Posts
In September of last year (2009), I did a personal reading for the sake of acquiring information about a friend who was suffering from drug and alcohol dependency. At the time of the reading, they had been coaxed into a rehabilitation program, and I wanted an idea of whether this person would work with the treatment and make an honest effort to help themselves and their family. I doubted they would, but rather than assume all was lost, I made an effort to see if there was anything her friends or family could do that hadn't already been tried, perhaps an angle nobody had considered.
This person was also involved in a dangerous relationship with another user, and I wanted to know the exact nature of the relationship, as well as whether the two people would continue the relationship after the rehabilitation stay was completed. I figured the chances of the person in rehab staying drug and alcohol free would be slim to none if they resumed the relationship, even if it was more casual than some of us assumed.
If I remember correctly, I broke the reading down into three separate questions, consisting of what result the effort to rehabilitate would have, both long and short term; what the nature of the relationship between the two people consisted of; and would the two people reunite, if so, when and to what effect on the person in rehab? The drawings consisted of three-card spreads with supplemental cards drawn for elaboration for the first and third questions, and a nine-card spread for the second.
Without going into details, most of the information gleaned was unsurprising. My assumptions were correct, for the most part, and I was able to verify this at a later date. Something troubled me about a particular card, however, and this was the Death card. It was laid down as part of the last spread, and I immediately assumed it referred to a time line, more specifically as reference to the end or death of the year. This would make sense when you consider the year-end holidays are usually a time when people contact friends and family they may not visit during the rest of the year. It could be that the holidays would be a likely time for these two to bump into each other and...celebrate? But something didn't feel quite right. I didn't want the card to mean the actual death of this person even though they had been warned of the eventual consequences of their habits. This card had never before meant such a thing, and that made it, along with what it actually signified, an outlier.
Another strange detail of the first reading should have been a clue for me, being that no understandable information could be interpreted on the long term effects of the treatment effort, only that the person would improve if they stayed away from the friends who also used. Which was practically a no-brainer.
Approximately two months later this person died. They never saw the end of 2009. I won't say anything more than that they didn't work with the mandates to stay away from the other friends who used.
So, sometimes a Death card really does mean actual death of a person. As readers, we owe it to ourselves to consider this possibility when it's appropriate, perhaps even telling a client if our discretion permits.
In my own case, I seriously doubt anything would've stopped the person from dying, as they had been warned by physicians and those closest to them. Death is an inevitability for now, for all of us, but some people move toward it very quickly and without heed.
As a phenomenon in my own experiences of reading Tarot, this example is an outlier, as the Death card has never held this meaning for me prior to last Sep. It forced me to reexamine that reading and include the possibility for future readings. The Death card now holds greater personal significance.
J.M.
