Every day, I get my daughter to pick a Card from the Major Arcana of the Rider-Waite Tarot Deck. Disregarding traditional interpretations and sceptical of ‘professional’ Tarot readers, I draw instead from my Hermetic background and psychological focus on Mythos and Archetypes. I'm exploring an experiment to deeply understand each card's archetypal meanings, delving into both its overt and covert symbolism while remaining open to the dialogic nature of signs. This process embodies the concept of "Signal" as "Emergence," where being in tune allows for the unfolding and proper demodulation of universal, multifaceted messages, highlighting the pervasive relevance and context available to all.
The Invitation is to consider all the implications and let them form a constellation of context, from which you might derive some Meaning.
XIII. DEATH
This card represents Ending & Transition.
The number is XIII (13), but it is also the 14th Card in the Major Arcana.
13 is the 12 Parts PLUS The Signal which constitutes The Whole. Twelve apostles/disciples + Jesus: The Whole. 12 Months + Sol = Solar Cycle. Twelve tribes of Israel + The Nation = The Covenant.
Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority.
Francis Bacon
A skeletal knight in black armour, carrying a black banner with a white rose. The knight’s visor is up showing the skull face. The red feather of the knight’s crest is not rampant. The knight rides a white horse with red eyes, with its left foreleg stepping. The skeletal figure is the archetype of Kronos, father-time. Kronos is the Greek mythological archetype of the hardening nature of Time, with his great scythe—the leveller.
Facing the horsed knight is a high-ranking cleric, in full gold papal regalia, praying to the knight. Other figures in the foreground are a maiden on her knees looking away, a child kneeling facing the knight and the body of a king, lying dead beneath the horse.
The kneeling child is taught to be fearful of death. The maiden turns her head away, being immune to death in the height of youth.
In the midground, a sparse countryside and beyond a Viking ship sailing with the wind
In the background steep cliffs and a waterfall, beyond like the scene of the THE MOON card, with the rising luminary between two stone towers, except in this scene, it seems to be the sun shining.
In the foreground, the cleric has dropped their golden crosier. The dead king has lost their golden crown. These symbolise the limitations of kingship and pastoral leadership. The crozier is a stylised shepherd’s crook.
THE FISH
The cleric’s hat is a fish.
Dagon, pictured above, is Babylonian fertility god, represented by fish, as a symbol of multiplying.
In the Hebrew Torah, 1 Samuel 5:2-7 retells of how the Philistines, captured the ark from the Israelites in a battle and took it to their temple of Dagon in Ashdod. After the first night of feasting, the idol of their patron god Dagon is found lying prostrate before the ark. The tall statue of Dagon is restored, only to found the next morning fallen again a second time, this time with the hands and face severed.
The account continues with the puzzling words raq dāgōn nišʾar ʿālāyw, which means literally "only Dagon was left to him.”—meaning only the core fish aspect of Dagon was left whole.
The symbolism of this is that only the fertility aspect of Renewal, can transcend the power of death.
The symbolism of The Fish in Judaic mysticism is informed by the first time in the Torah that God speaks to any living creature, the speech is directed at fish.
Genesis 1:22:
“And God blessed them saying: Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas…”
Regarding Fish, their symbolism with fertility and abundance can be seen in an example when Jacob blessed the two sons of Joseph, Jacob said: "Let them multiply in the midst of the earth".
Genesis 48:16
“…and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.”
In Hebrew, the word for "multiply" ve-yidgu derives from the Hebrew word for fish dagim.
THE ROSE
The Rose on the black banner has 10 white petals and 5 leaves. The Rose is the symbol of the 5 mysteries, The 10 petals are the 10 sephirot on the tree of life. The Rose is also the Kabbalistic symbol of the gift, and the cost of the gift, the bloom and the thorns that must be risked for the beauty and heavenly essence.
THE HORSE
In Greek Mythology, horses, were the symbol of Poseidon, god of Waters and Oceans. Horses were created by Poseidon trying to woo Demeter, goddess of the Harvest, by creating the most beautiful animal. Poseidon was also the god of Floods and Droughts, two prevalent memes for Death.
