Key 13 - Death - Nun - Fish
Gematria Value: 50
24th PathBenzoin, opopanax | Obsidian, Sard
DEATH / SCORPIO / SAMHAIN
Transformation through surrender
Key 13 has been described in contemporary commentary as "Transformation," or "Reconstruction," but that is too simple. It is a disturbing card, especially to Westerners. In the Middle Ages, (or in less civilized cultures) death was/is a daily, common occurrence, unsanitized, and the symbols of this card were unequivocal. Death meant DEATH.
This is not just a "stronger version" of the Tower. It is transformation, yes, but more final than the Tower. Death is a reality we all must face, our own, and other people's. Human cultures have myths, rituals, and ceremonies to help cope with this powerful fact of life.
Key 13 is the place where we can assemble our ideas about death, to contain them, and to deal with them. The Bible says "Death is the final enemy;" it also says "Conquer your enemies with love-" herein lies a profound truth.
The recent coming-of-age (in the 80's) of a generation of children born with Neptune in Scorpio brought us death rock, death-as-fashion, Goth, AIDS, and apocalyptic fascination. HIV, engendered by sex, changed sex. The sexual revolution ran aground on the rocks of harsh reality. Sex and death are especially twisted in western culture, because of our profound, pervasive denial. Instead of seeing carcasses of animals at the market, we see shrink-wrapped, bloodless "pellets." Instead of seeing animals mating in fields, we see anorexic waifs and steroid freaks.
SAMHAIN (pronounced sow-wyn) October 31st - Samhain comes from the Irish "samraidreað," which means "the end of the warm season." This is the death of the summer, when the animals are culled. Samhain is the celebration of life over death, the transformation from the outer to the inner life. This is time to reflect on death, and to remember ancestors and loved ones that have passed on. This is when the veil between this world and the next is the thinnest. This is the time to do spells to rid oneself of bad habits. This was a Druidic fire festival, Feast of the Dead, adopted by the Christians as "All Soul's Eve," and later becoming Halloween, all "hallow's 'een."
In Mexico, death is communally ritualized on the "Day of the Dead," when families visit graves of their loved ones, bring marigolds, make altars called "ofrendas," and sugar sculpture called "alfenique." The sculptures are usually humorous, putting skeletons in everyday situations, gaily decorated, playing musical instruments, dancing, or riding a motorcycle.
The Hebrew letter "Nun" means "fish," which is revealing. We see fish in their dead form more than alive. When they leave the water, and enter our world, they die. "Nun" can also be a verb, meaning to "sprout, or grow." Fish are prolific, breeding profusely.
The "nun" is also the image of a kneeling, praying person. The humility demanded by death is unavoidable, and a valuable tool for spiritual growth.
The fish is what is being searched for in the Star card. The mystery of death is a guiding force behind the spiritual quest. Death is part of the "suffering" referred to in the Buddha's "Four Noble Truths:"
All life is "suffering" in the sense of being separate from God's Bliss
Suffering arises from craving and desire
To stop desire is to stop suffering
The end of desire can be attained by following the Eightfold Path
The horseman bears the banner of the Dead; a grinning skull surrounded by roses. The rose reminds us that the beautiful cut flower is dying, removed from it's plant. The number "13," besides being the card's number, is a "code letter" for the letter "M" (13th in the alphabet)- in prison argot a code for "Marijuana" or "Murder."
When the last rose of summer pricks my finger,
and the hot sun chills me to the bone,
when I can't hear the song for the singer,
and I can't tell my pillow from a stone.
Robert Hunter
He is in black armor, on a white horse, symbolizing the black-and-white nature of life and death. This color scale also represents the upper triad of the Tree, Keter, Kochma, and Binah - light, absence of light, and half light.
A dead body and crown are on the ground. A child looks up at the horseman, a woman turns her head away. The king has died; the women and children are left to merciless death. A priest in yellow wears a mitre hat, symbol of the fish, the Catholic Church, and the Piscean age, all in Death's path.
The earthly prelate's color is reflected in the true gold, represented by the Heavenly Sun, Tipharet, rising between distant towers, forming the gates of Taenarus. These towers represent building and accumulating spiritual growth. An imitation of Tipharet's gold melts across the ground and is seen in the crown, and the Priest's cope and chasuble, showing the failed path of earthly achievement.
The boat on the river in the background is the ferryboat of Charon, crossing the river Styx into Hades, the realm of Pluto, a ruler of Scorpio. Further back, the Stygian hills form the boundary of Tartarus.
Eighteenth and Nineteenth century writers referred to orgasm as "the little death," and this is revealing as far as the Scorpio connection. Orgasm is the "death" of lust and virile vigor, at least temporarily. Sex engenders life; life is "but a petticoat about death." Menstrual blood and discharge is a death; so is puberty the death of childhood innocence.
The Egyptian Book of the Dead refers to those passed on as "Grateful," for having completed their journey to the sun.
"Grateful Dead" evolves from a cycle of folk tales beginning with the hero's arrival into a community of people who are humiliating a corpse, or refusing to bury it, because he had died without paying his debts. The hero uses all his money to pay the man's bills and give him a decent burial. Shortly thereafter, he meets a traveller who helps him achieve miracles, fortune, and glory. This guy turns out to be an apparition of the grateful man he had paid the debts of.
The Tibetan Book of the Dead is a series of prayers and meditations to guide the dying to the light, and to avoid reincarnation. The "Bardo" states are realms the dead pass through, where the soul witnesses memories and future visions that tempt it back into incarnation, distracting it from the Primary Clear Light.
SCORPIO
October 23rd to November 22nd.
Ruled by Mars and Pluto.
I create.
Delver or demon.
