Misha Hoo's Blog - Posts Tagged "letting-go"

I remember when I first showed my mum the Tarot in Black & White deck which I created. She loved the design, the striking images, thought it was well written, looked very professional…..and then came the concern, “what if you get a bad card?”

I have always maintained that there are no ‘bad’ cards in any Tarot deck, warnings perhaps, lessons - definitely, but no bad cards as such. However there are certainly some cards in the tarot which are just not popular and one of those is Loss.

No one likes to see the Loss card. Although not quite as scary as the Death card (more on that later) the very idea of Loss brings up anxiety for most people. “What, will I lose money?” “Lose my job?” “My house?” The first things that come to mind are the material things.

As I mention burdens from the past which we no longer need to carry I see the shoulders relax a little. We all carry burdens which become heavy over time and I find it a good exercise to ask yourself, “What could I let go of now that would make me feel lighter? “What could I let go of that would make my life easier?” Loss then, becomes our friend.

The purpose of Loss is to make way for new growth, for new opportunities to appear in our lives and that requires letting go of the stuff which no longer serves. Like spring cleaning the house, we sometimes need to give our schedules and priorities a good sweeping out. The memory of painful losses can make us delay the changes that we know are really necessary. The bad news is that if we delay long enough, the sweeping sometimes gets done for us.

I often hear from clients a long list of reasons to stay in a dead end job or unproductive relationship simply because their fear of change is greater than their desire for happiness. Then come the excuses, the justifications, the “what if’s...” We’ve all been there. My job as a Tarot Reader (counsellor, therapist) is to guide them to the choices that will serve their long term growth rather than short term ease and sometimes that is just about as challenging as taking a well-loved but broken toy away from a 3 year old.

Every structure we choose will eventually become limiting as we outgrow it. It is great when our lifestyle, job or relationships grow with us but when they don’t, we need to reassess. We may need to create newer, roomier or more sophisticated structures to support our new growth and nurture our future choices. We get stuck when we refuse to let go of an out-dated situation, we refuse to let an old habit die and there we are, 3 years old, clinging to our toy with a red face and clenched fists.

Recently I’ve been working part time in a reptile centre which houses snakes. Every so often they shed their scaly skin to accommodate their growth, and they do this their entire lives. Snakes know that to grow they must shed the very skin that has encased them and protected them for quite some time. They get a bit anti-social, hide under a log for a few days, shed their skin and then emerge - fresh and ready for the next stage of life.

If you have drawn the Loss card, you might want to consider - what things in your life need shedding right now? Which structures feel too tight, too restrictive? Are you willing to let go, in order to make room for something new to emerge?

For questions and tips about reading Tarot ~ Ask The Hoo

Tarot in Black & White: A Path to Personal Transformation