For years there has been a taboo on discussing death and mortality to clients among tarot readers, but there are times when the subject has to be aired. It happened again to me the other day.
The client was over 70, and she had been to see me several times over the years. As a result, there were a few pleasantries to get through before the reading starts in earnest – its always good to chat. However, as we chatted, a thought came into my mind, and immediately I said to her, “I have to talk to you about death…” She nodded, and told me that one of her daughters had been diagnosed with cancer of the colon, and had already had one serious operation. The daughter was married, in her 40s, with one child. Discussing death with a parent is never easy, but the nettle has to be grasped. I gave my client a way of looking at death, and where we go to when we die that does not involve the need for belief in God, and we talked around a number of issues and worries that she had. There are times when it is better not to rush reading the tarot to ensure that the client is in the right frame of mind, so after about 20 minutes it was time to actually read the tarot cards.
As you may know, the deck is cut into 4 piles, which are turned over. The Fourth or Future pile had 8 of Cups, Indolence, on top. I generally see this card as meaning “getting the hangover before you had a drink”, in other words expecting the worse. The interesting thing was that apart from this card, all the others in the pile were positive, with suggestions of financial success. Since my client was obviously a pensioner, the prognostication was for her children – as she pointed out, not a lot about her (this is very common when children are uppermost in the mind).
So, you might ask, where was the death? I had to hunt around to find the Death card in the other piles, while there were other cards that suggested health improvements. Clearly my client had found herself enveloped in morbid thoughts, which she could not get out of. As I discussed this with her, it turns out that while the doctors had diagnosed cancer, it was unlikely that they had deemed it terminal.
So what is the moral of the story? The whole session was about death, a topic that was entirely unavoidable. When we finally looked at the cards, it was clear that the future (well, for the 6 months ahead that I generally look at) looked pretty good.
One of the skills that a good therapist, clairvoyant or tarot reader has to learn is the ability to know whether a problem is in the thoughts of the client, or whether the problem really does exist. Clearly the reading would have been disastrous if I had tried to avoid discussion of death. Fortunately, the cards demonstrated that things may not be as bad as my client expected.
Until this lady comes back (it is usually 12 month intervals), I will not know the outcome.
Wonderful post and ultimately uplifting. We try so hard as sanitize death in our culture, it is no wonder that tarot readers avoid the topic as well. I find it interesting that new clients often ask about the death card and want to see it and seem quite intrigued. Some, no doubt, in fear, but some, perhaps, just an open curiosity – a good place to begin the process of speaking naturally about something quite natural.
There are very few opportunities to discuss the subject of death, and I find myself talking about it nearly every day. I also show clients how to see the “Afterlife” (whatever one might call it) in a way that they can see the departed, rather than being scared, or going to a spiritualist church.
I wish we had some “after this life” education. Little children, who are still closer to the other world than any psychic is, take in death issues quite naturally — until, that is, they are re-programmed by the parents and society. Silvia Browne in her authobiography said, that it is selfish to mourn for those who are gone: they went Home and fully reunited with the loved ones and the Spirit and the Light. Many people create tension and suffering from the thoughts of losing their loved ones even before the events occure… I see Tarot as a wonderful tool to help those in grief, as well as those who are worried to lose their loved ones. Thank you for showing us in this post one of the ways it can be accomplished!
Hi Paul,
Thank you for sharing this reading experience. It’s a reminder of the human aspect of reading cards, which sometimes we may forget about when discussing card relationships, meanings, techniques and so on. I also appreciate hearing the kinds of things a seasoned reader actually deals with on-the-job.
Where else do people go to talk about death and bereavement if they are not religious? There are a surprising number of relationship problems that stem from a death, so it is an angle that needs to be considered at least.
Hi. Came across your blog and it caught my interest right away. Just have one question. Can tarot cards predict how old a person will die? I really want to know.
Hi Gillian,
Provided it is within a year, anything can be predicted!
Paul