Suicide and Cards

alonewiththesea

What cards would represent someone who is feeling suicidal, what are the major ones you would think to see in that persons spread

9 of swords + Tower to me would be someone self destructing by fear almost indicating this

your take on what cards you would think of?
 

Miss Divine

I had the page of wands together with the Tower when someone I knew very well did it. I never would have guessed that's what the cards were saying.
 

Anna

The Fool, depending on which other cards are present in the reading.

This came up recently in a thread in "your readings" too, but it wasn't appropriate to go into an explanation of why at the time. But here I can.

My interpritation of the Fool comes from years of working with the Marseille decks. In the Tarot of Marseille, the Fool does not have a number. Now, in this deck there is also a card that traditionally does not have a name, and this is arcana XIII. So, you could say that these cards have a connection.

If you put the Marseille Fool and arcana XIII cards next to each other, you will see striking similarities between them. It is as though these cards represent two sides of the same idea.

The absence of a number for the Fool has always interested me; why would he not have a number? Where is his place in the sequence of the major arcana? He could be at the beginning, or at the end, or somewhere in the middle.

When you put the Fool at the end of the sequence rather than the beginning, you see him in a whole new light. He isn't the childlike, carefree, innocent soul who has yet to experience much of life anymore.

Instead, if the world is the end of the sequence, and represents the ending of our earthly experiences, then the fool is what is beyond that.... he is someone who has passed over into the afterlife.

Perhaps he is waiting to be born again, to start the whole sequence of the major arcana again. Like an endless circle, or the symbol 0.

So, if I see the Fool in a reading, sometimes it can mean someone who has died or someone that is thinking about dying.
 

hunter

Suicide usually follows a feeling of hopelessness. Total and complete hopelessness.

On the other hand ATTEMPTS which can turn out to be successful, can happen when a person has no other tools to try and bring about a change in their environment. In a sense of desperation to gain something, they fall back on the only idea they can come up with to impact their environment.

And then are the accidents when someone who is so desperate to sleep, that they ingest a dangerous mix that was only meant to bring on sleep.

I don't believe there are suicide cards. Watch for the 3 signs of hopelesness, lack of impact and extreme sleep deprivation.
 

Asbestos Mango

Hmm.

If I saw the 3 of Swords, the Tower, the 10 of Swords, and a court card that fit the personality of the person you were worried about together in a reading, I would become very concerned.

If you knew this person was depressed, then you should do everything you could to be there for them, and also urge them to seek the help of a mental health professional.
 

starrystarrynight

I remember reading here that someone got the Hanged Man for a literal self-hanging suicide. But I could also see it coming up for other type of suicides--or at least attempts--in that the person is trying to see things from a whole new perspective and has one foot in the beyond while one foot remains in the here and now.

But I don't think I'd think of that while drawing the Hanged Man...maybe after the fact, though...
 

Aerin

First of all, let me get this off my chest. I don't think that any combination of cards necessarily means 'suicide'. I also agree with what Asbestos Mango says about the need to encourage someone towards help.

9 of Swords and Tower have meant 'anxiety to the point of breakdown' in a reading I did, but not suicide or suicidal thoughts.

I agree with hunter as well. Some cards may, in some readings, point towards danger signs. Star, World may point to very high expectations of oneself or another; 4 of Cups or Swords to a feeling fed up with life and wanting to withdraw; 2 Swords to not being able to cope with emotions....

But never definitively, for all readings, for all time.

SSN has a point too, often easy after the fact to make things fit.
 

Thirteen

alonewiththesea said:
What cards would represent someone who is feeling suicidal, what are the major ones you would think to see in that persons spread
The problem is that everyone--or nearly everyone--has suicidal thoughts sometimes. The question is, are they likely to act on those or not? And if they do, how serious and determined are they? A person can have suicidal musings and do nothing. They can have them and try something hap-hazard and spur of the moment which maybe will or will not succeed. Or they can be determined and they will succeed unless you recognize they're on that track.

9/Swords and Tower is that first track--suicidal musings. Those cards indicate a person in mental distress and they certainly need help and to be told things will get better or can get better. Maybe they'll act on those musings, maybe not, but all that matters is that you help them get past this current mental distress and breakdown.

Other combos of cards can indicate similar worries that might or might not go in that direction: 5/Cups + Tower for feeling such a loss of love and romance that one's can't see the good or get past the depression. 5/Swords + Tower for feelings that one is always a loser and what's the point in going on? 5/Pents + Tower for someone who has lost all their fortune and might well end it. 9/Wands + Tower for feeling that it's all on you and you can't take the pressure any longer. 8/Swords + Tower for feeling trapped with no way out.

I certainly would worry about any of those with the Hanged Man or Death as the "outcome" or future. That would indicate an "attempt" to me. But without them, it might only indicate suicidal thoughts. Of course, you as the reader should always say, "You're having thoughts about giving up. You need to get some help--" no matter what. Because whether they'll act on the thoughts or not, they do need help.

But what you really need to worry about...10/Pents or Judgement with any of those. Why? Because if you get those cards after this trail of feeling loss and failure and hopelessness, then it's possible that your querent has reached a serious decision. They're making their peace, giving things away. They're no longer anxious or fearful or worried. They're calm. Determined. Writing out a note and getting all the things they need to do what they feel they must do.

Odd as it may seem, those cards, coming after the others, would really worry me.
 

Amanda

I was giving someone a reading once and they asked about a loved one that passed away.... as I was shuffling the cards, the Devil made it's presence known to me, at which point I asked her if that person committed suicide, and she confirmed they had. That's my only experience with suicide and the cards, so perhaps the Devil could come as a warning too.
 

Thirteen

Amanda_04 said:
I was giving someone a reading once and they asked about a loved one that passed away.... as I was shuffling the cards, the Devil made it's presence known to me, at which point I asked her if that person committed suicide, and she confirmed they had. That's my only experience with suicide and the cards, so perhaps the Devil could come as a warning too.
I'd be leery of labeling the Devil as suicide outside of an accidental overdose or someone driven to it by their "demons." Your milage might vary on that, but connecting the Devil to suicide reads to me as labeling suicide as a "sin." And I really object to doing that; so I doubt that I'll ever be offered the Devil in a reading to signal that a death was a suicide, as I'd be hard pressed to read it that way. The Devil, to my way of thinking, is more likely to keep someone alive and tortured rather than freed from pain--emotional, mental or otherwise.

Which is something else we need to keep in mind. There is such a thing as assisted suicide. Not all suicide is from depression or related to a crashing tower, mental illness or anything of that ilk. There are people who say, quite lucidly and rationally, even with a peaceful, happy demeanor, "I've had my run, and I do not want to live like this any longer. It's time to go."

I don't think we can connect that kind of suicide to devils, towers, swords or any of the rest of those alarming cards, can we? Some times, a person's thoughts on suicide are understandable and reasonable.