Death As Essential

The third card that often strikes fear in the hearts of many a querant is Death and does not mean physical death at all... rather, it portrays symbolic death...a change or transformation. Often, it heralds the end of a familiar or more comfortable mode. It conveys a release which is necessary for growth and expansion. Perhaps it even brings a whole new set of principles which will guide you spiritually, emotionally, psychologically or financially.


The Death card signifies getting down to only the essential, and relinquishing everything that is no longer necessary. One natural image to apply to the Death card is that of Autumn and Winter before the Spring. There has to be a period of fields resting fallow and trees dormant and without leaves before new buds and sprouts can appear.


In readings, Death often represents an important ending that will initiate great change. It signals the end of an era; a moment when a door is closing. At such times, there may be sadness and reluctance, but also relief and a sense of completion. Death also suggests getting down to basics. Dying has a way of making you concentrate on what's important. This card reminds you to cut out the unnecessary. Death can also mean you will experience an inexorable force. Death is inevitable, and sometimes there are events that are inescapable as well. When these moments occur, the best approach is to ride your fate and see where it takes you.

"What Is...?" Wednesday

Ash Wednesday, originally called dies cinerum (day of ashes) is mentioned in the earliest copies of the Gregorian Sacramentary and probably dates from at least the 8th Century. One of the earliest descriptions of Ash Wednesday is found in the writings of the Anglo-Saxon abbot Aelfric (955-1020). In his Lives of the Saints, he writes, "We read in the books both in the Old Law and in the New that the men who repented of their sins bestrewed themselves with ashes and clothed their bodies with sackcloth. Now let us do this little at the beginning of our Lent that we strew ashes upon our heads to signify that we ought to repent of our sins during the Lenten fast." 


Aelfric then proceeds to tell the tale of a man who refused to go to church for the ashes and was accidentally killed several days later in a boar hunt... This quotation confirms what is said in many other sources, that throughout the Middle Ages ashes were sprinkled on the head, rather than anointed on the forehead as it is common practice today.


In the typical Ash Wednesday observance, Christians are invited to the altar to receive the imposition of ashes, prior to receiving the holy Supper. The Pastor applies ashes in the shape of the cross on the forehead of each, while speaking the words, "For dust you are and to dust you shall return" (Genesis 3:19). This is of course what God spoke to Adam and Eve after they eaten of the forbidden fruit and "fallen into sin."  This was then interpreted as Adam and Eve experienced the fruit of their sin, namely death. 

Today, this  Christian practice reminds parishioners of their sinfulness and mortality and their need to repent and get right with God before it is too late. Ash Wednesday is the day after Fat Tuesday (in Christian circles) or  as we all know it...Mardi Gras.

Mourning Monday

Growing up, I was always taught that law enforcement was a public institution to look up to... they were people we could count on when we were in need of help, folks to be respected. Somewhere in time, the public has become jaded, forgetful and respect for law enforcement has nearly ceased to exist. Yesterday, this disrespect was vividly demonstrated just two short hours North of here...

TACOMA, Wash. --Four police officers were shot and killed Sunday morning as they sat working on their laptops at a Washington state coffeehouse in what authorities called a targeted ambush. Pierce County Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said officers were looking for one male suspect who fled on foot, but haven't ruled out an accomplice said the four officers killed -- three men and a woman from the Lakewood Police Department -- were in uniform and catching up on paperwork at the beginning of their shifts when they were attacked at 8:15 a.m.Investigators believe the officers were targeted, and it was not a robbery.

Troyer would not release their names. It wasn't clear whether the officers even had time to draw their weapons to return fire, Troyer said."This was more of an execution. Walk in with the specific mindset to shoot police officers," Troyer said. There were two employees and a few other customers in the shop. All are being interviewed by the Pierce County Sheriff's investigators."Some are in shock. They are very upset," Troyer said. "They are the ones who are going to put together for us how this happened."

