February’s card was Death.

The word that no one wants to utter. The card that no one wants to receive.

And yet, the true meaning of this card is rebirth.

It tells the endless story of the circle of life, showing us that we cannot understand one without the presence of the other. It’s what happens at the edge of winter, just before life returns. The final release of what has been. The turning of the soil. The necessary clearing before something new can grow.

The Death card made me think about why change can feel impossible while we are in the middle of it. If our habits, patterns and behaviours can be formed, repeated, shed and remade, why do they feel so fixed when we are living inside them?

Everything in nature is cyclical, including us. The brain is always learning. The body is always renewing. And yet the selves we relate to, our identities, can feel stubbornly fixed in place.

This is a question I often bring into coaching: if your identity was not fixed, what would you allow to change?

Letting parts of ourselves die can be one of the most confronting and uncomfortable experiences we go through. We see it when people leave relationships, change careers, or make big life shifts. It does not always mean everything is falling apart. Sometimes it simply means something old is no longer working and needs to change.

When we start to see that more clearly, and allow it to be released honestly, something new can begin.

Nature's way: death to rebirth.