Decorate your room with fresh or dried dark red roses. Burn black, dark red or dark purple candles. Appropriate oils and incense to burn or wear are cypress, mint and parsley. Play music to enhance the mood. Choose whatever method of relaxation and meditation style that suits you. You may choose to read the pathworking as you go along, memorise it, or record it on a tape.
This pathworking is based on the ‘Rider-Waite’ Death card so, before you begin, hold the card close to your face and stare at the card until you can visualise it with no difficulty when your eyes are closed. Hold the vision and slowly begin your pathworking.
From A.E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Parragon Book Service
You are lying, face down, in a dirty, blood-drenched field.
You have fought a long, hard battle and now are exhausted. You do not know if you are injured or if you are going to die.
You simply taste the dirt and wait to see what unfolds.
As you wait, you think about your life. What have been the high points—what have been the low? If you are to die right now, have you any misgivings? Things you should have done or said? Is your life in order? Have you achieved the things you wanted to, to date? Have you any regrets?
As you relive your life, the cries and moans of the injured and dying gather all around you. You hear their fear and their pain. They are thinking about the loved ones they will leave behind. What will the ones you leave behind feel? Will you have mourners who cry and shriek at your death, or will you simply die with no-one really caring? Have you made an impact on the lives of others? Will your dying have meaning?
You smell death and decay. However, the wind brings a new scent, of rotting roses, sickly, yet sweet. The rose smell is both comforting and frightening for it heralds both life and death. Will you live or will you die?
In the distance, you hear the snorts and hoof beats of a single horse, galloping along the battlefield. As the horse passes, the cries and shrieks of those around you grow louder and more terrified. Some screams continue, others are cut short, as though the screamer no longer has need of a voice.
Should you cry for help or pretend to be dead?
In your fear, you decide to sneak a look. As you raise your head, you see a pale horse being ridden by a dark knight in black armour. As he passes the bodies, some look to him with gratitude, some with innocence, but most turn away in fear.
Those he touches with his rose banner do not move again.
As he turns to face you, you see the face behind the helmet.
It has no flesh, only the dark grin of the skeletal Reaper. The rider is Death.
You bury your head in the dirt, unwilling to face this final fear. No matter what type of life you have led, you do not want to give it up just yet. You hate Death for the indiscriminate way He takes life: women, men, children, the rich and the poor. There is no rhyme or reason to His taking.
He simply takes.
You do not want to go. You remember all the good times you have had. All the positive things you have achieved. You want to live, more than you have wanted anything before.
And now Death comes for you. You think: ‘Unfair! Unfair!’
You hear the horse’s hoof beats bearing down on you, can feel the cold, hard stare of Death. Will you courageously face Death, or hide your face from His awesome darkness?
You slowly raise your head and face Death. The closer He gets, the less fearsome He looks. You can almost see sadness in His grin and for a moment you feel sorry for this dark soldier whose task is so necessary, so natural, yet so despised.
As He comes toward you, He says in a gravelly voice, ‘I have not come for you, not yet. However, having faced me, your life will never be the same. You are transformed. Live and live well.’
Death rides his pale horse back into the battlefield, touching some, leaving others. The cries and shrieks grow softer and the sickly sweet smell of roses grows fainter. You relish the feel of the earth on your face, thanking Death for His lesson. You are happy to be alive. You slowly feel life return to your body. The warm rays of the rising sun envelop you. You are ready to live—refreshed, renewed and reborn.
Your journey has ended.
Further reading
Geraldine Amaral and Nancy Cunningham, 1997, Tarot Cele-brations: Honoring the Inner Voice, Samuel Weiser Inc, Maine Matthew Favaloro, 1996, Cards Stars and Dreams. Brolga Publishing,
Melbourne
Paul Fenton-Smith, 1995, The Tarot Revealed, Simon & Schuster, Sydney
Yasmine Galenorn, 1999, Tarot Journeys: Adventures in Self-Transformation, Llewellyn Publications, Minnesota
Cait Johnson, 1994, Tarot for Every Day, The Shawangunk Press, New York
Janina Renee, 1990, Tarot Spells, Llewellyn Publications, Minnesota
About the author
Vicky Christidis has studied tarot from a psychological, mythological and personal perspective for more than a decade. She has also been a practitioner of Witchcraft for many years. She completed her PhD thesis in Education, where she explored the archetype of the Witch as Warrior in film. She was the editor of a tarot journal called The Magician for two years. Vicky now writes full time, exploring esoterica, horror and feminist psychology. She is also putting the finishing touches to her own tarot deck.
Always finish your pathworkings with grounding food and drink. This is a great pathworking to do at the dark of the moon, Halloween, New Year or whenever you need to clear away old patterns to make way for new growth.