“. . . By Any Other Name . . .”
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Current divination culture shuns as unethical any attempt to forecast the death of an individual, even when it is clearly imminent due to a terminal illness. (After all, it doesn’t make sense for amateurs to overstep the legal and professional bounds of a medical diagnosis.) The final “moment of truth” is usually the last thing sufferers and family members want to contemplate. It may be acceptable to propose the risk when exploring the likelihood of a major catastrophe, but the goal there is to help clients find a way to escape the calamity, not confront it.
This wasn’t always the case. In playing-card cartomancy the Ace of Spades was considered the “death card,” but the prediction of mortality typically hinged on it appearing concurrently with another dire card like the 7 of Spades or the 10 of Spades; modern interpretation tends to downplay the possibility by “weasel-wording” it as distress, sorrow or “news of death” (that is, someone else’s). Horary astrologers in the Elizabethan era of William Lilly had no compunction about foretelling a person’s demise, using terms like “decumbiture” to describe the moment when he or she took to bed for the last time, never to rise again. In fact, astrologers were more interested in projecting overall life expectancy from a horoscope than in pinpointing the precise instant of death. (That data point can be useful in chart rectification, but only after the fact.)
I’m reminded of the premise of the animated film The Incredibles: super-heroes were being sued for “wrongful rescue” by the people whose lives they saved when those individuals had been fully intending to commit suicide, eventually putting the do-gooders out of business. In the realm of divination, I can foresee being litigated by someone who sells off all their worldly possessions and gives away their money in anticipation of their presumed passing, only to live a long, healthy life in poverty. Even more so than the other legal pitfalls that can plague a diviner, hints of extinction are not something to be taken lightly.
Furthermore, it seems a bit socially indelicate to even broach the subject unless the querent insists on hearing about it, in which case we can tap-dance around it by talking about potential exposure rather than “certain death.” As is no doubt obvious to those who follow this blog, my favorite quote when confronting morally conflicted reading scenarios comes from Margaret Hamilton as the “Wicked Witch of the West” in The Wizard of Oz, after she fails to remove Dorothy’s magical ruby slippers and realizes that she must kill her to get them: “These things must be done DEL-icately!”
By all accounts, it’s probably best to dodge the issue completely, although I refuse to succumb to the cheerfully obtuse “It’s all good” nostrum in my own practice. I’ve written essays on the subject, debunking that particular misconception as “It’s all good . . . until it isn’t.” Physical death is only the capstone of a litany of woes that might befall a seeker depending upon the severity of the cards drawn. In the event such an emphatic ending does raise its ugly head (even if only as a challenging transition to another phase of personal growth), I will certainly keep the gory details to myself, couching them in sympathetic — and constructively actionable — language without being deceptive or dishonest. It often comes down to a “tightrope walk” between the unduly negative and the overly positive as we try to strike the right note.
Eventually, though, a client will gape at the Death card and ask, “OK, exactly what does that mean?” Ruby slippers won’t help us then; we will need glib ingenuity to talk our way out of that jam. Even the most threatening cards are seldom immune to mitigation (otherwise there would be no point in getting a reading). Doing so convincingly is a matter of tact, and I can “weasel” with the best of them! It’s a skill that merits cultivation by any aspiring tarot reader since unabashed optimism is not always sustainable despite our best intentions.
Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on October 7, 2023.
