Deviant Moon - XIII

bumble bee

This card is really creepy. The LWB says these are both corpses.
At first I thought the mother was going to squish the baby and kill it
(its already a corpse she cant kill it) so she could have the new baby.
The books says its trying to get back inside her. The way her bones connect she looks like shes looking at you with a creepy grin on her face. A ship
sinks in the background. The baby at first looks like he wants him mommy to pick him up. His mouth is open like hes saying "mommy mommy."

So its a creepy way of saying that there are cycles. The spring brings new growth and winter things go dormant and then a new cycle starts over and over. Its hard to see what season it is because the landscape is so bleak.
The factorys are there still poluting what is left of the world.
 

Cosmic Ray

Yeah, I think this is one of the neatest Death cards around! A pregnant death, and her child. It looks like the kid wants to go back in, but the other is soon on it's way. Like when My father died and my daughter was born, I felt pushed up the ladder of life, I took a new spot. I could do nothing about it, I had a new position in life due to death and birth. I think that is the ultimate CHANGE in life. Outstanding!
 

Sphinxmoth

I can agree with these observations. Creepy- yeah, I accept that, in the way death is unavoidably disturbing. Neat- absolutely. An instantly unforgettable image. Ranks up there, for me, with the Harris Thoth Death card. I like that it observes the convention of the unnamed card. It's just something I like when the odd deck does that.

Reminds me a little bit of the tall, shrieking, horse-skulled creatures in Time Bandits. Horse skulls (or so I take it to be) are very evocative, aren't they? This one has long carnivore canines, however. And the baby has a fearsome array of sharp teeth.

Disturbing means to 'agitate', 'trouble', 'disquiet', 'unsettle', 'perplex'. This image does all of those things, certainly.
Something very ruthless in the way it treads down on it's own offspring.

A card that will raise the hairs on the back of the necks of novice clients.
 

Sulis

Just as a FYI - I've changed the title to XIII since this card isn't actually labelled 'Death' in this deck.

Sulis - Tarot Study Groups moderator
 

redflash

This is one of the first cards I look at when I get a new deck. If I'm ordering online I like to see a scan of it first. I saw this card online first & was suitably ill-at-ease. When the deck arrived I was knocked for six by card number 13. That is the most disturbing card I have ever seen. And one that speaks volumes to me. I won't be forgetting it in a hurry.
 

Onyx

Sulis said:
Just as a FYI - I've changed the title to XIII since this card isn't actually labelled 'Death' in this deck.

Sulis - Tarot Study Groups moderator

I love this card and completely agree. I know what this card is when I see it. This card will always be Trump XIII when I talk about it with clients or in posts!

Thanks for renaming the thread. I hope no ones feelings were hurt but I think this is again part of the decks charm.

Onyx.
 

starlightexp

My first thought that came to me was of the show Equuis because of the horse type skulls on these guys. It's one of the cards that made me stop and stare. If we look at the world around them with the factory we can see that those are the things we need to change. In a dark tone one can say that the mother is stepping on her one child, the one almost begging to get a back in the womb, the one that didn't turn out right, to be re-baptized in the waters and give birth to the new child of change.
 

Promise

With death comes rebirth. A child wants to re-enter the womb, but is held back by the child already occupying it, pushed away by circumstances that cannot be altered or controlled. The existing cycles into the non-existent and is quickly replaced. It's a jarring image, and an equally jarring concept I think, but something about the image seems oddly natural to me. When I look at the image, I realize that this isn't such a rare occurrence in the animal world, that the young are often cast out when a new "child" is born, and that it's simply a part of this cycle that we call life.

This card speaks to me and seems to say that no matter how painful or uncomfortable Death is, it's something that cannot be escaped.
 

mac22

A shivery insightful card.

Mac22
 

Sinduction

I know the lwb says the child wants to re-enter the womb but that isn't how I see it.

He looks excited to me. Like he knows he's to have a new baby brother or sister very soon and he can't wait to have someone to play with. It looks like the mother is raising her leg so he can get a peek! Isn't that a disturbing thought! Like the baby's crowning and he wants to help get it out.

It is very strange to see a pregnant Death.