Graveyard Dust

The Graveyard Dust card from the Alchemist's Oracle teaches us that remembering our mortality can free us from negative thought cycles and help us appreciate the present moment.

• Memento mori means "remember you must die" and serves as a reminder to live virtuously and fully
• Graveyards symbolize not just death but hope and transformation
• Stoicism teaches that "worrying only means you suffer twice"
• Our mortality reminds us to truly live in and appreciate each moment
• Instead of dwelling on past regrets or future anxieties, we can choose to be present now
• A simple deep breath can bring us back to the present moment

Find me on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube @the_cardcast for more reflections and a closer look at the cards themselves.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi there and welcome to the Cardcast.
I'm Natasha and I'm so gladyou're here.
Each day, I pull an oracle cardand reflect on what it means in
the context of everyday life.
My hope is to help you usethese cards as simple tools for
awareness and grounding.
So take a deep breath, settlein and let's see what today's

(00:25):
card has to say.
Today's card is from theAlchemist's Oracle, and we have
Graveyard Dust, which I thoughtwas a delightfully dark card
that I did want to talk about,so I was excited when I drew it
today.
In the center of the card wehave an enclosed bottle of ashes

(00:49):
, or what leads us to believeare ashes or graveyard dust.
It says memento mori, andmemento mori means remember.
You must die, and it's notnecessarily meant to be dark.
It is meant to remind you thatyou're not immortal.
Our mortality is something thatwe need to take into account,

(01:13):
especially when we think abouthow we're treating each other
and how we're living our lives.
So it's this concept of beingable to live a virtuous life and
appreciate the present, becausewe're not guaranteed the future
, we're not guaranteed tomorrow.
Graveyards are representativeof life, death, the afterlife,

(01:36):
things that we don't know,things that we're not sure exist
.
They're a place where there's alot of sadness but there's also
a lot of hope that someone onthe other side is there and is
at peace and that there issomething beyond all the things
that we're doing here.
The ashes represent mortalityand transformation, because what

(02:05):
was once a person is now ashes,so that's a true transformation
into another thing entirely.
In many graveyards there arepeople are buried in the earth
and that can be representativeof grounding.
I know I just shared a lot ofdark references with you, but

(02:26):
the reason why I really likedthis card and was excited to
pull it was that I know for me Ican get kind of stuck in a dark
cycle of just cycling thoughts,just other things, that
everything can feel like supernegative all at once and coming
at me and this actually makes methink differently.

(02:50):
It gives me a different kind ofhope, especially the memento
mori part, where I don't want tospend all of my time in that
negative space.
I want to appreciate thepresent in that negative space.
I want to appreciate thepresent.
If things happened in the past,those things happened and now I

(03:14):
have a really great awarenessof them and I'm grateful for
that and I can't predict thefuture.
In Stoicism they say thatworrying only means you suffer
twice.
So I'm worrying about thisfuture thing and then, when the
future thing happens, I thenhave to worry about it.
So when we can really thinkabout we're not guaranteed
what's next, whatever that is,and we do want to really live in

(03:35):
and appreciate the moment andlive in those moments the best
way that we can with all thetools that we have and the
knowledge that we have.
So when I think about that,that's what's always been
inspiring to me that there couldbe an end to these things that
we don't know what is next.
So can we lean more into thepresent and can we appreciate

(03:59):
the here and now and all thethings that we've worked for up
to this point?
And now, and all the things thatwe've worked for up to this
point, I'll invite you to thinkabout where are the places in
your life where maybe you worrytoo much about the future or you
are continuing to contemplatetoo much about the past?
Where can you really just livein the moment, just appreciate

(04:22):
the present moment and be in thehere and now?
And could that moment be rightnow, where you just take the
deepest breath you've taken allday and just be in the present
moment.
That's it for today's card.
For more reflections and acloser look at the cards
themselves, you can find me onInstagram, tiktok and YouTube at

(04:43):
the underscore card cast.
I'll see you in the nextepisode.