Alejandro Jodorowsky tells us that card number 13 in the Tarot, popularly known as ‘the death card’, is extremely alive. He is electric. He has flesh on his bones. He doesn’t represent the end of a journey (there are eight more cards to go—21 in total!). Jodorowsky points out that he was not Death but 'The Nameless Arcana'. He is the card of harvest, wielding a scythe, representing revolution and transformation, not the end. His job is to separate the wheat from the chaff—to clear the ground for the new. I like to think of him as ‘the editor’.
This arcana is reminiscent of tantric protectors deities in the East. These fierce destroyers protect life. The point is not morbidity but the positive energy of destruction; we can enjoy them the way we do heavy rock music or rap—or a good lightning storm, for that matter. The protectors are also a meditation on fearlessness. In the tantric traditions, yogis went and lived in the charnel grounds—became familiar with all kinds of terror to develop fearlessness. Furthermore, meditation and the development of fierce energy help to wake us up from our sleep and passivity and push us through difficult states.
While Jodorowski positives these cards and warns against morbid projection, I don’t think we can deny the aspects of the monstrous or killing, even if the black mire is the mud from which the lotus arises. Part of the psychoanalytic and spiritual path is becoming familiar with what we fear the most—pain and suffering, even more than death. From a spiritual or psychoanalytic perspective, the nameless arcana represents the deep work we must do to clear away the dead wood—to allow inspiration. Perhaps the nameless arcana performs what the tantric adepts call ‘tapas’: creating spiritual heat to break down rigid structures of delusion.
In the Rider Wait deck, Death—the great equaliser—is represented as a knight on a white horse, and a city is on the hill in the distance. This card also contains the notion of rebirth—as life and death are inseparable. This card is more of a narrative than a gestalt—it has obvious symbolism. Being more pop culture oriented, The Rider Waits deck has an aura of passivity or fate, reflecting its maker's biases rather than the original inspiration.
In any case, a meditation on death is something all religious traditions proscribe. When we breathe in air, who knows how many microorganisms we crush—when we breathe out, we die again. However, we don’t always need to lament this constant killing and dying—we can become grateful that death gives room for more life. After all, eternal life as a body would be a living hell. And the grim reaper is a generous fellow. He brings the harvest, not the end of the world. Our bones are fertilisers for future life. Life is eternal—when our bodies die, life keeps going and going. Death is not the end of the story.
Jiddu Krishnamurti talks about how psychological memory is a form of death. When we are bound to images of the past and representations of reality, we cannot truly live. As we age, it becomes harder and harder to experience sensations freshly: that is why we have to die every day consciously and let go of the old and useless parts of ourselves. This means to get out our plough and scythe to break down reified patterns that cause us to remain stuck in a state of living death. Actual death is nothing because it can never be experienced or named. Our terror of death and pain in life circumstances haunts us. Dying is not a problem, but a living death is. To really live, we must learn to die with grace and to die to our images and attachments. That is, paradoxically, where life becomes eternally full—when we dare to empty ourselves of dead images.
This article is part of a consideration of our study group on symbolism and Psychomagic. If you want to become a member and join one of our study groups, please write to me at andrewpgsweeny@gmail.com or check out the events calendar below for more details.
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