Death Wisdom Reading

I modified my “All-Purpose Four Position Spread” to ask Death wisdom questions:

 

(Questioner) What do we currently think and feel about Death?  5-Hierophant-Orange Calcite.

Most people hold very traditional, accepted ideas about death.  In many cultures, including our own, people who pride themselves on their clear and independent minds, as well as people who avoid religion and spiritual ideas all their lives, are still tradition-bound when it comes to dealing with funerals and the death of friends and family.  It might be superstition, or an inability to buck societal norms at a vulnerable time, or an unwillingness to seem disrespectful, but traditional funeral practices and related religious rites are still usually the norm.  For some people, the death of a friend might bring openness to spiritual, religious, or, as Jane Austen calls them, “serious subjects.”  On the other end of the spectrum, but just as in line with the Hierophant, some people don’t think much about death, except to believe what modern scientific culture teaches, that when you’re dead, you’re dead, and it doesn’t mean anything except that you’re an animal just like other animals.  As with most extremes, I think you’ll agree the truth is somewhere in between!

 

(Issue) What do we need to know about Death?  21-Universe-Onyx.

Death is universal.  Not only do living things die, but everything in existence is guaranteed, sooner or later, to be in non-existence.  Death, as the impermanence of all things, be they animals, plants, mountains, works of art, cultures, etc., is a fundamental basis of the universe.  The Buddhist three marks of existence are impermanence, suffering, and nonself.  This great philosophical truth, one of the greatest of “serious subjects” to be contemplated, can be simply summed up as “nothing lasts forever”!  Easy to say, much more difficult to understand, know, and act on.

 

(Outcome) What will this new understanding lead to?  0-Fool-Clear Quartz.

As we turn from the fullness of the Universe to the emptiness of the Fool, a greater understanding of the truth of impermanence leads us not only the Fool’s openness to new “serious” ideas and feelings, but also a family feeling with all other beings of the universe, whether conventionally categorized as living or non-living, for we are all caught up in the dance of existence and non-existence.  “Ask not for whom the bell tolls.  It tolls for thee.”  And thee, and me.  “This too shall pass” is a comfort to those in trouble, and “nothing lasts forever” can be a key to the freedom of thought and action of the Fool.  Whether one believes in the current new age teachings of reincarnation or not, it’s hard not to be inspired by the idea of a Foolish newly-about-to-born soul gaily embarking on a new, fresh life, simply for the joy of  learning from all the happinesses and sorrows that every life contains.  A greater understanding of death inevitably leads to a greater understanding of life and all it holds.

 

(Advice) What should we do about this new understanding?  16-Tower-Red Jasper.

Tower as advice.  Always an interpretation challenge.  But I look at its positional relationship with the Hierophant and see that just because a teaching is traditional doesn’t mean that it isn’t true, or at least good advice.  The Tower catastrophes of life, especially the Death ones of indefinite, often devastatingly unexpected, separation from friends and family, or even compassion for the similar suffering of strangers, are opportunities to appreciate and enjoy what we have now, without grasping on to wanting it to last forever.  It’s such a difficult lesson to learn, but it does make us think:  What would I do today if I only had six months to live?  As you know, none of us are guaranteed even that.  And you know the advice:  Live each day as if it were your last.  Be just as happy, good, loving, and compassionate as you can be every day!

Hanged One Wisdom Reading

Hanged One Wisdom Question:  It’s said that to enjoy fiction we must willingly suspend our disbelief.  Well, what should we willing suspend in order to have a better, happier life?

I tossed three stones and ended up with an obvious top to bottom order.  There doesn’t seem to be much repetitiveness in color or transparency, but we do have opposites in meaning, Hermit and Lovers, in opposite positions (top and bottom), with Judgment in between.

9-Hermit-Fluorite.  We should suspend the idea that we are alone in the world, or that we have to act alone in order to be strong and effective.  No man is an island.  We shouldn’t believe, and it’s just not true, that what we do affects only ourselves.  There are no victimless crimes, and there is no real comfort in “if I’m doing something wrong, I’m only hurting myself.”  Conversely, depending on our web of support, and even asking for help, are not signs of weakness.  Our friends are part of us, and they are usually more than happy to help us be happy.  And even if we feel alone, or that our friends are few and far between, or far away, each one of us is part of something greater than ourselves.  If need be, suspend the belief that you are unlovable.  There’s no rule against consciously looking for and making friends!

