Intuitive Transformation with Our Dear Friend Death, Part 3

The Most Difficult Challenge: Intentional Rest

The Moon, Surrender, and Finding Resolution

Hey! You should probably read Part 1 and Part 2 out before proceeding.

The Moon card is heavy. It has a reputation for illuminating the unknown, but it is not an easy path. The traditional Rider-Waite meaning is complex. Biddy Tarot perhaps summarizes it best:

The Moon card shows a full moon in the night’s sky, positioned between two large towers. The Moon is a symbol of intuition, dreams, and the unconscious. Its light is dim compared to the sun, and only slightly illuminates the path to higher consciousness winding between the two towers.

In the foreground is a small pool, representing the watery, subconscious mind. A small crayfish crawls out of the pool, symbolizing the early stages of consciousness unfolding. A dog and a wolf stand in the grassy field, howling at the moon, representing both the tamed and the wild aspects of our minds.

This is my favorite card. For me, it is the realm of mysticism, shadow work, and dreams. The piscean in me loooooves this stuff. At the same time, the work is not easy. It is the realm of the unknown, the deep unconscious mind. The land of shadows and mystery. Since we are in the season of Death, it seems appropriate to explore The Moon as way to explore what lies beneath as we approach the end of the year.

Erica’s Perspective

As a “Type A” person with frequent anxiety (GAD), the mere suggestion of the simple act of doing nothing and choosing to rest is a difficult one for me. I do have my low energy modes where all I want to do is watch a screen, but there’s always something spinning in the back of my mind of “what next?”. My own conversation with Death has been productive, commanding me to rest until the end of the year. I have to admit, I am impatient to start my new path of traditional witchcraft, but not yet. It’s been a rough year and I feel like it has cleansed me of many things which no longer serve. As my guides have phrased it, a thousand small deaths.

It has been productive healing, all the same. As the year winds down, everything in me darkens to a slow, quiet pace. This dark is not something to fear. It is a comfortable, sit by the fire, and contemplate life sort of mood. I continue to drink tea with Death. I have come to see that he is our ally for transformation. The more I tune into my natural rhythms and simply be quiet, the magic happens. Subtle shifts towards the pull of the moon and an intentional spiritual practice all begin with the art of stillness.

I just completed a cycle of Ancestral Healing. My mediumship abilities aided me greatly in this process and helped me in forming a deep bond with an a Celtic ancestor from the 1600’s in Great Britain. She was persecuted as a witch, although she didn’t live past a few weeks in her cell as she awaited trial. I have learned so much from her in our conversations - and what is clear from is that the natural intuitive gifts I have do not fit into today’s understanding for our abilities, where everything must have a label or name with a definition. She told me that before the burning times in Europe, people who did "the craft” were simply known as healers and mystics. She has insisted that I embrace the gifts in my lineage in a fluid manner, and this feels natural and right for me. I will write more on this journey in the future, but this is critical for the work I just did for October’s Super Full Moon.

Last week I did a very special hypnosis session with a hypnotherapist for a ritual spirit journey. My guides told me to do before I start my seasonal rest. I got it all as I was falling asleep - the small pieces of my healing journey throughout the year culminating into a special journey into the landscape of The Moon card. The path through the pillars I could never walk past would unlock the final part of my year’s healing work. I got a full download of the each “goal post” I was to pass. Hecate’s crossroads and her hounds were there, my spirit wolf, and a dark path deep into my unconscious via the road past the pillars. I am still processing what happened and will write about it once I get my recording as the next part of my Adventures in Hypnosis series. It was heavy in symbolic representations of parts of my life, discovering ancestors, traveling backwards in time, and visiting houses representing parts of my mind.

This very special journey pulled everything together for me. What a way to work this full moon’s energy! At the end, the resolution and transformation I needed to find a comfortable place to rest fully realized in my mind. My energy shifted from white to red at the end. This was the transformation I was waiting for, and it feels good.

Alysia’s Perspective

As I continue my conversation with Death, I’m pulled into an internal conflict that I feel called to resolve in writing this piece. As I mentioned in part one of this series, my life has literally shattered—both from my own doing and from being done to me in the form of relationships ending and the rug being pulled out from life as I knew it.

