Card 13: Death

We explore the transformative energy of the Death card, the thirteenth card in the Major Arcana of the tarot that represents necessary endings and the space they create for new beginnings. The Death card marks the culmination of the "destruction line" in tarot. The work of destruction is done here with the Death card. It teaches us that loss makes way for renewal when we dare to let go.

Main themes discussed:

• The numerology of Death and how it connects to transformation, originality, and innovation
• Death teaches that loss makes way for spiritual renewal
• Sacrifice means that our spirit can begin again, cleansed, interconnected, and invigorated
• Entering into our evolution is to let go of what is holding us back- find your courage to soar to new heights
• The courage to surrender to what we cannot control creates space for evolution
•Symbolism across different depictions of Death and the poem from my book Major Arcana: A Poetry Collection

Links:

My Links

The Death Blog

Numerology of 13

Buy My Poetry Book, featured in this episode

Song #1: Looking at You by First Timer

Song #2: Death Dance by Luftmensch ft. Halyn

Song #3: Mysterious Forest by Howard Harper-Barnes

Chapters

• 1:32 Welcome to Wolfchild Magic Podcast
• 4:05 Introduction to the Death Card
• 10:03 Death's Numerology and Symbolism
• 18:22 Loss Makes Way for Renewal
• 31:15 A Personal Death Cycle Story
• 43:34 Wings: The Universal Death Symbol

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:46

Hello there, my wolflings. Thank you so much for tuning in and listening to the Wolfchild Magic Podcast, a place where we go into all things tarot, witchcraft and wild sovereignty, with a few other themes, topics and tidbits sprinkled in. In today's episode, we are going to be doing our deep dive into the Death card. We are finally here at the place where the destruction that we've been moving through, and the entire of the second line of the tarot, which I call the destruction line, happens. As always, my deep dives are to help you learn how to read each and every card intuitively, to help share some of the ways that I read this card and to engage in a deeper discussion that sometimes I just can't get into when I'm sitting in a tarot reading with a client. Before we get into the episode, though, if I could ask you to leave a review of this podcast if this is your first time here, welcome or if you have listened and liked anything that I have put out before. A review is the best way for the Wolf Child Magic Podcast to grow, because it is you telling other listeners that, hey, I love this episode or I love this podcast. You will too. Thank you so much, and a quick update on events and some new things coming up. A couple things. The first is that if you sign up for free on Patreon, I'm starting to offer some free things to all of the free members as a way to say, hey, I'm glad you're here in any capacity and also maybe to, of course, incentivize you to join the Wolfpack in more, greater capacity with us. We also have the full moon ritual coming up on the 10th, from 6 to 8. This is where we meet via Zoom, we talk about the forecast, we go into witchcraft. We have resources. I give you a page from my grimoire. We have resources. I give you a page for my grimoire. It's just so much, it's just so amazing to come into this supportive space with people like this, because it really does move the needle in times like this. So I hope you will join us in any capacity over at Wolf Child Magic on Patreon. The final event that I have coming up is on the 12th. I will be reading Tarot at Rocky Mountain Punk 4-4 tonight and this theme for this pop-up is Ladies' Night. What is better than punk rock, ladies' Night and Tarot? Nothing, nothing is the answer. So if you are in the Denver area on the 12th. I would love to sit in a reading with you, but there's going to be so many other amazing artists. You can come in and see a place that I just love to read at. It's going to be such a blast. All right, let's go ahead and get into the deep dive of the death card. So the deep dive for death is going to also include the blog post, as it does with all of them, because I share every single depiction of the card that we are talking about, and it's also helpful sometimes just to have this narrative in a written format instead of an audio one. So that is linked. Check the show notes.

Speaker 1: 3:40

But just to back up here and go back to June for a second, in June we discussed the hanged man because the hanged man always comes before the death card and the whole of the second line, from strength or justice at the beginning to temperance at the end, which we're going to discuss next month. We are working through destructive energies. There are energies that are being releasing. We have to let them go. We have to relinquish something when we are moving through these cards grizzlies, heavy footsteps. So throughout the entire second line, that's what's happening. We are moving up into destruction. We are moving up into a death cycle, into something that needs to be let go in a big, transformative way, and the hanged man that comes right before death helps prepare us for this work, because it is important and imperative that we recognize that we can't control these cycles. We don't control these processes because we would most likely never choose them, but the hanged man says that because we can't control them. How do we work with them? How do we find surrender? How do we trust that our wild reclaiming is on the other side of this? How do we accept and embrace and do the internal work so that, when this destruction happens, we can more easily step into it, or we can at least more willingly step into it, even if it's not easy? So the hangman is there to help prepare us for this work that we are about to do with the death card.

