Still requiring Help on Symbols on Death Card Flag

Sunlit Wolf

Thank you Abrac for your answer on the Death Card flag but I still feel I need further explanation of the picture inside the flag. My request is, and all thoughts would be appreciated, "On the Rider Waite Death card is a flag I would like to know what is in the flag and what do all the symbols mean."

Thank you
Sunlit Wolf
 

re-pete-a

Sunlit Wolf said:
Thank you Abrac for your answer on the Death Card flag but I still feel I need further explanation of the picture inside the flag. My request is, and all thoughts would be appreciated, "On the Rider Waite Death card is a flag I would like to know what is in the flag and what do all the symbols mean."

Thank you
Sunlit Wolf


What can be gleaned from information supplied by Tarotlyn and Logiatrix, the white rose of York was defeated by the red rose of Lancaster , The tudor rose is white in the black flag signifying the wipe out of the house of the white rose , Death came to all the high born , princes and princesses plus their brand of churchies serviceing them as well as their supporters.


Thats roughly about the time THAT Tarot symbol was invented, originally a skeleton with a sand glass.

That make sense to you now, and by the way thanks for raising that question , and thanks to the others for supplying the information.
 

Rosanne

I said in your first thread on the subject- that the the rose on the banner was the Golden Dawn symbol of renewal. I will more fully explain it from my perspective of using the deck.(I am not a member of the Golden Dawn)
The cinquefoil (from the french, five-part) is a five petalled rose found in Christian symbolism of the Middle Ages. The five-petalled rose is often found affixed to the tops of Gothic arches, the vesica pisces-shaped doorways and windows thought to represent the womb of Mary. Some historians have speculated that the rose in Gothic architecture is a secret symbol of the feminine principle, one of a multitude of hermetic symbols found in these churches. It brings to mind the myth of the Rose that grows in the garden of Eden, where its fragrance and beauty were a reminder of the Glory of Paradise. The centre of the Rose represents the point of unity or the heart of Christ- the Divine light and the Sun at the centre of the wheel of life. It is this that makes it the symbol of renewal. Life- Death- Life.
The symbol itself dates back to Roman times, where it was called the "Rose of Venus." The rose, with its five petalled shape mimicked the pentagrammatic path traced by the planet Venus in the night sky. This, combined with the flower's natural beauty, made it an obvious symbol of the Goddess of love. Tracing between the petals reveals a perfect pentagram.
~Rosanne
 

Rosanne

oops I forgot to add that the Cinquefoil is also considered a cup. This brings to mind that the RWS deck is considered a Grail quest story. The Sangreal- The the Cup of the Blood of Christ- the pure (white) quest. Waite was a Christian Hermetic. ~Rosanne
 

Teheuti

I offer up all these notes to the group (from a forthcoming work), but if you refer to any of this without having gotten it from the GD or Waite's works yourself I'd appreciate an acknowledgement. Also, see the work of Bob O'Neill and AGrinder at
http://www.tarotpassages.com/old_moonstruck/oneill/

• Described by Waite as a “Mystic Rose, which signifies life” (PKT). A white rose represents purification of the desire nature. It is the purified life of both Christ and the Blessed Virgin (the purified Venus). “So also is the Rose of Shekinah a Divine Rose, as she whom it typifies is Divine Mother of souls” (Waite, The Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross).

• “The five petals correspond to the five virtues which lead to perfection; these virtues are mystic paths; and they are five manners of wounding by which the Adept is crucified to himself and to the world for the manifestation of the Divine within him” (Waite, Portal Ritual in The Secret Inner Order Rituals of the Golden Dawn, Zalewski).

• The white rose “was taken for a funeral symbol, the last episode in the grand reserve of humanity, being that which takes it into aeonian silence" (Waite, Encyclopedia of Freemasonry).

• “These are the Elements of my Body, Perfected through Suffering, Glorified through Trial. For the scent of the Dying Rose is as the repressed Sigh of my suffering” (Golden Dawn, Z documents).

• The black square flag represents the four-square material world, the black earth out of which the mystical life emerges. It is a hidden (occulted) cube, which unfolds into a cross, so that the white rose on the black flag represents the central ritual in Rosicrucian (rose-cross) rituals—the death-in-life of the initiate. Spiritual light rooted in the subconscious.

• The flag is black “to portray the state of our natural humanity before the work of God and of His Light is performed therein. [The natural personality.] The matter of the work and the root of Light are within us. The cube unfolds as the cross and displays the red rose in the center of its open arms. . . . When the cube is closed up it represents the altar of incense, upon . . . which . . . you have offered up yourself in sacrifice - signifying sanctification and self attainment in God” (Waite, Zelator Ritual, Inner and Outer Order Initiations of the Holy Order of the Golden Dawn).

• “Rosicrucianism is the mystery of that which dies in manifestation that the life of the manifest may be ensured. . . . [It] is the summary expression of mysticism: “And I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come” (Waite, “The Hermetic and Rosicrucian Mystery,” Occult Review, Oct. 1908).

• The rose is the symbol of Christ, and the cross, the symbol of his death; the two united, the rose suspended on the cross, signify his death on the cross, whereby the secret of immortality was taught to the world. “The Rose is a Cup of Blessings, as it is also a Chalice of Redemption" (Waite, The Holy Kabbalah).

• This rose has five inner and five outer petals—five being the number of humanity and signifying Christ was born as a man. They also allude to the five ways of salvation and five gates of grace. There are five ears of wheat between the petals and a many-seeded center, showing that new life emerges from Nature’s life-death cycle.

• The rose dominates the top quarter of the image so that everything in the card is sub-rosa, suggesting silence and secrecy. Waite notes that the white rose is especially sacred to silence, telling the story that it was “a symbol of silence . . . consecrated by Cupid to Harpocrates as a bribe not to betray the multitudinous adventures of his mother Venus.” (Waite, The Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross). The transformative mysteries of this card are not to be revealed to the profane.
 

Rosanne

Thank you Teheuti for offering these notes for our information, and to those who contributed to them and the link to Tarotpassages which are valuable when using the RWS.
~Rosanne
 

Alta

Excellent!! Thanks for this.
 

BodhiSeed

Thank you Teheuti for sharing all of this wonderful information.