With this shattering, I’ve moved homes, and I’m now just getting settled into a new living arrangement that isn’t ideal but that Death has deemed fitting for me as I start life anew. But before my new life can begin, there is a period of rest that must happen. Rest from over a decade of carrying everything (and I mean everything) on my shoulders as a single mother. Rest from navigating divorce (twice) from my children’s father. Rest from trying to walk a path that was never mine to walk (in the form of online business). Rest after walking away from two relationships (one friendship and one twin flame), allowing healing of the gaps these endings left in my heart.

As Erica said, rest isn’t an easy practice to implement. Being OCD and a single mother, it’s hard for me to feel like I have permission to fully rest into the silence of recovery. I feel like I “should” be doing something, knowing full well that shoulding on myself is not the answer, especially when navigating a journey with Death.

My internal conflict arises from these two seeming opposites (both messages I’m receiving to breathe into right now): 1) Rest 2) Write. They feel opposing because even sitting at my desk and creating stories right now is proving a lot of effort and I find myself feeling inappropriate for wanting to rest instead.

This morning, however, I found myself eager to sit and write, to allow myself to get creative and feel the excitement of a new story unfolding. Life had another plan. The life of being a mother. After a rough morning emotionally on the way to school, along with pain in my leg that hasn’t healed since I injured it while moving, I had no energy or focus to write the rest of the scene I’d begun two days ago.

My drive back home from school drop-off consisted of tears—both emotional and physical pain. When I arrived home, writing just wasn’t an option. I found myself feeling guilty for the need to rest. I realized that I was creating an internal conflict by forcing the two messages, to rest and to write, to be a mandatory checklist instead of a gentle guidance.

This is my OCD-self at its best. It’s also my mother's guilt at its best. I now know that, even before writing, rest is needed to truly begin again—to allow the full shedding and release of what’s falling away and the healing happening in the quiet solitude of going within. As illogical as this seems to my old self, Death assures me this is the way to create a life that is truly mine. Which is happening for the first time… ever.

And still, I fight it. Because surrendering to rest—all the way—is probably the most challenging thing I can be asked to do. I should be working. I should be creating. I should be making money. I should, I should, I should. And on it goes.

After talking with Erica on the phone about this conflict, I concluded that it’s time to finally allow myself the rest that’s being asked of me. Writing will happen as it happens, whether fiction writing or intuitive writing. There’s no pressure, but a gentle unfolding of writing my heart’s deepest truths in its own timing.

With October’s super full moon energy at its height as I write this, I’m finally feeling the exhale I’ve been waiting for. A sweet release into hermit mode, into healing, into surrender in the arms of the Great Mother holding me as this journey with Death takes its last stretch before my new life begins.

---

The Tarot Spread

I think looking at what our unconscious minds need to define our next plan of action for this season with Death is a worthy exploration. For some, direct action and momentum is required. For others, like myself, a period of reflection - still an action, but more subtle.

I asked my guides for a spread that would help explore these themes. This is what they advised, using The Moon as our guide. I was directed to a book I have owned for probably 15 years, but do not consult often, “Illustrated Tarot Spreads: 78 New Layouts for Personal Discovery” by Heidemarie Pielmeier & Marcus Schirner. I found a spread that fit what was in my mind, with minimal changes, “The Journey Inside”.

Since I am always one to make things my own, I made a few adjustments for exploring the landscape The Moon card. Start with pulling out The Moon card, then shuffle the rest of the deck well. The Moon is placed in the center. If you caught that there is no description for card 9 - this is because it is a shared card with a similar spread on the previous page.

1. Center - The Moon card must be placed in this position. Use position 7 from the original spread.

2. Top-Right - The Realm of Miracles. Use position 1 from the original spread.

3. Center-Right - The Realm of the Fairies. Use position 2 from the original spread

4. Lower-Right - The Realm of Mirrors. Use position 3 from the original spread.

5. Lower-Center - The Realm of Youth. Use position 4 from the original spread.

6. Lower-Left - The Realm of Terror. Use position 5 from the original spread.

7. Center-Left - The Realm of Wishes. Use position 6 from the original spread.

8. Top-Left - The Realm of the Rainbow. Use position 8 from the original spread.

9. Top-Center - Land in sight! The Journey Home. Use position 1 from the original spread.

---

Alysia and I took this adapted spread for a test drive last night, and it really does address the different areas of one’s mind. Give it a try and let us know how it went in the comments. I can imagine that the possibility for expanding each realm in the spread to see what lies even deeper - draw a few extra cards and see what bubbles up.

Much Love,

Erica & Alysia