Speaker 1: 5:20

In the death card the destruction is happening or has just recently happened, but we're kind of in the liminal space of before, during and after of a death cycle when working with the death card, if we look at the numerology and this article is linked in the show notes it has a few things that we need to recognize when working with the death card, because sometimes when people see the death card, this is one same with the tower, same with the ten of swords swords where people just start to kind of freak out. They get really on edge. And it's not meant to be scary, it's not meant to be sunshine and rainbows either, but the death card has so many gifts to give us. There is so much good that comes from death. It's hard to sometimes see the forest for the trees. But if we look at the numerology here, it says at the beginning that 13, which the death card is in the 13th position.

Speaker 1: 6:16

13 is a number that gives originality, depth of personality and an ability to transform oneself and others. The number 13 resonates with the planet Uranus, which stands for innovation, new ideas, the genius mind and transformation. Number 13 plays a significant role in our culture and has a lot of deep symbolism. To understand this complex number, it is valuable to look at the symbolism in the tarot card for number 13, which is death, which symbolizes that the old must die to bring forth the new. This is true of the outer physical world and our inner universe. The number 13 is the most transformational of all the numbers with digits summed forward, you wish to create transformation on the outside and in the inner world. Therefore, you cannot help but do everything in your own unique way, something that will reflect in your style and taste.

Speaker 1: 7:09

It goes on to say, in relation to the death portion of this, which is linked in the article, the death card is associated with the number 13, which holds significant meaning in numerology. The number 13 is often viewed with superstition and fear, associated with bad luck and misfortune. However, in numerology, it symbolizes transformation, change and the end of cycles. The number 13 encourages the letting go of old patterns and the embrace of new beginnings. The influence of the number 13 on the death card emphasizes the themes of endings and transformation. It suggests that through accepting the end of a cycle, one can embrace new opportunities and experiences. The number 13 encourages resilience and adaptability, highlighting the importance of moving forward and embracing change.

Speaker 1: 7:58

So it's important to try to not hate the death card or fear the death card when it comes forward. Now, this is not easy because, even if we know exactly what the death card is speaking to, we know exactly what death cycle we're in and exactly what we need to do to relinquish and release. That doesn't make it easy. Okay, we're conditioned to not want change because it brings turmoil and pain and tension and chaos, and those are not things that we want to sit in. However, the death card says that the only reason that life has the beauty, potential purpose and meaning that we give it like with spring coming after winter is because death has to be part of the equation. If it wasn't, everything would eventually become stagnant and stuck and just on the cycle, the cycle of repeat, and that's not where the meaning is found. The meaning is found in the ebbs and the flows and the into and out of cycles and the as above, so below, and so when we work with this card, it's important to recognize that, while it's hard, this is where the evolution and the wild reclaiming is taking root, and we have to trust that once we move through this bottleneck and this tightening that comes with death, we will see the expanse, we will feel the relief and the softening as we step into temperance and then, eventually, as we move into the evolution cycle or the evolution line, which is the third line in the major arcana.

Speaker 1: 9:31

So the first way that I read this card is about as straightforward as it gets is that loss makes way for renewal. The old in anything and all things must give way for the new. New beginnings only come from endings, and this is one of the biggest reasons why I discourage perspectives or narratives like love and light, good vibes. Only because there is no such thing we can deny the hard parts of death. I mean again, there are beautiful parts in death, but to deny that death is part of the equation is just silly, because it's there, it's present, and when we deny it, the more that it actually has a hold on us, the more it shows that we haven't done the work with, like the hanged man or any of the cards in the second line, if we're sitting in just love and light and good vibes only, because this is where we transform, like the numerology mentioned and like I've been mentioning, the work has begun, it is happening or had or it has just happened. But we can't turn away, we can't get off the ride at the top of the ferris wheel, we have to wait until the, until the cycle, until the ferris wheel comes back down again.

