Autumn and death. Fear and flow

15 November 2019
Autumn. Death.


I realise that might sound grim to you, but don’t be put off. It’s not. It’s life.

Let me first tell you about the Death card in Tarot.

Misinterpreted as an actual death or a grave tragedy that’s about to occur, death is actually linked to change and endings. In Shamanism (using the Native American medicine wheel and four directions/elements) it is denoted by West.

West is the colour black, the physical and tangible, human/animal, earth element, the sub-conscious, root chakra, autumn, maturity, adulthood, ancestry, and death.

MARS, SCORPIO, SEASONS AND CHANGE
Death has been prevalent for weeks in the UK. Don’t take that the wrong way, either – I’m speaking of Nature. Autumn is rapidly coming to its own end here, and the Death card has been cropping up in my own tarot readings for a while, for one of two reasons:

1. Death card represents the Astrological sign of Scorpio, October/November and autumn in the UK. Astrological sign Scorpio was originally ruled by Mars, being fiery, masculine, of activity and animal passion (traits mentioned above in my description of ‘West’). Scorpio became associated with Pluto in 1930 but the original Rider Waite Tarot had already been in use for some time by then, so I would say the Death/Scorpio link is Mars in this case, as I described.

2. I have personally been working on accepting and embracing change for most of the year through meditations (journeys) and full and new moon ceremonies...

My own change is no different to the current astrological aspects affecting many of us. According to astrologists there was a big shift in universal terms in April and May 2019 which influenced many of us taking steps to address baggage and beliefs we’ve clung to for many years. In my case, ridding myself of limiting beliefs that stopped me doing what really impassioned me. Like art.

FEELING OF BEING PUSHED FORWARD
Once upon a time in April I walked straight into an art shop, bought inks and paper on a sudden whim, and when I got home started painting with a passion. At first I couldn't explain the drive behind it but I soon realised I didn’t want to give up or stop trying. I wanted to paint like never before. My focus this time – for once in my life – was not on being perfect, however, or achieving anything other than doing what came naturally: I was aiming to let flow happen. I felt a simple but strong need to be fulfilled, to find it for myself, which on a deeper, spiritual level seemed to be about reaching my ‘soul purpose’. It took a few months more to understand that purpose is Creating.

By May 2019, when the Scorpio full moon happened, I felt urged to let go any previous limited beliefs that had stopped me painting in years; I wanted to be free of it and I was desperately looking for the best method to do that. So, a few nights past the full moon, I not only painted, I tried my first meditative ‘spirit painting’ for the first time.

Did you happen to note the Scorpio aspect I mentioned there, in that May full moon? Looking back now, it is clear that energetically, and for all of us in one way or another, Mars and Scorpio pushed us to release, to walk on from what had been destructive to us. We were asked to embrace death as an ending, as a way of bringing in the change we needed.I know I wholeheartedly did.

More on autumn...