Fixed Water. Emotion, sensation, power, communication, ideas, depth, all concerns of water, solidify in Scorpio, into the powerful, well-defended, intense, passionate, physical being. Scorpio is the beginning of winter, when the plants all appear to die. Scorpio influences in the chart (Eighth house, or planets in Scorpio) create an emphasis on transmutation of power. This can manifest as deep, satisfying relationships and a rich enjoyment of a creative, spiritual life.
Scorpio, when active in the chart, is intelligent, aggressive, agile, secretive, intense, calculating, guarded, competitive, able to make quick decisions, energetic, intuitive, controlling, healing, talented, affectionate, responsive, has "animal magnetism," ages well, purposeful, self-directed, faces adversity, a reformer, quick witted, open minded yet conservative, strategist, discriminating, witty, demands proof, charming, vibrant, artistic, loves debate, daring, undaunted, hardworking, articulate, persuasive, resourceful, philosophical, has a strong sense of self and purpose, dignified, passionate, shrewd, has mechanical/technical ability, attracted to mystery.
Unfavorable Scorpio can be jealous, phobic, over-possessive, likes to provoke problems and crisis, uses people, vengeful, resentful, spiteful, sadistic, sarcastic, mocking, cold blooded, keeps grudges, too quickly imtimate, brooding, coldly critical, deceptive, paranoid, impatient, sexually driven without fulfillment, argumentative, crude, arrogant, combative, selfish, bad with money, a back stabber, angry, depressed, an extremist, or tricks people for fun.
Scorpio needs purpose, direction, and goals. More than most, it becomes frustrated, wasteful, and even destructive when aimless or bored. It can become obsessive, sexually extreme, depraved, power-mad, vicious, manipulative, misogynistic or misanthropic, merciless, antisocial, malicious, ruthless, selfish, vindictive, cruel, and brutal.
Its "Teflon" shell makes Scorpio especially image-conscious. Scorpio is very cautious about its dignity. When this is reversed, we see displays of malicious vulgarity, or deliberate efforts to subvert the Dignified.
Scorpio feeds on the emotion of others, getting beneath surface appearances and probing for secrets and intrigues, while at the same time cloaking its own feelings and intentions. Scorpio is penetrating and impenetrable at the same time. Because of this emotion-controlling, others feel at a disadvantage sometimes, wanting a freer give and take. Scorpio should lighten up, and wear it's heart on its sleeve sometimes. Be ingenuous, not disingenuous.
(See Key 0, The Fool)
Domains of Scorpio are anything requiring focus, passion, and endurance: Medicine, law, engineering, physics, teaching, art, music, mysticism, meditation, emotional arenas, power struggles, coercive or militaristic environments, teaching, and philosophy.
Scorpio, when active in the chart, can bring compulsive behavior, and a drive to control people and situations. Taurus, Capricorn, and Cancer share these traits, but Scorpio and Capricorn are most apt to take them to extremes.
Scorpio enjoys having power over others, like its opposite, Taurus, but much more. The Scorpion's strategy is to penetrate, while the Taurus approach is to permeate. (Taurus is Venus ruled - Scorpio is Mars ruled).
Scorpio, ruled by Mars, is the masculine force, stripped of niceties, even though it is considered a feminine sign (each alternates). Scorpio wants to control, to take charge of things, to plant itself into its subjects, to extend itself outward into its environment.
Since its discovery, Pluto has been given rulership of Scorpio; it is seen as the higher octave of Mars. Pluto takes Martian/Aries urgency to a higher level, to the "big picture." Pluto is the mortality/death aspect of Scorpio, showing the soul the gates of infinity, and presenting a deadline for working out the soul's karmic issues. Pluto empowers too, with its "life or death" determination.
Scorpio is "eye-intense" - it penetrates and acquires - exercise of power for its own sake - Power is its own justification.
Scorpio is a predator by instinct. It is archetype of predators in general; sharks, piranhas, tigers, birds of prey, spiders, or humans.
Like the other water signs, Scorpio is symbolized by a primitive, hard-shelled creature. But the Scorpion is a land animal, showing its movement up the ladder.
Scorpio is also given the image of an eagle. The Lower Octave of Scorpio crawls on the ground, and the Higher Octave flies to the sun.
Scorpio, Cancer and Pisces influences all can bring problems with addiction, psychological imbalance, and isolation.
Lessons for Scorpio include being open, frank, communicative, generous, guileless, letting others take the lead occasionally, right use of power, and setting spiritual goals.
Scorpio rules the genitals.
For Scorpio, the Shadow takes an ironic form, since Scorpio's domain is the shadow, of having obvious flaws that you are oblivious to. For all your control, in a way you cannot see, you have a great vulnerability. The shadow manifests as people becoming impassive with you, digging their heels in, and refusing to perform for you. Work with your shadow, and the people you project it onto, by opening up yourself, and revealing your intense candour, that others find so endearing. The more you deny your Shadow, the more it will manifest itself and attract what you will interpret as disruption or pain.
The Eighth house has the character of Scorpio: planets in this house are concerned with Power; in mundane astrology the 'house of inheritance-' the deeper meaning is 'use of power in relation to others.' Relational power dynamics, and manipulating them, is Scorpio's passion. This house shows sexual issues, manner of death, inheritance, psychic ability, possessions, and financial conditions. The 8th house is the end of the "Cult of Personality" trend of the second four signs.
The water triplicity is Scorpio (fixed), followed by Pisces (mutable), and then Cancer (cardinal).
In the natural order of the signs, Scorpio is water, preceded by Libra (air), and followed by Sagittarius (fire).
The opposite axis, or antidote to Scorpio, is Taurus.
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Wed Jan 02, 2008 12:44 am