Embrace What is Coming

Symbolism

The Rising Sun signifies rebirth.

The Dead lying on the ground emphasize renewal and reincarnation.

The Holy Figure symbolizes the sacredness of the death transformation.

The black rider brings a conclusion on the white horse which symbolizes strength and vitality.

The flag announces harvest time.

The king without a crown respects the laws of life and death.

The bishop without a staff announces the coming ending.

Children accept death as normal.

The ship stands for the moment of death.

The gate is the heaven’s gate.

The city is paradise.

The gray sky warns against indifference.

Getting to Know the Death Card

People sometimes get upset when they see Death in a reading.  I think every tarot client fears the Death Card.

Every Tarot reader knows this:  Something important in your life is about to come to an end to clear the way for a new beginning.

Our opinions, beliefs, and fears about death encourage us to misunderstand this card.

Death is all about transformation for the better.  It has a distinct message:  Something is going away to make room in your life for something else new.

This card influences us all – regardless of age, station in life, education, beliefs.  This is a break with the past – manifesting changes in home, relationships, or career.

However Death plays out, new opportunities are on the horizon.  They may surface as an opportunity:  relocate, connect, financial changes.  This is transformation in action.  One thing for sure:  transformation cannot happen without an ending.

Transformations are sacred.  They work for the greater good.

Embrace what is coming.  There are things you can do.

First, remember past transformations, how they affected you, and how you benefitted from them.

You have an opportunity to do things you never thought you could do.  You will survive.  You will flourish.  This is how transformation works!

Move on from what you are leaving behind now.  Acknowledge what you lost and appreciate how you moved on in the past.  Offer gratitude to your successes.

Is something toxic in your life to release?  If so, you can add a new beginning.

What needs to go?  What comes next?  Embrace the change!

Story

Several years ago, right after Christmas, my oldest daughter, who lived in California, was ready to retire from her teaching job. She searched for a place to retire and begin her new life.

Jennette came to visit us over the holidays and house-hunt.

At the end of her holiday visit, two vehicles in the parking lot at the Albany Airport crushed her.  In an instant, her life totally changed forever.

Bang!  Her 20+ year teaching career evaporated.

This moment in time was a physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual event not only for her but for the rest of us in the family that afternoon.

Everything was broken.

Thirty-five days in the Albany Medical Center Hospital followed three days in the ICU at Albany Med.  A year of visits in various Albany Medical Center clinics in and around Albany came after the ICU and the hospital stay.

None of us gave up – not Jennette, not the physicians, not the therapists and not anyone in the family gave up.

Michele, my younger daughter and hospice nurse, flew in from Phoenix and taught  Zoe Darwin, Jennette’s youngest child,  how to care for Jennette in the hospital.

After a week, Michele returned to Phoenix and Zoe Darwin stayed in a nearby hotel and helped care for her mother the next two weeks.  Then Zoe Darwin moved into her mother’s new home.

I drove Sophia and Zoe into Albany daily.  Because Jennette’s visitors were limited, I sat in the Panera across from the hospital for several hours and waited for them to come out and then I got to visit for a few minutes before our time was up and we returned to New Baltimore.

This daily routine continued until she was discharged.  When I sat at the Panera in the afternoons, the place was always full.  Staff members were kind and sensitive to the reality that everyone there in the afternoons was connected to an ill person in the Albany Medical Center Hospital across the street.

After a couple of weeks, I got discouraged, wrote a healing ceremony for Jennette, and we held it in a quiet corner of the hospital lobby.  I wrote prayers to Archangel Michael and called in all the healing beings I could think of.

Zoe Darwin, Sophia, Michele, and I gathered in a quiet corner of the hospital entrance lobby.  Jennette’s real estate agent and her husband attended the ceremony.  Everyone got a silver angel charm I ordered from Breakell  to commemorate the ceremony.  I felt better after this ceremony but each day was a challenge. I was acutely aware that I needed the healing ceremony as much as anyone else there that afternoon.

