Death rx

le fey

Also, if something IS dead, acknowledging that (Death) may be preferable to not acknowledging it (Death, rx)... the denial doesn't keep it alive, it just means you're living with the rotting remains.
 

nisaba

Just a random thought that is not a reply to any specific comment but was triggered by thinking about the contents of this thread:

It is well understood by psychologists that the modern industrial society is one of the most emotionally damaged societies of all time, with a far higher percentage of its population as the Walking Wounded.

One of the things done ONLY in modern society is a removal of the process od dying from the homes and the streets (into nice, sanitised hospitals or hospices where no one but the staff has to see the yucky details); and along with this a denial od Death itself: it's finality, its irreversibility, its agpony, itsw corruption, its utter silence.

Societies that face tehse things, that have elders or women in childbirth or sick family members dying in the home and have battles where hand-to-hand fighting happens where you look into the eyes of everybody you kill or who kills you, these societies have much more grounded, healthy, appreciative members (whose lives, yes, may be shorter and more painful), and much less depression, holes at the centre of their hearts where meaning is which they promptly try to fill with food, etc.

I think back to my father's death twenty-odd years ago: three weeks before he died he told me he "just wanted it to be over". Two days before he died, my mother was idiotically trying to jolly him along, telling him he'd be getting better soon. He wanted to talk about his upcoming death, dammit, and I couldn't because someone else walked into the room, and my mother wouldn't because she's an insensitive idiot.

Is the psychological disease of our society directly linked to not admitting Death and not watching the process of dying? After all, philosophers from Seneca to Critchley spanning over 2,500 years now, seem to agree that learning how to die well teaches us how to live well (Seneca), philosophising is holding death in the mouth, in your food, your words and your drink, and only by eating, drinking and talking death will you ever find the glowing meaning and joy in life (as opposed to trivial happiness) (Critchley, 2008), and so forth.

We do ourselves a diservice by saying that this Tarot card is *only* about transformations, and ending one stage to move onto the next. Both those ideas are also available to us in the Wheel of Fortune, the Fool and the World as well, but we don't have four cards all saying the same thing. The other three cards are off-topic here, apparently, but Death is highly specific. Renewal is only IMPLIED by it, IF the person going through the transformation is prepared, AFTER IT IS OVER, to move forwards. Otherwise htey are stuck between stages in their lives. What is stated, baldly and blindly, is that something is coming to a complete end. It might be a life, a job, a relationship, even car ownership or insurability or an ability to eat dairy without repercussions. But something is ENDING, something is DYING.

What happens after that, is up to the querent. But mark my words, we do ourselves no favours and in fact damage our psychological health by deying finality and insisting "no no, it's all pretty rainbows and babies and new wonderfulness in our dreadful relationships".
 

GoddessArtemis

Thirteen said:
This indicates something being dragged out. I don't know anything about the relationship, but if it's in trouble, and the troubles aren't taken care of but the two remain together, then the outcome might feel as if the two were dragging out what should have been ended
Agreed. Though I don't read reversals in my own spreads, the minute I saw the title of this thread, it felt like the card rx is saying, "resisting change" or "refusing to let go".

GA
 

Basic Elements

nisaba said:
Being hit on the head with half a brick is not worse than being given macadamia and caramel ice cream? So ... anything good is obviously worse than anything bad? <grin> think about what you said.

I have thought about what I said, but I don't see how your analogy relates to it.
 

Basic Elements

Glass Owl said:
Changes/Transformations/Endings aren't necessarily bad or undesirable.

Yes precisely. It's only in our limited subjective understandings of things that we abstract "good" and "bad". Change is the only constant 'force' in the universe. Without impermanence, nothing would happen. What appears to be negative to us from a more altruistic standpoint is often utterly necessary.
 

thorhammer

Basic Elements said:
I have thought about what I said, but I don't see how your analogy relates to it.
She was pointing out that you stated Death isn't bad (true, to a point), but saying that Death rx can't be worse than something that isn't bad . . . doesn't make sense.

I can't explain it any clearer than that - it's kind of like a double negative :confused:

I'd read Death rx (though i don't do reversals) as yes, dragging it out, an unwillingness to allow evolution of the situation, immaturity . . . the next *logical* step in the Tarot sequence, IMO, seems to be The Tower ;) Resistance to change usually has cataclysmic consequences.

\m/ Kat
 

VenusRising

I do not either think Death rx is bad or worse. I myself love transformation, changing...etcera. But in their case I feel its like a relationship that has run its course and will end eventually! At least thats what she feels sometimes.
I would prefer Death upright!
But yes I read all your commments and I appreciate it a lot and now I understand the spread I did for the relationship a lot better!
 

balenciaga

VenusRising said:
I once read death rx is worse than death upright. I pulled this card for a relationship reading, outcome card.
I interpret this as not wanting to end the relationship. And the relationship will change but for the worse.

In the context of a relationship reading- about a relationship that you do not want to end - I agree with you, Venus Rising, death rx is worse. It means prolonging the inevitable end, because it is heading there, like it or not. The Death card means business, probably more than any other card in the deck. So if Death is reversed, its energy is stalled but still present. It is lurking and waiting for its time. I am sorry to tell you that, but the death card is part of tarot. We all have to accept the bad with the good, which I think we all recognize to some extent when we decide we want to learn this craft. It can be scary and painful at times. Good luck.
 

balenciaga

off topic detour but timely

nisaba said:
1) the card is saying "Take notice of me! I'm MUCH more important than anything else on the table right now!

I have to add here that just last night I had this experience. I was asking a question with a three-card throw, and then I pulled three additional cards for more information. All cards in the second set were reversed. The message was - a queen is calling and she is going to ask/discuss Art and Beauty (page sw rx as the question, 9 cups rx as the subject, and a queen rx). Not two seconds after I threw that set, the phone rang and the conversation just described, followed. So I have to say, I have been reading rx's my whole tarot life and I never saw them as interruptions before. But lo! Thanks Nisaba, for teaching this old dog a new tip:)