. Bitter or sweet, we must continue to consume the fare we are served, in the order in which it is served. Digestion is, of course, another matter entirely."
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