Death

Sign: Scorpio

Element: Water

Numerology: XIII

Numerologically speaking, the number XIII is created out of the number one which holds the energy of leadership and the number three which is a master number holding the energies of creativity, optimism, and joy. In more modern traditions through the western world the number XIII has been considered unlucky. However, in ancient traditions this number was and still is seen as a lucky number, promoting new beginnings, rebirth, creation, and prosperity.

When the Goddess (and the Moon) was revered, there were thirteen months in our annual calendar, not twelve. The removal of the thirteenth month could be seen as a sign that the number XIII is a powerful, feminine, creative player in our numerological (and bodily) systems.

Spiritually, the number XIII invites us to embrace change, live within the cycles of life, step into the unknown, and celebrate the potential for expansion.

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Message from Dilara:

The closing and opening of a cycle. A fresh start and the honouring of an old way. The Death card is all about structures being re-written, the returning to the soil of what has been and more importantly, the acknowledgment of where we are in relation to what has been. What have we been carrying which is ready to die?

In the Western world, death is often ignored, hushed over, shoved under the rug, bypassed as a profound part of life. From the moment we are born, we are dying, yet it is in our choice to recognise this that we can live fully. The figures in the image of this card can represent our internal family systems: The inner child, who innocently turns towards death, embracing life in the process. The mother who turns away from death, refusing to fully accept. The father, who has himself been overcome by the energy of death’s presence, slipping deep into the world of the unconscious. And the priest who asks death for a different outcome, seeking to change what is. The skeletal figure in the card can be seen as our inner structure, our literal bones, the foundation of what holds us steady.

The presence of this card in a reading could symbolise the need to renew structures which have been asking to be abolished. Death rides through on a white horse and bearing a white rose, the two symbols and their respective colours represent purity and immortality. The colour white is also the frame which receives all other colours, arguably the colour white is therefore made up of the potential of all colour and no colour at all, the full vessel and the empty vessel pregnant with possibility. The rose is also one of the oldest and most profound symbols in our history, the frequency of the rose brings our nervous system into a place of rest and healing, and the Death card, in its essence, is a major healer card!

Kabbalistically speaking, the angel of Death is the one who comes to test us, to test our capacity to hold the light, our capacity to be with the darkness, and our devotion to transformation. The angel of Death is disguised as the figure of death but is really a messenger of Source / God / Goddess, a messenger who’s sole mission is to continue to drive us into the depths of our own transformation through stirring in us what has been suppressed and ultimately revealing the light.

Through these tests, when we can let ourself feel the challenge and grit and pass through it anyway, that in and of itself a mini death which cracks open our vessel to receive more of our core, our essence, our being, and the insatiable preciousness of creation.

Questions to consider: Which cycles are over for you? What in your life is asking to be released? How do you relate to endings and beginnings? You are meant to re-write your life from the inside out, every day, every moment, and in wider arcs which span generations.

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Reversed:

Reversed the Death card can symbolise inertia, resistance, blocked flow or blocking the flow of life as it wants to move through you. When this card is reversed we can be in a state of short, staccato existence. The Death Card reversed can symbolise we have been focussing too much on time, pushing through time, trying to force time, and the invitation here is to allow the drain to be unblocked and to let life flow because the energy of death in our life is going to make that happen regardless. We can either fight against it or revere the wisdom of its presence.

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Message from The Herd:

Life is death and death is a spiral, it winds its way between different structures of the Human experience in a different way to ours. This spiral is held within each facet of existence, in the trees, water, soil, thoughts, body, flowers, grass. The Spiral is infinite, showing you how to remember who you are and death is ultimately one turn on that spiral. In fact, without death you are half alive.

What we mean by this is that the descending forces of life come into contact with the play of genius which you are. These forces are wise and enlightened, not to be feared but rather to be embraced.

To embrace life means to absorb the currency of life, and of these there are many. Take a particle, turn it into a thought, turn that thought into a picture, make the picture part of how you know yourself to be, who you know yourself to be. Then turn that knowing into an experience, take the experience and make it exhaustible, turn it into a peg on a clock, turn it into a colour which can be integrated into many other colours, this is a description of the Spiral we are mentioning here.

Death’s cleansing structures make you re-visit your own, the energy of renewal, the energy of revitalisation. This card is asking you to visit who you are, to take a journey with that version of who you know yourself to be and ask what is needed at this time to purify, cleanse, and sculpt that version into a more loving expression.

The reason we are using the words ‘more loving’ here is because we know these words are relatable to you at this time, we know you understand what they mean and if you do not, the Death card is here to help you connect with the internal structures of your being, ask them who they are and what messages they have for you. Return to the spiral, connect with the turn you are in right now, establish boundaries with where you are going, define who you are by entering a quick phase of the in-between. Let death allow you to live.

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Reversed:

The Death card contains many codes within it, many symbols. One of the most important images here is the distance, the scene ‘behind’ the figures. The chaos in the card is a key to the rising sun between the pillars, everything we have shared in the upright version of this card is what allows you to reach that sun, that illuminative force which shines upon your world. Reversed, this card brings you the Moon in the distance (metaphorically speaking). The Moon is your subconscious, therefore when this card is reversed there are subconscious forces at play in your life. You are being asked to release restriction, to establish your OWN sense of who you are rather than functioning from a hidden place of unconsciousness. Step into the light which fills the moon, step into your illumination, step into your power.

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