Honoring Death

As Halloween and the Day of the Dead are fast approaching, it dawned on me that perhaps these celebrations emerged from observing nature when I pulled an interesting combination of cards from my Cloud Oracle Card deck and my Tarot Card deck on Instagram recently. 

From time to time, I like to pick a card and post insights on how the card can be interpreted.“Honoring” was the next Cloud Oracle card to be featured and I decided to pick a tarot card to go with it. The card that jumped out was the Death card. I was a little taken back at first, but my reaction was quickly replaced by an Aha moment: “Of course, it makes sense!” I thought, “We are right at the beginning of the Season of death : which signals the end of summer and the start of fall".  
We've also recently entered Scorpio season in the zodiac which is also represented as the Death card in the tarot deck. (I've been learning a little bit more about the Zodiac and Tarot lately, can you tell?) 

Death and birth are like two sides of the same coin. One cannot exist without the other, like the end of something as the trigger for the beginning of something else. So instead of dreading it, we could honor it, take time to appreciate this beautiful part of the cycle of life where the leaves change colour and create a beautiful warm colour palette outside while the temperature drops, the dry leaves on the ground make nice sounds as we walk on them, the squirrels are running around burying nuts wherever they think is best ahead of the upcoming winter, etc. During this period, the days also get darker sooner, we tend to want to stay home a little more. It’s all part of the process of the cycle of nature that we’re part of, whether we're aware of it or not. Is it a coincidence that this is when we somehow ended up celebrating holidays such as Halloween and the Day of the Dead during this time? 

Here's how I read these cards : I see this combination (Honoring & Death) as an invitation to slow down, appreciate and pay attention to what’s going on around us in nature during this time and find ways to stay aligned with it in our day to day lives. Just like the trees are shedding their leaves in preparation for winter, it’s a great time to let go of what no longer serves us. Just as days turn into night sooner, it’s great time to go more inwards and spend time with ourselves. Just like the squirrels are hiding nuts for the winter, we could also preserve some items for the colder days. Although we’re fortunate to live in a place where we can just step out in a store and get whatever we need or order it, there’s something to be said about having some essentials close at hand so that we can just cozy up at home, and enjoy time spend indoors in a warm space, surrounded by people we love. Something as simple as making sure you have hot tea or hot chocolate available to just sit in your favourite area at home and read a book or watch your favourite show, or take some time to take a nice warm bath on the weekend. As we say goodbye to the summer, we can honour the coming winter season by appreciating little rituals during the fall season to get us ready for winter by taking care of our mind, body and soul.  

Here's to taking the time to honor the season and taking some time for yourselves. I hope you have a great fall season and get some time to fully enjoy this part of life.