catboxer
Yep, we've reached this one -- the card that always shows up in tarot readings that happen in movies.
Other trumps have changed their positions in the sequence, but not this one. It's always number 13, and it's never titled. It's with the Marseilles decks that we see the origins of cards with their titles printed below the pictures, but apparently none of the Marseilles artisans wanted to say the D-word.
The number 13 is a clear and unambiguous holdover from paganism. The 13-month pagan calendar, based on the solar year's thirteen lunar months (except for that rare year when there's a 14th, "blue" moon) has proved impossible to completely eradicate from even the most thoroughgoing Christian culture. It's the mysterious prime number that inevitably signals the end of a cycle, and the beginning of a new one.
Death's scythe gives us the deck's second reference to Cronos, and the relentless passage of time.
The iconic presentation of this card is very consistent, with one major variation: in some decks the death figure moves from right to left. When pictured on horseback, he almost always moves this direction. In some of the very oldest decks, he simply stands directly facing the viewer. In Marseilles decks, he is generally shown moving from left to right, and that's the presentation I prefer. I always think of left on a tarot card as west, and right as east. So if death is moving from right to left, he is moving toward the sunrise.
CB
Other trumps have changed their positions in the sequence, but not this one. It's always number 13, and it's never titled. It's with the Marseilles decks that we see the origins of cards with their titles printed below the pictures, but apparently none of the Marseilles artisans wanted to say the D-word.
The number 13 is a clear and unambiguous holdover from paganism. The 13-month pagan calendar, based on the solar year's thirteen lunar months (except for that rare year when there's a 14th, "blue" moon) has proved impossible to completely eradicate from even the most thoroughgoing Christian culture. It's the mysterious prime number that inevitably signals the end of a cycle, and the beginning of a new one.
Death's scythe gives us the deck's second reference to Cronos, and the relentless passage of time.
The iconic presentation of this card is very consistent, with one major variation: in some decks the death figure moves from right to left. When pictured on horseback, he almost always moves this direction. In some of the very oldest decks, he simply stands directly facing the viewer. In Marseilles decks, he is generally shown moving from left to right, and that's the presentation I prefer. I always think of left on a tarot card as west, and right as east. So if death is moving from right to left, he is moving toward the sunrise.
CB