6-Lovers-Rhodochrosite.  On the other end of the spectrum, we should suspend the idea that a romantic relationship is a necessity for happiness.  This idea is ubiquitous in our culture, but remember, a very large percentage of popular culture is geared toward selling things.  Sex sells.  We shouldn’t let that universal truth standing in the way of enjoying a fulfilling and rewarding life.  Romantic love, and sex, can be enjoyable and inspiring, and a source of misery and ruined lives.  Having them certainly doesn’t guarantee a happy life!  As I touched on in another reading, particularly unhelpful are the ideas that being with ideal lover is a completion of oneself, and that sinking ones own identity in the lovers’ is somehow beautiful or noble.  It’s actually just a particularly easy way of abdicating responsibility for ones own life.  Which is getting nowhere indeed!

20-Judgment-Petrified Wood.  Now, what about poor Judgment stuck here in the middle?  (I’ve never thought of the powerful Judgment stone as being at any disadvantage before!)  (It’s also difficult to think of a negative aspect of Judgment, except for the fact that it is a great change, for those of us who are a bit unhappy with change!)  Oh, dear, I’m over thinking this, aren’t I?  Suspend judgment!  Life is not a game, and there’s no need to keep a running score.  Yes, we should evaluate where we are and where we want to be, but not so we can beat ourselves up if we fall short or feel superior if we are on track!  Especially pernicious is comparing our “progress” with other people’s.  My life is not her life.  She might be heading in some totally other direction I don’t even want to go!  And even if I think I want her life, she may have troubles I can’t know about, or I just need to go in a different direction.

So whether we’re lonely or self-sufficient, in a happy or troubled relationship, suspend judgment.  The best way to live a happy life is to live it to the best of our abilities without looking back in anger, or self-judgment!

Justice Wisdom Reading

Justice Wisdom Question:  Is the concept of karma just a way of blaming the victim?  (Or otherwise a not true or not helpful concept?)

Today I used the “Oldest Spread” with Arcana Stones and the Visconti mini.  The spread a very cool way of getting a varying number of major-minor pairs for each reading.  Check it out on Mary Greer’s blog:  http://marygreer.wordpress.com/2008/04/03/the-oldest-spread-by-le-comte-de-m/  To use it with stones, I counted out the minors as usual, turning them over with my right hand, and when I got a minor hit, I closed my eyes and randomly grabbed a stone from the pile of stones under my left hand.

And this is what I ended up with.  (The first minor was the Ace of Coins so I put the stone in the middle of the coin/card on impulse, and then continued that with the rest of the pairs.)

Ace of Coins + 19-Sun-Citrine.  The truth and operation of karma in this current life/incarnation is a plain as the nose of your face, if we would just open our eyes.

3 of Wands + 11-Justice-Aventurine.  Karma does travel with us wherever we go.  (The next pair implies this includes through a series of lives and/or between lives.)

7 of Swords + 13-Death-Mahogany Obsidian.  Death causes us to forget past lives, but just because we don’t know about them doesn’t make them not exist.  In a way, our past life actions sneak up on us like a thief in the night.  We might not know the thief is there, or know who she is, but we know there is a possibility that someone is there.

Page of Cups + 4-Emperor-Carnelian.  We are truly sovereign in our free will.  We can do anything we want with our lives, even though we sometimes feel like innocent victims of circumstance.  The Page also suggests that we should follow our hearts.  Conscience is an innocent, innate feeling of the truth and goodness of the golden rule.  I disagree with Hamlet (which could show the difference between believing in everlasting punishment versus karma)--conscience does not make cowards of us all.  It can help make us strong, powerful, and determined Emperors of our own lives.

4 of Coins + 0-Fool-Clear Quartz.  This is a continuation of 7 of Swords + Death.  When we incarnate, we have to start at the beginning of this life.  So, while it’s true that karma stays with us, it’s also true, and probably more helpful to understand, that we have to life this life, not a past or future one.

5 of Wands + 3-Empress-Malachite.  Here are the circumstances that we feel victim to.  Yes, life entails struggle, for the basics to sustain life plus other needs and desires.  But we can’t make that an excuse to leave our conscience behind.

9 of Wands + 12-Hanged One-Sodalite.  Both of these speak of waiting.  “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”  1 Corinthians 13:12.  We are not wrong to ask this wisdom question, and the reading has given us some valuable tips on how to think about karma, but it’s one of those things that humans aren’t able to understand entirely until we reach or pass through some other state or stage.  In the meantime, we watch and wait for the truth.