J. Michael Cline's Pain

"Fandango founder [J. Michael Cline] left heartbreaking suicide note before jumping from NYC luxury hotel: ‘I can’t explain the pain’" - New York Post, July 18, 2024 

Cline, a very successful serial entrepreneur, was not alone in being unable to articulate his pain. So many suffering human beings decide to have a Tarot reading because they are unable to tell even themselves 1) What hurts and 2) How overwhelming that pain is. Our society demands that its members always be in complete control. That's the face you have to present to the world.

The Tarot reader and the client work together to bring the distress to the surface. The New York Times explained how the Tarot is a tool for awareness. 

Sometimes the pain is rooted in the unreal, such as the ruminations of the clinically depressed. They experience themselves as failures, on every level. 

It could be temporary. There are those setbacks such the loss of the job. 

Or it could be long-term as with chronic health problems.

Given that human existence is essentially a mystery, never will the whole context become accessible. The best we can hope for is enough for relief. 

Then there is the search for what can be changed and, as the Serenity Prayer teaches, the perspective to accept to what cannot be changed. 

Meanwhile, what is critical, is to pause. In the Tarot that message is embedded in the Four of Swords card. Swords stand for our cognitive processes. Yes, still the thinking. 

Hard-chargers find that almost impossible. They are wired for being strategically in proactive space. There could be FOMO, that is fear of missing out. It could be simply habit. 

If they can enter that state of rest and find it bearable, they can value their accomplishments. That is symbolized in the Tarot by Seven of Pentacles. Pentacles stand for business, professional life, success and material well-being. 

As Zen Master Barry Briggs hammers in talks after Meditation practice at the Cochise Zen Center, Bisbee, Arizona, we humans are profoundly flawed. We make mistakes all the time in all aspects of our personal and professional lives. Some are big. 

Therefore, a major part of our journey in this dimension is self-forgiveness. In itself that neutralizes the extreme pain of regret. 

The Tarot recognizes that peculiar brand of suffering - regret - with the Five of Cups, often called the Spilled Milk card. The human being caught in that dark force field is overtaken with emotion. Cups stand for emotion in the Tarot. That sucks away the energy which could be used in moving forward.

I am praying that those whom J. Michael Cline cared about have the strength to sort out this tragedy in a way that brings them peace.