Illustration © D. Yael Bernhard
This is the season of death. The first hard frosts have shriveled my flowers and curled the fallen leaves on my lawn into dry flakes. The trees are bare, the mountains grey. The night sounds of summer are gone, and early morning birdsong is absent. Shorter days, cold nights, and dark dawns speak of the long winter months to come.
It’s all happening on schedule, like a great wheel turning, turning time inexorably forward. This turning is what I thought of when it came time for me to illustrate the Death card. As one of 58 original illustrations created for The Power of the Yin Oracle Deck, this one should stand out, I felt – for what is more universal, yet more mysterious, than death?
The turning shown here is an unwinding, a letting go, the unraveling of an incarnation into pure expansiveness. The soul is being released not by literal hands, but the hands of fate, gently opening the dying person into the massiveness of existence. The transitional colors of twilight prevail as the individual becomes the All.
The text on the back of the card reads:
We understand it implicitly in our being.
Our soul knows.
The transition out of form,
into the deep we remember.But here and now,
with our loves and fears
our passions and these blood-pumping hearts
we can’t make sense of it.Let go.
Let it make you.Let it soften your grip, stir your tears,
break and open your heart
at the same time.Let it change you irreparably.
I was grappling with death myself at the time, grieving the death of my beloved dog. A week after she died, just before dawn she came to me in a dream, brushing against me with her soft fur, curling her tail around me. In painting the Death card, I drew upon a painting I had just completed about this dream, titled The Paw Print, to create this image using a similar palette and design concept.
Professional illustration is not a place to express yourself personally, yet channeling personal experience into an illustration can yield good results. As with an actor who draws upon personal memories to bring up heartfelt tears, infusing an image with real emotional energy makes it more meaningful. I certainly felt enough emotion to fill several paintings. The death of my dog was like losing a child, and deepened my contemplations of mortality.
I like to believe death is gentle, that the individual breaks apart in a peaceful way, like an old carapace dissolving into pieces that float, engaging the soul with concentrated curiosity. This is what I tried to depict in the facial expression above. This person is surrendering with faith, surrounded by the wheeling universe, the hands of God . . . however you wish to imagine it.
Art can only point to the great mystery that lies beyond form. I never know how my images will be perceived. The original painting of this illustration recently sold, so evidently I succeeded in evoking something for the person who purchased it. That is enough.
The Power of the Yin Oracle Deck is a unique compilation of images and words, all speaking to the archetypes of human experience, with emphasis on the feminine, which speaks to both birth and death, both letting go of the old and creating the new. We do our best to live in harmony with the forces that govern the great wheel of existence and time. It’s an ever-unfolding journey.
A good week to all –
https://dyaelbernhard.com
Have you seen my other Substack, The Art of Health? In addition to being a visual artist, I’m also a certified integrative health & nutrition coach with a lifelong passion for natural food cooking and herbal medicine. Now in its second year, this illustrated newsletter explores cutting-edge concepts of nutrition. I strive to make relevant information clear and accessible, and to anchor essential health concepts in unique images. Check it out, and if you like it, please subscribe and help spread the word. Your support keeps my work going!