Letting Go of Fear
Christine Jette’s wonderful book, Tarot for the Healing Heart, teaches how to use tarot for issues of health and healing on all levels. For so many readers, this is the core of our work. Solving problems may be the first step, but then we usually dig deeper to find roots or causes that underpin the symptoms the initial reading presents. Jette includes a meditation on the Death card to support releasing of fear. The meditation is excerpted below:
The Death card, No. 13, traditionally means transformation, rebirth, letting go, and permanent change. It rarely signifies physical death, but for the purposes of this meditation, that is exactly what it means—coming to terms with your own mortality.
When you are able to accept your own death as inevitable, you gain a broader perspective of your life direction and the choices you are now making. Priorities become clearer and change is easier to make. The Death card meditation will assist you in understanding that the secret to being eternal is the capacity to give and receive love.
Pull from your tarot deck No. 13, the Death card. Sit comfortably and prop the card up in front of you. Allow the edges of the card to soften in your gaze. Concentrate on slow deep breathing.
As you gaze at Death, think about your own death. To get you started, answer the following questions: What odes dying mean to you? Are you afraid to die?
Pretend you are writing your own obituary. Let your whole life pass before you. How do you want to be remembered? What are your accomplishments? What gives your life meaning and purpose? What is the one thing you wish you could do that you have not yet done?
What has been the most significant death in your own life? If you have not experienced the death of a close friend or loved one, anticipate how would feel if a significant person in your life dies tomorrow. What do you fear most about this death? Record all your insights into your healing journal.
We can’t force ourselves to let go of fear of death, but by understanding how fear operates in our lives, we have a greater chance of releasing it. When we operate from a fear-based philosophy, it is difficult to give and receive love. In fear, love becomes possession and fear of loss controls our actions.
Somewhere along the way, we become fearful of death. When we operate out of fear, we set up the wrong life. When fear is released, we are then in a position to give and receive love without hidden agendas. By letting go of fear we choose a healing cycle—to become who we truly are instead of who we think we ought to be—and that’s the true meaning of dying in order to be reborn.
