Taroga: Death and the Forward Sitting Bend
Let’s continue to explore the connection between Tarot and Yoga, or what I like to call “Taroga”.
Today, I want to look at the Death card and the yoga pose that it inspires in me: Paschimottanasana, or the sitting forward bend.
When the Death card appears in a reading, one thing it brings up almost without fail is fear: Fear of letting go, of what is out there, of what is not known, and perhaps most of all the fear of being alone in the blackness of space.
Paschimottanasana helps us to release these kinds of fears and can fill us with courage as we connect with our own senses and gather a quiet understanding of self and spirit.
This is a sitting posture where you bend forward from the hips. To begin, your hands should rest on your thighs, palms up. Inhale and lift your arms up till they are overhead. Exhale and draw the hands down the midline of the body so that hands are again on the thighs, palms up.
Next, inhale and draw the hands up to the level of the heart. As you exhale, turn your palms away from you and begin to fold forward from the hips as your arms reach out towards your feet. Allow your hands to roll out so that your palms are facing in toward the outside of your legs. Breathing in, draw them all the way along the length of the legs and up to the level of the heart as you uncurl from the base of the spine.
There is a surrendering and an acceptance of existing limitations that is required for Paschimottanasana. You will experience how flexible you are, or are not, and how the ego responds to that.
When I first learnt this pose, I struggled terribly with it. My frustration was intense; I wanted the movements to feel easy and fluid. It took me ages to accept the limitations of my body but eventually the surrender of acceptance occurred.
One day, I paused with hands on my ankles and focussed on my breath, breathing in through my feet, up the back of my legs, my spine, to my head, and then down the front of the body, out of my hands into my feet and out at the soles of my feet.
I stayed with that circular breathing for a while, just feeling where I was up to and the breath kept me present with the limitation as I perceived it. I felt myself get so quiet in my head that I could feel energy moving upwards to my chest and I felt peaceful. Really peaceful.
When I released my hands and allowed them to flow up along the outside of my legs, up towards my chest and then back down again into the pose, I really felt that something had shifted. I’ve loved Paschimottanasana ever since.
As in life, we have no control. When we accept that, we become free to enjoy the experience as it is instead of living in a state of struggle.
When you look at the Death card in the Rider-Waite deck, you can see that the King (the Ego) has died. The little girl cannot face what is and looks away. But when I breathe and hold my focus on what is in my body, I get a child’s experience of honest, open acceptance and this brings in a sense of joy.
This posture is great for people in relationship. Personally, I often want things to be oh-so-perfect. Just like the young girl on the Death card, I couldn’t face an imperfect picture. Embodying Death helps me to get a feel for what happens with my patterning, so at times I am able to go to that place beyond Ego, where I can get to the truth of what is and begin to own it. Death helps.
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