He could not immediately say what agency the officers were from. The Forza Coffee Shop, part of a popular local chain, is on a side street near McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, about 35 miles south of Seattle. The shop is in a small retail center alongside two restaurants, a cigar store and a nail salon."The four of them are known by everybody here," Troyer said. "We haven't got any information as to why this happened."

Streets around the coffee shop were blocked off late Sunday morning, and a police helicopter hovered over a large crowd of investigators Dave Gabrielson, a clerk at Foot Mart about a block away from the coffee shop, told the newspaper all was quiet when he opened the store at 8 a.m. About 30 minutes later, "All of a sudden a million cops were zooming up and down the road," Gabrielson said.He said he saw officers bring a police dog into a nearby apartment complex.The baristas who were inside the shop are "stunned and shocked, traumatized," Troyer said."We hopefully will have answers, but there is nothing more we can tell you,"

Troyer told KING-TV. "That's as cold-hearted as it is."Last month, Seattle police officer Timothy Brenton was shot and killed Halloween night as he was sitting in a cruiser with trainee Britt Sweeney.Sweeney was grazed in the neck.Authorities say the man charged with that shooting also firebombed four police vehicles in October as part of a "one-man war" against law enforcement. Christopher Monfort, 41, was arrested days after the Seattle shooting and remains hospitalized.

I hope that you will keep the families of these slain officers in your hearts and send some healing thoughts their way.

Tarot Tuesday

With all the great giveaway's and prizes this month on several blogs all the way  up to  Halloween, I  just had to use my favorite deck for this season...The Halloween Tarot  by Karin Lee with artwork by Kipling West. I use this one quite a lot this time of year and folks really get a kick out of it's whimsical characters and their escapades. I drew the card  Death and I know I've pulled this card for Tarot Tuesday from another deck before but the happy little skeleton just grabbed my attention.

The first image that jumps right out there is the skeleton's expression as he waters two large grinning pumpkins. On this card it seems that everything is light hearted, even the two sunflowers at the edge of the card are smiling. Death,  indeed, is not a dark or frightening prospect... it is a natural, regenerative and transformational process of life... in fact if we do not weed out the old.. the new cannot take root. Endings are necessary in order for new growth (progress) to occur.

Although endings can be sudden, unexpected and yes, even shocking, it jolts us out of our ruts and into a new way of being. Instead of bemoaning that which was lost and gone...look for the gifts and new possibilities that can now take place. As the old saying goes " When one door closes, another one will open."

Here are some places to visit this month:

Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom

Pagan in the Rough

 Domestic Witch

The Play of Light and Shadow

If I haven't missed you, please let me know what spook-tacular  stuff is happening on your blog!

Tarot Shadow Work- The Present

I was going to continue with last weeks subject (the past,) but I think that I will forge on and talk about how my shadow affects me in my present day. Keeping in mind that the card I am comparing is The World (Chasing rainbows rather than living in the here and now) and the card in the third position of The Star Of Discovery,  Death.

Now, when most people see the Death card, images begin to flood the mind of a dimly lit little shop with jars of mysterious contents and a very spooky old gypsy reading fortunes and announcing that "There is great trouble ahead..." when in all actuality, Death simply means that one phase  or circumstance in your life is ending and a new one is beginning, bringing with it opportunities and choices that you may not have had before. In the Shadow meaning, Death represents blocking sad feelings, the mask that you wear and show to the world, staying stuck and an unwillingness to experience emotional pain.

Looking at these two cards together, it is glaringly obvious that in the "here and now" I have a tendancy to remove myself from any situation that may or may not cause me emotional pain and choose to occupy my mind with silly  trivial things rather than deal with it, heal and move on. I always chalked it up to my only child status but upon digging deeper, I believe the pattern started as a way to insulate myself from all the trauma and discord in my home life. When things got rough at home between my mom and dad, I often ended up at grandma and grandpa's  so that I could be away from the insanity but I think it may have set me up for a pattern of running away and hiding from emotional situations.

