#788 – Jenna Matlin – The Tarot Book of the Dead

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

• Matlin connects renewed interest in death after COVID with the period when tarot emerged in the mid-15th century, after the Black Plague.
• She describes evidentiary mediumship examples, including a taekwondo uniform and a client’s family history with racehorses.
• Matlin says near-death experience accounts of a life review echoed messages she encountered in mediumship, while noting the process is complex.
• She distinguishes psychopomp work from mediumship and describes supporting the transition between body and spirit, including end-of-life experiences.
• Matlin argues that wakes, physical care of the dead, and shared mourning have been diminished in many Western death practices.
• The book is structured as an initiatory journey through 20 chapters or aeons, beginning with Death and ending with the Empress.
• She discusses Egyptian concepts of the ib, ka, and ba, Tibetan consciousness transfer, and the sophistication of diverse historical death traditions.
• Matlin interprets the Rider-Waite-Smith Death card through its figures and links it to the medieval Dance of Death motif.
• The conversation touches on green burial, grief, the fear of dying alone, and allowing the dying process to unfold.
• Matlin explains how tarot activities in the book address facing one’s death, grief, mediumship, and healing difficult relationships.