Speaker 1: 10:49

And if we're sitting in love and light and if we're sitting in the space of good vibes only, what we're doing is dismissing the hard parts of death, yes, but we're also dismissing the beautiful parts that come with this card. We're dismissing that there is a purpose for the ebb and the flow, for the waxing and the waning. We are dismissing all of that because we don't want to sit in a place that pushes on us, pushes on our edges, pushes on our vulnerability and asks us to grow. And that's why I said just a little bit ago that when we are working with the death card, it's important to not fear it, because the more we step into the death card, the more beautiful it's going to be.

Speaker 1: 11:39

On the other side Doesn't mean it's going to be easy, and sometimes it's really hard as fuck to sit in this card and to move through cycles like this. But if we reject it, if we dispel it, if we say no, it's not happening. And I've got my blinders on and I'm just going to look at this one tiny little thing that is comfortable and known and easy. We are missing the landscape, and so loss makes way for renewal. But we have to embrace the loss, we have to embrace the potential for the renewal and then we have to move towards the renewal. It doesn't just happen. I mean, sometimes it does like in nature, when we see like winter and stuff. But we have to be part of the process. That doesn't mean we can control it, but but oftentimes with love and light it's like if I can't control any of it, then if I can't control all of it, I mean I don't want any of it and the death card says sorry. Like this is happening, this is already gaining ground. It's already gaining traction.

Speaker 1: 12:46

Walk with me until we see the light again. Walk with me until we see the light again. Walk with me until we feel grass again. Walk with me until we see the moon come back into view. And once that happens, it sits in us like a stone. That is so meaningful and resonant because we've done the work to get to the place where we can receive that renewal in again. It dawned on me over her lawn that in my peripheral view I could not see you. I walked up and down her block Before the birds began to talk. I could not miss you any more than I do. I'm looking for you. I'm looking for you.

Speaker 2: 14:01

I'm looking for you. I'm looking. After I got through the door, I searched your house for metaphors, found that book you used to live in and a note fell on the floor. I'm looking for you. I'm looking for you. I'm looking for you. I'm looking for you. Boy, I'm looking. I'm looking for you. I'm looking for you. I'm looking for you. I'm looking. Hello from Florida. Hello from France. In Kathmandu I learned to dance. If you're willing to leave you pass behind, I'll forgive you yours, you forgive me mine. I'll take that first flight home tonight. I'm looking at you. I'm looking at you. I'm looking at you. I'm looking. I'm looking at you. I'm looking at you. I'm looking at you. I'm looking at you. Girl, I'm looking at you. I have felt the break of dawn dawned on me over her lawn, that in my peripheral view I could not see you.

Speaker 1: 16:21

The next way that I read the death card is that sacrifice means that our spirit can begin again, cleansed, interconnected and invigorated. When working with the death card, we see and understand that growth doesn't come from our comfort zones. We see at how maturing and gaining wisdom does not come without hardship and we see at how staying small and the same doesn't lead to any sort of depth in our wild spirits. Sacrifice, whether we give it willingly or unwillingly, gives room for us to pick ourselves back up, dust ourselves off, dry our eyes and look to the horizon, look to a new day, look to the expansion, look to how, even if we didn't want it, there's a little bit of freedom now that we didn't have before. So I want to be very clear when I say that as much as the conceptual and spiritual approach to the death is beautiful, to the death card is beautiful, it does not really often feel this way again and that's why I'm saying try not to fear it. That doesn't mean you have to like it In real time and in real life. The death card is hard to sit with and share in the energies of. It's hard to let things go. Hard to sit with and share in the energies of. It's hard to let things go and it's okay to grieve decisions and actions, even ones that we know are the best for us or for our future. And, following that theme, I'm going to share a brief story with you about one of the hardest death cycles I have ever moved through in my entire life, and I was moving through the death card way before I had even picked up a tarot deck.

Speaker 1: 18:06

I had not even thought of or considered reading tarot at this time, but in 2009, I was in not a good place. I was in a relationship that I had been growing apart from this person for well over a year, maybe two but we were still living together. But we weren't sleeping in the same bed. We hadn't slept in the same bed for months and we had gotten a Great Dane puppy as a way to try to like oh, let's do this and we'll have something that brings our relationship together and there's something new to maybe try to help the relationship and of course it didn't. But I got really bonded to this Great Dane Her name was Bella and at the same time that my relationship was really suffering, I was also doing really poorly in college.

