Gentle Female Death

Just thought I'd share:

I just read for myself with Eowyn's new moon spread (thanks!) with the Universal Fantasy in which the card for myself was Death. When I first got this deck, I called this card La Belle Dame Sans Merci (John Keats poem). Death is a woman in black who has dismounted from her fiery horse to look at a dead young man lying in the woods with a sword in his hand.

Now she doesn't look all THAT gentle, but I wrote a bit about what she was feeling about him, and I concluded that although she was in love with him, she was still Death and had to do her job, but she would do it gently.

Then I did quick frivolous reading with the Heart because it was just lying on my reading table looking so cute, and the self card for that spread was Death again! This Death shows an blue ethereal fairy behind (like a guardian angel) and helping an old man cross over into the earth. (He is sitting on the ground and under him are bones inside the earth, like that is where he is going/needs to go.)

So I'm going to have to do some thinking about the deeper meanings of getting Death for self twice, but maybe I got Death in the second reading because the Heart wanted me to remember that IT has a gentle female death, too! And it's beautiful.

So what do you think about a gentle female Death? I know some decks have Kali as Death, so female, but definitely not gentle! Is it just watering down Death, or otherwise ineffective? Or do you think it works better than a Pale Rider or Mr. Skeleton?

I think the female representation of Death as you, is that you'll be leaving some things behind you over the next month and finding new ways to express yourself. Not a sudden process, but gradual realizations that things need changed. It sounds like you need to pay close attention to your thoughts, look at how you would like to change.

I think it's cool that you got Death twice (and interesting that UF's Death is a female for you; it's totally a long-haired, gothy dude for me) because that card (and the other "dreaded" cards, Tower, Devil) signify major transformations. I love those cards.

As far as assigning a gender to Death, I never even thought about it...now I will have to (if the artist has not already done so)!

For a gentle female Death, check out the Tarot of the Sevenfold Mystery.

http://www.tarotgarden.com/boutique/onlinecatalog.php?view_title=sevenfold&rs=3378

Golden Tarot by kat Black, if I remember correctly.
Fey Tarot, as well.

Thanks everyone for the comments and leads!

Another reason to get the Sevenfold.

Oh, yes, I forgot--I LOVE the Fey Death. It gives me the same idea--she's got a job to do and she's matter-of-fact about it, but in a compassionate way.

I'll have to dig out the Golden and take a look.

I'm not sure about the "female" part, but I still love the Death card in my original Medieval Cat Tarot. The Death is quietly resting, while butterflies gather. It was my first revelation to the "Death=change" concept.

http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/medieval-cat/

There's a quote that I saw recently that applies. "Just when the Caterpillar thought that the world was ending, it became a butterfly."

The Vertigo Tarot features a female Death. It's the perky goth Death character from Neil Gaiman's Sandman comic series. As depictions of Death goes, I find her less threatening and more comforting than most, given how she is portrayed in the comics.

Alan

Edited: I found two:

Alta said:

Edited: I found two:

Click to expand...

GAH I *need* the Mary-El SO BAD.