One day, when I went in to see Jennette, she was waiting for a meal to be served to her. With both hands and arms broken, she could not feed her self or anything else. She was getting tired of being fed hospital food.

I took that as a positive sign.

One day I went in to see Jennette and learned that the orthopedic team operated on her left wrist at 1:30 am the night before.

Then, thankfully, one afternoon a discharge nurse came into the room and told us it was time for Jennette to go home!  We were grateful but, really, we were shocked!  Jennette couldn’t even walk yet.

The next day, a man came to her room, packed up all the things that had collected themselves during the month, and wheeled Jennette out of the hospital and loaded her in the car.

That Prius was stuffed with wheelchairs, walkers, canes, and boxes of smaller items we needed to care for her bandaged and casted arms and legs.  Jennette now functioned daily with a brace on her back and medical boots on her feet.

But Jennette’s bones weren’t the only injured body parts.  Her liver was damaged and her spleen was not missing in action.  She was in a back brace full-time.

We were grateful for our trip home but I was scared too.  Jennette couldn’t even walk a step.  How was I going to manage?

When we drove up, I called on several hefty neighbors to help us get her in the house.

Jennette camped out on the sofa in the living room for several weeks until she felt adventurous enough to go to her new home in New Baltimore.  It was a good thing, too, because she collected scads of support equipment:  walkers, crutches, wheel chairs, grabbers, and other things I don’t even remember.

Jennette has a new life now.  So do Zoe Darwin and Sophia.  So do Barry and I.  That afternoon in the parking lot of the Albany airport was definitely the Death Card in action

Energetic Balance Activity

Go all out here:  Sort through your things and donate your unwanted things to a shelter.  Give up everything old, outgrown, or worn out.  Ditch everything you don’t use anymore.  Release everything to make way for the new beginning.

Follow this up with a medical checkup appointment.

Finally, do you have a crystal or other stone that you are attracted to?  Wear it or carry it as you go into your future.

Meditation

Go to a comfortable, safe, and private place to sit or lie down.  Get comfortable.  Play some quiet music if it feels right for you at this time.  Light a candle if it fits.

Begin slow deep breathing.  Feel yourself relaxing.  When you inhale, visualize that you are inhaling light.  As you exhale, release tensions and worries.  Encourage yourself to relax.

As you breathe slow deep breaths, visualize clouds.  As they slowly drift by, feel your muscles and nerves relaxing.  As you inhale, breathe in calm and positivity. As you exhale, release toxicity and negativity.

When you feel relaxed, pause for a moment to relax.  In this moment, you are not searching for something outside yourself.  Focus, instead, on reconnecting to your inner strength.  This is the inner strength that has always ben with you.

Focus on how you feel in this moment.  Notice how your body feels.  Observe how the chair you are sitting in supports you.  Do you feel connected to your surroundings?  How does your inner strength supports you?

Connect to the inner core which supports you every day, even if you’re not aware of it.

Pause for a moment now.

Call up a moment when you discovered a strength you didn’t realize you had.

Perhaps this was a time of challenge or a time of change.  What did you learn about yourself in that experience?

What inner resources did you rely on?

Call in that strength now.  It is a force that has always been a part of your inner core.  Let it rise up within you.

Pause again for a few moments.

Continuing to breathe deeply, consider challenges you might be facing now.  Or, think about challenges you may encounter in the future.

See these as opportunities for growth.  See how you can manage your way through each one.

Breathe in slowly now.  As you inhale, breathe in confidence to manage your way.  As you exhale, release any doubts or concerns you may have.  Continue to  inhale confidence and exhale doubts.

Pause now to reflect.

Continue inhales and exhales.  Your breathing now is the breath of capability.  Each breath grounds you.  Continue to breathe the breath of capability as you become more aware of your inner strength.

You know it is time to return to your day now.  You know you can return to this meditation whenever you want.

Thanks for reading this article.  Please share it with your friends, relatives, and neighbors.  Forward it to your social media network.

This book is available at www.thurmangreco.com