Speaker 1: 18:55

I was going to Metro State University and I was failing almost every single class, and at the time my parents were paying for this, and rightfully so. They were like, hey, we're not paying for you to not do well, like you have to do better. And I mean, of course, that's not unreasonable, but I was not thriving at Metro because, one, I didn't know anyone there. Two, it was a huge campus and, three, it wasn't for me. It just everything about this campus was not suited to me as a student. So I knew that something had to change and I decided that I was going to transfer to Greeley and go to the University of Northern Colorado.

Speaker 1: 19:38

But I had postponed making that decision for a very long time because I didn't want to consider leaving my dog. I didn't want to consider what was going to happen between me and Bella, the guy I did not care about at all, like to be honest, it was like bye, um, and his dog I loved, but it was his dog and Bella was more my dog, and so I was like what is going to happen with me and Bella? How am I going to make this work? Because the house I was going to move into had a very small front yard and the backyard was an alleyway that led to a parking lot and my room was really small and it was a really small house. There were five people other than me living in this house. It was just cramped and, you know, tiny and it was a college house. And so then I was like, well, that's really not going to work, because I mean as much as she's a couch potato and she's a Great Dane, she still needs exercise and I'm fully stocked with classes. I also was trying to get a part time job, so I was like she would be alone for a lot of the day in this tiny house.

Speaker 1: 20:42

And again, I was living in Idle Dale. I was living very close to where I live right now and she had a huge yard at this house. She had birds and deer to look at and, you know, chipmunks and squirrels and all of that. She had trails right outside the door. You know there was a creek. She had everything that a dog could want and I was like I can't take her from that and then put her in this tiny house with six people where she would never see me because I would be at school or at work all the time, and then when I did see her. She would have a tiny patch of grass to, you know, to go potty in and to just be a dog, and I was like I cannot do this to her.

Speaker 1: 21:23

And so I then realized that I could not bring my Great Dane with me, that it was just not going to work, because I had tried to find other places with maybe a better yard or a bigger house, and I couldn't afford it. And one of the houses I could was just with one other strange guy and I was like I don't want to move there when I could move into how, into a house with people I know. Um, so that was off the table. So it just nothing about this was able to work and I grieved making this decision for months before I made it. I think I went a whole semester of doing the same thing because I did not want to make this decision, but I knew that I had to and I eventually did, and she has obviously since passed, because she was born in 2008, early 2009. I don't know, she was born in 2007 even, and it's 2025, you know, and she was a Great Dane. So she has obviously since passed away and I try to talk to her and to tell her how much I loved her and to connect with her in spirit because I never, ever wanted to give her up. I still have her collar, I still think of her a lot, I still have very fond memories of her. I loved this dog so much.

Speaker 1: 22:39

But I knew I had to make this decision and that was a huge death cycle that I had to move through. And I still grieve that decision today. I don't grieve it in the form of it was wrong. It was the right decision to make. I grieve it because that is not what I ever wanted to do to her or to me or to us, but I had to and I share this to say that that is what working with the death card is often like. Sometimes it's smaller, sometimes it's easier, sometimes it's even bigger and harder and more um overwhelming than what mine was, you know, and there's no like competition on that. I'm just bringing this up to say that when working with the death card, we have to make hard decisions and we have to be rooted in our spirits in order to make those decisions. And I knew in my spirit I could not stay in this life and simply just let this life happen to me because I was scared to reach for something else. And so I reached for something else and unfortunately that was one of the things I had to let go else. And so I reached for something else and unfortunately that was one of the things I had to let go of, and it was one of the hardest things I have ever had to let go of.

Speaker 1: 23:49

The last way that I read the death card is that entering into our evolution is to let go of what is holding us back. Find your courage to soar to new heights and that goes into what I talked about just now with my story. But the minute that we begin to let death lessen what is not serving us or what we need to let go of, that is where our evolution begins, and we will see this kind of taking root when we talk about temperance in August. But when we embrace the process that was kind of hopefully taught to us or opened the door to us from the hanged man, we emerge into the light more wild, aligned and connected to the energies that truly serve our spirits. We're able to show up in a better way. Once we move through the death card. I was able to move into a situation where I absolutely thrived in college. I was able to move into a situation where my writing took off, where I met old friends, where I met new friends, where I formed connections with professors that I hold to this day.

