Owl Tarot
And welcome folks, welcome to my New Year thread! I am the Owl Tarot for yet another Thoth Trump! As most of you who actually read this thread know by now, I do one thread per week regarding the Trump I am currently working at, and this week has The Death card, an actually great card to talk about along with the change of the year. Number 13 is really relevant with the year's change as well as the Eternity of Time, since 13 are the Lunar circles through the Year. Ancient calendars were created using that method. Without further ado, let's get to it! I will as usually post some of the things I could say about this card as of today, and I hope to hear some of your own as well!
XIII- Death
Zodiacal Trump of Scorpio (Fixed Water Sign)
Connects Netzach to Tiphareth, Path 24, Hebrew Letter: Nun (a fish)
A good start, the symbol of the fish is. It is both the translation of the letter Nun, and is also depicted next to the Snake in the middle. Fish breed really a lot, and when someone considers one of the Myths regarding Osiris, the one in which he was drown in the waters of Ammenti. When Osiris was torn into pieces, his Phallus (as creative energy) was swallowed by a fish. Crowley also suggests to us fish are also symbols of the womb, so it is a symbol of both male and female energy combined. Under this prism, Death is a card which has some of the qualities of The Fool. Fish in Greek is Ixthys, and it is also a title of Christ, Ihsous Xristos Theou Yios Swthr. It is thus a symbol of resurrection and regeneration.
Our main figure is Osiris himself, fulfilling the Alchemical function of Putrefaction, which dissolves. He is a skeleton without flesh, because he has undergone the process himself. In fact, he is a black skeleton with a scythe. Black is the colour of Binah in Briah, and here we have Death. A title of Binah herself is the 50 Gates of Death, and essentially she is the first Sephira of Form and Form eventually breaks up, another function of Death.
This card is the Zodiacal Trump of Scorpio. Scorpio is, according to Crowley, the second most powerful Zodiacal sign and is also a sign connected with the idea of sexuality, which is an act of creativity. Scorpio has three aspects, all of which are present and accounted for here. The lowest one is Scorpion, who was considered in the old days to commit suicide when desperate. Thus, it subjected itself to change when the outside conditions demanded it. It is positioned between Alpha and Omega, so it has a very limited understanding of Death. This is considered to be the lowest aspect of Putrefaction.
Then we have the aspect of the fish and the snake. We talked about the fish previously, which also, according to Crowley, resumes the whole Secret Doctrine, and the snake which is a symbol of identical essence, the lord of Life and Death, "whose method of progression suggests the rhythmical undulation of those twin phases of life which we call respectively life and death" (Book of Thoth). Notice that the serpent of Eden has a numerical value of 358, equal to Messiah, Christ. This led scholars to identify the Serpent of Eden with Christ.
Last but not least we have the Eagle, a symbol of exaltation above solid matter by means of killing one's ego to connect with the HGA lying in Tiphareth. Eagle is considered to be a symbol of the Spirit by some civilizations, which of course represents the reincarnation and the eternity of Spirit. Putrefaction in it's highest aspect.
But let's get back to our skeleton. He is underwater (since we have da bubbles) and he is dancing the dance of Death. His legs form the Hebrew letter Tau, which connects with the four elements which he has conquered. He is a representative of the influence of Spirit, he chose to follow it and so he is dancing with joy because of the dissolution he is causing. He is connected to Tiphareth, thus representing the Fifth Power of the Sphinx, To Go. He is exercising his True Will and with his Scythe he spawns life as seen in the bubbles which connect to his phallus.
Regarding the Sephira he connects, we have Tiphareth and Netzach. Those Sephira are a really happy couple together me thinks, and Netzach is usually assosiated with desires. So, through the process of Death as in Atu XIII, is the end of one's ego to enjoy the transformation through his HGA. He "kills" himself in order to transform and travel with his HGA. Netzach is also associated with Venus and Beauty, and Tiphareth is the Sphere of one's Higher Self. Tiphareth means Beauty. It is, in a sense, the realization of the Beauty the Harmony of this world as a whole possesses, which results in transformation through the dissolution of one's unnecessary traits. A really beautiful pair of Sephira, that is. Netzach is also the Sephira in which the white light of Tiphareth breaks to colors and force begins to take form, thus we also have the "bubbles" of form being moved.
Sexually speaking, we have Osiris's long penis, which also has huge balls on it (that's what she said!). Osiris's phallus is bigger than himself (!), so he must be a real womanizer. Also his balls aren't too far behind, so one might get the image of his huge... creativity. Also notice that ejaculation was considered to be a "little death"during the Middle Ages and in Victorian England (if I remember correctly), so I guess you can make some assumptions.
