XIII Death
XIII Death
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- Description
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There is little ambiguity in the Death card. A large Black rhinoceros rears his horned head and on the end of his gigantic front horn the body of a man is impaled. The horizon is flat, the sky behind the two pinkish as though near sunset. The rhino looks neither joyous nor regretful, but possibly tired. There is no blood, no gore, just the body of the man on the horn, and the rhino with its head raised.
- Interpretation
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Death is a scary card. Even in the enlightened, non-dualistic world of the Tarot of Origins Death is still scary. Even if we do some mirror magic and say that Death isn't necessarily death, but some kind of major transformation (the butterfly is the death of the caterpillar, for instance) Death is still scary, because change is scary. There's no ambiguity about this card. The man that rests on the rhino's horn is ended. There is, however, more depth to this card than is first apparent. The first thing that strikes me is the lack of gore and the absurdity of the image. This doesn't seem likely or even really possible. The next thing that strikes me is that this rhino reminds me of the rhino from the Animal of Soul. The conclusion that I draw then, is that the man chasing his spirit guide in the Animal of Soul finally caught up with it. It's no wonder the man was acting aggressively, look what the rhino had in store for him. Despite the man's best at defeating the change his spirit guide had in mind for him, he failed and the change occured despite his best efforts. This, I think, is the frightening nature of XIII Death, that this change will occur despite our best efforts. That are no longer in control, and powerless to stop what is coming. My feeling is that Death only arrives at the end of a long series of events over which we could have chosen differently, but either chose not to decide or chose to avoid. Thus its intimidating aspect.
- Application
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Death feels appropriate for me today. This morning I prayed to become the man who speaks truth, someone I've always wanted to be, but have always been afraid to become. Finding Death waiting for me this morning reinforces the rightness of the timing and the appropriateness of the transformation. Now, I'm not ruling out a false positive, that this card is in fact alerting me to some other chickens that are coming home to roost, but the match feels good nonetheless.
- Traditional Meanings
- Aeclectic Tarot
- ATA Tarot
