Understanding Grief Through the Lens of Tarot and Emotional Psychology
If you’re feeling like you’re drowning in grief, unable to explain it, move through it, or even name it, you’re not alone. Whether your loss is recent or lingering, whether it’s a person, a chapter of your life, or even a part of yourself, this piece is for you.
You may be exhausted from trying to stay strong, confused by your emotions, or quietly carrying a weight that feels invisible to everyone else. Read to the end. There’s something here for you, especially if you’ve been wondering whether your loved ones are still with you in spirit.
Grief doesn’t follow a tidy arc. It doesn’t show up on a schedule or neatly pass through phases like denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. That might be how it’s taught in textbooks or support groups, but in real life, grief loops, spirals, flares up, and sometimes lies dormant for years before catching you off guard again.
Sometimes it shows up not as tears, but as silence. Or panic. Or sharp words. Sometimes it shows up in a moment of laughter, then guilt for feeling joy at all.
And sometimes, grief doesn’t even come from a place of loss, but from a lingering sense of lack. A knowing that we once lived through something too heavy, too lonely, too far from who we are now. A part of us still carrying the weight of who we had to become to survive it.
Grief can live in the quiet moments where we remember how dark it once was, how deep we had sunk, or how unseen we felt. It’s not always tied to someone dying. Sometimes it’s tied to a version of ourselves we barely made it through with.
It’s all grief. It’s all a depth of our own emotion. And at times, it can feel like drowning, like being submerged in something too vast to name.
How Tarot Elements Reveal the Nature of Grief
In tarot, water represents emotion, the intuitive currents and subconscious truths that run through us. And grief, at its most intense, places us at the unfathomable depths of that water. So deep, in fact, that air isn’t just scarce, it doesn’t exist. The pressure of the emotional column above us is too great.
Air, in tarot, represents our intellect, our memories, thought forms, ideologies, communication, and most importantly, perception: how we see the world and how we interact with it. When we are buried deep in grief, we lose that perspective. We can’t reason our way out. The thinking mind gasps for air, but it isn’t a space where intellect leads. It’s where feeling does.
To explore more about the symbolic language of tarot, see The Power of Tarot Readings: Transform Your Life with a Psychic or Zen and the Art of Tarot Card Meditation. For additional insights from another respected voice in the field, Mary K. Greer offers brilliant work on tarot as a tool for self-reflection and transformation.
That’s why grief doesn’t respond well to being thought through. It needs to be felt. It needs movement. Breath. Safety.
Feel Every Feeling: A Lesson That Transforms Grief
During a particularly acute period of grief after a relationship ended, one that caught me off guard and took me to a depth I’d never known, someone gave me a piece of advice I’ve carried with me ever since. She said, “Make sure you feel every feeling, otherwise you will repeat it.” That landed like truth.
Emotions come in waves. And if we try to suppress or outpace them, they don’t disappear, they wait. So now, whenever something heavy rises up, I try to let it surface fully. It’s rarely comfortable, but it’s always necessary. Feeling everything is how we make sure we don’t stay stuck inside it.
What Hospice Taught Me About Unspoken Grief
I was reminded of this again while volunteering at a hospice, where emotions run raw and real. One afternoon, a relative of a patient came in visibly agitated. Their energy was erratic, almost violent in how it filled the room. At first glance, it seemed like they were angry at everyone and everything. But underneath it, you could feel something more complex, something far more human.
What unfolded was heartbreaking. This person was unraveling not just because their loved one was dying, but because of everything left unsaid between them. Years of buried pain, unspoken resentments, unresolved questions. You could see it wasn’t just about losing someone, it was about losing the chance to finally say what needed to be said.
For additional insights on navigating difficult emotions, consider Navigating Heartbreak: How to Heal Your Heart After a Breakup or Finding Peace After Loss of a Loved One. Hospice expert BJ Miller, a palliative care physician, also shares valuable perspectives on dying, presence, and meaning.
They didn’t feel free to have that conversation. Maybe they were afraid of causing more pain, or afraid they wouldn’t be heard. Maybe they didn’t even know how to start. But the longer they avoided it, the more their body did the talking. People always tell you their truth, even when they don’t realize it. This person was telling us so much through every word, every movement, every outburst. They were grieving the past just as much as the present.
Animal Wisdom and Nonverbal Healing in Spiritual Communication
Outside of hospice, I’ve been learned something unexpected about connection from animals, and from a few brilliant friends who’ve dedicated their lives to them. My friend Fallon, an animal advocate deeply involved in rescue work, was the first to teach me that cats earn trust through slow blinks. “That’s their version of a handshake.”, she said. A slow blink says, “I see you. I’m not here to fight.” This taught me how different forms of eye contact can create connection rather than intimidation. Fallon’s unparalleled bond with animals shaped how I understand communication, between animals, between people, and within ourselves.