That's some of the things I could say about this card as of the moment I write this post about this card, I hope you liked it and that it helps you, and I also hope to hear some of your thoughts about this card!
Again, have a Happy New Year, and I wish all of you da best (as you consider them)!
XIII- Death
Zodiacal Trump of Scorpio (Fixed Water Sign)
Connects Netzach to Tiphareth, Path 24, Hebrew Letter: Nun (a fish)
A good start, the symbol of the fish is. It is both the translation of the letter Nun, and is also depicted next to the Snake in the middle. Fish breed really a lot, and when someone considers one of the Myths regarding Osiris, the one in which he was drown in the waters of Ammenti. When Osiris was torn into pieces, his Phallus (as creative energy) was swallowed by a fish. Crowley also suggests to us fish are also symbols of the womb, so it is a symbol of both male and female energy combined. Under this prism, Death is a card which has some of the qualities of The Fool. Fish in Greek is Ixthys, and it is also a title of Christ, Ihsous Xristos Theou Yios Swthr. It is thus a symbol of resurrection and regeneration.
Our main figure is Osiris himself, fulfilling the Alchemical function of Putrefaction, which dissolves. He is a skeleton without flesh, because he has undergone the process himself. In fact, he is a black skeleton with a scythe. Black is the colour of Binah in Briah, and here we have Death. A title of Binah herself is the 50 Gates of Death, and essentially she is the first Sephira of Form and Form eventually breaks up, another function of Death.
This card is the Zodiacal Trump of Scorpio. Scorpio is, according to Crowley, the second most powerful Zodiacal sign and is also a sign connected with the idea of sexuality, which is an act of creativity. Scorpio has three aspects, all of which are present and accounted for here. The lowest one is Scorpion, who was considered in the old days to commit suicide when desperate. Thus, it subjected itself to change when the outside conditions demanded it. It is positioned between Alpha and Omega, so it has a very limited understanding of Death. This is considered to be the lowest aspect of Putrefaction.
Then we have the aspect of the fish and the snake. We talked about the fish previously, which also, according to Crowley, resumes the whole Secret Doctrine, and the snake which is a symbol of identical essence, the lord of Life and Death, "whose method of progression suggests the rhythmical undulation of those twin phases of life which we call respectively life and death" (Book of Thoth). Notice that the serpent of Eden has a numerical value of 358, equal to Messiah, Christ. This led scholars to identify the Serpent of Eden with Christ.
Last but not least we have the Eagle, a symbol of exaltation above solid matter by means of killing one's ego to connect with the HGA lying in Tiphareth. Eagle is considered to be a symbol of the Spirit by some civilizations, which of course represents the reincarnation and the eternity of Spirit. Putrefaction in it's highest aspect.
But let's get back to our skeleton. He is underwater (since we have da bubbles) and he is dancing the dance of Death. His legs form the Hebrew letter Tau, which connects with the four elements which he has conquered. He is a representative of the influence of Spirit, he chose to follow it and so he is dancing with joy because of the dissolution he is causing. He is connected to Tiphareth, thus representing the Fifth Power of the Sphinx, To Go. He is exercising his True Will and with his Scythe he spawns life as seen in the bubbles which connect to his phallus.
Regarding the Sephira he connects, we have Tiphareth and Netzach. Those Sephira are a really happy couple together me thinks, and Netzach is usually assosiated with desires. So, through the process of Death as in Atu XIII, is the end of one's ego to enjoy the transformation through his HGA. He "kills" himself in order to transform and travel with his HGA. Netzach is also associated with Venus and Beauty, and Tiphareth is the Sphere of one's Higher Self. Tiphareth means Beauty. It is, in a sense, the realization of the Beauty the Harmony of this world as a whole possesses, which results in transformation through the dissolution of one's unnecessary traits. A really beautiful pair of Sephira, that is. Netzach is also the Sephira in which the white light of Tiphareth breaks to colors and force begins to take form, thus we also have the "bubbles" of form being moved.
Sexually speaking, we have Osiris's long penis, which also has huge balls on it (that's what she said!). Osiris's phallus is bigger than himself (!), so he must be a real womanizer. Also his balls aren't too far behind, so one might get the image of his huge... creativity. Also notice that ejaculation was considered to be a "little death"during the Middle Ages and in Victorian England (if I remember correctly), so I guess you can make some assumptions.
That's some of the things I could say about this card as of the moment I write this post about this card, I hope you liked it and that it helps you, and I also hope to hear some of your thoughts about this card!
Again, have a Happy New Year, and I wish all of you da best (as you consider them)!