Speaker 1: 24:54

We evolve when we let the death card do what it needs to do Again. It's not easy, but it will happen and those energies of our evolution will come. What we have to do is to find the courage to let the process unfold. We can do some of the things that are within our control of supporting ourselves, helping ourselves, but we can't control the process, and so we have to kind of trust that it's gonna. It's gonna happen and we'll kind of feel it before we know it. And I can definitely say that was true for me in college Like I just felt so much better at times and I felt so much more alive and in my power than I had at probably any point in that relationship, and at the same time I was grieving that decision that I made. So when we find the courage to invert ourselves and be suspended in the discomfort of the hanged man, and then we have the courage to let the death cycle come in and do what it's going to do, we bear witness to the fact that we are growing, we are learning, we are rewilding and we are evolving through that process.

Speaker 1: 26:06

Before we shift gears and talk about the symbolism across the death cards from all my different decks, I just want to reiterate this that when you look to nature, that's one of the best ways to embrace a death cycle that maybe you're going through.

Speaker 1: 26:23

When you look to the potential of what could come, that's one of the best ways to move through the death card and the death cycles that you're moving through. When we look at the things that make us feel alive, that is one of the best ways to embrace this process and trust that, just like in nature or whatever, is serving you, whether that's animals, whether that's a story, whether that's myth, whether that's people in your life with their stories or their support. No matter what, you need to move through the death card. Hopefully it will remind you that, yes, like everything else, you are not immune from the death cycles of life and from the death card, but what that also means is that you are also equally as worthy for the evolution and for the potentials and for the new beginnings that are better for you and for your future too hungry to eat out, too dressed up to stay in?

Speaker 2: 27:40

I guess I'll call and ask around see if someone's in for the win. And we all got different highs and no one likes to wait. No, no, patience, it's a death dance. We ain't got nothing to lose. Staring up is what we do, me and my. We take what we want. We are the colors and the middle. Way's no way. We are the highway, we are the highway. We are the highway and we ain't got nothing to lose.

Speaker 2: 28:44

Too cool to be bad, too awesome to be cruel. Fast cars don't appeal to us. We run things, don't talk it through, and every day is a victory when we don't have to wait and no, patience is a death dance. We ain't got nothing to lose. Staring up is what we do, me and mom. We take what we want. We are the colors and the middle is no way. We are the highway, we are the highway. We ain't got nothing. The city lights match our eyes, smokey rays make way, double trouble in paradise. And patience, it's a death dance. We ain't got nothing to lose. We ain't got nothing to lose. Staring up is what we do, me and Mo. We take what we want. We are the colors and the middle way's. No way, we are the highway. We are the highway and we ain't got nothing to lose, thank you.

Speaker 1: 30:52

So now let's look at the depictions across the death cards from my different decks. I fully encourage and invite you to pull out the death cards from your personal tarot decks. Follow along, see what you are seeing in yours. That may be similar or different to mine. One of the first things I will say is that the death card is one of the cards in the Major Arcana where the imagery is kind of all over the place. That doesn't mean that we won't see a lot of the same symbolism, as we will get to at the end of all of my depictions and see if you can point it out, see if you can see what I'm seeing, or see if you can see a recurring symbol that continues to come up, because, I'm going to tell you right now, it comes up in almost every single depiction across my death cards. So follow along, see if you can find it at the end We'll share it but also see if it's in your deck or see if it's in your depiction of death. Excuse me, but the death card is one that, even with decks that are heavily inspired by the Rider Waite, the Death card is one that takes a lot of liberties. There's a lot of leeway when it comes to the illustration of the Death card, and I think that that's for two reasons. One, because, while the illustration of the Death card in the Rider Waite is beautiful, it's the armored skeleton with the flag on the white horse coming across, this kind of gruesome battle scene. It is a very beautiful depiction, but in more modern or different takes. You either have to really stick to that or you have to really move away from that. The other thing is that death as a concept just gives us so much to work with, both physically and conceptually, so I think that's why this is one that just has a lot of different depictions or a lot of different imagery, even with decks that are again inspired heavily by the Rider-Waite, starting off with the very first image you will see at the top of my blog post. I had to put it there because this is from my newest deck and it's the Nightmare Before Christmas Tarot. Oh my gosh. I love it so much and I finally broke down and got it. I'm not a deck buyer I don't buy myself a lot of decks so I've just been seeing people in my life and pictures of this deck online and I was just swooning. And then one day I was at a store with Grizzly and it was there and I was like you're coming home today, we're just we're doing it, but you will see that we have the skeleton or the skull and we have the gates that lead into the cemetery and Halloween town. So gates are obviously a symbol of transition and change and transformation, with the kind of life into death aspect when we move from outside of a cemetery into a cemetery.

