Rider Waite- Death Card Symbol?
Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 16 Apr 2005, and now archived in the Forum Library.
| SandraEileen |
16 Apr 2005 |
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I've spent many hours in the last couple of weeks making tracings of the Rider Waite deck and coloring them for my website. While in the process, I noticed that on the death card there's this tiny little arrow in the river (The Styx?) that points upstream.
I know it's so silly, but I've spent way to much time wondering what it could possibly mean. I'm pretty sure it's not in any other decks but the RW. I imagine that the artist thought it fitting for some reason, and since I also imagine that she's no longer around to tell us, I was hoping you guys might have some ideas.
Anyone?
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| rainwolf |
16 Apr 2005 |
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Very interesting observation!
After looking at it a bit, i caught on that it was part of the trail leading to the pillars in the upper right hand corner. I see several different meanings from this. The basic one is that i see the pillars as enlightenment, and the arrow is pointing from the river of styx to enlightment, saying that once the change is over move on. When I "caught on", I saw this as an interesting coincidence, that you will "catch on" that you should leave the past behind when you feel it is right or necessary.
Who else has an interpretation?
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| SandraEileen |
16 Apr 2005 |
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Thanks, Sulis!
I'll check out that post-
Sandra
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| Emily |
17 Apr 2005 |
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I seem to remember the discussion too. But it was more towards the arrow pointing to a cave in the hillside. You can only see this cave on the RWS and not on the recolourings - Universal Waite, Radient Rider. On these decks the arrow has been re-coloured as Deaths spur and the black cave opening has gone.
I can't remember if anyone came up with any theories about this cave and a possible meaning hidden by Pixie Smith in the Death card symbolism.
Hope this helps. :)
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| caridwen |
19 Apr 2005 |
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"There appears to be a cave entrance in the background cliff - right above the ship. There also appears to be an arrow on that hillside, pointing to the cave. The arrow may be mistaken for a spur on the riders heel, except there is a gap between the arrow and the heel and it is not actually attached.
The cave may be a hint at Dante's journey into the underworld, the Mystic's Dark night of the soul,?which may be the logical path from the Death card to the Moon, Sun, and New Jerusalem symbols at the top of the background cliff. At the beginning of the Divine Comedy, Dante finds himself is a dark wood, perhaps suggested on the Death card by the black trees near the cave entrance. Dante has become exhausted trying to scale the sheer mountain to reach God. His guide, Virgil, appears and tells him that he must go another way?and leads him down into the Inferno, symbollizing the death of the self needed for the mystical journey. Only then can Dante climb the Mount Purgatory and reach Paradisio.
This may be hinted at in Waite's commentary on the Card (Pictorial Key) where he says: transformation and passage from lower to higher,?that is, from the cave entrance to the top of the cliff. He also states: the exotic and almost unknown entrance, while still in this life, into the state of mystical death.? In Waite's Azoth or the Star in the East (p 190), we find: It is the portentious darkness of initiation, the passage of the soul through Hades, the Kingdom of Pluto...which precedes the evolution of the inner light.?
The reference to Dante's mystical journey may also be hinted at by the rose on Death's banner since Dante describes one of the levels of Paradisio as a great rose. "
http://www.tarotpassages.com/old_moonstruck/oneill/13.htm
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| tarotbear |
19 Apr 2005 |
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In my deck the 'arrow' is attached to the back of the foot - so I think it is the spur of Death's suit of armor.
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| cormac |
19 Apr 2005 |
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I knew this had come up before. It's taken me ages but I think I've found it.
Check out this thread: http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=37184&highlight=arrow
There was another discussion about this a long time ago - I'll see if I can find it.
Love
Sulis xx
yes thank you for that since i was about ready to post the possibility of it being a spur :) -- mine is not connected in my deck so maybe this is a printing inconsistency :)
and yes i agree that it does look like the woman from strength -- it also looks as if she got those roses from the Magician -- and that the two 'monks' (they appear to be from their hairstyles) before the Hierophant got their robe designs from the magician's 'garden' of lillies and roses -- :)
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The Rider Waite- Death Card Symbol? thread was originally posted on 16 Apr 2005 in the Using Tarot Cards board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Using Tarot Cards, or read more archived threads.
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