I'm a grown adult now, and I can look back upon those childhood year not with resentment or anger but a sense of "Ah Ha, that's why I react this way or that and I am able to grow and become stronger and more grounded. I don't regret anything I experienced as a kid because without those experiences in my life I would not be who I am today and I feel pretty darned good in my own skin!

Hauntings And Ghosts And Spirits...Oh My!

YOU KNOW YOU ARE A GHOST HUNTER IF...

1.)Your calendar of events has more ghost hunting dates than birthdays and anniversaries.

2.)You have a closet dedicated to ghost hunting equipment

3.)Your computer is book marked with ghost hunt equipment stores and e-bay favorites for ghost equipment

4.)Your address book contains a notation of G.H. or a complete section of ghost hunters

5.)You have at least ten videotapes of ghost investigations.

6.)You have at least two digital cameras and an assortment of tape recorders.

7.)Your idea of a great night out is not dinner but a cemetery at midnight.

8.)You have more ghost and orb pictures than you have pictures of your friends and relatives.

9.)You take more pictures in the dark than in the daylight

10.)Midnight is your favorite hour


But seriously folks....What exactly is a ghost...? Where do they come from..? How does this widely reported phenomenon occur exactly? These questions have been residing in our psyche almost since the dawn of time. Yesterday, I wrote about Summerland....a beautiful place that our energy or soul, as some call it, goes after our bodies die. What we do there... what we experience while there... no one really knows but I have a theory about what happens in the strange and unusual cases of reported ghosts and hauntings.

It is my belief that after passing...our energy... spirit or soul (however you wish to call it) goes on to a higher plane, either that of a higher vibration or state of being and we become part of the collective consciousness, Akashik Record (or Universal Mind as I refer to it)... it is a vast repository of all that has ever been thought or said. But what if one were to leave this world that we exist in now in a violent or emotionally distraught state? Do they go into this Universal Mind or does part of their energy remain behind as place memories, greed or of a life not lived?

I firmly believe that sometimes those who are not satisfied in this world, who are greedy and want more life do stick around and can be rather disturbing and rude pockets of negative energy. I think that those who maybe are not aware that they are no longer alive continue to exist in a state of confusion and maybe even a dreamlike state...wandering; searching, not quite aware of what has happened. Then sometimes, I think that there are those memories of those who were so attached to an object or person leave traces of themselves behind and become what are called residual hauntings.

I have seen what most ghost enthusiasts call "Shadow People" and often caught myself scoffing at the idea that that was a real occurrence....but after starting to step from the bathroom and into the hallway, catching myself and stepping back because something was headed down the hall towards me on a collision course (had I stepped fully into the hall) and realizing it wasn't one of my children because they generally don't vanish in front of my eyes, I swiftly and shakily reevaluated my position and was not quite as taken by surprise the next few times.

I do not claim to know all the answers, these things I have blogged about today are simply theories that my rational yet spiritual mind tells me. I'm not sure what will happen to me after my body dies but I do know there is something out there beyond what our human minds can comprehend, there is so much more than our senses can tell us while we are in this state of being. Maybe one day after I pass on, I will write from the great unknown in a tell all book.

Serenity Sunday

What happens after death? No one can say for sure but I believe that only the body dies.... The soul or energy lives on since energy cannot be destroyed. Some people say that it journeys to a realm variously known as the Summerlands, Land of the Faerie, the Shining. After I die, I believe I will go to the Summerland which is kind of like the wiccan equivalent of heaven, but since I do not believe in the devil, I do not believe in hell either.

It is said the Summerland is where the spirits that presently do not have an earthly body wait for the right time to return to earth to fulfill the lessons we have not yet learned. It is known by many names and is often referred to as the Land of Eternal Summer and seen as a gorgeous, lush green field, with beauty and trees all around you, with a bright blue sky and a few puffy white clouds, cute little animals...

My List:

1.) My kids

2.) my cats

3.) kisses

4.) The scent of my roses drifting in my open window at night.

5.) Holding hands

6.) Dreaming

7.) Tide with bleach

8.) Hyssop and rose petals in the tub

9.) Whispers in my ear

10.) Smiles

Oh, The Humanity...

