Dealing with Death
These thoughts were triggered by a Facebook post I saw, talking about seeing signs of upcoming death in astrology data. More importantly, the question arose as to how to appropriately talk with a client about death when it is a real possibility, or when the client knows it is likely.
I’ve already done some writing about dealing with suffering and death in my book on Saturn, and there will likely be some overlap in that writing with what I am saying here.
I want to sort this essay into a few separate issues:
– Can astrology data show indications of possible or likely death?
– How do we as astrologers talk with our clients about this?
– Why we as astrologers need to come to terms with death.
Astrology and Indications of Death
Can astrology data show indications of possible or likely death? Yes, up to a point. Can it definitively predict death? No.
Astrology can predict a class of events, or the likelihood of a specific event.
Transits alone are not sufficient to predict death.
There is a kind of configuration I have nicknamed a Train Wreck. This happens when you have multiple indicators at multiple levels all pointing in the same direction. It is a redundancy. When you see signs all converging in directions, in progressions, in profections, in the solar return and in transit, that is the sign of a really significant event. It is like the universe is pointing at the same thing, over and over.
Traditionally it is said that it takes three or more indications converging to predict a likely event. That is a good rule.
Looking at my own astrological indicators, I see a particular year in the not too distant future that is one of those Train Wreck years, where I think my own death is at least a strong possibility. Some time in the future I plan to do some kind of public presentation on that beforehand – maybe an essay, maybe a video recording, maybe a webinar with discussion. Whether I am right or not, I think it could be a powerful learning experience to put my thoughts on that period out and public so that we can learn from it.
Context
You also have to take into account overall life context when making predictions. If your client is over 70 years of age and has recently had a heart attack, multiple negative indicators could easily point to the likelihood of death. If you have someone who is healthy and in their twenties, it is much less likely – not impossible, but less likely – that a very negative configuration indicates death.
Depending on context, a time of actual physical death may not be a negative event at all; it may be a release from suffering. I have sometimes seen the specific time of death coincide with a Jupiter transit.
This is why, whenever I do a reading with a client, I always invest a lot of the time in dialog with the client in their life situation. I know the language of astrology; they know their life; and our interchange is how we apply astrology to their life.
Talking About Death with Clients
How do we as astrologers talk with our clients about this? I don’t have easy answers, nor do I feel I have mastered working with this. These are my best thoughts on the subject.
First of all, I would never flat out say that someone is definitely going to die. I think that would be immoral, and it would also be hubris. I am not God, and I am not omniscient.
I also don’t think I would talk about death, even as a strong possibility, unless I had indications from the client that they were open to talking about it. I might talk about a period being very stressful, or that there would possibly be a negative event that could impact their health. I might suggest that it was a good time to be very careful about taking care of their health and being cautious.
I mentioned that much of my time with a client consists of dialog and asking questions. Given that context I can usually get a pretty good feel for what it I can appropriately bring up, and how cautious I need to be, or how blunt. I always start out cautiously and generally, and then take my cues from our discussion.
So, when I mention a given configuration in their chart, or in transits or some other indicator, I offer a suggestion of what it might mean that is open-ended. The best way I can put it is that I try to point the suggestion in the right direction, then wait and let them respond, and go from there.
When the dialog process works well, it is best when our discussion is framed in such a way that I can help the client bring up the possibility of death themself. It sometimes feels like my purpose is to help the person fully articulate, and get clear on, something they were already vaguely aware of, but needed to be made clear, and affirmed.
I think that is the best way I can put it – talk about the possibility of death with a client needs to arise out of the dialog process with the client.
I did have a client once who was old and had recently had a heart attack. When he asked for a reading he specifically wanted to talk about whether it looked like it would die soon. Looking at his data I saw one of those negative train wreck years coming up, so we talked about how that was a period where there was a strong possibility he could die. Our discussion then focused on how he could use his remaining time in such a way that he could make peace with his own death, and wrap up whatever unfinished business he had while it was still time. In that situation I think that his being aware of his death could be a blessing to him.
Our own Integrity as Astrologers and People
It is important to realize that you cannot comfortably work with a client talking about any subject area that you are not comfortable with yourself.
As astrologers we usually see people when they are hurting, when they are dealing with difficult situations. People do not typically come for a reading when everything is going wonderful in their lives. We need to be ready to deal with that. In our own lives, we need to have a philosophy, or a religion, or some kind of spiritual path, that can accept and derive value from human suffering, misfortune and death. (I will be talking about that at greater length in an upcoming series of posts.)
In dealing with death, it is really helpful to have been through a major death of someone close to you, or to have come close to dying yourself. I think it is significant that my own serious work as an astrologer did not happen until after I lived through watching my wife die of cancer over a two year period of drawn out treatment. I needed to go through that experience, and integrate it into my life, before I really had anything to offer others as an astrologer.
Thinking About Death
I think astrologers need to be comfortable thinking and talking about death. We need to have accepted the fact that people die, and that it can happen at any age to any person. The whole concept of “fairness” is irrelevant. When death happens, it happens, and it needs to be accepted.
I mentioned that I went through watching my wife die of cancer. Earlier in my life I watched my first wife’s younger sister die of melanoma in her early twenties, which was a brutal process. More recently I had my own brush with death – I had cancer in 2019, and a botched response to the surgery for that by my caretakers put me back in the hospital and almost killed me, and took me six months of convalescing to completely recover. I have tried to deal with those events as honestly and mindfully as I am able, and to think about them as cleanly as I can, without resentment. It takes work.
I am now 69 years old, and I often think about my own death. I do not think that is being morbid or depressed. In my case I think it is a psychological necessity, and facing my own death is a powerful spiritual exercise and discipline.
I am convinced that the worst way to deal with death is to deny it or try to evade it, or put off thinking about it until the last minute. When you know death is coming, the last few months of your life can be an incredibly rich and powerful time for the person dying and for those closest to them. I get very sad when I see a situation where a person refuses to admit the possibility of death and fights on far past any reasonable hope, and then leaves themself with only a day or two at the very end to do what they need to with their family and friends. Throwing away those final months in denial is a horrible waste of a very precious opportunity that can never be recovered.
You only die once. Don’t throw it away.
If you are an astrologer dealing with a client facing death, it is worth seriously thinking about how you can help them use that period as a blessing – and I do not mean that word blessing in any shallow or overly pretty sense. Death is still death and is almost always hard, but there is much good to be gotten from a good death. I know that from first hand experience.
I am very fortunate to have watched a beautiful death, and I pray that I have the honesty and integrity to die well when my own time comes.
—
Featured image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay