Faeries Oracle

Card 53 - Death

Natural, timely endings. Release. Liberation.

Scary, eh? Before you panic, let's remember that if it were not for Death and her hard work, we would all be up to our ears in alligators, mayflies, each other, and just about everything else. Without her to clear the world, there would be no room for growth or new life. This applies to all the realms - physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and other.

The Death card in all oracles - faery, tarot, and other - does not usually signify actual physical death. In fact, that is rarely the meaning. Rather it indicates a significant change, one that involves letting go of the old life in order to move forward into the new. What we really fear about death is the unknown, the "what next?" of it all. We may be experiencing great pain as a result of holding on to aspects of life that we have outgrown, but humans tend to hold on anyway because we don't know what is next. We want guarantees, and instead we get open doors into unknown, darkened spaces. Yet, when we go through these doors, closing them behind us, we discover a whole new world - one in which we can grow and develop into more of what we have the potential of being.

So, here we see Death, her face hidden, without form, holding a dark crystal ball. She herself cannot herself see the future.

Starter Reading

Something has reached a natural ending, and there is substantial and irrevocable change in the works. This change may be inner or outer or, most likely, both. It is timely and natural, but there may be much resistance to it. Leaves fall every autumn; in the spring the trees are green again with new leaves. Make room for the new in your life - let the old go, lovingly, gently, willingly.

Reversed

Important change is being blocked or delayed by clinging to old habits or things, and therefore the changes that need to happen appear to be difficult and forced upon us. Yet, releasing these outgrown and outworn ways of being must happen in order to move into the next stage of development. Meditating upon breathing in truth and breathing out not-truth may be helpful. (Not-truth may be false information or it may be simply confusion or muddle. We don't have to know what it is or look at it; we just need to exhale the energy of not-truth.)

It is important to look to the future, however unknown or frightening, rather than trying to tug the past along with us - it may seem impossibly difficult, but the only way to reduce the pain of this process is to step forward into the future willingly.

The Faery Challengers