Graveyards, symbols of our innate fears, where daylight rationale disappears behind the cloak of darkness. The gravestone is engraved with the sigil of Mars in Leo, indicative of the courage that needs summoning to challenge our fears. The Key for this card is Courage.

Miller reminds us that many cultures use the fear of the unknown, the fear of death, and /or the dead, and the corruptness of the graveyard to ceremonially confront their emotional and intellectual hearts. He says that the seven upright staves in this card are representational of moral uprightness: I wonder whose morality they represent the ones seeking to challenge their fears or the one lying under the headstone?

Sevens, in the occult tarot, are potentially troublesome and unstable. This association provides at least a partial exploration of fear and the underlying cause of fear requiring unusual courage to explore: our fears are often bigger and more difficult to account for that are the reasons for them.

As a Daily Card the questions to explore are: What irrational fear is keeping me from moving forward in my life? What fear has me rooted to the spot? What act of courage will break the cycle of fear and repression? How can I meet the challenges of my life while remaining morally upright?

The Universal Tarot
Concept & Art: Maxwell Miller
Copyright 1995 Maxwell Miller
First Published in US 1996 Samuel Weiser, Inc.
Published in arrangement with Findhorn Press, Scotland
ISBN 0-87728-840-2