Speaker 1: 33:43

But what I also love about this is because if you've seen the movie at all which if you haven't, go, stop me and go and watch this movie because it's one of my favorites, but it's just, it's incredible, it's cult for a reason, but we see that there's a lot of activity in the cemetery as well. This is kind of where all of the people in Halloween Town do certain things. We see it's where Sally gathers the nightshade, it's where Jack goes to be a more closer the moon, it's where Zero's little dog house is, and so there's a lot of activity in this cemetery. So I love that this is the depiction for death, because it shows that it's not, that it is a lessening, but it's not from, you know, from everything into nothing, it's just from one form into another, and that's one thing to remind ourselves with the death card is that we have to remind ourselves that it's not feast or famine, it's just things are changing and transitioning and that is hard again, but being there through the process we can find the deadly nightshade, we can go and see zero. You know, we can find these good things that are happening when working with the death card.

Speaker 1: 34:58

From the Guardian of the Night tarot we see an owl, which obviously represents wisdom and the mystery and magic of the night, taking a mouse away from its thorny nest. The thorns did not protect the mouse and there's a lesson in that, or a symbolic narrative in that, that sometimes the decision that we make because we think it's safe is still not the right decision. So here I mean again, this is very much a personification. But here it might have even been better to leave and make a new nest somewhere else, because the thorns did not protect, the thorns didn't do their purpose. And so that's an invitation with death that sometimes, when we make decisions out of a desperate need to try to feel this sense of security and safety, it might help and it might work. But is that oftentimes in our best interest. You know what I mean In that kind of metaphorical, conceptual sense. Is it better to stay small and do things the safe way, or is this a time where we fully embrace the cycle and really make the decision and that ultimately leads to more success? You know, that's just something to think about.

Speaker 1: 36:10

From the Darkwood Tarot we have this skeletal figure with a scythe and an hourglass cutting through the forest, and the one on the bottom right with the kind of very ashen color and the wings is set in the guidebook to be the vampire hanged man from the hanged man card that we just had. So that's a symbol in and of itself that the hangman sets us up to do the work and then death comes in and does his work and then it's done. Then we can't go back. We have the little girl who symbolizes kind of the young stage of life, the innocence of the young stage of life and also the innocence of looking at death without judgment, which we are called to do. We're called to kind of see where the good things are and to just embrace and accept, which children are so good at doing. And then the cycles of the hourglass are unending. They just keep turning and turning and turning.

Speaker 1: 37:06

From the herb crafter's tarot we have this beautiful scene of Dia de los Muertos, with the celebratory altar and the herbal accompaniment is marigold and the scent of the flower is said to be used to help the souls that are now departed find their way to their family home after burial. We have the painted skull, the sugar skull, we have the flags and we have the monarch butterfly. That symbolizes the transformation, with the cycle of life, death and rebirth. And one of the thing, one of the things I love about this depiction from this deck is just how bright and beautiful it is, whereas some other depictions it's going to be very dark, it's going to be almost macabre, and here it's just full of life. We have the 13 candles symbolizing the number that we talked about. It's just such a beautiful depiction.

Speaker 1: 37:58

And then from the crow tarot we have the spirit of the crow rising from the lifeless body. It flies towards the clouds and freedom is obtained. And the poppies that are in the bottom there symbolize remembrance, sleep, funeral rites, the underworld and the quieting of the body. And that's important to remember when we're doing the work with the death card is that this is maybe a really good time to soften and lessen even things in ourselves so that can help us better do the work with the lessening that's happening with the death card. So this might be a time when working with this card to really connect, to sleep, to connect to just quiet things you know, like reading or taking a bath, or going for a walk, just things to do to help the body be as supported as possible so that we can do the work of the death card.