In Zoroastrianism, one of the three representations of Tishtrya, the hypostasis of the star Sirius, is that of a white stallion. Tishtrya is again the god of fertility and rain.
Christianity
Revelation 6:7-8
“And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
“And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death...”
THE RIVER
The border that separates the midground from the far background, and the dawning of the living world and rising sun beyond the pillars, is the River Styx. The word Styx literally means “shuddering”.
SYNOPSIS
There is an Irish proverb that says “Death is the middle of a very long life.”
All true growth requires an often painful outgrowing of who we have already become, even if it was earned through great cost. What got us here, will not get us there. Disappearance is necessary for arrival. Doorways of significant transition always seem frightening.
If you are not open to things ending you are not facing renewal.
TAKING STEPS
Part of you
has to die here
on the steps,
if you mean to live
fully
beyond the threshold.
Each step
is the threshold
to the next step.
In taking each step;
something must be given,
something must be let go.
until there is nothing that is not you,
left.
It is when you try and hold on,
that which keeps you small,
stays with you,
and keeps you, stuck here
with it.
—It is
what holds on.
Rocco Jarman
In the dance of existence, endings and beginnings are intertwined in a perpetual cycle of renewal, where the shedding of old forms is a prerequisite for the emergence of new life. Through a mosaic of ancient symbols and timeless archetypes, the story unfolds, revealing that the essence of transformation lies in surrender to change. It whispers of the inevitability of passing, the nature of rebirth, and the profound truth that in the fabric of the cosmos, every ending is but the prelude to a form of transcendence. This eternal cycle is mirrored in the natural and spiritual realms, where the motifs of decay and growth serve as reminders that to step into the light of tomorrow, one must first traverse the shadow of time. Death is the shadow of Time.
Let the old dream die. Change is what carries us forward, half its hymn is disappearance, the other verse arrival. Hear the song! The same words sung, but its meaning become now something new. A new arc within the story, tomorrow’s tune belonging even better to yesterday than today’s. You have to let it all go— All fear and doubt and disbelief.
SYMBOLS & ARCHETYPE
Symbols are considered the language of the soul, and Archetypes form part of the language of the Psyche.
The Symbols & Archetypes depicted or alluded to in this Card:
Skeleton / Knight (Chronos)
White Horse (Pale Horse)
Rose
Bishop & Crosier
Dead King & Lost Crown
Two Towers
The egregor of the card is Ending & Transition.
ASTROLOGY
In Astrology, the card DEATH is associated with Scorpio. Scorpio is represented by 4 animals, each with a different relationship to Transformation.
Scorpion (Water) - Unable to change.
Snake (Earth) - Able to shed its skin and renew.
Eagle (Air) - Able to rise up and soar, and shift perspective and range.
Phoenix (Fire) - Sacrificing itself to the flames, the Phoenix is reborn from the ashes.
KABBALAH
In Kabbalah, the number 13 symbolizes unity and transcendence. It represents the connection between the divine and the material world. The interplay of Matter and Form—the way divinity is infused into the material world.
The Rose on the black banner has 10 white petals and 5 leaves. The Rose is the symbol of the 5 mysteries, The 10 petals are the 10 sephirot on the tree of life, the roots, the thorns and the unfolding bloom.
In Jewish mysticism, the Rose is the symbol of Creation, and also the Creation of the Nation of Israel, the faithful.
Check my website if you are interested in decoding Archetypes, Mythos, Hermetics, and Gnosticism, or if you want to book me for a podcast interview.
Check my website if you are interested in discovering your own Archetypes, Symbolism, Mythos, Totems and Astrology.
The Latin root word mort is easily recalled through the word mortal, for a “mortal” is someone whom “death” will claim one day.
The word "death" comes from Old English dēaþ, which in turn comes from Proto-Germanic *dauþuz (reconstructed by etymological analysis). This comes from the Proto-Indo-European stem *dheu- meaning the "process, act, condition of dying."