Death, The Devil and a little thing...

called settle.

image: Kinga Howard

Ever come across these scenarios?

• Toil in a loathsome job rather than follow your heart’s desire?

• Say "I do" even though you don't — to please everyone else?

• Remain frozen in a relationship long past its expiration date?

• Stay stuck in a location because it's easier than leaping into the unknown?

• Run away from someone because you’re afraid of losing your “freedom”?

• Tolerate a partner’s abuse/self-absorption because it’s better than being alone?

• Stay in a church whose doctrines turn your stomach but you’re afraid of being ostracized by the flock?

To settle is to sacrifice your beautiful life on the altar of less-than-ideal and hope that someday it gets better.

It won't.

To settle is to make melancholy your bedmate while lying to yourself. To tuck your inner knowledge into a self-help book that lays forgotten in a pile of self-help books.

I’d venture to say that you and I have been there from time to time.

To compromise is to work with discomfort until it is transformed. Compromise is never accepting less for yourself in the long-term. It allows the thought of expansion before execution. To decide to leave or stay in a relationship / job / ideology — and then actually do it. It’s not making the temporary reprieve of compromise an eternal excuse (my kids, sick partner, they’ll die if I leave, aging parents, pastor, I’ll be lonely, my friends will turn away, it’s not so bad, it’s a sin to divorce, I’m too old, I should be grateful, bank account is low — that’s why I can’t change anything.)

I’ve heard it all in session. And then some! We humans are so creative in our excuses.

This is where Death in the Tarot comes to your aid. Death means letting it die.

Death: the ultimate transformer of an intuitive couch potato.

image: Peter Schad

That’s the thing about intuition — it’s very sane. It’s not all poprockets and wands here. It’s using what you've got to improve your life. It’s choosing to change. Awakening to the ever-present moment, no matter how desolate it is.

The power of belief.

Intuition can be your best friend. She’ll say, “Girl, why ride the crazy train? Let’s take a stroll and repair those broken fences. Let’s work on that dignity piece. You are all-that, so why accept anything less?”

However, intuition is no fool. She'll nudge when settle is wearing out its welcome — but she’s no eardrum blaster.

The Wheel will turn, like it or not.

Sometimes transformation shows up as a soulmate.

Why you never get over a soulmate.

Does a rose get more beautiful as it unfolds? Or do we open to the all-that-is beauty right in front of us?

The rose eventually dies. It must to make way for the perfection to come.

The beauty of the life you desire versus the life you are living right now is a great gift of contrast. That squirmy "I am NOT happy."

Soulmate or not, the next step is our responsibility.

So much can be lost in pure laziness. Zoning out. Social media. Playing games with ourselves and others. Avoiding pain. Staring freedom down and saying, “Really. What’s the use?”

This is where XV Devil — which I consider the darkest card of the Tarot, not infamous Death — offers liberation or lockdown.

The Devil’s in the details? Nah. The Devil is in the settling. It will say, “That’s all you want in life? You got it, sweetheart. I’m happy to oblige.” If you look closely at the card, the chains can slip off the couple in bondage. The Devil isn’t holding them prisoner. They choose to stay enthralled.

image: Modern Witch Tarot

Yet at the very least, we begin to feel. That opens the power of the gut which initiates us into the Great Awakening.

Our own.