Speaker 1: 38:54

And then we have, from the wild unknown, probably one of the most macabre scenes, because here the bird is not just dead but it's like actually decaying. And I always feel that with this grisly image comes this forced reckoning that we often get when we see things like this in nature. I know that I feel that where you're walking and then all of a sudden it's like, oh, there's that. But that's also the same way it is with death, that when it happens we're kind of shocked or we might feel like the rug has been pulled out. It's kind of something that's now here that we weren't even expecting, but now we can't turn or look away. And that's what we have to do with death. We have to confront it and we have to see the cycle that's taking place, because what we don't see here, we see the grisly image, but in reality the soil is actually being enriched from the decaying remains of the animals. So with the death of the bird comes life of the soil and then life of plants which feed insects and pollinators, and those feed other animals, and the cycle continues once again From the Mystical Dream Tarot.

Speaker 1: 40:04

Okay, there is so much to unpack here, but the name of death in this deck is Wise Fox. The skeleton and the woman represent the dancing between life and death. And the angel sits on the whiskers of the fox, pulling on the intuitive senses. That's how animals perceive, and it's pulling on that sense of perception away from deep loss and into the fact that a new beginning is possible. And the fox itself, which is kind of the front and center symbol with this duck that's the title. They symbolize cunningness, transformation and a connection to the wisdom of nature, which is kind of the front and center symbol with this duck that's the title. They symbolize cunningness, transformation and a connection to the wisdom of nature, cycles and time, and that's again something we're really going to need when doing the work of death.

Speaker 1: 40:48

The Bird King Tarot shows again the cycles moving. The great beast has fallen and now the birds are on top scavenging and taking what they can from a body of a great and mighty creature in life. And again that, just like the wild, unknown depiction, we see this kind of cycle of life happening amidst the cycle of death. From the spirit animal tarot we have the deadhead's moth with omen of death. The moth was sometimes seen as an omen of death, a messenger from the spirit world, a spirit that has passed but returned to earth, or a symbol of immortality. The moth is naturally associated with magic spirits, inner visions and the darkness of night. Moth tells us that again, the cycle doesn't end, it just changes, and I love the kind of spiral that we see in the moon there, which is reflection of the cycles.

Speaker 1: 41:34

Once again, from the Ostara Tarot, we show a vulture with human hands. The hands represent manipulation and control, but the vulture represents this animal part of the world because they're the cleanup crew of the wilderness, eating the dead and rotting meat, but ultimately that is helpful in maintaining the health of the entire ecosystem. I mean seriously go and Google it how important vultures are for their ecosystem and how many lives they save by doing what they do. So the two together show the spectrum of what is needed and also what is frivolous in times of death, like certain things we can't control and we just need to stop trying. We also have the vines kind of coming out of the eyes and the water, so it's the symbol of new. Life is happening, and where can we place energy in our hands through that and where are we doing some cleanup work? That's just making us feel good but it's not helping the overall ecosystem, if that makes sense.

Speaker 1: 42:33

From the tarot of dragons we see that the dragon has stripped the people and the animals down to the bone, and one of the people was clearly someone of power with the crown and the sword at their feet, and this is a reminder that death comes for all things. So, like I said, we're none of us are immune from that, but that also means that all of us are worthy of the evolution, the next and the next beginning, and power and might and money and wealth can't stop these things. Only a willing surrender can ease the process and help set us up for a better future. From the Hush Tarot we have a Batalure Eagle I think that's how you say that Able to fly for long periods and even perform acrobats in the air, and they can fly really high. Able to fly for long periods and even perform acrobats in the air, and they can fly really high. This animal shows us that one of the things that can truly help our process with death is to keep a vision on a much higher and longer view than on the one that's right in front of you. If we were just to look at the nest with the eggs and the skull, it looks again very grisly. But when we keep our eyes fixed on the horizon, fixed on the evolution, fixed on the possibility, that's where the hard parts of death are lessened and some of the really good parts of death come forward or come through even more.

Speaker 1: 43:47

And then our final two. We have the Shadowscapes, tarot, which shows the phoenix, and this is again a very different depiction. Many show a lot of bones or skulls, but not all are as macabre as like the wild unknown. But here it's very beautiful and in the light, I would say. We have the phoenix with the girl on the chest, we have the flames coming from the wings, we have the spirals in the sky and the spirals down below, and phoenixes are obviously this symbol of rebirth and regeneration arising from the ashes. So we have this theme or this image that radiates positivity and rebirth. And just like we talked about with the death from the hush tarot, death is a promise, but rebirth is just as much a part of that promise, if we allow it to be.

