TM Prompt #270 - Thirteen
Card Thirteen in the Major Arcana is Death.
Death is the card people who are having their cards read most fear, which is actually very funny because it is not half as bad as some of the others. The Tower is worse. But Death is what scares people, because death is something we are taught to fear. Also it is a pretty scary card, in general - a skeleton in black armour on a white horse, advancing inexorably over King and Bishop, woman and child.
“Not coin, nor crown, can halt time's flight, nor stay the creatures of the night.
Lord and Lady, Lad and Lass, all answer to the hourglass.”
People see the skeleton and that is what they think.
Rarely do people see the boat in the background, or the pillars with the sun coming through them. These pillars, they are an echo. So much in the cards are echoes. The pillars frame the Moon, later. But for now it is in the distance, the sun rising on Death and his horse.
Death is winter. Death is the period after sacrifice (it follows the Hanged Man) where we despair of what he have lost. Death IS death, despite what some people say.
Why is Death card thirteen? Because thirteen goes outside of man's order. There are twelve astrological signs, for example. In ancient Greece there were twelve gods on the mountain. There are twelve months. At least, there are on a typical Western calender... not in a lunar one. In a lunar calender there are thirteen months. A woman's calender is thirteen months, do you see? The Moon again. Life, death, rebirth. It never ends.
Death is inescapable. Things end. Period. Good things may come of it, yes (for Temperance follows this card) but at thirteen you must stop, and grieve for what is gone.
That is thirteen.
Death is the card people who are having their cards read most fear, which is actually very funny because it is not half as bad as some of the others. The Tower is worse. But Death is what scares people, because death is something we are taught to fear. Also it is a pretty scary card, in general - a skeleton in black armour on a white horse, advancing inexorably over King and Bishop, woman and child.
“Not coin, nor crown, can halt time's flight, nor stay the creatures of the night.
Lord and Lady, Lad and Lass, all answer to the hourglass.”
People see the skeleton and that is what they think.
Rarely do people see the boat in the background, or the pillars with the sun coming through them. These pillars, they are an echo. So much in the cards are echoes. The pillars frame the Moon, later. But for now it is in the distance, the sun rising on Death and his horse.
Death is winter. Death is the period after sacrifice (it follows the Hanged Man) where we despair of what he have lost. Death IS death, despite what some people say.
Why is Death card thirteen? Because thirteen goes outside of man's order. There are twelve astrological signs, for example. In ancient Greece there were twelve gods on the mountain. There are twelve months. At least, there are on a typical Western calender... not in a lunar one. In a lunar calender there are thirteen months. A woman's calender is thirteen months, do you see? The Moon again. Life, death, rebirth. It never ends.
Death is inescapable. Things end. Period. Good things may come of it, yes (for Temperance follows this card) but at thirteen you must stop, and grieve for what is gone.
That is thirteen.