Grief is Proof: Exploring Loss Through Tarot

Jul 27, 2025

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[TW: Discussion of death, grief, suicide.] This week on The Tarot Diagnosis, I sit down with the Five of Cups and a whole host of other cards, but not in the way we usually expect. Instead of offering a clinical take or a tidy metaphor, this episode is more of a free-flowing love letter to the messiness of grief: the kind that arrives with dreams, dead batteries, wildflower fields, and the unshakable ache of remembering (those will all make sense once you listen, I promise).

Inspired by a recent pull of the Five of Cups (which you may have seen on Instagram), I reflect on decades of lived experience with loss - starting with my Uncle Barry and a stopped clock, winding through stories of my TT, childhood concoctions, and the ghosts of the selves we never got to be. This isn’t just an exploration of death-related grief, but of all the quiet, complicated, and cumulative forms grief can take: missed opportunities, dissolved friendships, the unspoken distance between people, the lives we didn’t live, but could have.

You’ll hear me pull and process cards live that include the Ten of Swords, Six of Cups, Ten of Wands, Queen of Cups, and Ace of Cups - each offering insight into how we might tend to, hold, and honor our grief. I talk about the importance of remaining in relationship with what we’ve lost, the burden of carrying grief alone, and the healing power of shared memories, rituals, and emotional openness.

This episode is for anyone who has ever carried the weight of grief, a memory that won’t fade, or a part of themselves that got left behind. Whether you’re mourning a person, an identity, or a path not taken, may this conversation offer you a moment of softness and proof that your pain and experience is real and valid.

Deck used: Tarot Vintage

Referenced: "Grief is a form of learning" - Mary Frances O'Connor Watch her TedX here.