New Cycle. Number 13

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Sometimes this knowledge is deliberately deleted from everyday life. People say that, say, the cabalistic Tarot system is "bullshit", and at the same time they build hotels without a 13th floor, they miss the 13th cabin on ships and liners, you won't find house number 13 on the streets in some cities

After all, it is Arcanum number 13 in the Tarot that is called "Death". It is her presence that is undesirable for people who avoid the fatal figure. Although, most of these people have already forgotten (or did not know) why this is so. See? The archetype lives on its own, and even influences the lifestyle of those who do not believe in its existence.

Let's talk about this Arcana in more detail. The first thing to start with, in order to calm the trembling in the knees of those who fear the Tarot precisely because of the "negative" cards, is that the 13th lasso that fell almost never portends death in the form in which we are accustomed to perceive it. Arcanum almost never means physical death.

What does it mean? Subtraction, no doubt. Irreversible, like death. It may be a rejection of the old identity, and in this case, “you are the past, familiar to yourself,” will really cease to exist. Rejection of a bad habit can also symbolize this Arcanum. You "subtract", expel from your life that which was part of your identity.

Does it follow from this that Death (metaphysically) is a Transformation? To a large extent, this is so. In connection with "bad habits and old identity" I would like to retreat to the earlier lasso - the Hanged Man, which archetypically symbolizes a kind of freezing in the situation, all forms of addictions and the Oedipus complex, as well as dependence on the mother.

The trouble is not to live the Death card, the trouble is that you can hang your legs up like this all your life and never give up your infantile "ego" in order to become an adult. The thirteenth lasso is not the end of the deck, it is its middle. And the mid-life crisis fits very well for this archetype - Transformation or its impossibility.

It is in the middle of life that a person thinks about who he is and who (what) he would like to become.

In the Tarot deck, this Arcanum is ruled by Scorpio. And this can give astrologers, and people interested in horoscopes, already a lot of information about this archetype. By the way, both in Tarot and in astrology, the Eighth house is not the last in the circle of the Zodiac, but a turning one, because 8 is 7 + 1. This is a way to a new stage of development.

I have another allusion to the topic of metaphysical understanding of death on the book by M. L. Von Franz "On Dreams and Death", which examines the symbols that "predict" a quick death. Such, strictly indicating that the dreamer will go to another world, the author of the book almost did not reveal. Death symbols can indicate deep personality transformation.

How has the archetype of death been described over the centuries? In ancient decks, we see an image of a skeleton with a scythe. As a rule, seeing terrible white bones, we are frightened, forgetting that for our more ancient ancestors, the sign of the skull and crossed bones meant immortality. Flesh decays, but bones remain … forever, they thought.

In any case, in the ancient tribes there was a strict prohibition on violating the integrity of the bones of an animal killed for food. They ate its meat, burying unbroken bones so that the animal could revive the next year and give food again. It seems naive that animals were treated in the same way as with plants, burying "seeds", but engravings speak in this favor, which depict how the whole carcass of an animal is fried. NOT breaking integrity.

Later decks depicted death in the form of an old man. Gray-haired Saturn. His Reaping Sickle then moved to the female bony hands in the form of a scythe. The idea of demonizing the feminine is common in Christianity. The sickle was replaced with a scythe, and the chains were lost. And the idea of time in the context of the loss in the images of the Lord of Time turned out to be forgotten. We think we will live forever. Therefore, we postpone everything for later.

Aleister Crowley's deck clearly shows the transformation of Scorpio (prima matter) into a worm (snake), and then into an eagle. This metaphor speaks of the three stages of any transformation. In this it differs from initiation - an instant qualitative leap in personality development.

To transform, one must "die", burn in a fiery ring, having poisoned oneself with one's own poison, that is, understand that it is no longer possible to live like this, then allow oneself to lose one's identity, become food for worms, abandon one's old form, and through the stage The snake that the Eagle will eat, ascend in spirit to new heights.

Such is the “food chain” through the absorption archetype. The eagle resembles so little a scorpion that it can be said that the scorpion is dead. We can say that she turned into an Eagle. We can say that he abandoned base passions and grew spiritually.

A Sufi parable in this direction:

I was a stone, but I died and became a plant.

I died as a plant and became an animal.

I died like an animal and became a man.

Why should I be afraid, has death ever robbed me?

And as a human being I will die to become an angel.

But I won't be an angel forever.

And in time I will become something that my mind cannot even imagine.

What other allusions are there to this archetype or tarot lasso? Gods from different pantheons, corresponding to him - Typhon, Apopis, Ares, Thanatos, Hades, Mars, Pluto, Kundalini. Animals - a wolf or a scorpion, or a beetle, a scarab.

If we talk about psychosomatics, then the impossibility of transition, the inability to abandon old patterns of behavior causes problems in the intestines. Constipation as a particular. If you do not work correctly with this archetype - oncology.

Death is the most mysterious card, and the name of this riddle is transmutation. If you place the tarot arcana in a circle, like a dial, so that 0 and 22 arcana are in the upper part, then the 13th arcana will remain below, as a point at which one should "push off from the bottom and fall up." It is at this point that the birth of a new life begins. After all, even the original meaning (purpose) of Saturn is to be the god of Fertility. Hence the sickle and chains, which were flails. Elevinian mysteries, Saturnalia - an expression of horror, the experience of the death of the world, almost the end of the world for the archaic consciousness, because no one knew for sure whether the cycle of the Sun would be repeated. There was an extreme release of strength, energy, life, sex, in the name of a sacrifice to the gods, so that a new cycle would still begin. A strange and explosive mixture between Eros and Thanatos.

Speaking about the lasso Death, about going out in the thirteenth hour, going beyond, one should note its paradoxical connection with sexuality. By the way, about the scorpion, more precisely, about its motto, they say in astrology as follows: "a song of love on the battlefield." Scorpio is the closest to death, as to the point of the Winter Solstice, and at the same time, the most passionate of the entire zodiac. The idea of the highest unity of passion and death, which are two sides of the same coin, is set forth in the statement “orgasm is a little death”. Going beyond the limits of one's existence occurs precisely in this transcendental ecstasy of passion, through transgression.

Death gives us an intensification. One of its facets is the transfer of the center of attention from the future to the present. Understanding that life is not eternal gives a person a chance to start living NOW, and not put off for those fertile times, "when I will, when I get married, when I retire." Ever comes NEVER. Dot. At zero. Always. Is it worth dying while still alive?

There is no tomorrow. Eating eternal now. That is why Death is the agent of Life. Scorpio stings itself and gains the ability to fly. The eagle is taller than the scorpion because it has more options. This is evolution. Throughout life, we die many times in different qualities. "I am a child" is somewhere far away in time, isn't it? But death leaves us a choice. The acorn will die anyway. He can die by rotting in a dung heap, or he can die by discarding the ontology of the acorn and become an Oak. What grew out of this child?

Live each of your lives as a magnificent and unique "now". Throw away old patterns of behavior, worn-out things, relationships, do not hang, let life be! Create it yourself! Be reborn in the arms of your loved ones. There are still many beautiful / terrible Arcana ahead.

Your Irina Panina.

Together we will find the way to your hidden possibilities!