Speaker 1: 44:41

And then from the Grimalkin's Curious Cat Tarot we have another Dia de los Muertos scene. Can't get enough of those. The bones of the cat are where the energies of divinity and rebirth are found. The skin has fallen away and the bones reveal the authenticity of life and the beautiful story that is life. The beautiful flowers remind us that we can only see certain things when other things have fallen away. And then we have the clouds, we have the woman phoenix thing, we have the fire, we have the crows. So again, it's a lot of similar themes that we've seen, where there's a lot of sparse or harsh symbolism, like the desert, the fire. But then we have the very beautiful things, like the anatomical heart, the flowers on the cat and this woman in the background kind of holding everything in her embrace. So it's very beautiful.

Speaker 1: 45:35

And now comes the question did you see the one thing that came up in almost every single image. I could even argue, every image it's wings. If you did not have that, it is okay, but now I invite you to go and look at your death cards because I will almost guarantee you that there are wings of some kind. Every single depiction in my decks has either wings or a winged animal. Even if the animal can no longer fly like in the Wild Unknown, we still have that imagery in place. So, with all of these from the Tarot of Dragons, we have the dragon, we have the phoenix, we have the vultures, we have the eagle, the moth, the birds, with the Hush or not, with the Hush Tarot, the Bird King Tarot, we have the Angel and the Mystical Dream tarot, birds and Birds again. We have butterflies, owls and we have the wings on the creature in the Darkwood tarot. The only one that does not have wings which I would argue could be wings is in the Nightmare Before Christmas tarot. But I could kind of argue that that skull is meant to be representative of Jack and then his bow tie is a bat. So there you have, wings again. But wings are incredibly important and symbolic when talking about death, because wings represent transformation, vision, transcendence and freedom, all things that we will get with the death card. All of these things will be found when we do the work with death, and one of the other things that wings symbolize is the ability to move and to adapt and to overcome. So wings are going to be seen heavily in the death card. So take a look at your death card depictions and see if you see wings Again. We have them so much in my depictions.

Speaker 1: 47:44

Before we close this episode out, I want to read the poem Death from my book Major Arcana, a Poetry Collection. You can purchase this book down below. This is one of my pride and joys. I knew once I started reading tarot that I wanted to write a poem on every single major arcana card and eventually every single tarot card. And no joke, 100% facts. The death card is my favorite poem in this book. I mean, I love them all because I wrote them, but the death card is the one that needed the least finessing and editing. It came out almost exactly as I'm going to read it to you. I changed like a few tiny little things and tweaked it, but it was almost perfect and ready to go the minute I wrote it and I think that that was just because that poem was sitting inside me for so long and just needed to come out that way and I really wanted to honor it. So here is my poem Death from my book Major Arcana, a poetry collection, death In another life.

Speaker 1: 48:49

I was born from a doe as a woman.

Speaker 1: 48:53

Carrying me was her form of goodbye.

Speaker 1: 48:56

I wore the smell of dirt and carved myself into the trees until they knew me. My heart was a pine cone, a firework of wood. There was no tremble in my legs, no need to search for the sure-footed step. I was a beautiful thing for the sure-footed step. I was a beautiful thing, language on my tongue of the bees. Our work never done, because tomorrow hinges on surviving with what we are given today.

Speaker 1: 49:24

But I was imperfect. I desired hands that would hold me together and wash me down until every scrape and stick of blood memory was gone. I crossed over as a small red baby kicking to run before I even came through the interstitial skin. But the howl in my head never left. Now I know that I am always of a beast. I am what makes the myth. My skin longs to know. The trees again, steeples of the forest. Now, when I see a fawn, I wonder are you my mother? I would like to thank my Patrons Deb Guy, bobby McDermid, lisa Zimmerman, nicole Smith, tracy Lanham, kim Hartnett, chris Rhee, miranda Snow, colleen Toohey, charlie Ruggles, shannon Konendyke and Makai Rose. Thank you all so much for your support in me and in Wolfchild Magic, and until next time, dear listener, take care. Bye you.