These were the tragic headlines Monday as reported by CNN:

PARIS, France (CNN) -- The jet carrying 228 people from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, that disappeared overnight as it entered an area of strong turbulence probably crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, the CEO of Air France said Monday. Brazilian and French ships and planes were looking for any sign of the missing plane, authorities said. The chances of finding any survivors were "very low," French President Nicolas Sarkozy admitted Monday.

What follows as the article continues, is far more disturbing than the disaster itself...

The airline company identified the nationalities of the victims as two Americans, an Argentinean, an Austrian, a Belgian, 58 Brazilians, five British, a Canadian, nine Chinese, a Croatian, a Dane, a Dutch, an Estonian, a Filipino, 61 French, a Gambian, 26 Germans, four Hungarians, three Irish, one Icelandic, nine Italians, five Lebanese, two Moroccans, three Norwegians, two Polish, one Romanian, one Russian, three Slovakian, two Spanish, one Swedish, six Swiss and one Turk. An official list of victims by name was not available late Monday.

As I sat listening to the nightly news, the same phrases were used over and over until my bloody ears were ringing..."Among the victims were two Americans...." Hello...news dudes...did anybody notice that in this crash there were 228 PEOPLE that perished?! Does it really make it so much worse because there were a couple of Americans on board...is it not quite real unless there are Americans involved?!

Hey, life lost is life lost and no matter what nationality these passengers were... there are families left grieving their loved ones...Wondering how this could happen and planning funerals that are way too soon... Wishing they could see them just one more time, just one more hug or kiss or even to hear them say "I love you" one last time. Has society lost it's ever loving mind? Sadly this is not a recent observation...I've heard it time and again for as long as I can remember, every time such a tragedy occurs... Among the dead were Americans....

Tonight, I keep in my heart those that perished before their time and the devastated family members they left behind, may the love of the goddess heal your anguish and lessen your pain.....

Serenity Sunday

What happens when we die? This is a question no one can answer, given that no one has been to death and back to tell us the truth. Christians believe that the good go to Heaven while the sinners go to hell, and Buddhists and Hindus believe we are reincarnated until we reach nirvana. What do wiccans believe? Well, as the Wiccan religion isn't exactly an organized religion, it depends on who you ask.

Most wiccans believe in the Summerland, which is a paradise much like the christian heaven. All people, except spirits who remain behind lost and wandering, go to the Summerland, even the wicked. The Summerland will be different for everyone, their own version of Shangri-La. There, they can be reunited with their loved ones, look over those they left behind on Earth, and take time to recuperate from life. Our time in the Summerland is spent processing what we learned, recovering from the hardships, walking with the Lord and Lady and being one with them, and then planning our next life.

I have never really sat down and thought about reincarnation but I have entertained the idea of rather than another life we are to live...what if it's more like the next level or plane of existence that we are transitioned into. I do believe that when our bodies die, our energy (or soul if you choose,) does indeed go on...to me I envision it as a veil of sorts. This energy is around us all of the time but we cannot see it as it is just beyond our vibrational plane.....but as I've said, I have really not explored this area of belief in depth but that would be an excellent topic for a future blog!

My List

1.) My children

2.) My cats

3.) My friends

4.) The cool green grass beneath my bare feet

5.) Warm rain on my face on a summer evening

6.) The smell of fresh baked bread

7.) The laughter of small children

8.) The rush of my breath as I inhale deeply

9.) Finding a new grey hair on my head

10.) Nighttime chirping of crickets and croaking of frogs

I picked a few unusual things to be grateful for this week, there were a couple losses in my little corner of the world and I believe that the things I love to complain about the most are probably the most important things that I would miss in my life. How easy it is to go about life and grouse about what isn't right in my life, but what about that which is right? Notice the little things...that annoying snore your partner has...the irritating way that your children smack their lips when they chew gum or finding coffee and sugar sloshed on the counter and not wiped up... because if all that were gone the empty silence would be deafening.