Parting the Mists

This is an unusual time of year for this deck, but it really did seem to call me this morning. As for the card, don’t confuse this zombie with the zombies of Hollywood – this is about control, not survival. Do you need to take back control of your life? Or do you try to control too much, leaving little room for the magic of surprises and serendipity?

Zombie – Control

The dead arise
voices a-mumbling
after our brains
our screams they are tumbling

Zombies have become quite the fashion recently, much like vampires. Turn on the television and you can’t escape the moaning and groaning of these, the living dead. (And yes, they do seem to be after your brain!) There are even public zombie walks – where people dress us as zombies and appear en mass on roads and in cities.

But zombies are not merely a fun icon of popular culture. Traditionally, they are mainly associated with the African and Haitian Vodou religion. Zombies are said to be dead bodies reanimated by incantations chanted by a learned practitioner (called a “bokor”) and they are usually enlivened for a purpose.

The practitioner is said to capture part of a living soul to animate the body and that is always a temporary action as the soul cannot be contained in that decomposing body for long or God will take the soul back.

One of the most frightening aspects of zombiism is the idea of our souls and consciousness being trapped inside a body that does not do our bidding but someone else’s. Another is the idea of being buried alive – the fate of some, it is said, who get trapped in already dead bodies.

Should the zombi step unsteadily into your life, it’s time to look at the concept of control. Do you want to control everything, leaving little to free expression? Do you choose partners who are not your equal so that they are more easily manipulated and changed to your liking? Or do you allow that to happen to you? If you are not living your most authentic life, it’s time to look at why and how to change that.

The Halloween Oracle by Staci Demarco, art by Jimmy Manton