The Answer Deck - Loss

This is definitely my least favorite card in the Answer Deck.

It is dark, dreary and depressing.....
It has no redeeming qualities that I can see.....
It is about sadness, disappointment, grief......
Loss.

The card itself is strange to look at.
It looks like black paint is dripping down a white wall, covering it in shadow. Darkness is symbolic of sadness, fear, evil....the opposite of hope, light and happiness.

The way the paint drips down reminds me of tears falling down the face of a person who is grieving a deep loss...

Whenever this card shows up in a reading, I cringe.
I just don't like it.

Anyone else have a different, more positive view on this card?

Luna

I don't think this card needs a positive meaning. It's not meant to be. The cold hard truth of this deck is one thing I like about it.

Last week, I had one particularly bad day, emotionally. While in the midst of considering the all too real death and blood and violence of this world, I was weeping. And, despondent, I pulled a card from this deck, thinking/asking it, "What can you show me about this state I'm in?"

I lateral shuffled, then split the deck to see a card. It was Loss, reversed.

The drip of the black, with only a little bit of white beneath, looked like blood to me. And here we see just enough "light" (white, good) to remind us how much good is being obscurred with "dark" (black, bad).

Perhaps one reason we feel our losses so strongly is because we remember as well what it was like when everything was still "white" for us. Before the loss, before the stain of darkness descended.

This card does not suggest material loss to me. It could in conjunction with other cards, but in and of itself, it speaks of the concept of "Loss" on a darker, more emotionally profound level.

...Simply by showing us the darkness that has nearly dripped down to obscure all the perceivable light.

This card to be honest, makes me feel sick to my stomach. It actually feels evil to me (definitely looks like blood). I am not the type of person to see "evil" in a lot of places or even like using the word "evil" but honestly I find this card very unsettling, as Lunakasha said,"Darkness is symbolic of sadness, fear, evil...the opposite of hope, light and happiness" I can't take hope in the little bit of white left because it looks like the darkness will definitely cover it. Since I am scared of being in the dark, this card is very scary to me,

Ruby7

p.s. I think that the artist did an amazing job on getting that feeling from such a simple design, one of the reasons that I love these cards is that I have very strong emotional in depth reactions to the simple images

Alissa said:

The drip of the black, with only a little bit of white beneath, looked like blood to me. And here we see just enough "light" (white, good) to remind us how much good is being obscurred with "dark" (black, bad).

Perhaps one reason we feel our losses so strongly is because we remember as well what it was like when everything was still "white" for us. Before the loss, before the stain of darkness descended.

This card does not suggest material loss to me. It could in conjunction with other cards, but in and of itself, it speaks of the concept of "Loss" on a darker, more emotionally profound level

Click to expand...

I agree Alissa....it definitely speaks to a deep emotional loss....and this comes from mourning the happiness that has been overpowered by darkness...very clearly illustrated in this card.

Loss is often accompanied by bitterness and regret....wishing we could go back to a time when everything seemed to be better than it is now. I guess it is because I try not focus on past mistakes or regrets, that this card really pushes my buttons.

Luna

Ruby7 said:

This card to be honest, makes me feel sick to my stomach. It actually feels evil to me (definitely looks like blood). I am not the type of person to see "evil" in a lot of places or even like using the word "evil" but honestly I find this card very unsettling.

I can't take hope in the little bit of white left because it looks like the darkness will definitely cover it.

Click to expand...

Agreed. I am not looking for anything positive in this card either...

When it shows up, I just feel like "oh ****, something bad is going to happen..."
That is my pure, gut reaction to this card.

And Alissa is right: one of the best things about this deck is that there ARE dark and unsettling cards to deal with. Because life is not all happiness, sunshine and roses. This deck is very honest and balanced that way, which is one of the things I love about it. Except I hate this damn card....

EDITED for typos

Luna

Interesting. Loss is one of the cards I really liked when I first looked through this deck...just for the perfect graphic ...how sylized and simple it is...and yet how it conveys such perfect meaning.

It is a card of loss. But is loss so bad? Is it sometimes just our perceptions of it that make the concept of loss a bad thing...rather than a neutral thing? (I can't help but think of the 5 cups in the tarot here...also a card of loss, but with a different view...a different perspective.)

Lately I have questioned the idea of Loss as a blessing...(thanks to a three card contemplation using this very deck!)

I think about what led me to this site in the first place...the loss of my beloved Hanson Roberts deck.
If I had not lost it...I would not have been interested in trying to replace it...I would not have looked up tarot on the search engine..I would not have found this wonderful place!

And I would not have grown as a tarot/psychic reader...I would have coninued to use that same ol' deck for every reading...as I had done for decades. I would not have thought to study other decks in my collection, or purchase (trade!) for new ones.

Loss, though at the time was heartbreaking and frustrating...turned out in the long run to be a kind of a blessing for me.

So Loss, in retrospect (or in the past..) may be seen as a good thing...the blessing in disguise. The losing of something that was getting in the way of your growth.

The regenerative powers of Loss cannot be denied, it's true.

If there is a positive to the card, it is this reminder. Thanks for posting too Chronata!

Here is the Loss Card.... *shudder*

Let me try again.....

(drum roll please)

HERE is the Loss card!!!

(Edited to add: WHAT THE?????)

Attachments are not attaching.....*sigh*

OK....let's try again:

Here is the Loss card (whose attachment keeps getting LOST! )

EDITED TO ADD: Woooo-hooooo!!!!! The curse has been lifted....