I started bringing that slow blink practice into my hospice work, particularly with nonverbal dementia patients. Because eventually, we all go nonverbal. The vocal cords are soft tissue, and they tend to fade before most other parts of us do. But a slow, dedicated blink, sent with intention, emotion, or even a memory… it lands.
Sometimes they blink back.
Sometimes their eyes soften. And if I’m quiet enough, and emotionally still, I feel something come back. A recognition. An impression. A subtle thread of connection that doesn’t need words to be real.
That, too, is grief. And love. And trust. It’s what remains when language leaves us. It’s the way presence becomes its own form of communication.
If you’re curious about the ways intuitive communication ties into psychic development, you may also enjoy Developing Intuition: Practical Insights from a Psychic Medium or How to Increase Your Psychic Abilities. For more on animal communication and empathy, Danielle MacKinnon provides fascinating resources for connecting with animals on a soul level.
So if you’re holding something in, let this be your invitation to give it air. Whether it’s through writing, therapy, spiritual connection, or simply sitting with someone in silence, grief needs a way to move. And sometimes the most healing thing we can do is stop running from what we’re feeling and simply admit that it’s there.
Because no matter how messy, grief is still a form of love. And love, too, is rarely linear.
And here’s the quiet twist: the way we communicate with others, through stillness, breath, eye contact, or the energy behind a blink, we can also offer to ourselves. Try sitting with a memory that’s been weighing you down. Don’t force a breakthrough. Just soften your gaze toward it. Blink slowly, not at anyone else, but inward. You might be surprised what rises up.
Old pain doesn’t always need a dramatic release. Sometimes it just needs your full attention. Sometimes it just wants to know you’re finally listening.
That’s how grief becomes movement. That’s how emotion becomes fuel. That’s how the unspeakable begins to transform, into understanding, into forgiveness, into peace.
And maybe, just maybe, it’s a good practice to spend a little time each day in silence. Because eventually, if we’re lucky, we all end up in a place of comfort, tranquility… and yes, silence.
If you can learn to sit with yourself there now, even for a moment, it may offer a surprising peace. A sense that you’re already connected to something much greater than yourself, something that’s been inside you all along.
To further explore how tarot can support your emotional healing and clarity, visit Top Tarot Expert Chris Bennett: Psychic Readings & Accuracy or True Power of Tarot: Psychic Lessons from Agatha All Along. For more insight from a psychological perspective, Francis Weller, a psychotherapist and grief specialist, writes eloquently about the sacred work of sorrow.
If you’re interested in broader grief education and spiritual healing, Megan Devine also offers grounded, compassionate resources on living with loss and making space for all emotions.
If You’re Struggling with Grief Right Now
If you’re reading this and feeling overwhelmed by your grief, please know this: there is nothing wrong with you. What you’re feeling is not too much. You are not broken. Grief doesn’t follow logic, and it doesn’t respond to a deadline. It shows up when it wants, how it wants, and often long after everyone else assumes you’ve moved on.
Give yourself permission to feel every ounce of it. Not to fix it. Not to explain it. But simply to feel it, because it’s already there. Your emotions are not trying to destroy you, they’re trying to move through you. If you can sit with them, even briefly, they will soften.
You are allowed to take breaks. You are allowed to laugh. You are allowed to feel like you’re okay one moment and then fall apart the next. None of that means you’re doing it wrong. It means you’re human.
And if you ever need a witness, someone to help you make sense of the emotional currents within and around you, I’m here. My work with tarot, intuitive insight, and spiritual connection is rooted in presence, truth, and support. You don’t have to do this alone.
..And One More Thing, You Will See Them Again
If you’re grieving the loss of someone you love, I want to gently remind you: death is not the end. The bond you shared doesn’t break, it transforms. Love continues. Connection continues. Spirit continues. Your loved ones are not gone. They are simply beyond the veil of what we can easily perceive.
I’ve spent my life as a psychic medium listening beyond what’s spoken. And I can assure you: there is life after death. I have felt it, seen it, and passed along messages that have changed the course of grief for so many. The signs you notice, the song that plays, the bird that visits, the dream that feels too real, they’re not coincidences. They’re contact.
You are never as alone as you feel in your hardest moments. And one day, in ways your soul will recognize, you will be together again.
Until then, you can still speak to them. They can still hear you.
And I can help you hear them, too.
This article was written by Chris Bennett, an internationally acclaimed tarot reader and psychic medium celebrated for his compassionate insights into grief and the emotional depth of tarot. Recognized as one of the best tarot readers in the world, Chris provides accurate tarot reading, spiritual medium readings, and evidential psychic sessions that resonate deeply with clients seeking healing and clarity.
Whether you’re searching for a psychic near me in New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Vancouver, London, Sydney, Melbourne, Dublin, Auckland, or Cape Town, Chris is trusted worldwide for genuine psychic guidance and intuitive readings. His reputation as a world renowned tarot reader and spiritual psychic makes him a sought-after expert for those navigating loss, love, and life’s biggest questions.
