Sometimes I encounter a tarot book and I think “wow, we really need more of this.” That was my reaction when I heard about Theresa Reed’s latest, The Cards You’re Dealt: How to Deal When Life Gets Real. Here, card meanings and activities are tailored for navigating the biggest challenges in life: grief, loss, caretaking and other destabilizing events.
Could this release have been more perfectly timed? I don’t think so.
Theresa’s signature blend of directness and empathy is what makes this book special. She talks about topics that many of us shirk away from with directness and clarity. At the same time, her tone is compassionate and centered. She knows who she is as a tarot reader and has years of experience to back it up, yet never presents her perspectives as THE way, but A way.
There’s a particular spread in the book that called out to me, so I want to try it for myself and share it with you here today. Theresa writes:
Buddha recommended meditating or reciting the Five Remembrances, also known as Upajjhatthana Sutta, to remember that life is precious and finite. This practice helps alleviate grasping and attachment. Here is one version of these remembrances:
I am of the nature to grow old; there is no way to escape growing old.
I am of the nature to have ill health; there is no way to escape having ill health.
I am of the nature to die; there is no way to escape death.
All that is dear to me and everyone I love are of the nature to change. There is no way to escape being separated from them.
My deeds are my closest companions. I am the beneficiary of my deeds. My deeds are the ground on which I stand.
I took the liberty of creating a graphic to show Theresa’s spread based on this concept.
Let’s try it. As usual, I’m pulling cards for myself but maybe you’ll find something that resonates with you. And I hope you’ll be inspired to do the spread for yourself, too. I’m gonna use a deck which has been gathering dust for far too long, the Prisma Visions Tarot.
The Tower reversed suggests what I need to know about aging and my immediate thought was this: aging doesn’t have to be bad or scary. I think sometimes we focus on the wrong fears around aging. Like, wrinkles aren’t actually scary. Gray hair isn’t scary. Sure, some parts of aging ARE scary. Organs and joints and other body parts degenerating or losing function, THAT is scary. But so much of what we think about when we think about aging really… isn’t?
Who benefits from aging being viewed as scary? Capitalism, baby. Cuz corporations can sell us endless serums and injections and shapewear and whatever the hell else. I mean, I love my skincare routine as much as the next American Elder Millennial but come on.
I think the Tower also shows the liberation that comes with aging. For me, the older I get the less fucks I have to give about things that concerned me more when I was younger. I hope this will be a continuing trajectory.
Justice reveals what I need to know about health. I have to admit, this does not immediately click for me. The imagery in this deck leans heavily into the ‘cause and effect’ interpretation: a serpent bites a hand, yet this results in the serpent being stabbed by the dagger the hand holds.
I acknowledge there is some element of cause and effect with health: certain lifestyle choices are linked to certain ailments, blah blah. But this gets complicated quickly. Not everyone has access to ‘healthy lifestyle choices’. We can’t all afford the best food, we don’t all have the luxury of low stress, and so on.
Then there’s the fact that sometimes even if you do everything “right”, even if you make the best choices you can, this does not guarantee good health. This leads me to consider the theme of impartiality that is also commonly attributed to Justice. Perhaps that is relevant here. Health issues don’t always arise for a discernible reason. There isn’t always a clear cause. Sometimes shit just happens.
The Six of Pentacles shows up for what I need to know about dying. This card can represent the resources we have and how those are distributed. In this deck, one person passes a coin to another. In a way, isn’t that kind of what dying is? I can’t take up resources forever. Eventually, I return to the soil so that new life can access the bounty of this universe.
It also reminds me all life is made of the same stuff. Always has been and always will be. Like, the water molecules inside me right now could be more than 4.6 billion years old. Someday in the future the chemical components that currently make me could be in a flower or a bear or a new planet.
I pulled the Ace of Chalices for what I need to know about loss. This is a beautiful card. And I hate to say it because it sounds so trite, but maybe it is reminding me that loss can be beautiful. If I’m feeling loss, it is because I cared deeply about someone or something. It’s been said a million times that the only way not to experience loss is not to experience connection. Loss and connection flow from the same spring. They are both deep, primal emotions and they cannot be separated.
What do I need to know about karma? DEATH. Let’s take a moment to appreciate that I had Death AND the Tower show up in this reading. Lucky me.
Irreverence aside, it is interesting considering a card that represents karma when earlier in this reading, when talking about Justice, I more or less said I don’t believe in karma. I suppose I should clarify. I don’t think it it impossible that on some cosmic level that transcends lifetimes, “my deeds are the ground on which I stand.” In fact, I actually kind of like this idea.
I guess what I don’t resonate with is the notion that I can completely understand or control my karma, or that I will see it play out in this lifetime. And in that way, maybe the Death card makes a lot of sense here, because it can be a card of letting go. All I can do is try to live this life with as much integrity as I can muster in each moment. What happens from there isn’t up to me.
This whole concept of meditating on the Five Remembrances was described as a way to “alleviate grasping and attachment.” And that is exactly what the Death card is about.
Wow! What an interesting and illuminating spread. I extend my gratitude to Theresa Reed for creating this.
And thanks to YOU for being here. Let me know what you think?
Carrie